scene 1, li. 63.

♦ ‘de Vitâ P. R.’ replaced with ‘Antiquitates rerum humanarum et divinarum’ ♠ ‘41’ replaced with ‘4’

=Cnæus Nævius=, a Latin poet in the first Punic war. He was originally in the Roman armies, but afterwards he applied himself to study and wrote comedies, besides a poetical account of the first Punic war, in which he had served. His satirical disposition displeased the consul Metellus, who drove him from Rome. He passed the rest of his life in Utica, where he died, about 203 years before the christian era. Some fragments of his poetry are extant. _Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 1, ch. 1; _de Senectute_.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ltr. 1, li. 53.――――A tribune of the people at Rome, who accused Scipio Africanus of extortion.――――An augur in the reign of Tarquin. To convince the king and the Romans of his power as an augur, he cut a flint with a razor, and turned the ridicule of the populace into admiration. Tarquin rewarded his merit by erecting to him a statue in the _comitium_, which was still in being in the age of Augustus. The razor and flint were buried near it under an altar, and it was usual among the Romans to make witnesses in civil causes swear near it. This miraculous event of cutting a flint with a razor, though believed by some writers, is treated as fabulous and improbable by Cicero, who himself had been an augur. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus._ ――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 36.――_Cicero_, _de Divinatione_, bk. 1, ch. 17; _De Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 3; bk. 3, ch. 6.

=Nævŏlus=, an infamous pimp in Domitian’s reign. _Juvenal_, satire 9, li. 1.

=Naharvali=, a people of Germany. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 43.

=Nāiădes=, or =Naides=, certain inferior deities who presided over rivers, springs, wells, and fountains. The Naiades generally inhabited the country, and resorted to the woods or meadows near the stream over which they presided, whence the name (ναιειν, _to flow_). They are represented as young and beautiful virgins, often leaning upon an urn, from which flows a stream of water. Ægle was the fairest of the Naiades, according to Virgil. They were held in great veneration among the ancients, and often sacrifices of goats and lambs were offered to them, with libations of wine, honey, and oil. Sometimes they received only offerings of milk, fruit, and flowers. _See:_ Nymphæ. _Virgil_, _Eclogues_.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 328.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 13.

=Nais=, one of the Oceanides, mother of Chiron or Glaucus by Magnes. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――――A nymph, mother by Bucolion of Ægesus and Pedasus. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 6.――――A nymph in an island of the Red sea, who by her incantations turned to fishes all those who approached her residence, after she had admitted them to her embraces. She was herself changed into a fish by Apollo. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 49, &c.――――The word is used for water by _Tibullus_, bk. 3, poem 7.

=Naissus=, or =Nessus=, now _Nissa_, a town of Mœsia, the birthplace of Constantine, ascribed by some to Illyricum or Thrace.

=Nantuates=, a people of Gaul near the Alps. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 3, ch. 1.

=Napææ=, certain divinities among the ancients, who presided over the hills and woods of the country. Some suppose that they were tutelary deities of the fountains, and the Naiades of the sea. Their name is derived from ναπη, _a grove_. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 535.

=Napata=, a town of Æthiopia.

=Naphĭlus=, a river of Peloponnesus, falling into the Alpheus. _Pausanias_, bk. 1.

=Nar=, now _Nera_, a river of Umbria, whose waters, famous for their sulphureous properties, pass through the lake Velinus, and issuing from thence with great rapidity, fall into the Tiber. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 330.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 517.――_Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 4, ltr. 15.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 1, ch. 79; bk. 3, ch. 9.

=Narbo Martius=, now _Narbonne_, a town of Gaul, founded by the consul Marcius, A.U.C. 636. It became the capital of a large province of Gaul, which obtained the name of Gallia _Narbonensis_. _Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 15; bk. 2, ch. 8.――_Pliny_, bk. 3.

=Narbonensis Gallia=, one of the four great divisions of ancient Gaul, was bounded by the Alps, the Pyrenean mountains, Aquitania, Belgicum, and the Mediterranean, and contained the modern provinces of Languedoc, Provence, Dauphiné, and Savoy.

=Narcæus=, a son of Bacchus and Physcoa. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 15.

=Narcea=, a surname of Minerva in Elis, from her temple there, erected by Narcæus.

=Narcissus=, a beautiful youth, son of Cephisus and the nymph Liriope, born at Thespis in Bœotia. He saw his image reflected in a fountain, and became enamoured of it, thinking it to be the nymph of the place. His fruitless attempts to approach this beautiful object so provoked him, that he grew desperate and killed himself. His blood was changed into a flower, which still bears his name. The nymphs raised a funeral pile to burn his body, according to Ovid, but they found nothing but a beautiful flower. Pausanias says that Narcissus had a sister as beautiful as himself, of whom he became deeply enamoured. He often hunted in the woods in her company, but his pleasure was soon interrupted by her death; and still to keep afresh her memory, he frequented the groves, where he had often attended her, or reposed himself on the brim of a fountain, where the sight of his own reflected image still awakened tender sentiments. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 21.――_Hyginus_, fable 271.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 346, &c.――_Philostratus_, bk. 1.――――A freedman and secretary of Claudius, who abused his trust and the infirmities of his imperial master, and plundered the citizens of Rome to enrich himself. Messalina, the emperor’s wife, endeavoured to remove him, but Narcissus sacrificed her to his avarice and resentment. Agrippina, who succeeded in the place of Messalina, was more successful. Narcissus was banished by her intrigues, and compelled to kill himself, A.D. 54. The emperor greatly regretted his loss, as he had found him subservient to his most criminal and extravagant pleasures. _Tacitus._――_Suetonius._――――A favourite of the emperor Nero, put to death by Galba.――――A wretch who strangled the emperor Commodus.

=Nargara=, a town of Africa, where Hannibal and Scipio came to a parley. _Livy_, bk. 30, ch. 29.

=Narisci=, a nation of Germany, in the Upper Palatinate. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 42.

=Narnia=, or =Narna=, anciently _Nequinum_, now _Narni_, a town of Umbria, washed by the river Nar, from which it received its name. In its neighbourhood are still visible the remains of an aqueduct and of a bridge, erected by Augustus. _Livy_, bk. 10, ch. 9.

=Naro=, now _Narenta_, a river of Dalmatia, falling into the Adriatic, and having the town of _Narona_, now called _Narenza_, on its banks, a little above the mouth.

=Narses=, a king of Persia, A.D. 294, defeated by Maximianus Galerius, after a reign of seven years.――――A eunuch in the court of Justinian, who was deemed worthy to succeed Belisarius, &c.――――A Persian general, &c.

=Narthēcis=, a small island near Samos.

=Narycia=, =Narycium=, or =Naryx=, a town of Magna Græcia, built by a colony of Locrians after the fall of Troy. The place in Greece from which they came bore the same name, and was the country of Ajax Oileus. The word _Narycian_ is more universally understood as applying to the Italian colony, near which pines and other trees grew in abundance. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 438; _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 399.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 705.

=Nasămōnes=, a savage people of Libya near the Syrtes, who generally lived upon plunder. _Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 7.――_Lucan_, bk. 9, li. 439. ――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 165.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 2, li. 116; bk. 11, li. 180.

=Nascio=, or =Natio=, a goddess at Rome who presided over the birth of children. She had a temple at Ardea. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 18.

=Nasīca=, the surname of one of the Scipios. Nasica was the first who invented the measuring of time by water, B.C. 159, about 134 years after the introduction of sun-dials at Rome. _See:_ Scipio.――――An avaricious fellow who married his daughter to Coranus, a man as mean as himself, that he might not only not repay the money he had borrowed, but moreover become his creditor’s heir. Coranus, understanding his meaning, purposely alienated his property from him and his daughter, and exposed him to ridicule. _Horace_, bk. 2, satire 5, li. 64, &c.

=Nasidiēnus=, a Roman knight, whose luxury, arrogance, and ostentation, exhibited at an entertainment which he gave to Mecænas, were ridiculed by Horace, bk. 2, satire 8.

=Lucius Nasidius=, a man sent by Pompey to assist the people of Massilia. After the battle of Pharsalia, he followed the interests of Pompey’s children, and afterwards revolted to Antony. _Appian._

=Naso=, one of the murderers of Julius Cæsar.――――One of Ovid’s names. _See:_ Ovidius.

=Nassus=, or =Nasus=, a town of Acarnania, near the mouth of the Achelous. _Livy_, bk. 26, ch. 24. Also a part of the town of Syracuse.

=Nasua=, a general of the Suevi, when Cæsar was in Gaul.

=Natālis Antonius=, a Roman knight who conspired against Nero with Piso. He was pardoned for discovering the conspiracy, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 50.

=Natiso=, now _Natisone_, a river rising in the Alps, and falling into the Adriatic east of Aquileia. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 18.

=Natta=, a man whose manner of living was so mean, that his name became almost proverbial at Rome. _Horace_, bk. 1, ode 6, li. 224.

=Nava=, now _Nape_, a river of Germany, falling into the Rhine at Bingen, below Mentz. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 70.

=Naubŏlus=, a charioteer of Laius king of Thebes.――――A Phocean, father of Iphitus. The sons of Iphitus were called _Naubolides_, from their grandfather.――――A son of Lernus, one of the Argonauts.

=Naucles=, a general of the mercenary troops of Lacedæmon against Thebes, &c.

=Naucrătes=, a Greek poet, who was employed by Artemisia to write a panegyric upon Mausolus.――――Another poet. _Athenæus_, bk. 9.――――An orator who endeavoured to alienate the cities of Lycia from the interest of Brutus.

=Naucrătis=, a city of Egypt on the left side of the Canopic mouth of the Nile. It was celebrated for its commerce, and no ship was permitted to land at any other place, but was obliged to sail directly to the city, there to deposit its cargo. It gave birth to Athenæus. The inhabitants were called _Naucratitæ_, or _Naucratiotæ_. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, chs. 97 & 179.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 9.

=Navius Actius=, a famous augur. _See:_ Nævius.

=Naulŏchus=, a maritime town of Sicily near Pelorum.――――A town of Thrace on the Euxine sea. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 11.――――A promontory of the island of Imbros.――――A town of the Locri. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 3.

=Naupactus=, or =Naupactum=, a city of Ætolia, at the mouth of the Evenus, now called _Lepanto_. The word is derived from ναυς and πηγνυμι because it was there that the Heraclidæ _built_ the first _ship_, which carried them to Peloponnesus. It first belonged to the Locri Ozolæ, and afterwards fell into the hands of the Athenians, who gave it to the Messenians, who had been driven from Peloponnesus by the Lacedæmonians. It became the property of the Lacedæmonians, after the battle of Ægospotamos, and it was restored to the Locri. Philip of Macedonia afterwards took it, and gave it to the Ætolians, from which circumstance it has generally been called one of the chief cities of their country. _Strabo_, bk. 4.――_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 25. ――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 2, li. 43.

=Nauplia=, a maritime city of Peloponnesus, the naval station of the Argives. The famous fountain Canathos was in its neighbourhood. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 38.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.

=Naupliădes=, a patronymic of Palamedes son of Nauplius. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 39.

=Nauplius=, a son of Neptune and Amymone, king of Eubœa. He was father to the celebrated Palamedes, who was so unjustly sacrificed to the artifice and resentment of Ulysses by the Greeks during the Trojan war. The death of Palamedes highly irritated Nauplius, and to avenge the injustice of the Grecian princes, he attempted to debauch their wives and ruin their character. When the Greeks returned from the Trojan war, Nauplius saw them with pleasure distressed in a storm on the coasts of Eubœa, and to make their disaster still more universal, he lighted fires on such places as were surrounded with the most dangerous rocks, that the fleet might be shipwrecked upon the coast. This succeeded, but Nauplius was so disappointed when he saw Ulysses and Diomedes escape from the general calamity, that he threw himself into the sea. According to some mythologists, there were two persons of this name.――――A native of Argos, who went to Colchis with Jason. He was son of Neptune and Amymone. The other was king of Eubœa, and lived during the Trojan war. He was, according to some, son of Clytonas, one of the descendants of Nauplius the Argonaut. The Argonaut was remarkable for his knowledge of sea affairs, and of astronomy. He built the town of Nauplia, and sold Auge daughter of Aleus to king Teuthras, to withdraw her from her father’s resentment. _Orpheus_, _Argonautica_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Apollonius_, bk. 1, &c.――_Flaccus_, bks. 1 & 5.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 35.――_Hyginus_, fable 116.

=Nauportus=, a town of Pannonia on a river of the same name, now called _Ober_, or _Upper Laybach_. _Velleius Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 110. ――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 18.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 1, ch. 20.

=Naura=, a country of Scythia in Asia. _Curtius_, bk. 3.――――Of India within the Ganges. _Arrian._

=Nausĭcaa=, a daughter of Alcinous king of the Phæaceans. She met Ulysses shipwrecked on her father’s coasts, and it was to her humanity that he owed the kind reception which he experienced from the king. She married, according to Aristotle and Dictys, Telemachus the son of Ulysses, by whom she had a son called Perseptolis or Ptoliporthus. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 6.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 19. ――_Hyginus_, fable 126.

=Nausĭcles=, an Athenian, sent to assist the Phocians with 5000 foot, &c.

=Nausīmĕnes=, an Athenian, whose wife lost her voice from the alarm she received in seeing her son guilty of incest.

=Nausithoe=, one of the Nereides.

=Nausithous=, a king of the Phæaceans, father to Alcinous. He was son of Neptune and Peribœa. Hesiod makes him son of Ulysses and Calypso. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, bk. 1, li. 16.――――The pilot of the vessel which carried Theseus into Crete.

=Naustathmus=, a port of Phocæa in Ionia. _Livy_, bk. 37, ch. 31. ――――Also a part of Cyrenaica, now _Bondaria_. _Strabo_, bk. 17.

=Nautes=, a Trojan soothsayer, who comforted Æneas when his fleet had been burnt in Sicily. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 704. He was the progenitor of the Nautii at Rome, a family to whom the Palladium of Troy was, in consequence of the service of their ancestors, entrusted. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 794.

=Naxos=, now _Naxia_, a celebrated island in the Ægean sea, the largest and most fertile of all the Cyclades, about 105 miles in circumference, and 30 broad. It was formerly called _Strongyle_, _Dia_, _Dionysias_, and _Callipolis_, and received the name of Naxos from Naxus, who was at the head of a Carian colony, which settled in the island. Naxos abounds with all sorts of fruits, and its wines are still in the same repute as formerly. The Naxians were anciently governed by kings, but they afterwards exchanged this form of government for a republic, and enjoyed their liberty till the age of Pisistratus, who appointed a tyrant over them. They were reduced by the Persians; but in the expedition of Darius and Xerxes against Greece, they revolted and fought on the side of the Greeks. During the Peloponnesian war, they supported the interest of Athens. Bacchus was the chief deity of the island. The capital was also called Naxos; and near it, on the 20th Sept., B.C. 377, the Lacedæmonians were defeated by Chabrias. _Thucydides_, bk. 1, &c.――_Herodotus._ ――_Diodorus_, bk. 5, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 636. ――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 125.――_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 16. ――_Pindar._――――An ancient town on the eastern side of Sicily, founded 759 years before the christian era. There was also another town at the distance of five miles from Naxos, which bore the same name, and was often called, by contradistinction, _Taurominium_. _Pliny_, bk. 3. ――_Diodorus_, bk. 13.――――A town of Crete, noted for hones. _Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 7.――――A Carian who gave his name to the greatest of the Cyclades.

=Nazianzus=, a town of Cappadocia where St. Gregory was born, and hence he is called _Nazianzenus_.

=Nea=, or =Nova insula=, a small island between Lemnos and the Hellespont, which rose out of the sea during an earthquake. _Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 87.

=Neæra=, a nymph, mother of Phaetusa and Lampetia by the Sun. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 12.――――A woman mentioned by Virgil’s _Eclogues_, poem 3.――――A mistress of the poet Tibullus.――――A favourite of Horace. ――――A daughter of Pereus, who married Aleus, by whom she had Cepheus, Lycurgus, and Auge, who was ravished by Hercules. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 9.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 4.――――The wife of Autolycus. _Pausanias._――――A daughter of Niobe and Amphion.――――The wife of Strymon. _Apollodorus._

=Neæthus=, now _Neto_, a river of Magna Græcia near Crotona. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 51.

=Nealces=, a friend of Turnus in his war against Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 753.

=Nealices=, a painter, amongst whose capital pieces are mentioned a painting of Venus, a sea-fight between the Persians and Egyptians, and an ass drinking on the shore, with a crocodile preparing to attack it.

=Neandros= (or ia), a town of Troas. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 30.

=Neanthes=, an orator and historian of Cyzicum, who flourished 257 years B.C.

=Neapŏlis=, a city of Campania, anciently called Parthenope, and now known by the name of Naples, rising like an amphitheatre at the back of a beautiful bay 30 miles in circumference. As the capital of that part of Italy, it is now inhabited by upwards of 350,000 souls, who exhibit the opposite marks of extravagant magnificence, and extreme poverty. Augustus called it Neapolis. _Suetonius_, _Augustus_, ch. 98. ――――A town in Africa.――――A city of Thrace.――――A town of Egypt,――――of Palestine,――――of Ionia.――――Also a part of Syracuse. _Livy_, bk. 25, ch. 24.――_Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 5.

=Nearchus=, an officer of Alexander in his Indian expedition. He was ordered to sail upon the Indian ocean with Onesicritus, and to examine it. He wrote an account of this voyage and of the king’s life; but his veracity has been called in question by Arrian. After the king’s death he was appointed over Lycia and Pamphylia. _Curtius_, bk. 9, ch. 10.――_Polyænus_, bk. 9.――_Justin_, bk. 13, ch. 4.――_Strabo_, bk. 2, &c.――――A beautiful youth, &c. _Horace_, bk. 3, ode 20.――――An old man mentioned by Cicero, _de Senectute_.

=Nebo=, a high mountain near Palestine, beyond Jordan, from the top of which Moses was permitted to view the promised land.

=Nebrissa=, a town of Spain, now _Lebrixa_.

=Nebrōdes=, a mountain of Sicily, where the Himera rises. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 237.

=Nebrophŏnos=, a son of Jason and Hypsipyle. _Apollodorus._――――One of Actæon’s dogs. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3.

=Nebŭla=, a name given to Nephele the wife of Athamas. _Lactantius [Placidus]_ on _Achilleid_ of _Statius_, bk. 1, ch. 65.

=Necessĭtas=, a divinity who presided over the destinies of mankind, and who was regarded as the mother of the Parcæ. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 4.

=Nechos=, a king of Egypt, who attempted to make a communication between the Mediterranean and Red seas, B.C. 610. No less than 12,000 men perished in the attempt. It was discovered in his reign that Africa was circumnavigable. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 158; bk. 4, ch. 42.

=Necropŏlis=, one of the suburbs of Alexandria.

=Nectanēbus= and =Nectanābis=, a king of Egypt, who defended his country against the Persians, and was succeeded by Tachos, B.C. 363. His grandson, of the same name, made an alliance with Agesilaus king of Sparta, and with his assistance he quelled a rebellion of his subjects. Some time after he was joined by the Sidonians, Phœnicians, and inhabitants of Cyprus, who had revolted from the king of Persia. This powerful confederacy was soon attacked by Darius the king of Persia, who marched at the head of his troops. Nectanebus, to defend his frontiers against so dangerous an enemy, levied 20,000 mercenary soldiers in Greece, the same number in Libya, and 60,000 were furnished in Egypt. This numerous body was not equal to the Persian forces; and Nectanebus, defeated in a battle, gave up all hopes of resistance, and fled into Æthiopia, B.C. 350, where he found a safe asylum. His kingdom of Egypt became from that time tributary to the king of Persia. _Plutarch_, _Agesilaus_.――_Diodorus_, bk. 16, &c. ――_Polyænus._――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Agesilaus_.

=Necysia=, a solemnity observed by the Greeks in memory of the dead.

=Neis=, the wife of Endymion. _Apollodorus._

=Neleus=, a son of Neptune and Tyro. He was brother to Pelias, with whom he was exposed by his mother, who wished to conceal her infirmities from her father. They were preserved and brought to Tyro, who had then married Cretheus king of Iolchos. After the death of Cretheus, Pelias and Neleus seized the kingdom of Iolchos, which belonged to Æson, the lawful son of Tyro by the deceased monarch. After they had reigned for some time conjointly, Pelias expelled Neleus from Iolchos. Neleus came to Aphareus king of Messenia, who treated him with kindness, and permitted him to build a city, which he called Pylos. Neleus married Chloris the daughter of Amphion, by whom he had a daughter and 12 sons, who were all, except Nestor, killed by Hercules, together with their father. Neleus promised his daughter in marriage only to him who brought him the bulls of Iphiclus. Bias was the successful lover. _See:_ Melampus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 418.――_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 36. ――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 2, ch. 6.――――A river of Eubœa.

=Nelo=, one of the Danaides. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2.

=Nemæa=, a town of Argolis between Cleonæ and Phlius, with a wood, where Hercules, in the 16th year of his age, killed the celebrated Nemæan lion. This animal, born of the hundred-headed Typhon, infested the neighbourhood of Nemæa, and kept the inhabitants under continual alarms. It was the first labour of Hercules to destroy it; and the hero, when he found that his arrows and his club were useless against an animal whose skin was hard and impenetrable, seized him in his arms and squeezed him to death. The conqueror clothed himself in the skin, and games were instituted to commemorate so great an event. The Nemæan games were originally instituted by the Argives in honour of Archemorus, who died by the bite of a serpent [_See:_ Archemorus], and Hercules some time after renewed them. They were one of the four great and solemn games which were observed in Greece. The Argives, Corinthians, and the inhabitants of Cleonæ generally presided by turns at the celebration, in which were exhibited foot and horse races, chariot races, boxing, wrestling, and contests of every kind, both gymnical and equestrian. The conqueror was rewarded with a crown of olives, afterwards of green parsley, in memory of the adventure of Archemorus, whom his nurse laid down on a sprig of that plant. They were celebrated every third, or, according to others, every fifth year, or more properly on the first and third year of every Olympiad, on the 12th day of the Corinthian month _Panemos_, which corresponds to our August. They served as an era to the Argives, and to the inhabitants of the neighbouring country. It was always usual for an orator to pronounce a funeral oration in memory of the death of Archemorus, and those who distributed the prizes were always dressed in mourning. _Livy_, bk. 27, chs. 30 & 31; bk. 34, ch. 41. ――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 97, _Epistles_, ltr. 9, li. 61. ――_Pausanias_, _Corinthia_.――_Clement of Alexandria._――_Athenæus. _――_Polyænus._――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Hyginus_, fables 30 & 273. ――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 6.――――A river of Peloponnesus falling into the bay of Corinth. _Livy_, bk. 33, ch. 15.

=Nemausus=, a town of Gaul, in Languedoc, near the mouth of the Rhone, now _Nismes_.

=Nemesia=, festivals in honour of Nemesis. _See:_ Nemesis.

=Marcus Aurelius Olympius Nemesiānus=, a Latin poet, born at Carthage, of no very brilliant talents, in the third century, whose poems on hunting and bird-catching were published by Burman, inter scriptores rei venaticæ, 4to, Leiden, 1728.

=Nĕmĕsis=, one of the infernal deities, daughter of Nox. She was the goddess of vengeance, always prepared to punish impiety, and at the same time liberally to reward the good and virtuous. She is made one of the Parcæ by some mythologists, and is represented with a helm and a wheel. The people of Smyrna were the first who made her statues with wings, to show with what celerity she is prepared to punish the crimes of the wicked, both by sea and land, as the helm and the wheel in her hands intimate. Her power did not only exist in this life, but she was also employed after death to find out the most effectual and rigorous means of correction. Nemesis was particularly worshipped at Rhamnus in Attica, where she had a celebrated statue 10 cubits long, made of Parian marble by Phidias, or, according to others, by one of his pupils. The Romans were also particularly attentive to the adoration of a deity whom they solemnly invoked, and to whom they offered sacrifices before they declared war against their enemies, to show the world that their wars were undertaken upon the most just grounds. Her statue at Rome was in the Capitol. Some suppose that Nemesis was the person whom Jupiter deceived in the form of a swan, and that Leda was entrusted with the care of the children which sprang from the two eggs. Others observe that Leda obtained the name of Nemesis after death. According to Pausanias, there were more than one Nemesis. The goddess Nemesis was surnamed _Rhamnusia_ because worshipped at Rhamnus, and _Adrastia_ from the temple which Adrastus king of Argos erected to her, when he went against Thebes, to revenge the indignities which his son-in-law Polynices had suffered in being unjustly driven from his kingdom by Eteocles. The Greeks celebrated a festival called _Nemesia_, in memory of deceased persons, as the goddess Nemesis was supposed to defend the relics and the memory of the dead from all insult. _Hyginus_, _Poetica Astronomica_, bk. 2, ch. 8.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 33.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10. ――――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 224.――_Pliny_, bk. 11, ch. 28; bk. 26, ch. 5.――――A mistress of Tibullus, bk. 2, poem 3, li. 55.

=Nemesius=, a Greek writer, whose elegant and useful treatise, _de Naturâ Hominis_, was edited in 12mo, Ant. apud Plant. 1565, and in 8vo, Oxford, 1671.

=Nemetacum=, a town of Gaul, now _Arras_.

=Nemetes=, a nation of Germany, now forming the inhabitants of Spire, which was afterwards called _Noviomagus_. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 28.

=Nemoralia=, festivals observed in the woods of Aricia, in honour of Diana, who presided over the country and the forests, on which account that part of Italy was sometimes denominated _Nemorensis ager_. _Ovid_, _de Ars Amatoria_, bk. 1, li. 259.

=Nemossus= (or um), the capital of the Arverni in Gaul, now _Clermont_. _Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 419.――_Strabo_, bk. 4.

=Neobūle=, a daughter of Lycambes, betrothed to the poet Archilochus. _See:_ Lycambes. _Horace_, epode 6, li. 13; bk. 1, ltr. 3, li. 79. ――_Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 54.――――A beautiful woman, to whom Horace addressed bk. 3, ode 12.

=Neocæsaria=, a town of Pontus.

=Neochabis=, a king of Egypt.

=Neŏcles=, an Athenian philosopher, father, or according to Cicero, brother to the philosopher Epicurus. _Cicero_, bk. 1, _de Natura Deorum_, ch. 21.――_Diogenes Laërtius._――――The father of Themistocles. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 2, &c.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Themistocles_.

=Neogĕnes=, a man who made himself absolute, &c. _Diodorus_, bk. 15.

=Neomoris=, one of the Nereides. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1.

=Neon=, a town of Phocis.――――There was also another of the same name in the same country, on the top of Parnassus. It was afterwards called _Tithorea_. _Plutarch_, _Sulla_.――_Pausanias_, _Phocis_.――_Herodotus_, bk. 8, ch. 32.――――One of the commanders of the 10,000 Greeks who assisted Cyrus against Artaxerxes.

=Neontīchos=, a town of Æolia near the Hermus. _Herodotus._――_Pliny._

=Neōptŏlĕmus=, a king of Epirus, son of Achilles and Deidamia, called _Pyrrhus_ from the _yellow_ colour of his hair. He was carefully educated under the eye of his mother, and gave early proofs of his valour. After the death of Achilles, Calchas declared, in the assembly of the Greeks, that Troy could not be taken without the assistance of the son of the deceased hero. Immediately upon this, Ulysses and Phœnix were commissioned to bring Pyrrhus to the war. He returned with them with pleasure, and received the name of Neoptolemus (_new soldier_), because he had come late to the field. On his arrival before Troy, he paid a visit to the tomb of his father, and wept over his ashes. He afterwards, according to some authors, accompanied Ulysses to Lemnos, to engage Philoctetes to come to the Trojan war. He greatly signalized himself during the remaining time of the siege, and he was the first who entered the wooden horse. He was inferior to none of the Grecian warriors in valour, and Ulysses and Nestor alone could claim a superiority over him in eloquence, wisdom, and address. His cruelty, however, was as great as that of his father. Not satisfied with breaking down the gates of Priam’s palace, he exercised the greatest barbarities upon the remains of his family, and without any regard to the sanctity of the place where Priam had taken refuge, he slaughtered him without mercy; or, according to others, dragged him by the hair to the tomb of his father, where he sacrificed him, and where he cut off his head, and carried it in exultation through the streets of Troy, fixed on the point of a spear. He also sacrificed Astyanax to his fury, and immolated Polyxena on the tomb of Achilles, according to those who deny that that sacrifice was voluntary. When Troy was taken, the captives were divided among the conquerors, and Pyrrhus had for his share Andromache the widow of Hector, and Helenus the son of Priam. With these he departed for Greece, and he probably escaped from destruction by giving credit to the words of Helenus, who foretold him that, if he sailed with the rest of the Greeks, his voyage would be attended with fatal consequences, and perhaps with death. This obliged him to take a different course from the rest of the Greeks, and he travelled over the greatest part of Thrace, where he had a severe encounter with queen Harpalyce. _See:_ Harpalyce. The place of his retirement after the Trojan war is not known. Some maintain that he went to Thessaly, where his grandfather still reigned; but this is confuted by others, who observe, perhaps with more reason, that he went to Epirus, where he laid the foundation of a new kingdom, because his grandfather Peleus had been deprived of his sceptre by Acastus the son of Pelias. Neoptolemus lived with Andromache after his arrival in Greece, but it is unknown whether he treated her as a lawful wife or a concubine. He had a son by this unfortunate princess, called Molossus, and two others, if we rely on the authority of Pausanias. Besides Andromache, he married Hermione the daughter of Menelaus, as also Lanassa the daughter of Cleodæus, one of the descendants of Hercules. The cause of his death is variously related. Menelaus, before the Trojan war, had promised his daughter Hermione to Orestes, but the services he experienced from the valour and the courage of Neoptolemus during the siege of Troy, induced him to reward his merit by making him his son-in-law. The nuptials were accordingly celebrated, but Hermione became jealous of Andromache, and because she had no children, she resolved to destroy her Trojan rival, who seemed to steal away the affections of their common husband. In the absence of Neoptolemus at Delphi, Hermione attempted to murder Andromache, but she was prevented by the interference of Peleus, or, according to others, of the populace. When she saw her schemes defeated, she determined to lay violent hands upon herself, to avoid the resentment of Neoptolemus. The sudden arrival of Orestes changed her resolution, and she consented to elope with her lover to Sparta. Orestes at the same time, to revenge and to punish his rival, caused him to be assassinated in the temple of Delphi, and he was murdered at the foot of the altar by Machareus the priest, or by the hand of Orestes himself, according to Virgil, Paterculus, and Hyginus. Some say that he was murdered by the Delphians, who had been bribed by the presents of Orestes. It is unknown why Neoptolemus went to Delphi. Some support that he wished to consult the oracle to know how he might have children by the barren Hermione; others say that he went thither to offer the spoils which he had obtained during the Trojan war, to appease the resentment of Apollo, whom he had provoked by calling him the cause of the death of Achilles. The plunder of the rich temple of Delphi, if we believe others, was the object of the journey of Neoptolemus, and it cannot but be observed that he suffered the same death and the same barbarities which he had inflicted in the temple of Minerva upon the aged Priam and his wretched family. From this circumstance, the ancients have made use of the proverb _Neoptolemic revenge_, when a person had suffered the same savage treatment which others had received from his hand. The Delphians celebrated a festival with great pomp and solemnity in memory of Neoptolemus, who had been slain in his attempt to plunder their temple, because, as they said, Apollo, the patron of the place, had been in some manner accessary to the death of Achilles. _Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bks. 2 & 3.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 24.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, lis. 334, 455, &c.; _Heroides_, poem 8.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Pindar_, _Nemean_, poem 7.――_Euripides_, _Andromache_ & _Orestes_, &c. ――_Plutarch_, _Pyrrhus_.――_Justin_, bk. 17, ch. 3.――_Dictys Cretensis_, bks. 4, 5, & 6.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 11, li. 504; _Iliad_, bk. 19, li. 326.――_Sophocles_, _Philoctetes_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 13.――_Hyginus_, fables 97 & 102.――_Philostratus_, _Heroicus_, ch. 19, &c.――_Dares Phrygius._――_Quintus Smyrnæus_, bk. 14.――――A king of the Molossi, father of Olympias the mother of Alexander. _Justin_, bk. 17, ch. 3.――――Another, king of Epirus.――――An uncle of the celebrated Pyrrhus who assisted the Tarentines. He was made king of Epirus by the Epirots, who had revolted from their lawful sovereign, and was put to death when he attempted to poison his nephew, &c. _Plutarch_, _Pyrrhus_.――――A tragic poet of Athens, greatly favoured by Philip king of Macedonia. When Cleopatra, the monarch’s daughter, was married to Alexander of Epirus, he wrote some verses which proved to be prophetic of the tragical death of Philip. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.――――A relation of Alexander. He was the first who climbed the walls of Gaza when that city was taken by Alexander. After the king’s death he received Armenia as his province, and made war against Eumenes. He was supported by Craterus, but an engagement with Eumenes proved fatal to his cause. Craterus was killed, and himself mortally wounded by Eumenes, B.C. 321. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Eumenes_.――――One of the officers of Mithridates the Great, beaten by Lucullus in a naval battle. _Plutarch_, _Lucullus_.――――A tragic writer.

=Neoris=, a large country of Asia, near Gedrosia, almost destitute of waters. The inhabitants were called _Neoritæ_, and it was usual among them to suspend their dead bodies from the boughs of trees. _Diodorus_, bk. 17.

=Nepe=, a constellation of the heavens, the same as Scorpio.――――An inland town of Etruria, called also _Nepete_, whose inhabitants are called _Nepesini_. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 490.――_Livy_, bk. 5, ch. 19; bk. 26, ch. 34.

=Nephalia=, festivals in Greece, in honour of Mnemosyne the mother of the Muses, and Aurora, Venus, &c. No wine was used during the ceremony, but merely a mixture of water and honey. _Pollux_, bk. 6, ch. 3.――_Athenæus_, bk. 15.――_Suidas._

=Nĕphĕle=, the first wife of Athamas king of Thebes, and mother of Phryxus and Helle. She was repudiated on pretence of being subject to fits of insanity, and Athamas married Ino the daughter of Cadmus, by whom he had several children. Ino became jealous of Nephele, because her children would succeed to their father’s throne before hers, by right of seniority, and she resolved to destroy them. Nephele was apprised of her wicked intentions, and she removed her children from the reach of Ino, by giving them a celebrated ram, sprung from the union of Neptune and Theophane, on whose back they escaped to Colchis. _See:_ Phryxus. Nephele was afterwards changed into a cloud, whence her name is given by the Greeks to the clouds. Some call her _Nebula_, which word is the Latin translation of _Nephele_. The fleece of the ram, which saved the life of Nephele’s children, is often called the _Nephelian fleece_. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――_Hyginus_, fable 2, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, li. 195.――_Flaccus_, bk. 11, li. 56.――――A mountain of Thessaly, once the residence of the Centaurs.

=Nephĕlis=, a cape of Cilicia. _Livy_, bk. 33, ch. 20.

=Nepherītes=, a king of Egypt, who assisted the Spartans against Persia, when Agesilaus was in Asia. He sent them a fleet of 100 ships, which were intercepted by Conon, as they were sailing towards Rhodes, &c. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.

=Nephus=, a son of Hercules.

=Nepia=, a daughter of Jasus, who married Olympus king of Mysia, whence the plains of Mysia are sometimes called _Nepiæ campi_.

=Nepos, Cornelius=, a celebrated historian in the reign of Augustus. He was born at Hostilia, and, like the rest of his learned contemporaries, he shared the favours and enjoyed the patronage of the emperor. He was the intimate friend of Cicero and of Atticus, and recommended himself to the notice of the great and opulent by delicacy of sentiment and a lively disposition. According to some writers, he composed three books of chronicles, as also a biographical account of all the most celebrated kings, generals, and authors of antiquity. Of all his valuable compositions, nothing remains but his lives of the illustrious Greek and Roman generals, which have often been attributed to Æmylius Probus, who published them in his own name in the age of Theodosius, to conciliate the favour and the friendship of that emperor. The language of Cornelius has always been admired, and as a writer of the Augustan age, he is entitled to many commendations for the delicacy of his expressions, the elegance of his style, and the clearness and precision of his narrations. Some support that he translated Dares Phrygius from the Greek original; but the inelegance of the diction, and its many incorrect expressions, plainly prove that it is the production, not of a writer of the Augustan age, but the spurious composition of a more modern pen. Cornelius speaks of his account of the Greek historians _Dion_, ch. 3. Among the many good editions of Cornelius Nepos, two may be selected as the best, that of Verheyk, 8vo, Leiden, 1773, and that of Glasgow, 12mo, 1761.――――Julius, an emperor of the west, &c.

=Nepotiānus Flavius Popilius=, a son of Eutropia the sister of the emperor Constantine. He proclaimed himself emperor after the death of his cousin Constans, and rendered himself odious by his cruelty and oppression. He was murdered by Anicetus, after one month’s reign, and his family were involved in his ruin.

=Nepthys=, wife of Typhon, became enamoured of Osiris her brother-in-law, and introduced herself to his bed. She had a son called Anubis by him. _Plutarch_, _De Iside et Osiride_.

=Neptūni fanum=, a place near Cenchreæ. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 19. ――――Another in the island of Calauria.――――Another near Mantinea.

=Neptūnia=, a town and colony of Magna Græcia.

=Neptūnium=, a promontory of Arabia at the entrance of the gulf.

=Neptūnius=, an epithet applied to Sextus Pompey, because he believed himself to be god of the sea, or descended from him, on account of his superiority in ships, &c. _Horace_ epode 9.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 48.

=Neptūnus=, a god, son of Saturn and Ops, and brother to Jupiter, Pluto, and Juno. He was devoured by his father the day of his birth, and again restored to life by means of Metis, who gave Saturn a certain potion. Pausanias says that his mother concealed him in a sheepfold in Arcadia, and that she imposed upon her husband, telling him that she had brought a colt into the world, which was instantly devoured by Saturn. Neptune shared with his brothers the empire of Saturn, and received as his portion the kingdom of the sea. This, however, did not seem equivalent to the empire of heaven and earth, which Jupiter had claimed, therefore he conspired to dethrone him, with the rest of the gods. The conspiracy was discovered, and Jupiter condemned Neptune to build the walls of Troy. _See:_ Laomedon. A reconciliation was soon after made, and Neptune was reinstituted to all his rights and privileges. Neptune disputed with Minerva the right of giving a name to the capital of Cecropia, but he was defeated, and the olive which the goddess suddenly raised from the earth was deemed more serviceable for the good of mankind than the horse which Neptune had produced by striking the ground with his trident, as that animal is the emblem of war and slaughter. This decision did not please Neptune; he renewed the combat by disputing for Trœzene, but Jupiter settled their disputes by permitting them to be conjointly worshipped there, and by giving the name of Polias, or the _protectress of the city_, to Minerva, and that of king of Trœzene to the god of the sea. He also disputed his right for the isthmus of Corinth with Apollo; and Briareus the Cyclops, who was mutually chosen umpire, gave the isthmus to Neptune, and the promontory to Apollo. Neptune, as being god of the sea, was entitled to more power than any of the other gods, except Jupiter. Not only the ocean, rivers, and fountains were subjected to him, but he also could cause earthquakes at his pleasure, and raise islands from the bottom of the sea with a blow of his trident. The worship of Neptune was established in almost every part of the earth, and the Libyans in particular venerated him above all other nations, and looked upon him as the first and greatest of the gods. The Greeks and the Romans were also attached to his worship, and they celebrated their isthmian games and Consualia with the greatest solemnity. He was generally represented sitting in a chariot made of a shell, and drawn by sea-horses or dolphins. Sometimes he is drawn by winged horses, and holds his trident in his hand, and stands up as his chariot flies over the surface of the sea. Homer represents him as issuing from the sea, and in three steps crossing the whole horizon. The mountains and the forests, says the poet, trembled as he walked; the whales, and all the fishes of the sea, appear round him, and even the sea herself seems to feel the presence of her god. The ancients generally sacrificed a bull and a horse on his altars, and the Roman soothsayers always offered to him the gall of the victims, which in taste resembles the bitterness of the sea water. The amours of Neptune are numerous. He obtained, by means of a dolphin, the favours of Amphitrite, who had made a vow of perpetual celibacy, and he placed among the constellations the fish which had persuaded the goddess to become his wife. He also married Venilia and Salacia, which are only the names of Amphitrite according to some authors, who observed that the former word is derived from _venire_, alluding to the continual motion of the sea. Salacia is derived from _Salum_, which signifies the sea, and is applicable to Amphitrite. Neptune became a horse to enjoy the company of Ceres. _See:_ Arion. To deceive Theophane, he changed himself into a ram. _See:_ Theophane. He assumed the form of the river Enipeus, to gain the confidence of Tyro the daughter of Salmoneus, by whom he had Pelias and Neleus. He was also father of Phorcus and Polyphemus by Thoossa; of Lycus, Nycteus, and Euphemus by Celeno; of Chryses by Chrysogenia; of Ancæus by Astypalea; of Bœotus and Helen by Antiope; of Leuconoe by Themisto; of Agenor and Bellerophon by Eurynome the daughter of Nysus; of Antas by Alcyone the daughter of Atlas; of Abas by Arethusa; of Actor and Dictys by Agemede the daughter of Augias; of Megareus by Œnope daughter of Epopeus; of Cycnus by Harpalyce; of Taras, Otus, Ephialtes, Dorus, Alesus, &c. The word _Neptunus_ is often used metaphorically by the poets, to signify _sea water_. In the Consualia of the Romans, horses were led through the streets finely equipped and crowned with garlands, as the god in whose honour the festivals were instituted had produced the horse, an animal so beneficial for the use of mankind. _Pausanias_, bks. 1, 2, &c.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 7, &c.――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 4.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 26; bk. 2, ch. 25.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 12, &c.; bks. 2, 3, &c. ――_Apollodorus_, bks. 1, 2, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 117, &c.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 50; bk. 4, ch. 188.――_Macrobius_, _Saturnalia_, bk. 1, ch. 17.――_Augustine_, _City of God_, bk. 18. ――_Plutarch_, _Themistocles_.――_Hyginus_, fable 157.――_Euripides_, _Phœnician Women_.――_Flaccus._――_Apollonius Rhodius._

=Nēreĭdes=, nymphs of the sea, daughters of Nereus and Doris. They were 50, according to the greater number of the mythologists, whose names are as follows: Sao, Amphitrite, Proto, Galatæa, Thoe, Eucrate, Eudora, Galena, Glauce, Thetis, Spio, Cymothoe, Melita, Thalia, Agave, Eulimene, Erato, Pasithea, Doto, Eunice, Nesea, Dynamene, Pherusa, Protomelia, Actea, Panope, Doris, Cymatolege, Hippothoe, Cymo, Eione, Hipponoe, Cymodoce, Neso, Eupompe, Pronoe, Themisto, Glauconome, Halimede, Pontoporia, Evagora, Liagora, Polynome, Laomedia, Lysianassa, Autonoe, Menippe, Evarne, Psamathe, Nemertes. In those which Homer mentions, to the number of 30, we find the following names different from those spoken of by Hesiod: Halia, Limmoria, Iera, Amphitroe, Dexamene, Amphinome, Callianira, Apseudes, Callanassa, Clymene, Janira, Nassa, Mera, Orythya, Amathea. Apollodorus, who mentions 45, mentions the following names different from the others: Glaucothoe, Protomedusa, Pione, Plesaura, Calypso, Cranto, Neomeris, Dejanira, Polynoe, Melia, Dione, Isea, Dero, Eumolpe, Ione, Ceto. Hyginus and others differ from the preceding authors in the following names: Drymo, Xantho, Ligea, Phyllodoce, Cydippe, Lycorias, Cleio, Beroe, Ephira, Opis, Asia, Deopea, Arethusa, Crenis, Eurydice, and Leucothoe. The Nereides were implored as the rest of the deities; they had altars chiefly on the coast of the sea, where the piety of mankind made offerings of milk, oil, and honey, and often of the flesh of goats. When they were on the sea-shore they generally resided in grottos and caves which were adorned with shells, and shaded by the branches of vines. Their duty was to attend upon the more powerful deities of the sea, and to be subservient to the will of Neptune. They were particularly fond of alcyons, and as they had the power of ruffling or calming the waters, they were always addressed by sailors, who implored their protection, that they might grant them a favourable voyage and a prosperous return. They are represented as young and handsome virgins, sitting on dolphins and holding Neptune’s trident in their hand, or sometimes garlands of flowers. _Orpheus_, _Hymn_ 23.――_Catullus_, _Marriage of Peleus and Thetis_.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, li. 361, &c.――_Statius_, bk. 2, _Sylvæ_, poem 2; bk. 3, _Sylvæ_, poem 1.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 1.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, chs. 2, & 3.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_. ――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 18, li. 39.――_Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 5. ――_Hyginus_, &c.

=Nereius=, a name given to Achilles, as son of Thetis, who was one of the Nereides. _Horace_, epode 17, li. 8.

=Nēreus=, a deity of the sea, son of Oceanus and Terra. He married Doris, by whom he had 50 daughters, called the Nereides. _See:_ Nereides. Nereus was generally represented as an old man with a long flowing beard, and hair of an azure colour. The chief place of his residence was in the Ægean sea, where he was surrounded by his daughters, who often danced in choruses round him. He had the gift of prophecy, and informed those that consulted him with the different fates that attended them. He acquainted Paris with the consequences of his elopement with Helen; and it was by his directions that Hercules obtained the golden apples of the Hesperides. But the sea-god often evaded the importunities of inquirers by assuming different shapes, and totally escaping from their grasp. The word _Nereus_ is often taken for the sea itself. Nereus is sometimes called the most ancient of all the gods. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_. ――_Hyginus._――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 18.――_Apollodorus._――_Orpheus_, _Argonautica_.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 13.――_Euripides_, _Iphigeneia_.

=Nerio=, or =Neriēne=, the wife of Mars. _Aulus Gellius_, ch. 21.

=Nerĭphus=, a desert island near the Thracian Chersonesus.

=Nerĭtos=, a mountain in the island of Ithaca, as also a small island in the Ionian sea, according to Mela. The word Neritos is often applied to the whole island of Ithaca, and Ulysses the king of it is called _Neritius dux_, and his ship _Neritia navis_. The people of Saguntum, as descended from a Neritian colony, are called _Neritia proles_. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 2, li. 317.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 271.――_Pliny_, bk. 4.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 712; _Remedia Amoris_, li. 263.

=Nerĭtum=, a town of Calabria, now called _Nardo_.

=Nerius=, a silversmith in the age of Horace, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 69. ――――A usurer in Nero’s age, who was so eager to get money that he married as often as he could, and as soon destroyed his wives by poison, to possess himself of their estates. _Persius_, bk. 2, li. 14.

=Nero Claudius Domitius Cæsar=, a celebrated Roman emperor, son of Caius Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina the daughter of Germanicus. He was adopted by the emperor Claudius, A.D. 50, and four years after he succeeded to him on the throne. The beginning of his reign was marked by acts of the greatest kindness and condescension, by affability, complaisance, and popularity. The object of his administration seemed to be the good of his people; and when he was desired to sign his name to a list of malefactors that were to be executed, he exclaimed, “I wish to heaven I could not write.” He was an enemy to flattery, and when the senate had liberally commended the wisdom of his government, Nero desired them to keep their praises till he deserved them. These promising virtues were soon discovered to be artificial, and Nero displayed the propensities of his nature. He delivered himself from the sway of his mother, and at last ordered her to be assassinated. This unnatural act of barbarity might astonish some of the Romans, but Nero had his devoted adherents; and when he declared that he had taken away his mother’s life to save himself from ruin, the senate applauded his measures, and the people signified their approbation. Many of his courtiers shared the unhappy fate of Agrippina, and Nero sacrificed to his fury or caprice all such as obstructed his pleasure, or diverted his inclination. In the night he generally sallied out from his palace, to visit the meanest taverns and all the scenes of debauchery which Rome contained. In this nocturnal riot he was fond of insulting the people in the streets, and his attempts to offer violence to the wife of a Roman senator nearly cost him his life. He also turned actor, and publicly appeared on the Roman stage in the meanest characters. In his attempts to excel in music, and to conquer the disadvantages of a hoarse, rough voice, he moderated his meals, and often passed the day without eating. The celebrity of the Olympian games attracted his notice. He passed into Greece, and presented himself as a candidate for the public honours. He was defeated in wrestling, but the flattery of the spectators adjudged him the victory, and Nero returned to Rome with all the pomp and ♦splendour of an eastern conqueror, drawn in the chariot of Augustus, and attended by a band of musicians, actors, and stage dancers, from every part of the empire. These private and public amusements of the emperor were indeed innocent; his character was injured, but not the lives of the people. But his conduct soon became more abominable; he disguised himself in the habit of a woman, and was publicly married to one of his eunuchs. This violence to nature and decency was soon exchanged for another; Nero resumed his sex, and celebrated his nuptials with one of his meanest catamites, and it was on this occasion that one of the Romans observed that the world would have been happy if Nero’s father had had such a wife. But now his cruelty was displayed in a more superlative degree, and he sacrificed to his wantonness his wife Octavia Poppæa, and the celebrated writers, Seneca, Lucan, Petronius, &c. The christians also did not escape his barbarity. He had heard of the burning of Troy, and as he wished to renew that dismal scene, he caused Rome to be set on fire in different places. The conflagration became soon universal, and during nine successive days the fire was unextinguished. All was desolation; nothing was heard but the lamentations of mothers whose children had perished in the flames, the groans of the dying, and the continual fall of palaces and buildings. Nero was the only one who enjoyed the general consternation. He placed himself on the top of a high tower, and he sang on his lyre the destruction of Troy, a dreadful scene which his barbarity had realized before his eyes. He attempted to avert the public odium from his head, by a feigned commiseration of the miseries of his subjects. He began to repair the streets and the public buildings at his own expense. He built himself a celebrated palace, which he called his golden house. It was profusely adorned with gold and precious stones, and with whatever was rare and exquisite. It contained spacious fields, artificial lakes, woods, gardens, orchards, and whatever could exhibit beauty and grandeur. The entrance of this edifice could admit a large colossus of the emperor 120 feet high; the galleries were each a mile long, and the whole was covered with gold. The roofs of the dining halls represented the firmament in motion as well as in figure, and continually turned round night and day, showering down all sorts of perfumes and sweet waters. When this grand edifice, which, according to Pliny, extended all round the city, was finished, Nero said, that now he could lodge like a man. His profusion was not less remarkable in all his other actions. When he went a-fishing, his nets were made with gold and silk. He never appeared twice in the same garment, and when he undertook a voyage, there were thousands of servants to take care of his wardrobe. This continuation of debauchery and extravagance at last roused the resentment of the people. Many conspiracies were formed against the emperor, but they were generally discovered, and such as were accessary suffered the greatest punishments. The most dangerous conspiracy against Nero’s life was that of Piso, from which he was delivered by the confession of a slave. The conspiracy of Galba proved more successful; and the conspirator, when he was informed that his plot was known to Nero, declared himself emperor. The unpopularity of Nero favoured his cause; he was acknowledged by all the Roman empire, and the senate condemned the tyrant that sat on the throne to be dragged naked through the streets of Rome, and whipped to death, and afterwards to be thrown down from the Tarpeian rock like the meanest malefactor. This, however, was not done, and Nero, by a voluntary death, prevented the execution of the sentence. He killed himself, A.D. 68, in the 32nd year of his age, after a reign of thirteen years and eight months. Rome was filled with acclamations at the intelligence, and the citizens, more strongly to indicate their joy, wore caps such as were generally used by slaves who had received their freedom. Their vengeance was not only exercised against the statues of the deceased tyrant, but his friends were the objects of the public resentment, and many were crushed to pieces in such a violent manner, that one of the senators, amid the universal joy, said that he was afraid they should soon have cause to wish for Nero. The tyrant, as he expired, begged that his head might not be cut off from his body, and exposed to the insolence of an enraged populace, but that the whole might be burned on the funeral pile. His request was granted by one of Galba’s freedmen, and his obsequies were performed with the usual ceremonies. Though his death seemed to be the source of universal gladness, yet many of his favourites lamented his fall, and were grieved to see that their pleasures and amusements were stopped by the death of the patron of debauchery and extravagance. Even the king of Parthia sent ambassadors to Rome to condole with the Romans, and to beg that they would honour and revere the memory of Nero. His statues were also crowned with garlands of flowers, and many believed that he was not dead, but that he would soon make his appearance, and take a due vengeance upon his enemies. It will be sufficient to observe, in finishing the character of this tyrannical emperor, that the name of _Nero_ is even now used emphatically to express a barbarous and unfeeling oppressor. Pliny calls him the common enemy and the fury of mankind, and in this he has been followed by all writers, who exhibit Nero as the pattern of the most execrable barbarity and unpardonable wantonness. _Plutarch_, _Galba_.――_Suetonius_, _Lives_.――_Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 8, &c.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 64.――_Aurelius Victor._――_Tacitus_, _Annals_.――――Claudius, a Roman general sent into Spain to succeed the two Scipios. He suffered himself to be imposed upon by Asdrubal, and was soon after succeeded by young Scipio. He was afterwards made consul, and intercepted Asdrubal, who was passing from Spain into Italy with a large reinforcement for his brother Annibal. An engagement was fought near the river Metaurus, in which 56,000 of the Carthaginians were left on the field of battle, and great numbers taken prisoners, 207 B.C. Asdrubal the Carthaginian general was also killed, and his head cut off and thrown into his brother’s camp by the conquerors. _Appian_, _Hannibalic War_.――_Orosius_, bk. 4. ――_Livy_, bk. 27, &c.――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode 4, li. 37.――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 4, ch. 1.――――Another, who opposed Cicero when he wished to punish with death such as were accessary to Catiline’s conspiracy.――――A son of Germanicus, who was ruined by Sejanus, and banished from Rome by Tiberius. He died in the place of his exile. His death was voluntary, according to some. _Suetonius_, _Tiberius_.――――Domitian was called _Nero_, because his cruelties surpassed those of his predecessors, and also _Calvus_, from the baldness of his head. _Juvenal_, satire 4.――――The Neros were of the Claudian family, which, during the republican times of Rome, was honoured with 28 consulships, five dictatorships, six triumphs, seven censorships, and two ovations. They assumed the surname of Nero, which, in the language of the Sabines, signifies _strong_ and _warlike_.

♦ ‘slendour’ replaced with ‘splendour’

=Neronia=, a name given to Artaxata by Tiridates, who had been restored to his kingdom by Nero, whose favours he acknowledged by calling the capital of his dominions after the name of his benefactor.

=Neroniānæ Thermæ=, baths at Rome, made by the emperor Nero.

=Nertobrigia=, a town of Spain on the Bilbilis.

=Nerva Cocceius=, a Roman emperor after the death of Domitian, A.D. 96. He rendered himself popular by his mildness, his generosity, and the active part he took in the management of affairs. He suffered no statues to be raised to his honour, and he applied to the use of the government all the gold and silver statues which flattery had erected to his predecessor. In his civil character he was the pattern of good manners, of sobriety, and temperance. He forbade the mutilation of male children, and gave no countenance to the law which permitted the marriage of an uncle with his niece. He made a solemn declaration that no senator should suffer death during his reign; and this he observed with such sanctity that, when two members of the senate had conspired against his life, he was satisfied to tell them that he was informed of their wicked machinations. He also conducted them to the public spectacles, and seated himself between them, and when a sword was offered to him, according to the usual custom, he desired the conspirators to try it upon his body. Such goodness of heart, such confidence in the self-conviction of the human mind, and such reliance upon the consequence of his lenity and indulgence, conciliated the affection of all his subjects. Yet, as envy and danger are the constant companions of greatness, the pretorian guards at last mutinied, and Nerva nearly yielded to their fury. He uncovered his aged neck in the presence of the incensed soldiery, and bade them wreak their vengeance upon him, provided they spared the life of those to whom he was indebted for the empire, and whom his honour commanded him to defend. His seeming submission was unavailing, and he was at last obliged to surrender to the fury of his soldiers some of his friends and supporters. The infirmities of his age, and his natural timidity, at last obliged him to provide himself against any future mutiny or tumult, by choosing a worthy successor. He had many friends and relations, but he did not consider the aggrandizement of his family, and he chose for his son and successor Trajan, a man of whose virtues and greatness of mind he was fully convinced. This voluntary choice was approved by the acclamations of the people, and the wisdom and prudence which marked the reign of Trajan showed how discerning was the judgment, and how affectionate were the intentions, of Nerva for the good of Rome. He died on the 27th of July, A.D. 98, in his 72nd year, and his successor showed his respect for his merit and his character by raising him altars and temples in Rome, and in the provinces, and by ranking him in the number of the gods. Nerva was the first Roman emperor who was of foreign extraction, his father being a native of Crete. _Pliny_, _Panegyrics_.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 69.――――Marcus Cocceius, a consul in the reign of Tiberius. He starved himself, because he would not be concerned in the extravagance of the emperor.――――A celebrated lawyer, consul with the emperor Vespasian. He was father to the emperor of that name.

=Nervii=, a warlike people of Belgic Gaul, who continually upbraided the neighbouring nations for submitting to the power of the Romans. They attacked Julius Cæsar, and were totally defeated. Their country forms the modern province of _Hainault_. _Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 428. ――_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 2, ch. 15.

=Nerulum=, an inland town of Lucania, now _Lagonegro_. _Livy_, bk. 9, ch. 20.

=Nerium=, or =Artabrum=, a promontory of Spain, now cape _Finisterre_. _Strabo_, bk. 3.

=Nesactum=, a town of Istria at the mouth of the Arsia, now _Castel Nuovo_.

=Nesæa=, one of the Nereides. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 338.

=Nesimăchus=, the father of Hippomedon, a native of Argos, who was one of the seven chiefs who made war against Thebes. _Hyginus_, fable 70. ――_Scholiast_ on _Statius_, _Thebaid_, bk. 1, li. 44.

=Nesis= (is, or idis), now _Nisita_, an island on the coast of Campania, famous for asparagus. Lucan and Statius speak of its air as unwholesome and dangerous. _Pliny_, bk. 19, ch. 8.――_Lucan_, bk. 6, li. 90.――_Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 16, ltrs. 1 & 2.――_Statius_, bk. 3, _Sylvæ_, poem 1, li. 148.

=Nessus=, a celebrated centaur, son of Ixion and the Cloud. He offered violence to Dejanira, whom Hercules had entrusted to his care, with orders to carry her across the river Evenus. _See:_ Dejanira. Hercules saw the distress of his wife from the opposite shore of the river, and immediately he let fly one of his poisoned arrows, which struck the centaur to the heart. Nessus, as he expired, gave the tunic he then wore to Dejanira, assuring her that, from the poisoned blood which had flowed from his wounds, it had received the power of calling a husband away from unlawful loves. Dejanira received it with pleasure, and this mournful present caused the death of Hercules. _See:_ Hercules. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Ovid_, ltr. 9.――_Seneca_, _Hercules Furens_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 28. ――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――――A river. _See:_ Nestus.

=Nestŏcles=, a famous statuary of Greece, rival to Phidias. _Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 8.

=Nestor=, a son of Neleus and Chloris, nephew to Pelias and grandson to Neptune. He had 11 brothers, who were all killed, with his father, by Hercules. His tender age detained him at home, and was the cause of his preservation. The conqueror spared his life, and placed him on the throne of Pylos. He married Eurydice the daughter of Clymenes, or, according to others, Anaxibia the daughter of Atreus. He early distinguished himself in the field of battle, and was present at the nuptials of Pirithous, when a bloody battle was fought between the Lapithæ and Centaurs. As king of Pylos and Messenia he led his subjects to the Trojan war, where he distinguished himself among the rest of the Grecian chiefs by eloquence, address, wisdom, justice, and an uncommon prudence of mind. Homer displays his character as the most perfect of all his heroes; and Agamemnon exclaims, that if he had 10 generals like Nestor, he should soon see the walls of Troy reduced to ashes. After the Trojan war, Nestor retired to Greece, where he enjoyed, in the bosom of his family, the peace and tranquillity which were due to his wisdom and to his old age. The manner and the time of his death are unknown; the ancients are all agreed that he lived three generations of men, which length of time some suppose to be 300 years, though more probably only 90, allowing 30 years for each generation. From that circumstance, therefore, it was usual among the Greeks and the Latins, when they wished a long and happy life to their friends, to wish them to see the years of Nestor. He had two daughters, Pisidice and Polycaste; and seven sons, Perseus, Straticus, Aretus, Echephron, Pisistratus, Antilochus, and Trasimedes. Nestor was one of the Argonauts, according to _Valerius Flaccus_, bk. 1, li. 380, &c.――_Dictys Cretensis_, bk. 1, ch. 13, &c. ――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 1, &c.; _Odyssey_, bks. 3 & 11.――_Hyginus_, fables 10 & 273.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 26; bk. 4, chs. 3 & 31. ――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 162, &c.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 15.――――A poet of Lycaonia in the age of the emperor Severus. He was father to Pisander, who, under the emperor Alexander, wrote some fabulous stories.――――One of the body-guards of Alexander. _Polyænus._

=Nestorius=, a bishop of Constantinople, who flourished A.D. 431. He was condemned and degraded from his episcopal dignity for his heretical opinions, &c.

=Nestus=, or =Nessus=, now _Nesto_, a small river of Thrace, rising in mount Rhodope, and falling into the Ægean sea above the island of Thasos. It was for some time the boundary of Macedonia on the east, in the more extensive power of that kingdom.

=Netum=, a town of Sicily, now called _Noto_, on the eastern coast. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 269.――_Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 4, ch. 26; bk. 5, ch. 51.

=Neuri=, a people of Sarmatia. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 1.

=Nicæa=, a widow of Alexander, who married Demetrius.――――A daughter of Antipater, who married Perdiccas.――――A city of India, built by Alexander on the very spot where he had obtained a victory over king Porus.――――A town of Achaia near Thermopylæ, on the bay of Malia.――――A town of Illyricum.――――Another in Corsica.――――Another in Thrace,――――in Bœotia.――――A town of Bithynia (now _Nice_, or _Is-nik_), built by Antigonus, the son of Philip king of Macedonia. It was originally called _Antigonia_, and afterwards _Nicæa_ by Lysimachus, who gave it the name of his wife, who was daughter of Antipater.――――A town of Liguria, built by the people of Massilia, in commemoration of a victory.

=Nicagŏras=, a sophist of Athens in the reign of the emperor Philip. He wrote the lives of illustrious men, and was reckoned one of the greatest and most learned men of his age.

=Nicander=, a king of Sparta, son of Charillus, of the family of the Proclidæ. He reigned 39 years, and died B.C. 770.――――A writer of Chalcedon.――――A Greek grammarian, poet, and physician, of Colophon, 137 B.C. His writings were held in estimation, but his judgment cannot be highly commended, since, without any knowledge of agriculture, he ventured to compose a book on that intricate subject. Two of his poems, entitled _Theriaca_, on hunting, and _Alexipharmaca_, on antidotes against poison, are still extant; the best editions of which are those of Gorræus, with a translation in Latin verse by Grevinus, a physician at Paris, 4to, Paris, 1557, and Salvinus, 8vo, Florence, 1764. _Cicero_, bk. 1, _On Oratory_, ch. 16.

=Nicānor=, a man who conspired against the life of Alexander. _Curtius_, bk. 6.――――A son of Parmenio, who died in Hyrcania, &c.――――A surname of Demetrius. _See:_ Demetrius II.――――An unskilful pilot of Antigonus. _Polyænus._――――A servant of Atticus. _Cicero_, bk. 5, ltr. 3.――――A Samian, who wrote a treatise on rivers.――――A governor of Media, conquered by Seleucus. He had been governor over the Athenians under Cassander, by whose orders he was put to death.――――A general of the emperor Titus, wounded at the siege of Jerusalem.――――A man of Stagira, by whom Alexander the Great sent a letter to recall the Grecian exiles. _Diodorus_, bk. 18.――――A governor of Munychia, who seized the Piræus, and was at last put to death by Cassander, because he wished to make himself absolute over Attica. _Diodorus_, bk. 18.――――A brother of Cassander, destroyed by Olympias. _Diodorus_, bk. 19.――――A general of Antiochus king of Syria. He made war against the Jews, and showed himself uncommonly cruel.

=Nicarchus=, a Corinthian philosopher in the age of Periander. _Plutarch._――――An Arcadian chief, who deserted to the Persians, at the return of the 10,000 Greeks.

=Nicarthīdes=, a man set over Persepolis by Alexander.

=Nicātor=, a surname of Seleucus king of Syria, from his having been unconquered.

=Nice=, a daughter of Thestius. _Apollodorus._

=Nicephorium=, a town of Mesopotamia, on the Euphrates, where Venus had a temple. _Livy_, bk. 32, ch. 33.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 41.

=Nicephŏrius=, now _Khabour_, a river which flowed by the walls of Tigranocerta. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 4.

=Nicephŏrus Cæsar=, a Byzantine historian, whose works were edited folio, Paris, 1661.――――Gregoras, another, edited folio, Paris, 1702. ――――A Greek ecclesiastical historian, whose works were edited by Ducæus, 2 vols., Paris, 1630.

=Nicer=, now the _Necker_, a river of Germany, falling into the Rhine at the modern town of Manheim. _Ausonius_, _Mosella_, li. 423.

=Nicerātus=, a poet who wrote a poem in praise of Lysander.――――The father of Nicias.

=Nicetas=, one of the Byzantine historians, whose works were edited folio, Paris, 1647.

=Niceteria=, a festival at Athens, in memory of the victory which Minerva obtained over Neptune, in their dispute about giving a name to the capital of the country.

=Nicia=, a city. _See:_ Nicæa.――――A river falling into the Po at Brixellum. It is now called _Lenza_, and separates the duchy of Modena from Parma.

=Nicias=, an Athenian general, celebrated for his valour and for his misfortunes. He early conciliated the good will of the people by his liberality, and he established his military character by taking the island of Cythera from the power of Lacedæmon. When Athens determined to make war against Sicily, Nicias was appointed, with Alcibiades and Lamachus, to conduct the expedition, which he reprobated as impolitic, and as the future cause of calamities to the Athenian power. In Sicily he behaved with great firmness, but he often blamed the quick and inconsiderate measures of his colleagues. The success of the Athenians remained long doubtful. Alcibiades was recalled by his enemies to take his trial, and Nicias was left at the head of affairs. Syracuse was surrounded by a wall, and though the operations were carried on slowly, yet the city would have surrendered, had not the sudden appearance of Gylippus, the Corinthian ally of the Sicilians, cheered up the courage of the besieged at the most critical moment. Gylippus proposed terms of accommodation to the Athenians, which were refused; some battles were fought, in which the Sicilians obtained the advantage, and Nicias at last, tired of his ill success, and grown desponding, demanded of the Athenians a reinforcement or a successor. Demosthenes, upon this, was sent with a powerful fleet, but the advice of Nicias was despised, and the admiral, by his eagerness to come to a decisive engagement, ruined his fleet and the interest of Athens. The fear of his enemies at home prevented Nicias from leaving Sicily; and when, at last, a continued series of ill success obliged him to comply, he found himself surrounded on every side by the enemy, without hope of escaping. He gave himself up to the conquerors with all his army, but the assurances of safety which he had received soon proved vain and false, and he was no sooner in the hands of the enemy than he was shamefully put to death with Demosthenes. His troops were sent to quarries, where the plague and hard labour diminished their numbers and aggravated their misfortunes. Some suppose that the death of Nicias was not violent. He perished about 413 years before Christ, and the Athenians lamented in him a great and valiant but unfortunate general. _Plutarch_, _Lives_. ――_Cicero._――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Alcibiades_.――_Thucydides_, bk. 4, &c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 15.――――A grammarian of Rome, intimate with Cicero. _Cicero_, _Letters_.――――A man of Nicæa, who wrote a history of philosophers.――――A physician of Pyrrhus king of Epirus, who made an offer to the Romans of poisoning his master for a sum of money. The Roman general disdained his offers, and acquainted Pyrrhus with his treachery. He is oftener called Cineas.――――A painter of Athens in the age of Alexander. He was chiefly happy in his pictures of women. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 2, ch. 31.

=Nicippe=, a daughter of Pelops, who married Sthenelus.――――A daughter of Thespius. _Apollodorus._

=Nicippus=, a tyrant of Cos, one of whose sheep brought forth a lion, which was considered as portending his future greatness, and his elevation to the sovereignty. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 1, ch. 29.

=Nico=, one of the Tarentine chiefs who conspired against the life of Annibal. _Livy_, bk. 30.――――A celebrated architect and geometrician. He was father to the celebrated Galen the prince of physicians. ――――One of the slaves of Craterus.――――The name of an ass which Augustus met before the battle of Actium, a circumstance which he considered as a favourable omen.――――The name of an elephant remarkable for his fidelity to king Pyrrhus.

=Nicochăres=, a Greek comic poet in the age of Aristophanes.

=Nicŏcles=, a familiar friend of Phocion, condemned to death. _Plutarch._――――A king of Salamis, celebrated for his contest with a king of Phœnicia, to prove which of the two was most effeminate.――――A king of Paphos, who reigned under the protection of Ptolemy king of Egypt. He revolted from his friend to the king of Persia, upon which Ptolemy ordered one of his servants to put him to death, to strike terror into the other dependent princes. The servant, unwilling to murder the monarch, advised him to kill himself. Nicocles obeyed, and all his family followed his example, 310 years before the christian era.――――An ancient Greek poet, who called physicians a happy race of men, because light published their good deeds to the world, and the earth hid all their faults and imperfections.――――A king of Cyprus, who succeeded his father Evagoras on the throne, 374 years before Christ. It was with him that the philosopher Isocrates corresponded. ――――A tyrant of Sicyon, deposed by means of Aratus the Achæan. _Plutarch_, _Aratus_.

=Nicocrătes=, a tyrant of Cyrene.――――An author at Athens.――――A king of Salamis in Cyprus, who made himself known by the valuable collection of books which he had. _Athenæus_, bk. 1.

=Nicocreon=, a tyrant of Salamis in the age of Alexander the Great. He ordered the philosopher Anaxarchus to be pounded to pieces in a mortar.

=Nicodēmus=, an Athenian appointed by Conon over the fleet which was going to the assistance of Artaxerxes. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.――――A tyrant of Italy, &c.――――An ambassador sent to Pompey by Aristobulus.

=Nicodōrus=, a wrestler of Mantinea, who studied philosophy in his old age. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 2, ch. 22.――_Suidas._――――An Athenian archon.

=Nicodrŏmus=, a son of Hercules and Nice. _Apollodorus._――――An Athenian who invaded Ægina, &c.

=Nicolāus=, a philosopher.――――A celebrated Syracusan, who endeavoured, in a pathetic speech, to dissuade his countrymen from offering violence to the Athenian prisoners who had been taken with Nicias their general. His eloquence was unavailing.――――An officer of Ptolemy against Antigonus.――――A peripatetic philosopher and historian in the Augustan age.

=Nicomăcha=, a daughter of Themistocles.

=Nicomăchus=, the father of Aristotle, whose son also bore the same name. The philosopher composed his 10 books of morals for the use and improvement of his son, and thence they are called Nicomachea. _Suidas._――――One of Alexander’s friends, who discovered the conspiracy of Dymus. _Curtius_, bk. 6.――――An excellent painter.――――A Pythagorean philosopher.――――A Lacedæmonian general, conquered by Timotheus.――――A writer in the fifth century, &c.

=Nicomēdes I.=, a king of Bithynia, about 278 years before the christian era. It was by his exertions that this part of Asia became a monarchy. He behaved with great cruelty to his brothers, and built a town which he called by his own name, _Nicomedia_. _Justin._ ――_Pausanias_, &c.

=Nicomēdes II.=, was ironically surnamed _Philopater_, because he drove his father Prusias from the kingdom of Bithynia, and caused him to be assassinated, B.C. 149. He reigned 59 years. Mithridates laid claim to his kingdom, but all their disputes were decided by the Romans, who deprived Nicomedes of the province of Paphlagonia, and his ambitious rival of Cappadocia. He gained the affections of his subjects by a courteous behaviour, and by a mild and peaceful government. _Justin._

=Nicomēdes III.=, son and successor of the preceding, was dethroned by his brother Socrates, and afterwards by the ambitious Mithridates. The Romans re-established him on his throne, and encouraged him to make reprisals upon the king of Pontus. He followed their advice, and he was, at last, expelled another time from his dominions, till Sylla came into Asia, who restored him to his former power and affluence. _Strabo._――_Appian._

=Nicomēdes IV.=, was son and successor of Nicomedes III. He passed his life in an easy and tranquil manner, and enjoyed the peace which his alliance with the Romans had procured him. He died B.C. 75, without issue, and left his kingdom, with all his possessions, to the Roman people. _Strabo_, bk. 12.――_Appian_, _Mithridatic Wars_.――_Justin_, bk. 38, ch. 2, &c.――_Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.

=Nicomēdes=, a celebrated geometrician in the age of the philosopher Eratosthenes. He made himself known by his useful machines, &c.――――An engineer in the army of Mithridates.――――One of the preceptors of the emperor Marcus Antoninus.

=Nicomēdia= (now _Is-nikmid_), a town of Bithynia, founded by Nicomedes I. It was the capital of the country, and it has been compared, for its beauty and greatness, to Rome, Antioch, or Alexandria. It became celebrated for being, for some time, the residence of the emperor Constantine and most of his imperial successors. Some suppose that it was originally called _Astacus_, and _Olbia_, though it is generally believed that they were all different cities. _Ammianus_, bk. 17.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 12.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, &c.――_Strabo_, bk. 12, &c.

=Nicon=, a pirate of Phære in Peloponnesus, &c. _Polyænus._――――An athlete of Thasos, 14 times victorious at the Olympic games.――――A native of Tarentum. _See:_ Nico.

=Niconia=, a town of Pontus.

=Nicophanes=, a famous painter of Greece, whose pieces are mentioned with commendation. _Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 10.

=Nicŏphron=, a comic poet of Athens some time after the age of Aristophanes.

=Nicŏpolis=, a city of Lower Egypt.――――A town of Armenia, built by Pompey the Great in memory of a victory which he had there obtained over the forces of Mithridates. _Strabo_, bk. 12.――――Another, in Thrace, built on the banks of the Nestus by Trajan, in memory of a victory which he obtained there over the barbarians.――――A town of Epirus, built by Augustus after the battle of Actium.――――Another, near Jerusalem, founded by the emperor Vespasian.――――Another, in Mœsia.――――Another, in Dacia, built by Trajan to perpetuate the memory of a celebrated battle.――――Another, near the bay of Issus, built by Alexander.

=Nicostrăta=, a courtesan who left all her possessions to Sylla.――――The same as Carmente mother of Evander.

=Nicostrătus=, a man of Argos of great strength. He was fond of imitating Hercules by clothing himself in a lion’s skin. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.――――One of Alexander’s soldiers. He conspired against the king’s life, with Hermolaus. _Curtius_, bk. 8.――――A painter who expressed great admiration at the sight of Helen’s picture by Zeuxis. _Ælian_, bk. 14, ch. 47.――――A dramatic actor of Ionia.――――A comic poet of Argos.――――An orator of Macedonia, in the reign of the emperor Marcus Antoninus.――――A son of Menelaus and Helen. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 18.――――A general of the Achæans, who defeated the Macedonians.

=Nicotelea=, a celebrated woman of Messenia, who said that she became pregnant of Aristomenes by a serpent. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 14.

=Nicotĕles=, a Corinthian drunkard, &c. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 2, ch. 14.

=Niger=, a friend of Marcus Antony, sent to him by Octavia.――――A surname of Clitus, whom Alexander killed in a fit of drunkenness. ――――Caius Pescennius Justus, a celebrated governor in Syria, well known by his valour in the Roman armies, while yet a private man. At the death of Pertinax he was declared emperor of Rome, and his claims to that elevated situation were supported by a sound understanding, prudence of mind, moderation, courage, and virtue. He proposed to imitate the actions of the venerable Antoninus, of Trajan, of Titus, and Marcus Aurelius. He was remarkable for his fondness for ancient discipline, and never suffered his soldiers to drink wine, but obliged them to quench their thirst with water and vinegar. He forbade the use of silver and gold utensils in his camp, all the bakers and cooks were driven away, and the soldiers ordered to live, during the expedition they undertook, merely upon biscuits. In his punishments Niger was inexorable; he condemned 10 of his soldiers to be beheaded in the presence of the army, because they had stolen and eaten a fowl. The sentence was heard with groans: the army interfered; and when Niger consented to diminish the punishment for fear of kindling a rebellion, he yet ordered the criminals to make each a restoration of 10 fowls to the person whose property they had stolen. They were, besides, ordered not to light a fire the rest of the campaign, but to live upon cold aliments, and to drink nothing but water. Such great qualifications in a general seemed to promise the restoration of ancient discipline in the Roman armies, but the death of Niger frustrated every hope of reform. Severus, who had also been invested with the imperial purple, marched against him; some battles were fought, and Niger was at last defeated, A.D. 194. His head was cut off and fixed to a long spear, and carried in triumph through the streets of Rome. He reigned about one year. _Herodian_, bk. 3. ――_Eutropius._

=Niger=, or =Nigris= (itis), a river of Africa, which rises in Æthiopia, and falls by three mouths into the Atlantic, little known to the ancients, and not yet satisfactorily explored by the moderns. _Pliny_, bk. 5, chs. 1 & 8.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 4; bk. 3, ch. 10.――_Ptolemy_, bk. 4, ch. 6.

=Publius Nigidius Figŭlus=, a celebrated philosopher and astrologer at Rome, one of the most learned men of his age. He was intimate with Cicero, and gave his most unbiassed opinions concerning the conspirators who had leagued to destroy Rome with Catiline. He was made pretor, and honoured with a seat in the senate. In the civil wars he followed the interest of Pompey, for which he was banished by the conqueror. He died in the place of his banishment, 47 years before Christ. _Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_, bk. 4, ltr. 13. ――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 639.

=Nigrītæ=, a people of Africa, who dwell on the banks of the Niger. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 4.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 1.

=Nileus=, a son of Codrus, who conducted a colony of Ionians to Asia, where he built Ephesus, Miletus, Priene, Colophon, Myus, Teos, Lebedos, Clazomenæ, &c. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 2, &c.――――A philosopher who had in his possession all the writings of Aristotle. _Athenæus_, bk. 1.

=Nilus=, a king of Thebes, who gave his name to the river which flows through the middle of Egypt, and falls into the Mediterranean sea. The Nile, anciently called _Ægyptus_, is one of the most celebrated rivers in the world. Its sources were unknown to the ancients, and the moderns were till lately ignorant of their situation, whence an impossibility is generally meant by the proverb of _Nili caput quærere_. It flows through the middle of Egypt in a northern direction, and when it comes to the town of Cercasorum, it then divides itself into several streams, and falls into the Mediterranean by seven mouths. The most eastern canal is called the Pelusian, and the most western is called the Canopic mouth. The other canals are the Sebennytican, that of Sais, the Mendesian, Bolbitinic, and Bucolic. They have all been formed by nature, except the two last, which have been dug by the labours of men. The island which the Nile forms by its division into several streams is called _Delta_, from its resemblance to the fourth letter in the Greek alphabet. The Nile yearly overflows the country, and it is to those regular inundations that the Egyptians are indebted for the fertile produce of their lands. It begins to rise in the month of May for 100 successive days, and then decreases gradually the same number of days. If it does not rise as high as 16 cubits, a famine is generally expected, but if it exceeds this by many cubits, it is of the most dangerous consequences; houses are overturned, the cattle are drowned, and a great number of insects are produced from the mud, which destroy the fruits of the earth. The river, therefore, proves a blessing or a calamity to Egypt, and the prosperity of the nation depends so much upon it, that the tributes of the inhabitants were in ancient times, and are still under the present government, proportioned to the rise of the waters. The causes of the overflowings of the Nile, which remained unknown to the ancients, though searched with the greatest application, are owing to the heavy rains which regularly fall in Æthiopia, in the months of April and May, and which rush down like torrents upon the country, and lay it all under water. These causes, as some people suppose, were well known to Homer, as he seems to show it, by saying that the Nile flowed down from heaven. The inhabitants of Egypt, near the banks of the river, were called _Niliaci_, _Niligenæ_, &c., and large canals were also from this river denominated _Nili_ or _Euripi_. _Cicero_, _De Legibus_, bk. 2, ch. 1; _Letters to his brother Quintus_, bk. 3, ltr. 9; _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 11, ltr. 12. ――_Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 187; bk. 15, li. 753.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 3, ch. 9.――_Seneca_, _Quæstiones Naturales_, bk. 4.――_Lucan_, bks. 1, 2, &c.――_Claudian_, _de Nilus_. ――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 288; _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 800; bk. 9, li. 31.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1, &c.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2.――_Lucretius_, bk. 6, li. 712.――_Ammianus_, bk. 22.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 32. ――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 10.――――One of the Greek fathers, who flourished A.D. 440. His works were edited at Rome, folio, 2 vols., 1668 & 1678.

=Ninnius=, a tribune who opposed Clodius the enemy of Cicero.

=Ninias.= _See:_ Ninyas.

=Ninus=, a son of Belus, who built a city to which he gave his own name, and founded the Assyrian monarchy, of which he was the first sovereign, B.C. 2059. He was very warlike, and extended his conquests from Egypt to the extremities of India and Bactriana. He became enamoured of Semiramis the wife of one of his officers, and he married her after her husband had destroyed himself through fear of his powerful rival. Ninus reigned 52 years, and at his death he left his kingdom to the care of his wife Semiramis, by whom he had a son. The history of Ninus is very obscure, and even fabulous according to the opinion of some. Ctesias is the principal historian from whom it is derived, but little reliance is to be placed upon him, when Aristotle deems him unworthy to be believed. Ninus after death received divine honours, and became the Jupiter of the Assyrians and the Hercules of the Chaldeans. _Ctesias._――_Diodorus_, bk. 2. ――_Justin_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2.――――A celebrated city, now _Nino_, the capital of Assyria, built on the banks of the Tigris by Ninus, and called _Nineveh_ in Scripture. It was, according to the relation of Diodorus Siculus, 15 miles long, nine broad, and 48 in circumference. It was surrounded by large walls 100 feet high, on the top of which three chariots could pass together abreast, and was defended by 1500 towers, each 200 feet high. Ninus was taken by the united armies of Cyaxares and Nabopolassar king of Babylon, B.C. 606. _Strabo_, bk. 1.――_Diodorus_, bk. 2.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 185, &c. ――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 33.――_Lucian._

=Ninyas=, a son of Ninus and Semiramis, king of Assyria, who succeeded his mother, who had voluntarily abdicated the crown. Some suppose that Semiramis was put to death by her own son, because she had encouraged him to commit incest. The reign of Ninyas is remarkable for its luxury and extravagance. The prince left the care of the government to his favourites and ministers, and gave himself up to pleasure, riot, and debauchery, and never appeared in public. His successors imitated the example of his voluptuousness, and therefore their names or history are little known till the age of Sardanapalus. _Justin_, bk. 1, ch. 2.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1, &c.

=Niŏbe=, a daughter of Tantalus king of Lydia by Euryanassa or Dione. She married Amphion the son of Jasus, by whom she had 10 sons and 10 daughters according to Hesiod, or two sons and three daughters according to Herodotus. Homer and Propertius say that she had six daughters and as many sons, and Ovid, Apollodorus, &c., according to the more received opinion, support that she had seven sons and seven daughters. The names of the sons were Sipylus, Minytus, Tantalus, Agenor, Phædimus, Damasichthon, and Ismenus; and those of the daughters, Cleodoxa, Ethodæa or Thera, Astyoche, Phthia, Pelopia or Chloris, Asticratea, and Ogygia. The number of her children increased the pride of Niobe, and she not only had the imprudence to prefer herself to Latona, who had only two children, but she even insulted her, and ridiculed the worship which was paid to her, observing that she had a better claim to altars and sacrifices than the mother of Apollo and Diana. This insolence provoked Latona, who entreated her children to punish the arrogant Niobe. Her prayers were heard, and immediately all the sons of Niobe expired by the darts of Apollo, and all the daughters except Chloris, who had married Neleus king of Polos, were equally destroyed by Diana; and Niobe, struck at the suddenness of her misfortunes, was changed into a stone. The carcases of Niobe’s children, according to Homer, were left unburied in the plains for nine successive days, because Jupiter changed into stones all such as attempted to inter them. On the tenth day they were honoured with a funeral by the gods. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 24. ――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 12, ch. 36.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, fable 5.――_Hyginus_, fable 9. ――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode 6.――_Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 6.――――A daughter of Phoroneus king of Peloponnesus by Laodice. She was beloved by Jupiter, by whom she had a son called Argus, who gave his name to Argia or Argolis, a country of Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 22.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1; bk. 3, ch. 8.

=Niphæus=, a man killed by horses, &c. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 570.

=Niphātes=, a mountain of Asia, which divides Armenia from Assyria, and from which the Tigris takes its rise. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 30.――_Strabo_, bk. 11.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 15.――――A river of Armenia, falling into the Tigris. _Horace_, bk. 2, ode 9, li. 20. ――_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 245.

=Niphe=, one of Diana’s companions. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 245.

=Nireus=, a king of Naxos, son of Charops and Aglaia, celebrated for his beauty. He was one of the Grecian chiefs during the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ode 20.

=Nisa=, a town of Greece. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.――――A country-woman. _Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 8.――――A place. _See:_ Nysa.――――A celebrated plain of Media near the Caspian sea, famous for its horses. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 106.

=Nisæa=, a naval station on the coasts of Megaris. _Strabo_, bk. 8. ――――A town of Parthia, called also Nisa.

=Nisæe=, a sea-nymph. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 826.

=Niseia.= _See:_ Nisus.

=Nisĭbis=, a town of Mesopotamia, built by a colony of Macedonians on the Tigris, and celebrated as being a barrier between the provinces of Rome and the Persian empire during the reign of the Roman emperors. It was sometimes called _Antiochia Mygdonica_. _Josephus_, bk. 20, ch. 2.――_Strabo_, bk. 11.――_Ammianus_, bk. 25, &c.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 13.

=Nisus=, a son of Hyrtacus, born on mount Ida near Troy. He came to Italy with Æneas, and signalized himself by his valour against the Rutulians. He was united in the closest friendship with Euryalus, a young Trojan, and with him he entered, in the dead of night, the enemy’s camp. As they were returning victorious, after much bloodshed, they were perceived by the Rutulians, who attacked Euryalus. Nisus, in endeavouring to rescue his friend from the enemy’s darts, perished himself with him, and their heads were cut off and fixed on a spear, and carried in triumph to the camp. Their death was greatly lamented by all the Trojans, and their great friendship, like that of a Pylades and an Orestes, or of a Theseus and Pirithous, is become proverbial. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 176, &c.――――A king of Dulichium, remarkable for his probity and virtue. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 18.――――A king of Megara, son of Mars, or more probably of Pandion. He inherited his father’s kingdom with his brothers, and received as his portion the country of Megaris. The peace of the brothers was interrupted by the hostilities of Minos, who wished to avenge the death of his son Androgeus, who had been murdered by the Athenians. Megara was besieged, and Attica laid waste. The fate of Nisus depended totally upon a yellow lock, which, as long as it continued upon his head, according to the words of an oracle, promised him life, and success to his affairs. His daughter Scylla (often called _Niseia Virgo_) saw from the walls of Megara the royal besieger, and she became desperately enamoured of him. To obtain a more immediate interview with this object of her passion, she stole away the fatal hair from her father’s head as he was asleep; the town was immediately taken, but Minos disregarded the services of Scylla, and she threw herself into the sea. The gods changed her into a lark, and Nisus assumed the nature of the hawk at the very moment that he gave himself death, not to fall into the enemy’s hands. These two birds have continually been at variance with each other, and Scylla, by her apprehensions at the sight of her father, seems to suffer the punishment which her perfidy deserved. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 15.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 19.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 6, &c.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 404, &c.

=Nisȳros=, an island in the Ægean sea, at the west of Rhodes, with a town of the same name. It was originally joined to the island of Cos, according to Pliny, and it bore the name of _Porphyris_. Neptune, who was supposed to have separated them with a blow of his trident, and to have there overwhelmed the giant Polybotes, was worshipped there, and called _Nisyreus_. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 6.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Strabo_, bk. 10.

=Nitētis=, a daughter of Apries king of Egypt, married by his successor Amasis to Cyrus. _Polyænus_, bk. 8.

=Nitiobriges=, a people of Gaul, supposed to be _Agenois_, in Guienne. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 7, ch. 7.

=Nitōcris=, a celebrated queen of Babylon, who built a bridge across the Euphrates, in the middle of that city, and dug a number of reservoirs for the superfluous waters of that river. She ordered herself to be buried over one of the gates of the city, and placed an inscription on her tomb, which signified that her successors would find great treasures within if ever they were in need of money, but that their labours would be but ill repaid if ever they ventured to open it without necessity. Cyrus opened it through curiosity, and was struck to find within these words: _If thy avarice had not been insatiable, thou never wouldst have violated the monuments of the dead_. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 185.――――A queen of Egypt, who built a third pyramid.

=Nitria=, a country of Egypt with two towns of the same name, above Memphis.

=Nivaria=, an island at the west of Africa, supposed to be _Teneriff_, one of the Canaries. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 32.

=Noas=, a river of Thrace falling into the Ister. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 46.

=Nocmon=, a Trojan killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 767.

=Noctilūca=, a surname of Diana. She had a temple at Rome on mount Palatine, where torches were generally lighted in the night. _Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 4.――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode 6, li. 38.

=Nola=, an ancient town of Campania, which became a Roman colony before the first Punic war. It was founded by a Tuscan, or, according to others, by an Eubœan colony. It is said that Virgil had introduced the name of Nola in his Georgics, but that, when he was refused a glass of water by the inhabitants as he passed through the city, he totally blotted it out of his poem, and substituted the word _ora_, in the 225th line of the second book of his Georgics. Nola was besieged by Annibal, and bravely defended by Marcellus. Augustus died there on his return from Neapolis to Rome. Bells were first invented there in the beginning of the fifth century, from which reason they have been called _Nolæ_, or _Campanæ_, in Latin. The inventor was St. Paulinus, the bishop of the place, who died A.D. 431, though many imagine that bells were known long before, and only introduced into churches by that prelate. Before his time, congregations were called to the church by the noise of wooden rattles (_sacra ligna_). _Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Suetonius_, _Augustus_.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 517; bk. 12, li. 161.――_Aulus Gellius_, bk. 7, ch. 20.――_Livy_, bk. 23, chs. 14 & 39; bk. 24, ch. 13.

=Nomădes=, a name given to all those uncivilized people who had no fixed habitation, and who continually changed the place of their residence, to go in quest of fresh pasture for the numerous cattle which they tended. There were Nomades in Scythia, India, Arabia, and Africa. Those of Africa were afterwards called _Numidians_, by a small change of the letters which composed their name. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 1, li. 215.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 3.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 15; bk. 4, ch. 187.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 1; bk. 3, ch. 4.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 343.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 43.

=Nomæ=, a town of Sicily. _Diodorus_, bk. 11.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 266.

=Nomentānus=, an epithet applied to Lucius Cassius as a native of Nomentum. He is mentioned by Horace as a mixture of luxury and dissipation. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 2, li. 102 & _alibi_.

=Nomentum=, a town of the Sabines in Italy, famous for wine, and now called _Lamentana_. The dictator Quintus Servilius Priscus gave the Veientes and Fidenates battle there A.U.C. 312, and totally defeated them. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 905.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 38; bk. 4, ch. 22.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 773.

=Nomii=, mountains of Arcadia. _Pausanias._

=Nomius=, a surname given to Apollo, because he fed (νεμω, _pasco_), the flocks of king Admetus in Thessaly. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 23.

=Nōnācris=, a town of Arcadia, which received its name from a wife of Lycaon. There was a mountain of the same name in the neighbourhood. Evander is sometimes called _Nonacrius heros_, as being an Arcadian by birth, and Atalanta _Nonacria_, as being a native of the place. _Curtius_, bk. 10, ch. 10.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 5, li. 97; _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, fable 10.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 17, &c.

=Nonius=, a Roman soldier, imprisoned for paying respect to Galba’s statues, &c. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 1, ch. 56.――――A Roman who exhorted his countrymen after the fatal battle of Pharsalia, and the flight of Pompey, by observing that eight standards (_aquilæ_) still remained in the camp, to which Cicero answered, _Recte, si nobis cum graculis bellum esset_.

=Nonnius Marcellus=, a grammarian, whose treatise _de variâ significatione verborum_ was edited by Mercer, 8vo, Paris, 1614.

=Nonnus=, a Greek writer of the fifth century, who wrote an account of the embassy he had undertaken to Æthiopia, among the Saracens and other eastern nations. He is also known by his _Dionysiaca_, a wonderful collection of heathen mythology and erudition, edited 4to, Antwerp, 1569. His _paraphrase_ on John was edited by Heinsius, 8vo, Leiden, 1627.

=Nonus=, a Greek physician, whose book _de omnium morborum curatione_ was edited in 12mo, Strasbourg, 1568.

=Nopia=, or =Cinopia=, a town of Bœotia, where Amphiaraus had a temple.

=Nōra=, now _Nour_, a place of Phrygia, where Eumenes retired for some time, &c. _Cornelius Nepos._――――A town. _See:_ Norax.

=Norax=, a son of Mercury and Eurythæa, who led a colony of Iberians into Sardinia, where he founded a town, to which he gave the name of Nora. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 17.

=Norba=, a town of the Volsci. _Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 34.――――Cæsarea, a town of Spain on the Tagus.

=Caius Norbānus=, a young and ambitious Roman who opposed Sylla, and joined his interest to that of young Marius. In his consulship he marched against Sylla, by whom he was defeated, &c. _Plutarch._――――A friend and general of Augustus, employed in Macedonia against the republicans. He was defeated by Brutus, &c.

=Norĭcum=, a country of ancient Illyricum, which now forms a part of modern _Bavaria_ and _Austria_. It extended between the Danube, and part of the Alps and Vindelicia. Its savage inhabitants, who were once governed by kings, made many incursions upon the Romans, and were at last conquered under Tiberius, and the country became a dependent province. In the reign of Diocletian, Noricum was divided into two parts, _Ripense_ and _Mediterranean_. The iron that was drawn from Noricum was esteemed excellent, and thence _Noricus ensis_ was used to express the goodness of a sword. _Dionysius Periegetes. _――_Strabo_, bk. 4.――_Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 14.――_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 16, li. 9.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 712.

=Northippus=, a Greek tragic poet.

=Nortia=, a name given to the goddess of Fortune among the Etrurians. _Livy_, bk. 7, ch. 3.

=Nothus=, a son of Deucalion.――――A surname of Darius king of Persia, from his illegitimacy.

=Notium=, a town of Æolia near the Cayster. It was peopled by the inhabitants of Colophon, who left their ancient habitations because Notium was more conveniently situated in being on the seashore. _Livy_, bk. 37, chs. 26, 38, 39.

=Notus=, the south wind, called also Auster.

=Novæ= (_tabernæ_), the new shops built in the forum at Rome, and adorned with the shields of the Cimbri. _Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 2, ch. 66.――――The _Veteres tabernæ_ were adorned with those of the Samnites. _Livy_, bk. 9, ch. 40.

=Novaria=, a town of Cisalpine Gaul, now _Novara_, in Milan. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 1, ch. 70.

=Novātus=, a man who severely attacked the character of Augustus, under a fictitious name. The emperor discovered him, and only fined him a small sum of money.

=Novesium=, a town of the Ubii, on the west of the Rhine, now called _Nuys_, near Cologne. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 26, &c.

=Noviodūnum=, a town of the Ædui in Gaul, taken by Julius Cæsar. It is pleasantly situated on the Ligeris, and now called _Noyon_, or, as others suppose, _Nevers_. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 2, ch. 12.

=Noviomagus=, or =Neomagus=, a town of Gaul, now _Nizeux_, in Normandy. ――――Another, called also _Nemetes_, now _Spire_.――――Another, in Batavia, now _Nimeguen_, on the south side of the Waal.

=Novium=, a town of Spain, now _Noya_.

=Novius Priscus=, a man banished from Rome by Nero, on suspicion that he was accessary to Piso’s conspiracy. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 71.――――A man who attempted to assassinate the emperor Claudius. ――――Two brothers obscurely born, distinguished in the age of Horace for their officiousness. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 6.

=Novum Comum=, a town of Insubria on the lake Larinus, of which the inhabitants were called _Novocomenses_. _Cicero_, _De Divinatione_, bk. 13, ch. 55.

=Nox=, one of the most ancient deities among the heathens, daughter of Chaos. From her union with her brother Erebus she gave birth to the Day and the Light. She was also the mother of the Parcæ, Hesperides, Dreams, of Discord, Death, Momus, Fraud, &c. She is called by some of the poets the mother of all things, of gods as well as of men, and therefore she was worshipped with great solemnity by the ancients. She had a famous statue in Diana’s temple at Ephesus. It was usual to offer her a black sheep, as she was the mother of the furies. The cock was also offered to her, as that bird proclaims the approach of day, during the darkness of the night. She is represented as mounted on a chariot, and covered with a veil bespangled with stars. The constellations generally went before her as her constant messengers. Sometimes she is seen holding two children under her arms, one of which is black, representing death, or rather night, and the other white, representing sleep or day. Some of the moderns have described her as a woman veiled in mourning, and crowned with poppies, and carried on a chariot drawn by owls and bats. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 950.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 1, li. 455.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 38.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, lis. 125 & 212.

=Nuceria=, a town of Campania taken by Annibal. It became a Roman colony under Augustus, and was called _Nuceria Constantia_, or _Alfaterna_. It now bears the name of _Nocera_, and contains about 30,000 inhabitants. _Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 472.――_Livy_, bk. 9, ch. 41; bk. 27, ch. 3.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 531.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bks. 13 & 14.――――A town of Umbria at the foot of the Apennines. _Strabo._――_Pliny._

=Nuithones=, a people of Germany, possessing the country now called Mecklenburg and Pomerania. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 40.

=Numa Martius=, a man made governor of Rome by Tullus Hostilius. He was son-in-law of Numa Pompilius, and father to Ancus Martius. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 11.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 20.

=Numa Pompilius=, a celebrated philosopher, born at Cures, a village of the Sabines, on the day that Romulus laid the foundation of Rome. He married Tatia, the daughter of Tatius the king of the Sabines, and at her death he retired into the country to devote himself more freely to literary pursuits. At the death of Romulus, the Romans fixed upon him to be their new king, and two senators were sent to acquaint him with the decisions of the senate and of the people. Numa refused their offers, and it was not but at the repeated solicitations and prayers of his friends that he was prevailed upon to accept the royalty. The beginning of his reign was popular, and he dismissed the 300 body-guards which his predecessor had kept around his person, observing that he did not distrust a people who had compelled him to reign over them. He was not, like Romulus, fond of war and military expeditions, but he applied himself to tame the ferocity of his subjects, to inculcate in their minds a reverence for the Deity, and to quell their dissensions by dividing all the citizens into different classes. He established different orders of priests, and taught the Romans not to worship the Deity by images; and from his example no graven or painted statues appeared in the temples or sanctuaries of Rome for upwards of 160 years. He encouraged the report which was spread of his paying regular visits to the nymph Egeria, and made use of her name to give sanction to the laws and institutions which he had introduced. He established the college of the vestals, and told the Romans that the safety of the empire depended upon the preservation of the sacred _ancyle_ or _shield_ which, as was generally believed, had dropped down from heaven. He dedicated a temple to Janus, which, during his whole reign, remained shut, as a mark of peace and tranquillity at Rome. Numa died after a reign of 43 years, in which he had given every possible encouragement to the useful arts, and in which he had cultivated peace, B.C. 672. Not only the Romans, but also the neighbouring nations, were eager to pay their last offices to a monarch whom they revered for his abilities, moderation, and humanity. He forbade his body to be burnt according to the custom of the Romans, but he ordered it to be buried near mount Janiculum, with many of the books which he had written. These books were accidentally found by one of the Romans, about 400 years after his death, and as they contained nothing new or interesting, but merely the reasons why he had made innovations in the form of worship and in the religion of the Romans, they were burnt by order of the senate. He left behind one daughter called Pompilia, who married Numa Martius, and became the mother of Ancus Martius, the fourth king of Rome. Some say that he had also four sons, but this opinion is ill-founded. _Plutarch_, _Lives_.――_Varro._ ――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 18.――_Pliny_, bks. 13 & 14, &c.――_Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 2.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 809; bk. 9, li. 562. ――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, chs. 2 & 17.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1, ch. 2.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 2, ch. 59. ――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 3, &c.――――One of the Rutulian chiefs killed in the night by Nisus and Euryalus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 454.

=Numāna=, a town of Picenum in Italy, of which the people were called _Numanates_. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.

=Numantia=, a town of Spain near the sources of the river Durius, celebrated for the war of 14 years which, though unprotected by walls and towers, it bravely maintained against the Romans. The inhabitants obtained some advantages over the Roman forces till Scipio Africanus was empowered to finish the war, and to see the destruction of Numantia. He began the siege with an army of 60,000 men, and was bravely opposed by the besieged, who were no more than 4000 men able to bear arms. Both armies behaved with uncommon valour, and the courage of the Numantines was soon changed into despair and fury. Their provisions began to fail, and they fed upon the flesh of their horses, and afterwards on that of their dead companions, and at last were necessitated to draw lots to kill and devour one another. The melancholy situation of their affairs obliged some to surrender to the Roman general. Scipio demanded them to deliver themselves up on the morrow; they refused, and when a longer time had been granted to their petitions, they retired and set fire to their houses, and all destroyed themselves, B.C. 133, so that not even one remained to adorn the triumph of the conqueror. Some historians, however, deny that, and support that a number of Numantines delivered themselves into Scipio’s hands, and that 50 of them were drawn in triumph at Rome, and the rest sold as slaves. The fall of Numantia was more glorious than that of Carthage or Corinth, though inferior to them. The conqueror obtained the surname of _Numantinus_. _Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 18.――_Appian_, _Wars in Spain_.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 3. ――_Cicero_, bk. 1, _De Officiis_.――_Strabo_, bk. 3.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Plutarch._――_Horace_, bk. 2, ode 12, li. 1.

=Numantīna=, a woman accused under Tiberius of making her husband insane by enchantments, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 4, ch. 22.

=Numānus Remŭlus=, a Rutulian who accused the Trojans of effeminacy. He had married the younger sister of Turnus, and was killed by Ascanius during the Rutulian war. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 592, &c.

=Numēnes=, a follower of the doctrines of Plato and Pythagoras, born at Apamea in Syria. He flourished in the reign of Marcus Antoninus.

=Numenia=, or =Neomenia=, a festival observed by the Greeks at the beginning of every lunar month, in honour of all the gods, but especially of Apollo or the Sun, who is justly deemed the author of light, and of whatever distinction is made in the months, seasons, days, and nights. It was observed with games and public entertainments which were provided at the expense of rich citizens, and which were always frequented by the poor. Solemn prayers were offered at Athens during the solemnity, for the prosperity of the republic. The demigods as well as the heroes of the ancients were honoured and invoked in the festival.

=Numenius=, a philosopher, who supposed that Chaos, from which the world was created, was animated by an evil and maleficent soul. He lived in the second century.

=Numentāna via=, a road at Rome, which led to mount Sacer through the gate Viminalis. _Livy_, bk. 3, ch. 52.

=Numeria=, a goddess at Rome who presided over numbers. _Augustine_, _City of God_, bk. 4, ch. 11.

=Numeriānus Marcus Aurelius=, a son of the emperor Carus. He accompanied his father into the east with the title of Cæsar, and at his death he succeeded him with his brother Carinus, A.D. 282. His reign was short. Eight months after his father’s death, he was murdered in his litter by his father-in-law, Arrius Aper, who accompanied him in an expedition. The murderer, who hoped to ascend the vacant throne, continued to follow the litter as if the emperor was alive, till he found a proper opportunity to declare his sentiments. The stench of the body, however, soon discovered his perfidy, and he was sacrificed to the fury of the soldiers. Numerianus had been admired for his learning as well as his moderation. He was naturally an eloquent speaker, and in poetry he was inferior to no writer of his age.――――A friend of the emperor Severus.

=Numerius=, a man who favoured the escape of Marius to Africa, &c.――――A friend of Pompey taken by Julius Cæsar’s adherents, &c. _Pliny._

=Numicia via=, one of the great Roman roads, which led from the capital to the town of Brundusium.

=Nŭmīcus=, a small river of Latium, near Lavinium, where the dead body of Æneas was found, and where Anna, Dido’s sister, drowned herself. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 150, &c.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 1, li. 359.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 358, &c.; _Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 643.――――A friend of Horace, to whom he addressed bk. 1, ltr. 6.

=Numĭda=, a surname given by Horace, bk. 1, ode 36, to one of the generals of Augustus, from his conquests in Numidia. Some suppose that it is Pomponius; others, Plotius.

=Nŭmĭdia=, an inland country of Africa, which now forms the kingdom of _Algiers_ and _Bildulgerid_. It was bounded on the north by the Mediterranean sea, south by Gætulia, west by Mauritania, and east by a part of Libya, which was called Africa Propria. The inhabitants were called _Nomades_, and afterwards _Numidæ_. It was the kingdom of Masinissa, which was the occasion of the third Punic war, on account of the offence which he had received from the Carthaginians. Jugurtha reigned there, as also Juba the father and son. It was conquered, and became a Roman province, of which Sallust was the first governor. The Numidians were excellent warriors, and in their expeditions they always endeavoured to engage with the enemy in the night-time. They rode without saddles or bridles, whence they have been called _infræni_. They had their wives in common, as the rest of the barbarian nations of antiquity. _Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_. ――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 15.――_Strabo_, bks. 2 & 17.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 4, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 754.

=Numidius Quadratus=, a governor of Syria under Claudius. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12.

=Numistro=, a town of the Brutii in Italy. _Livy_, bk. 45, ch. 17.

=Nŭmĭtor=, a son of Procas king of Alba, who inherited his father’s kingdom with his brother Amulius, and began to reign conjointly with him. Amulius was too avaricious to bear a colleague on the throne; he expelled his brother, and that he might more safely secure himself, he put to death his son Lausus, and consecrated his daughter Ilia to the service of the goddess Vesta, which demanded perpetual celibacy. These great precautions were rendered abortive. Ilia became pregnant, and though the two children whom she brought forth were exposed in the river by order of the tyrant, their life was preserved, and Numitor was restored to his throne by his grandsons, and the tyrannical usurper was put to death. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus. _――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――_Plutarch_, _Romulus_.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 55, &c.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 768.――――A son of Phorcus, who fought with Turnus against Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 342.――――A rich and dissolute Roman in the age of Juvenal, satire 7, li. 74.

=Numitōrius=, a Roman who defended Virginia, to whom Appius wished to offer violence. He was made military tribune.――――Quintus Pullus, a general of Fregellæ, &c. _Cicero_, _de Inventione_, bk. 2, ch. 34.

=Numonius=. _See:_ Vala.

=Nuncoreus=, a son of Sesostris king of Egypt, who made an obelisk, some ages after brought to Rome, and placed in the Vatican. _Pliny_, bk. 26, ch. 11.――――He is called Pheron by Herodotus.

=Nundīna=, a goddess whom the Romans invoked when they named their children. This happened the ninth day after their birth, whence the name of the goddess, _Nona dies_. _Macrobius_, _Saturnalia_, bk. 1, ch. 16.

=Nundīnæ=. _See:_ Feriæ.

=Nursæ=, a town of Italy. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 744.

=Nurscia=, a goddess who patronized the Etrurians. _Juvenal_, satire 10, li. 74.

=Nursia=, now _Norza_, a town of Picenum, whose inhabitants are called _Nursini_. Its situation was exposed, and the air considered as unwholesome. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 416.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 716.――_Martial_, bk. 13, ltr. 20.――_Livy_, bk. 28, ch. 45.

=Nutria=, a town of Illyricum. _Polybius_, bk. 2.

=Nycteis=, a daughter of Nycteus, who was mother of Labdacus.――――A patronymic of Antiope the daughter of Nycteus, mother of Amphion and Zethus by Jupiter, who had assumed the shape of a satyr to enjoy her company. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 110.

=Nyctelia=, festivals in honour of Bacchus [_See:_ Nyctelius], observed on mount Cithæron. _Plutarch_, _Convivium Septem Sapientium_.

=Nyctelius=, a surname of Bacchus, because his orgies were celebrated in the night (νυξ _nox_, τελεω _perficio_). The words _latex Nyctelius_ thence signify wine. _Seneca_, _Œdipus_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 40.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 15.

=Nycteus=, a son of Hyrieus and Clonia.――――A son of Chthonius.――――A son of Neptune by Celene, daughter of Atlas king of Lesbos, or of Thebes, according to the more received opinion. He married a nymph of Crete, called Polyxo or Amalthæa, by whom he had two daughters, Nyctimene and Antiope. The first of these disgraced herself by her criminal amours with her father, into whose bed she introduced herself by means of her nurse. When the father knew the incest which he had committed, he attempted to stab his daughter, who was immediately changed by Minerva into an owl. Nycteus made war against Epopeus, who had carried away Antiope, and died of a wound which he had received in an engagement, leaving his kingdom to his brother Lycus, whom he entreated to continue the war, and punish Antiope for her immodest conduct. _See:_ Antiope. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Hyginus_, fables 157 & 204.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 590, &c.; bk. 6, li. 110, &c.

=Nyctimĕne=, a daughter of Nycteus. _See:_ Nycteus.

=Nyctĭmus=, a son of Lycaon king of Arcadia. He died without issue, and left his kingdom to his nephew Arcas the son of Callisto. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 4.

=Nymbæum=, a lake of Peloponnesus in Laconia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, li. 23.

=Nymphæ=, certain female deities among the ancients. They were generally divided into two classes, nymphs of the land and nymphs of the sea. Of the nymphs of the earth, some presided over woods, and were called _Dryades_ and _Hamadryades_; others presided over mountains, and were called _Oreades_; some presided over hills and dales, and were called _Napææ_, &c. Of the sea nymphs, some were called _Oceanides_, _Nereides_, _Naiades_, _Potamides_, _Limnades_, &c. These presided not only over the sea, but also over rivers, fountains, streams, and lakes. The nymphs fixed their residence not only in the sea, but also on mountains, rocks, in woods or caverns, and their grottos were beautified by evergreens and delightful and romantic scenes. The nymphs were immortal, according to the opinion of some mythologists; others supposed that, like men, they were subject to mortality, though their life was of long duration. They lived for several thousand years, according to Hesiod, or, as Plutarch seems obscurely to intimate, they lived above 9720 years. The number of the nymphs is not precisely known. They were, according to Hesiod, above 3000, whose power was extended over the different places of the earth, and the various functions and occupations of mankind. They were worshipped by the ancients, though not with so much solemnity as the superior deities. They had no temples raised to their honour, and the only offerings they received were milk, honey, oil, and sometimes the sacrifice of a goat. They were generally represented as young and beautiful virgins, veiled up to the middle, and sometimes they held a vase, from which they seemed to pour water. Sometimes they had grass, leaves, and shells, instead of vases. It was deemed unfortunate to see them naked, and such sight was generally attended by a delirium, to which Propertius seems to allude in this verse, wherein he speaks of the innocence and simplicity of the primitive ages of the world,

_Nec fuerat nudas pœna videre Deas_.

The nymphs were generally distinguished by an epithet which denoted the place of their residence; thus the nymphs of Sicily were called _Sicelides_; those of Corycus, _Corycides_, &c. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 320; bk. 5, li. 412; bk. 9, li. 651, &c.; _Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 769.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 4.――_Plutarch_, _de Defectu Oraculorum_.――_Orpheus_, _Argonautica_.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――_Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 12.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 14.

=Nymphæum=, a port of Macedonia. _Cæsar_, _Civil War_.――――A promontory of Epirus on the Ionian sea.――――A place near the walls of Apollonia, sacred to the nymphs, where Apollo had also an oracle. The place was also celebrated for the continual flames of fire which seemed to rise at a distance from the plains. It was there that a sleeping satyr was once caught and brought to Sylla as he returned from the Mithridatic war. This monster had the same features as the poets ascribed to the satyr. He was interrogated by Sylla and by his interpreters, but his articulations were unintelligible, and the Roman spurned from him a creature which seemed to partake of the nature of a beast more than that of a man. _Plutarch_, _Sulla_.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 41.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 29.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Livy_, bk. 42, chs. 36 & 49.――――A city of Taurica Chersonesus.――――The building at Rome where the nymphs were worshipped bore also this name, being adorned with their statues and with fountains and waterfalls, which afforded an agreeable and refreshing coolness.

=Nymphæus=, a man who went into Caria at the head of a colony of Melians, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 8.

=Nymphidius=, a favourite of Nero, who said that he was descended from Caligula. He was raised to the consular dignity, and soon after disputed the empire with Galba. He was slain by the soldiers, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15.

=Nymphis=, a native of Heraclea, who wrote a history of Alexander’s life and actions, divided into 24 books. _Ælian_, bk. 7, _de Natura Animalium_.

=Nymphodōrus=, a writer of Amphipolis.――――A Syracusan who wrote a history of Sicily.

=Nympholleptes=, or =Nymphomănes=, _possessed by the nymphs_. This name was given to the inhabitants of mount Cithæron, who believed that they were inspired by the nymphs. _Plutarch_, _Aristeides_.

=Nymphon=, a native of Colophon, &c. _Cicero_, _Letters to his brother Quintus_, bk. 1.

=Nypsius=, a general of Dionysius the tyrant, who took Syracuse, and put all the inhabitants to the sword. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.

=Nysa=, or =Nyssa=, a town of Æthiopia, at the south of Egypt, or, according to others, of Arabia. This city, with another of the same name in India, was sacred to the god Bacchus, who was educated there by the nymphs of the place, and who received the name of Dionysius, which seems to be compounded of Διος and ♦Νυσα, the name of his father, and that of the place of his education. The god made this place the seat of his empire, and the capital of the conquered nations of the east. Diodorus, in his third and fourth books, has given a prolix account of the birth of the god at Nysa, and of his education and heroic actions. _Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 7.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 13, &c.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 7, li. 198.――_Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 10.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 805. ――――According to some geographers there were no less than 10 places of the name of Nysa. One of these was on the coast of Eubœa, famous for its vines, which grew in such an uncommon manner, that if a twig was planted in the ground in the morning, it was said immediately to produce grapes, which were full ripe in the evening.――――A city of Thrace.――――Another seated on the top of mount Parnassus, and sacred to Bacchus. _Juvenal_, satire 7, li. 63.

♦ ‘Νμσα’ replaced with ‘Νυσα’

=Nysæus=, a surname of Bacchus, because he was worshipped at Nysa. _Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 17, li. 22.――A son of Dionysius of Syracuse. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Dion_.

=Nysas=, a river of Africa, rising in Æthiopia.

=Nysisæ portæ=, a small island in Africa.

=Nysiădes=, a name given to the nymphs of Nysa, to whose care Jupiter entrusted the education of his son Bacchus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 314, &c.

=Nysīros=, an island. _See:_ Nisyros.

=Nysius=, a surname of Bacchus as the protecting god of Nysa. _Cicero_, _Flaccus_, ch. 25.

=Nyssa=, a sister of Mithridates the Great. _Plutarch._

O

=Oarses=, the original name of Artaxerxes Memnon.

=Oarus=, a river of Sarmatia, falling into the Palus Mœotis. _Herodotus_, bk. 4.

=Oăsis=, a town about the middle of Libya, at the distance of seven days’ journey from Thebes in Egypt, where the Persian army, sent by Cambyses to plunder Jupiter Ammon’s temple, was lost in the sands. There were two other cities of that name very little known. Oasis became a place of banishment under the lower empire. _Strabo_, bk. 17. ――_Zosimus_, bk. 5, ch. 97.――_Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 26.

=Oaxes=, a river of Crete, which received its name from Oaxus the son of Apollo. _Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 1, li. 66.

=Oaxus=, a town of Crete where Etearchus reigned, who founded Cyrene. ――――A son of Apollo and the nymph Anchiale.

=Obringa=, now _Ahr_, a river of Germany, falling into the Rhine above Rimmagen.

=Obultronius=, a questor put to death by Galba’s orders, &c. _Tacitus._

=Ocalea=, or =Ocalia=, a town of Bœotia. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2. ――――A daughter of Mantineus, who married Abas son of Lynceus and Hypermnestra, by whom she had Acrisius and Prœtus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 2.

=Oceia=, a woman who presided over the sacred rites of Vesta for 57 years with the greatest sanctity. She died in the reign of Tiberius, and the daughter of Domitius succeeded her. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 86.

=Oceănĭdes= and =Oceanītĭdes=, sea nymphs, daughters of Oceanus, from whom they received their name, and of the goddess Tethys. They were 3000 according to Apollodorus, who mentions the names of seven of them: Asia, Styx, Electra, Doris, Eurynome, Amphitrite, and Metis. Hesiod speaks of the eldest of them, and reckons 41: Pitho, Admete, Prynno, Ianthe, Rhodia, Hippo, Callirhoe, Urania, Clymene, Idyia, Pasithoe, Clythia, Zeuxo, Galuxaure, Plexaure, Perseis, Pluto, Thoe, Polydora, Melobosis, Dione, Cerceis, Xantha, Acasta, Ianira, Telestho, Europa, Menestho, Petrea, Eudora, Calypso, Tyche, Ocyroe, Crisia, Amphiro, with those mentioned by Apollodorus, except Amphitrite. Hyginus mentions 16, whose names are almost all different from those of Apollodorus and Hesiod, which difference proceeds from the mutilation of the original text. The Oceanides, like the rest of the inferior deities, were honoured with libations and sacrifices. Prayers were offered to them, and they were entreated to protect sailors from storms and dangerous tempests. The Argonauts, before they proceeded on their expedition, made an offering of flour, honey, and oil, on the sea-shore, to all the deities of the sea, and sacrificed bulls to them, and entreated their protection. When the sacrifice was made on the sea-shore the blood of the victim was received in a vessel, but when it was in the open sea, the blood was permitted to run down into the waters. When the sea was calm, the sailors generally offered a lamb or a young pig, but if it was agitated by the winds, and rough, a black bull was deemed the most acceptable victim. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 3.――_Horace._ ――_Apollonius_, _Argonautica_.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 341. ――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 349.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1.

=Oceănus=, a powerful deity of the sea, son of Cœlus and Terra. He married Tethys, by whom he had the most principal rivers, such as the Alpheus, Peneus, Strymon, &c., with a number of daughters who are called from him Oceanides. _See:_ Oceanides. According to Homer, Oceanus was the ♦father of all the gods, and on that account he received frequent visits from the rest of the deities. He is generally represented as an old man with a long flowing beard, and sitting upon the waves of the sea. He often holds a pike in his hand, whilst ships under sail appear at a distance, or a sea monster stands near him. Oceanus presided over every part of the sea, and even the rivers were subjected to his power. The ancients were superstitious in their worship to Oceanus, and revered with great solemnity a deity to whose care they entrusted themselves when going on any voyage. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 5, li. 81, &c. ――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 20. ――_Homer_, _Iliad_.

♦ ‘fathers’ replaced with ‘father’

=Ocellus=, an ancient philosopher of Lucania. _See:_ Lucanus.

=Ocēlum=, a town of Gaul. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 1, ch. 10.

=Ocha=, a mountain of Eubœa, and the name of Eubœa itself.――――A sister of Ochus, buried alive by his orders.

=Ochesius=, a general of Ætolia in the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 5.

=Ochus=, a surname given to Artaxerxes III., king of Persia. _See:_ Artaxerxes.――――A man of Cyzicus, who was killed by the Argonauts. _Flaccus_, bk. 3.――――A prince of Persia, who refused to visit his native country for fear of giving all the women each a piece of gold. _Plutarch._――――A river of India, or of Bactriana. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 16; bk. 31, ch. 7.――――A king of Persia. He exchanged his name for that of Darius. _See:_ Darius Nothus.

=Ocnus=, a son of the Tiber and of Manto, who assisted Æneas against Turnus. He built a town, which he called Mantua after his mother’s name. Some suppose that he is the same as Bianor. _Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 9; _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 198.――――A man remarkable for his industry. He had a wife as remarkable for her profusion; she always consumed and lavished away whatever the labours of her husband had earned. He is represented as twisting a cord, which an ass standing by eats up as soon as he makes it; whence the proverb of _the cord of Ocnus_ often applied to labour which meets no return, and which is totally lost. _Propertius_, bk. 4, poem 3, li. 21. ――_Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 11.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 29.

=Ocricŭlum=, now _Otricoli_, a town of Umbria near Rome. _Cicero_, _For Milo_.――_Livy_, bk. 19, ch. 41.

=Ocridion=, a king of Rhodes, who was reckoned in the number of the gods after death. _Plutarch_, _Græcæ Quæstiones_, ch. 27.

=Ocrīsia=, a woman of Corniculum, who was one of the attendants of Tanaquil the wife of Tarquinius Priscus. As she was throwing into the flames, as offerings, some of the meats that were served on the table of Tarquin, she suddenly saw in the fire what Ovid calls _obscœni forma virilis_. She informed the queen of it, and when by her orders she had approached near it, she conceived a son who was called Servius Tullus, and who, being educated in the king’s family, afterwards succeeded to the vacant throne. Some suppose that Vulcan had assumed that form which was presented to the eyes of Ocrisia, and that the god was the father of the sixth king of Rome. _Plutarch_, _de Fortuna Romanorum_.――_Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 27.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 6, li. 627.

=Octacillius=, a slave who was manumitted, and who afterwards taught rhetoric at Rome. He had Pompey the Great in the number of his pupils. _Suetonius_, _Rhetoricians_.――_Martial_, bk. 10, ltr. 79.

=Octāvia=, a Roman lady, sister to the emperor Augustus, and celebrated for her beauty and virtues. She married Claudius Marcellus, and after his death, Marcus Antony. Her marriage with Antony was a political step to reconcile her brother and her husband. Antony proved for some time attentive to her, but he soon after despised her for Cleopatra, and when she attempted to withdraw him from this unlawful amour by going to meet him at Athens, she was secretly rebuked, and totally banished from his presence. This affront was highly resented by Augustus, and though Octavia endeavoured to pacify him by palliating her husband’s behaviour, he resolved to revenge her cause by arms. After the battle of Actium and the death of Antony, Octavia, forgetful of the injuries she had received, took into her house all the children of her husband and treated them with maternal tenderness. Marcellus her son by her first husband was married to a niece of Augustus, and publicly intended as a successor to his uncle. His sudden death plunged all his family into the greatest grief. Virgil, whom Augustus patronized, undertook upon himself to pay a melancholy tribute to the memory of a young man whom Rome regarded as her future father and patron. He was desired to repeat his composition in the presence of Augustus and of his sister. Octavia burst into tears as soon as the poet began; but when he mentioned, _Tu Marcellus eris_, she swooned away. This tender and pathetic encomium upon the merit and the virtues of young Marcellus was liberally rewarded by Octavia, and Virgil received 10,000 sesterces for every one of the verses. Octavia had two daughters by Antony, Antonia Major and Antonia Minor. The elder married Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, by whom she had Cnæus Domitius the father of the emperor Nero, by Agrippina the daughter of Germanicus. Antonia Minor, who was as virtuous and as beautiful as her mother, married Drusus the son of Tiberius, by whom she had Germanicus and Claudius, who reigned before Nero. The death of Marcellus continually preyed upon the mind of Octavia, who died of melancholy about 10 years before the christian era. Her brother paid great regard to her memory, by pronouncing himself her funeral oration. The Roman people also showed their respect for her virtues by their wish to pay her divine honours. _Suetonius_, _Augustus_. ――_Plutarch_, _Antonius_, &c.――――A daughter of the emperor Claudius by Messalina. She was betrothed to Silanus, but by the intrigues of Agrippina, she was married to the emperor Nero in the 16th year of her age. She was soon after divorced on pretence of barrenness, and the emperor married Poppæa, who exercised her enmity upon Octavia by causing her to be banished into Campania. She was afterwards recalled at the instance of the people, and Poppæa, who was resolved on her ruin, caused her again to be banished to an island, where she was ordered to kill herself by opening her veins. Her head was cut off and carried to Poppæa. _Suetonius_ in _Claudius_, ch. 27; _Nero_, chs. 7 & 35.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12.

=Octāviānus=, or =Octāvius Cæsar=, the nephew of Cæsar the dictator. After the battle of Actium and the final destruction of the Roman republic, the servile senate bestowed upon him the title and surname of _Augustus_, as more expressive of his greatness and dignity. _See:_ Augustus.

=Octāvius=, a Roman officer who brought Perseus king of Macedonia a prisoner to the consul. He was sent by his countrymen to be guardian to Ptolemy Eupator the young king of Egypt, where he behaved with the greatest arrogance. He was assassinated by Lysias, who was before regent of Egypt. The murderer was sent to Rome.――――A man who opposed Metellus in the reduction of Crete by means of Pompey. He was obliged to retire from the island.――――A man who banished Cinna from Rome, and became remarkable for his probity and fondness of discipline. He was seized and put to death by order of his successful rivals Marius and Cinna.――――A Roman who boasted of being in the number of Cæsar’s murderers. His assertions were false, yet he was punished as if he had been accessary to the conspiracy.――――A lieutenant of Crassus in Parthia. He accompanied his general to the tent of the Parthian conqueror, and was killed by the enemy as he attempted to hinder them from carrying away Crassus.――――A governor of Cilicia. He died in his province, and Lucullus made applications to succeed him, &c.――――A tribune of the people at Rome, whom Tiberias Gracchus his colleague deposed.――――A commander of the forces of Antony against Augustus. ――――An officer who killed himself, &c.――――A tribune of the people, who debauched a woman of Pontus from her husband. She proved unfaithful to him, upon which he murdered her. He was condemned under Nero. _Tacitus_, _Annals_ & _Histories_.――_Plutarch_, _Lives_. ――_Florus._――_Livy_, &c.――――A poet in the Augustan age, intimate with Horace. He also distinguished himself as an historian. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 10, li. 82.

=Octodūrus=, a village in the modern country of Switzerland, now called _Martigny_. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 3, ch. 1.

=Octogesa=, a town of Spain, a little above the mouth of the Iberus, now called _Mequinensa_. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 1, ch. 61.

=Octolophum=, a place of Greece. _Livy_, bk. 31.

=Ocyălus=, one of the Phæacians with Alcinous. _Homer_, _Odyssey_.

=Ocypĕte=, one of the Harpies, who infected whatever she touched. The name signifies _swift flying_. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 265. ――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――――A daughter of Thaumas.――――A daughter of Danaus.

=Ocy̆roe=, a daughter of Chiron by Chariclo, who had the gift of prophecy. She was changed into a mare. _See:_ Melanippe. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 638, &c.――――A woman, daughter of Chesias, carried away by Apollo, as she was going to a festival at Miletus.

=Odenātus=, a celebrated prince of Palmyra. He early inured himself to bear fatigues, and by hunting leopards and wild beasts, he accustomed himself to the labours of a military life. He was faithful to the Romans; and when Aurelian had been taken prisoner by Sapor king of Persia, Odenatus warmly interested himself in his cause, and solicited his release by writing a letter to the conqueror and sending him presents. The king of Persia was offended at the liberty of Odenatus; he tore the letter, and ordered the presents which were offered to be thrown into a river. To punish Odenatus, who had the impudence, as he observed, to pay homage to so great a monarch as himself, he ordered him to appear before him, on pain of being devoted to instant destruction, with all his family, if he dared to refuse. Odenatus disdained the summons of Sapor, and opposed force to force. He obtained some advantages over the troops of the Persian monarch, and took his wife prisoner with a great and rich booty. These services were seen with gratitude by the Romans; and Gallienus, the then reigning emperor, named Odenatus as his colleague on the throne, and gave the title of Augustus to his children and to his wife, the celebrated Zenobia. Odenatus, invested with new power, resolved to signalize himself more conspicuously by conquering the northern barbarians, but his exaltation was short, and he perished by the dagger of one of his relations, whom he had slightly offended in a domestic entertainment. He died at Emessa, about the 267th year of the christian era. Zenobia succeeded to all his titles and honours.

=Odessus=, a seaport town at the west of the Euxine sea in Lower Mœsia, below the mouths of the Danube. _Ovid_, bk. 1, _Tristia_, poem 9, li. 57.

=Odeum=, a musical theatre at Athens. _Vitruvius_, bk. 5, ch. 9.

=Odīnus=, a celebrated hero of antiquity, who flourished about 70 years before the christian era, in the northern parts of ancient Germany, or the modern kingdom of Denmark. He was at once a priest, a soldier, a poet, a monarch, and a conqueror. He imposed upon the credulity of his superstitious countrymen, and made them believe that he could raise the dead to life, and that he was acquainted with futurity. When he had extended his power, and increased his fame by conquest and by persuasion, he resolved to die in a different manner from other men. He assembled his friends, and with a sharp point of a lance he made on his body nine different wounds in the form of a circle, and as he expired he declared he was going into Scythia, where he should become one of the immortal gods. He further added that he would prepare bliss and felicity for such of his countrymen as lived a virtuous life, who fought with intrepidity, and who died like heroes in the field of battle. These injunctions had the desired effect; his countrymen superstitiously believed him, and always recommended themselves to his protection whenever they engaged in a battle, and they entreated him to receive the souls of such as had fallen in war.

=Odītes=, a son of Ixion, killed by Mopsus at the nuptials of Pirithous. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 457.――――A prince killed at the nuptials of Andromeda. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 97.

=Odoācer=, a king of the Heruli, who destroyed the western empire of Rome, and called himself king of Italy, A.D. 476.

=Odomanti=, a people of Thrace on the eastern banks of the Strymon. _Livy_, bk. 45, ch. 4.

=Odŏnes=, a people of Thrace.

=Odry̆sæ=, an ancient people of Thrace, between Abdera and the river Ister. The epithet of _Odrysius_ is often applied to a Thracian. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 490; bk. 13, li. 554.――_Statius_, _Achilleis_, bk. 1, li. 184.――_Livy_, bk. 39, ch. 53.

=Odyssēa=, one of Homer’s epic poems, in which he describes in 24 books the adventures of Ulysses on his return from the Trojan war, with other material circumstances. The whole of the action comprehends no more than 55 days. It is not so esteemed as the Iliad of that poet. _See:_ Homerus.

=Odyssēum=, a promontory of Sicily, at the west of Pachynus.

=Œa=, a city of Africa, now Tripoli. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 4.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 257.――――Also a place in Ægina. _Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 83.

=Œagrus=, or =Œager=, the father of Orpheus by Calliope. He was king of Thrace, and from him mount Hæmus, and also the Hebrus, one of the rivers of the country, have received the appellation of _Œagrius_, though Servius, in his commentaries, disputes the explanation of Diodorus, by asserting that the Œagrus is a river of Thrace, whose waters supply the streams of the Hebrus. _Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 414. ――_Apollonius_, bk. 1, _Argonautica_.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 524.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 5, li. 463.――_Diodorus._ ――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 3.

=Œanthe= and =Œanthia=, a town of Phocis, where Venus had a temple. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 38.

=Œax=, a son of Nauplius and Clymene. He was brother to Palamedes, whom he accompanied to the Trojan war, and whose death he highly resented on his return to Greece, by raising disturbances in the family of some of the Grecian princes. _Dictys Cretensis._――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2.――_Hyginus_, fable 117.

=Œbălia=, the ancient name of Laconia, which it received from king Œbalus, and thence _Œbalides puer_ is applied to Hyacinthus as a native of the country, and _Œbalius sanguis_ is used to denominate his blood. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 1.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10. ――――The same name is given to Tarentum because built by a Lacedæmonian colony, whose ancestors were governed by Œbalus. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 125.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 12, li. 451.

=Œbălus=, a son of Argalus or Cynortas, who was king of Laconia. He married Gorgophone the daughter of Perseus, by whom he had Hippocoon, Tyndarus, &c. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 1.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10.――――A son of Telon and the nymph Sebethis, who reigned in the neighbourhood of Neapolis in Italy. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 734.

=Œbăres=, a satrap of Cyrus, against the Medes. _Polyænus_, bk. 7.――――A groom of Darius son of Hystaspes. He was the cause that his master obtained the kingdom of Persia, by his artifice in making his horse neigh first. _See:_ Darius I. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 85.――_Justin_, bk. 1, ch. 10.

=Œchălia=, a country of Peloponnesus in Laconia, with a small town of the same name. This town was destroyed by Hercules, while Eurytus was king over it, from which circumstance it was often called _Eurytopolis_.――――A small town of Eubœa, where, according to some, Eurytus reigned, and not in Peloponnesus. _Strabo_, bks. 8, 9, & 10. ――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 291.――_Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 9; _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 136.――_Sophocles_, _Trachiniæ_, li. 74 & _Scholia_.

=Œclīdes=, a patronymic of Amphiaraus son of Œcleus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, fable 7.

=Œcleus.= _See:_ Oicleus.

=Œcumenius=, wrote in the middle of the 10th century a paraphrase of some of the books of the New Testament in Greek, edited in two vols., folio, Paris, 1631.

=Œdipŏdia=, a fountain of Thebes in Bœotia.

=Œdĭpus=, a son of Laius king of Thebes and Jocasta. As being descended from Venus by his father’s side, Œdipus was born to be exposed to all the dangers and the calamities which Juno could inflict upon the posterity of the goddess of beauty. Laius the father of Œdipus was informed by the oracle, as soon as he married Jocasta, that he must perish by the hands of his son. Such dreadful intelligence awakened his fears, and to prevent the fulfilling of the oracle, he resolved never to approach Jocasta; but his solemn resolutions were violated in a fit of intoxication. The queen became pregnant, and Laius, still intent to stop this evil, ordered his wife to destroy her child as soon as it came into the world. The mother had not the courage to obey, yet she gave the child as soon as born to one of her domestics, with orders to expose him on the mountains. The servant was moved with pity, but to obey the commands of Jocasta, he bored the feet of the child, and suspended him with a twig by the heels to a tree on mount Cithæron, where he was soon found by one of the shepherds of Polybus king of Corinth. The shepherd carried him home; and Peribœa the wife of Polybus, who had no children, educated him as her own child, with maternal tenderness. The accomplishments of the infant, who was named Œdipus, on account of the swelling of his feet (οἰδεω _tumeo_, ποδες _pedes_), soon became the admiration of the age. His companions envied his strength and his address; and one of them, to mortify his rising ambition, told him he was an illegitimate child. This raised his doubts; he asked Peribœa, who, out of tenderness, told him that his suspicions were ill-founded. Not satisfied with this, he went to consult the oracle of Delphi, and was there told not to return home, for if he did, he must necessarily be the murderer of his father, and the husband of his mother. This answer of the oracle terrified him; he knew no home but the house of Polybus, therefore he resolved not to return to Corinth, where such calamities apparently attended him. He travelled towards Phocis, and in his journey, met in a narrow road Laius on a chariot with his arm-bearer. Laius haughtily ordered Œdipus to make way for him. Œdipus refused, and a contest ensued, in which Laius and his arm-bearer were both killed. As Œdipus was ignorant of the quality and of the rank of the men whom he had just killed, he continued his journey, and was attracted to Thebes by the fame of the Sphynx. This terrible monster, which Juno had sent to lay waste the country [_See:_ ♦Sphinx], resorted in the neighbourhood of Thebes, and devoured all those who attempted to explain, without success, the enigmas which he proposed. The calamity was now become an object of public concern, and as the successful explanation of an enigma would end in the death of the Sphynx, Creon, who at the death of Laius had ascended the throne of Thebes, promised his crown and Jocasta to him who succeeded in the attempt. The enigma proposed was this: What animal in the morning walks upon four feet, at noon upon two, and in the evening upon three? This was left for Œdipus to explain; he came to the monster and said, that man, in the morning of life, walks upon his hands and his feet; when he has attained the years of manhood, he walks upon his two legs; and in the evening, he supports his old age with the assistance of a staff. The monster, mortified at the true explanation, dashed his head against a rock and perished. Œdipus ascended the throne of Thebes, and married Jocasta, by whom he had two sons, Polynices and Eteocles, and two daughters, Ismene and Antigone. Some years after, the Theban territories were visited with a plague; and the oracle declared that it should cease only when the murderer of king Laius was banished from Bœotia. As the death of Laius had never been examined, and the circumstances that attended it never known, this answer of the oracle was of the greatest concern to the Thebans; but Œdipus, the friend of his people, resolved to overcome every difficulty by the most exact inquiries. His researches were successful, and he was soon proved to be the murderer of his father. The melancholy discovery was rendered the more alarming when Œdipus considered, that he had not only murdered his father, but that he had committed incest with his mother. In the excess of his grief he put out his eyes, as unworthy to see the light, and banished himself from Thebes, or, as some say, was banished by his own sons. He retired towards Attica, led by his daughter Antigone, and came near Colonus, where there was a grove sacred to the Furies. He remembered that he was doomed by the oracle to die in such a place, and to become the source of prosperity to the country in which his bones were buried. A messenger upon this was sent to Theseus king of the country, to inform him of the resolution of Œdipus. When Theseus arrived, Œdipus acquainted him, with a prophetic voice, that the gods had called him to die in the place where he stood; and to show the truth of this he walked, himself, without the assistance of a guide, to the spot where he must expire. Immediately the earth opened, and Œdipus disappeared. Some suppose that Œdipus had not children by Jocasta, and that the mother murdered herself as soon as she knew the incest which had been committed. His tomb was near the Areopagus, in the age of Pausanias. Some of the ancient poets represent him in hell, as suffering the punishment which crimes like his seemed to deserve. According to some, the four children which he had were by Euriganea the daughter of Periphas, whom he married after the death of Jocasta. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Hyginus_, fable 66, &c.――_Euripides_, _Phœnician Women_, &c.――_Sophocles_, _Œdipus Tyrannus_ & _Colonus_, Antigone, &c.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 1.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 11, ch. 270.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 5, &c.――_Statius_, _Thebaid_, bk. 8, li. 642.――_Seneca_, _Œdipus_.――_Pindar_, _Olympian_, ch. 2. ――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.――_Athenæus_, bks. 6 & 10.

♦ ‘Sphynx’ replaced with ‘Sphinx’ to match listing

=Œme=, a daughter of Danaus by Crino. _Apollodorus._

=Œnanthes=, a favourite of young Ptolemy king of Egypt.

=Œne=, a small town of Argolis. The people were called _Œneadæ_.

=Œnea=, a river of Assyria. _Ammianus._

=Œneus=, a king of Calydon in Ætolia, son of Parthaon, or Portheus, and Euryte. He married Althæa the daughter of Thestius, by whom he had Clymenus, Meleager, Gorge, and Dejanira. After Althæa’s death, he married Peribœa the daughter of Hipponous, by whom he had Tydeus. In a general sacrifice, which Œneus made to all the gods upon reaping the rich produce of his fields, he forgot Diana, and the goddess, to revenge this unpardonable neglect, incited his neighbours to take up arms against him, and, besides, she sent a wild boar to lay waste the country of Calydonia. The animal was at last killed by Meleager and the neighbouring princes of Greece, in a celebrated chase, known by the name of the chase of the Calydonian boar. Some time after, Meleager died, and Œneus was driven from his kingdom by the sons of his brother Agrius. Diomedes, however, his grandson, soon restored him to his throne; but the continual misfortunes to which he was exposed rendered him melancholy. He exiled himself from Calydon, and left his crown to his son-in-law Andremon. He died as he was going to Argolis. His body was buried by the care of Diomedes, in a town of Argolis, which from him received the name of _Œnoe_. It is reported that Œneus received a visit from Bacchus, and that he suffered the god to enjoy the favours of Althæa, and to become the father of Dejanira, for which Bacchus permitted that the wine of which he was the patron should be called among the Greeks by the name of Œneus (οἰνος). _Hyginus_, fable 129.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 9, li. 539.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 25.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 510.

=Œniadæ=, a town of Acarnania. _Livy_, bk. 26, ch. 24; bk. 38, ch. 11.

=Œnĭdes=, a patronymic of Meleager son of Œneus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, fable 10.

=Œnoe=, a nymph who married Sicinus, the son of Thoas king of Lemnos. From her the island of Sicinus had been called Œnoe.――――Two villages of Attica were also called Œnoe. _Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 74.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 7.――――A city of Argolis, where Œneus fled when driven from Calydon. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 25.――――A town of Elis in the Peloponnesus. _Strabo._――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, &c.

=Œnŏmaus=, a son of Mars, by Sterope the daughter of Atlas. He was king of Pisa in Elis, and father of Hippodamia, by Evarete daughter of Acrisius, or Eurythoa the daughter of Danaus. He was informed by the oracle that he should perish by the hands of his son-in-law, therefore as he could skilfully drive a chariot he determined to marry his daughter only to him who could outrun him, on condition that all who entered the list should agree to lay down their life, if conquered. Many had already perished, when Pelops son of Tantalus proposed himself. He previously bribed Myrtilus the charioteer of Œnomaus, by promising him the enjoyment of the favours of Hippodamia, if he proved victorious. Myrtilus gave his master an old chariot, whose axletree broke on the course, which was from Pisa to the Corinthian isthmus, and Œnomaus was killed. Pelops married Hippodamia, and became king of Pisa. As he expired, Œnomaus entreated Pelops to revenge the perfidy of Myrtilus, which was executed. Those that had been defeated when Pelops entered the lists, were Marmax, Alcathous, Euryalus, Eurymachus, Capetus, Lasius, Acrias, Chalcodon, Lycurgus, Tricolonus, Prias, Aristomachus, Æolius, Eurythrus, and Chronius. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 17; bk. 6, ch. 11, &c.――_Apollonius Rhodius_, bk. 1. ――_Propertius_, bk. 1, poem 2, li. 20.――_Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 367; _Ars Amatoria_, bk. 2, li. 8; _Heroides_, poem 8, li. 70.

=Œnon=, a part of Locris on the bay of _Corinth_.

=Œnōna=, an ancient name of the island Ægina. It is also called _Œnopia_. _Herodotus_, bk. 8, ch. 46.――――Two villages of Attica are also called Œnona, or rather Œnoe.――――A town of Troas, the birthplace of the nymph Œnone. _Strabo_, bk. 13.

=Œnōne=, a nymph of mount Ida, daughter of the river Cebrenus in Phrygia. As she had received the gift of prophecy, she foretold to Paris, whom she married before he was discovered to be the son of Priam, that his voyage into Greece would be attended with the most serious consequences, and the total ruin of his country, and that he should have recourse to her medicinal knowledge at the hour of death. All these predictions were fulfilled; and Paris, when he had received the fatal wound, ordered his body to be carried to Œnone, in hopes of being cured by her assistance. He expired as he came into her presence; and Œnone was so struck at the sight of his dead body, that she bathed it with her tears, and stabbed herself to the heart. She was mother of Corythus by Paris, and this son perished by the hand of his father when he attempted, at the instigation of Œnone, to persuade him to withdraw his affection from Helen. _Dictys Cretensis._ ――_Ovid_, _de Remedia Amoris_ li. 457; _Heroides_, poem 5.――_Lucan_, bk. 9.

=Œnŏpia=, one of the ancient names of the island Ægina. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 473.

=Œnopĭdes=, a mathematician of Chios. _Diodorus_, bk. 1.

=Œnopion=, a son of Ariadne by Theseus, or, according to others, by Bacchus. He married Helice, by whom he had a daughter called Hero, or Merope, of whom the giant Orion became enamoured. The father, unwilling to give his daughter to such a lover, and afraid of provoking him by an open refusal, evaded his applications, and at last put out his eyes when he was intoxicated. Some suppose that this violence was offered to Orion after he had dishonoured Merope. Œnopion received the island of Chios from Rhadamanthus, who had conquered most of the islands of the Ægean sea, and his tomb was still seen there in the age of Pausanias. Some suppose, and with more probability, that he reigned not at Chios, but at Ægina, which from him was called Œnopia. _Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 4.――_Diodorus._――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 4.――_Apollonius Rhodius_, bk. 3.

=Œnōtri=, the inhabitants of Œnotria.

=Œnōtria=, a part of Italy, which was afterwards called _Lucania_. It received this name from Œnotrus the son of Lycaon, who settled there with a colony of Arcadians. The Œnotrians afterwards spread themselves into Umbria and as far as Latium, and the country of the Sabines, according to some writers. The name of Œnotria is sometimes applied to Italy. That part of Italy where Œnotrus settled, was before inhabited by the Ausones. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 8, ch. 11.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 536; bk. 7, li. 85.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 220.

=Œnotrĭdes=, two small islands on the coast of Lucania, where some of the Romans were banished by the emperors. They were called Ischia and Pontia.

=Œnōtrus=, a son of Lycaon of Arcadia. He passed into Magna Græcia with a colony, and gave the name of Œnotria to that part of the country where he settled. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1, ch. 11.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 3.

=Œnūsæ=, small islands near Chios. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 31. ――_Thucydides_, bk. 8.――――Others on the coast of the Peloponnesus, near Messenia. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 17.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.

=Œonus=, a son of Licymnius, killed at Sparta, where he accompanied Hercules; and as the hero had promised Licymnius to bring back his son, he burnt his body and presented the ashes to the afflicted father. From this circumstance arose a custom of burning the dead among the Greeks. _Scholia_, _Homer_, _Iliad_.――――A small river of Laconia. _Livy_, bk. 34, ch. 28.

=Œnoe=, an island of Bœotia formed by the Asopus. _Herodotus_, bk. 9, ch. 50.

=Œta=, now _Banina_, a celebrated mountain between Thessaly and Macedonia, upon which Hercules burnt himself. Its height has given occasion to the poets to feign that the sun, moon, and stars arose behind it. Mount Œta, properly speaking, is a long chain of mountains which runs from the straits of Thermopylæ and the gulf of Malia, in a western direction, to mount Pindus, and from thence to the bay of Ambracia. The straits or passes of mount Œta are called the straits of Thermopylæ, from the hot baths and mineral waters which are in the neighbourhood. These passes are not more than 25 feet in breadth. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Catullus_, poem 66, li. 54.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 20, &c.――_Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 9; _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 216; bk. 9, li. 204, &c. ――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 8.――_Pliny_, bk. 25, ch. 5.――_Seneca_, _Medea_.――_Lucan_, bk. 3, &c.――――A small town at the foot of mount Œta near Thermopylæ.

=Œty̆lus=, or =Œty̆lum=, a town of Laconia, which received its name from Œtylus, one of the heroes of Argos. Serapis had a temple there. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 25.

=Ofellus=, a man whom, though unpolished, Horace represents as a character exemplary for wisdom, economy, and moderation. _Horace_, bk. 2, satire 2, li. 2.

=Ofi=, a nation of Germany. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 28.

=Ogdolăpis=, a navigable river flowing from the Alps. _Strabo_, bk. 6.

=Ogdōrus=, a king of Egypt.

=Oglosa=, an island in the Tyrrhene sea, east of Corsica, famous for wine, and now called _Monte Christo_. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 6.

=Ogmius=, a name of Hercules among the Gauls. _Lucian_, _Hercules_.

=Ogoa=, a deity of Mylassa in Caria, under whose temple, as was supposed, the sea passed. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 10.

=Ogulnia lex=, by Quintus and Cnæus Ogulnius, tribunes of the people, A.U.C. 453. It increased the number of pontifices and augurs from four to nine. The addition was made to both orders from plebeian families.――――A Roman lady as poor as she was lascivious. _Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 351.

=Ogy̆ges=, a celebrated monarch, the most ancient of those that reigned in Greece. He was son of Terra, or, as some suppose, of Neptune, and married Thebe the daughter of Jupiter. He reigned in Bœotia, which from him is sometimes called _Ogygia_, and his power was also extended over Attica. It is supposed that he was of Egyptian or Phœnician extraction; but his origin, as well as the age in which he lived, and the duration of his reign, are so obscure and unknown, that the epithet of _Ogygian_ is often applied to everything of dark antiquity. In the reign of Ogyges there was a deluge, which so inundated the territories of Attica, that they remained waste for near 200 years. This, though it is very uncertain, is supposed to have happened about 1764 years before the christian era, and previous to the deluge of Deucalion. According to some writers, it was owing to the overflowing of one of the rivers of the country. The reign of Ogyges was also marked by an uncommon appearance in the heavens, and, as it is reported, the planet Venus changed her colour, diameter, figure, and her course. _Varro_, _de Re Rustica_, bk. 3, ch. 1. ――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 5.――_Augustine_, _City of God_, bk. 18, &c.

=Ogy̆gia=, a name of one of the gates of Thebes in Bœotia. _Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 675.――――One of the daughters of Niobe and Amphion, changed into stones. _Apollodorus._――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 8.――――An ancient name of Bœotia, from Ogyges, who reigned there.――――The island of Calypso, opposite the promontory of Lacinium in Magna Græcia, where Ulysses was shipwrecked. The situation, and even the existence of Calypso’s island, is disputed by some writers. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 10. ――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 1, lis. 52 & 85; bk. 5, li. 254.

=Ocy̆ris=, an island in the Indian ocean.

=Oicleus=, a son of Antiphates and Zeuxippe, who married Hypermnestra daughter of Thestius, by whom he had Iphianira, Polybœa, and Amphiaraus. He was killed by Laomedon when defending the ships which Hercules had brought to Asia, when he made war against Troy. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 15.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8; bk. 3, ch. 6.――_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 17.

=Oīleus=, a king of the Locrians. His father’s name was Odoedocus, and his mother’s Agrianome. He married Eriope, by whom he had Ajax, called _Oileus_ from his father, to discriminate him from Ajax the son of Telamon. He had also another son called Medon, by a courtesan called Rhene. Oileus was one of the Argonauts. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 45.――_Apollonius_, bk. 1.――_Hyginus_, fables 14 & 18.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bks. 13 & 15.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10.

=Olane=, one of the mouths of the Po.――――A mountain of Armenia.

=Olanus=, a town of Lesbos.

=Olastræ=, a people of India. _Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 249.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 20.

=Olba=, or =Olbus=, a town of Cilicia.

=Olbia=, a town of Sarmatia at the confluence of the Hypanis and the Borysthenes, about 15 miles from the sea, according to Pliny. It was afterwards called _Borysthenes_ and _Miletopolis_, because peopled by a Milesian colony, and is now supposed to be _Oczakow_. _Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――――A town of Bithynia. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 19.――――A town of Gallia Narbonensis. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 5.――――The capital of Sardinia. _Claudian._

=Olbius=, a river of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 14.

=Olbus=, one of Æetes’ auxiliaries. _Valerius Flaccus_, bk. 6, li. 639.

=Olchinium=, or =Olcinium=, now _Dulcigno_, a town of Dalmatia, on the Adriatic. _Livy_, bk. 45, ch. 26.

=Olbades=, a people of Spain. _Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 5.

=Oleăros=, or =Oliaros=, one of the Cyclades, about 16 miles in circumference, separated from Paros by a strait of seven miles. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 126.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 469.――_Strabo_, bk. 10.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.

=Oleatrum=, a town of Spain near Saguntum. _Strabo._

=Olen=, a Greek poet of Lycia, who flourished some time before the age of Orpheus, and composed many hymns, some of which were regularly sung at Delphi, on solemn occasions. Some suppose that he was the first who established the oracle of Apollo at Delphi where he first delivered oracles. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 35.

=Olenius=, a Lemnian killed by his wife. _Valerius Flaccus_, bk. 2, li. 164.

=Olĕnus=, a son of Vulcan, who married Lethæa, a beautiful woman, who preferred herself to the goddesses. She and her husband were changed into stones by the deities. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 10, li. 68. ――――A famous soothsayer of Etruria. _Pliny_, bk. 28, ch. 2.

=Olĕnus=, or =Olenum=, a town of Peloponnesus between Patræ and Cyllene. The goat Amalthæa, which was made a constellation by Jupiter, is called _Olenia_, from its residence there. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 22. ――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.――――Another in Ætolia.

=Oleorus=, one of the Cyclades, now _Antiparo_.

=Olgasys=, a mountain of Galatia.

=Oligyrtis=, a town of Peloponnesus.

=Olinthus=, a town of Macedonia. _See:_ Olynthus.

=Olisipo=, now _Lisbon_, a town of ancient Spain on the Tagus, surnamed _Felicitas Julia_ (_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 22), and called by some Ulysippo, and said to be founded by Ulysses. _Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 1. ――_Solinus_, bk. 23.

=Olitingi=, a town of Lusitania. _Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 1.

=Olīzon=, a town of Magnesia in Thessaly. _Homer._

=Titus Ollius=, the father of Poppæa, destroyed on account of his intimacy with Sejanus, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 13, ch. 45.――――A river rising in the Alps, and falling into the Po, now called the _Oglio_. _Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 103.

=Ollovĭco=, a prince of Gaul, called the friend of the republic by the Roman senate. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 7, ch. 31.

=Olmiæ=, a promontory near Megara.

=Olmius=, a river of Bœotia, near Helicon, sacred to the Muses. _Statius_, _Thebaid_, bk. 7, li. 284.

=Oloosson=, now _Alessone_, a town of Magnesia. _Homer._

=Olophyxus=, a town of Macedonia on mount Athos. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 22.

=Olpæ=, a fortified place of Epirus, now _Forte Castri_.

=Olus= (untis), a town at the west of Crete.

=Olympeum=, a place of Delos.――――Another in Syracuse.

=Olympia= (orum), celebrated games which received their name either from Olympia, where they were observed, or from Jupiter Olympius, to whom they were dedicated. They were, according to some, instituted by Jupiter after his victory over the Titans, and first observed by the Idæi Dactyli, B.C. 1453. Some attribute the institution to Pelops, after he had obtained a victory over Œnomaus and married Hippodamia; but the more probable, and indeed the more received opinion is, that they were first established by Hercules in honour of Jupiter Olympius, after a victory obtained over Augias, B.C. 1222. Strabo objects to this opinion, by observing that if they had been established in the age of Homer, the poet would have undoubtedly spoken of them, as he is in every particular careful to mention the amusements and diversions of the ancient Greeks. But they were neglected after their first institution by Hercules, and no notice was taken of them, according to many writers, till Iphitus, in the age of the lawgiver of Sparta, renewed them, and instituted the celebration with greater solemnity. This reinstitution, which happened B.C. 884, forms a celebrated epoch in Grecian history, and is the beginning of the Olympiad. _See:_ Olympias. They, however, were neglected for some time after the age of Iphitus, till Corœbus, who obtained a victory, B.C. 776, reinstituted them to be regularly and constantly celebrated. The care and superintendence of the games were entrusted to the people of Elis, till they were excluded by the Pisæans, B.C. 364, after the destruction of Pisa. These obtained great privileges from this appointment; they were in danger neither of violence nor war, but they were permitted to enjoy their possessions without molestation, as the games were celebrated within their territories. Only one person superintended till the 50th Olympiad, when two were appointed. In the 103rd Olympiad, the number was increased to 12, according to the number of the tribes of Elis. But in the following Olympiad, they were reduced to eight, and afterwards increased to 10, which number continued till the reign of Adrian. The presidents were obliged solemnly to swear that they would act impartially, and not take any bribes, or discover why they rejected some of the combatants. They generally sat naked, and held before them the crown which was prepared for the conqueror. There were also certain officers to keep good order and regularity, called ἀλυται, much the same as the Roman lictors, of whom the chief was called ἀλυταρχης. No women were permitted to appear at the celebration of the Olympian games, and whoever dared to trespass this law was immediately thrown down from a rock. This, however, was sometimes neglected, for we find not only women present at the celebration, but also some among the combatants, and some rewarded with the crown. The preparations for these festivals were great. No person was permitted to enter the lists if he had not regularly exercised himself 10 months before the celebration at the public gymnasium of Elis. No unfair dealings were allowed, and whoever attempted to bribe his adversary was subjected to a severe fine. No criminals, nor such as were connected with impious and guilty persons, were suffered to present themselves as combatants; and even the father and relations were obliged to swear that they would have recourse to no artifice which might decide the victory in favour of their friends. The wrestlers were appointed by lot. Some little balls, superscribed with a letter, were thrown into a silver urn, and such as drew the same letter were obliged to contend one with the other. He who had an odd letter remained the last, and he often had the advantage, as he was to encounter the last who had obtained the superiority over his adversary. He was called ἐφεδρος. In these games were exhibited running, leaping, wrestling, boxing, and the throwing of the quoit, which was called altogether πενταθλον, or _quinquertium_. Besides these, there were horse and chariot races, and also contentions in poetry, eloquence, and the fine arts. The only reward that the conqueror obtained, was a crown of olive; which, as some suppose, was in memory of the labours of Hercules, which was accomplished for the universal good of mankind, and for which the hero claimed no other reward than the consciousness of having been the friend of humanity. So small and trifling a reward stimulated courage and virtue, and was more the source of great honours than the most unbounded treasures. The statues of the conquerors, called Olympionicæ, were erected at Olympia, in the sacred wood of Jupiter. Their return home was that of a warlike conqueror; they were drawn in a chariot by four horses, and everywhere received with the greatest acclamations. Their entrance into their native city was not through the gates, but, to make it more grand and more solemn, a breach was made in the walls. Painters and poets were employed in celebrating their names; and indeed the victories severally obtained at Olympia are the subjects of the most beautiful odes of Pindar. The combatants were naked; a scarf was originally tied round the waist, but when it had entangled one of the adversaries, and been the cause that he lost the victory, it was laid aside, and no regard was paid to decency. The Olympic games were observed every fifth year, or, to speak with greater exactness, after a revolution of four years, and in the first month of the fifth year, and they continued for five successive days. As they were the most ancient and the most solemn of all the festivals of the Greeks, it will not appear wonderful that they drew so many people together, not only inhabitants of Greece, but of the neighbouring islands and countries. _Pindar_, _Olympian_, chs. 1 & 2.――_Strabo_, bk. 8. ――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 67, &c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1, &c.――_Plutarch_, _Theseus_, _Lycurgus_, &c.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 10, li. 1. ――_Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 1, ch. 46.――_Lucian_, _Anacharsis_.――_Tzetzes_, _Lycophron_.――♦_Aristotle._――_Statius_, _Thebaid_, bk. 6.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Preface_.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 49.――――A town of Elis in Peloponnesus, where Jupiter had a temple with a celebrated statue 50 cubits high, reckoned one of the seven wonders of the world. The Olympic games were celebrated in the neighbourhood. _Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 8.

♦ ‘Aristotel’ replaced with ‘Aristotle’

=Olympias=, a certain space of time which elapsed between the celebration of the Olympic games. The Olympic games were celebrated after the expiration of four complete years, whence some have said that they were observed every fifth year. This period of time was called Olympiad, and became a celebrated era among the Greeks, who computed their time by it. The custom of reckoning time by the celebration of the Olympic games was not introduced at the first institution of these festivals, but, to speak accurately, only the year in which Corœbus obtained the prize. This Olympiad, which has always been reckoned the first, fell, according to the accurate and learned computations of some of the moderns, exactly 776 years before the christian era, in the year of the Julian period 3938, and 23 years before the building of Rome. The games were exhibited at the time of the full moon, next after the summer solstice; therefore the Olympiads were of unequal length, because the time of the full moon differs 11 days every year, and for that reason they sometimes began the next day after the solstice, and at other times four weeks after. The computations by Olympiads ceased, as some suppose, after the 364th, in the year 440 of the christian era. It was universally adopted, not only by the Greeks, but by many of the neighbouring countries, though still the Pythian games served as an epoch to the people of Delphi and to the Bœotians, the Nemæan games to the Argives and Arcadians, and the Isthmian to the Corinthians and the inhabitants of the Peloponnesian isthmus. To the Olympiads history is much indebted. They have served to fix the time of many momentous events, and indeed before this method of computing time was observed, every page of history is mostly fabulous, and filled with obscurity and contradiction, and no true chronological account can be properly established and maintained with certainty. The mode of computation, which was used after the suppression of the Olympiads and of the consular fasti of Rome, was more useful as it was more universal; but while the era of the creation of the world prevailed in the east, the western nations in the sixth century began to adopt with more propriety the christian epoch, which was propagated in the eighth century, and at last, in the tenth, became legal and popular.――――A celebrated woman, who was daughter of a king of Epirus, and who married Philip king of Macedonia, by whom she had Alexander the Great. Her haughtiness, and more probably her infidelity, obliged Philip to repudiate her, and to marry Cleopatra the niece of king Attalus. Olympias was sensible of this injury, and Alexander showed his disapprobation of his father’s measures by retiring from the court to his mother. The murder of Philip, which soon followed this disgrace, and which some have attributed to the intrigues of Olympias, was productive of the greatest extravagancies. The queen paid the highest honour to her husband’s murderer. She gathered his mangled limbs, placed a crown of gold on his head, and laid his ashes near those of Philip. The administration of Alexander, who had succeeded his father, was, in some instances, offensive to Olympias; but when the ambition of her son was concerned, she did not scruple to declare publicly that Alexander was not the son of Philip, but that he was the offspring of an enormous serpent which had supernaturally introduced itself into her bed. When Alexander was dead, Olympias seized the government of Macedonia, and to establish her usurpation, she cruelly put to death Aridæus, with his wife Eurydice, as also Nicanor the brother of Cassander, with 100 leading men of Macedonia, who were inimical to her interest. Such barbarities did not long remain unpunished; Cassander besieged her in Pydna, where she had retired with the remains of her family, and she was obliged to surrender after an obstinate siege. The conqueror ordered her to be accused, and to be put to death. A body of 200 soldiers were directed to put the bloody commands into execution, but the splendour and majesty of the queen disarmed their courage, and she was at last massacred by those whom she had cruelly deprived of their children, about 316 years before the christian era. _Justin_, bk. 7, ch. 6; bk. 9, ch. 1. ――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――_Curtius._――_Pausanias._――――A fountain of Arcadia which flowed for one year and the next was dry. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 29.

=Olympiodōrus=, a musician who taught Epaminondas music. _Cornelius Nepos._――――A native of Thebes in Egypt, who flourished under Theodosius II., and wrote 22 books of history, in Greek, beginning with the seventh consulship of Honorius, and the second of Theodosius, to the period when Valentinian was made emperor. He wrote also an account of an embassy to some of the barbarian nations of the north, &c. His style is censured by some as low, and unworthy of an historian. The commentaries of Olympiodorus on the _Meteora_ of Aristotle, were edited with Aldus Manutius, 1550, in folio.――――An Athenian officer, present at the battle of Platæa, where he behaved with great valour. _Plutarch._

=Olympius=, a surname of Jupiter at Olympia, where the god had a celebrated temple and statue, which passed for one of the seven wonders of the world. It was the work of Phidias. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 2.――――A native of Carthage, called also Nemesianus. _See:_ Nemesianus.――――A favourite at the court of Honorius, who was the cause of Stilicho’s death.

=Olympus=, a physician of Cleopatra queen of Egypt, who wrote some historical treatises. _Plutarch_, _Antonius_.――――A poet and musician of Mysia, son of Mæon and disciple to Marsyas. He lived before the Trojan war, and distinguished himself by his amatory elegies, his hymns, and particularly the beautiful airs which he composed, and which were still preserved in the age of Aristophanes. _Plato_, _Minos_.――_Aristotle_, _Politics_, bk. 8.――――Another musician of Phrygia, who lived in the age of Midas. He is frequently confounded with the preceding. _Pollux_, bk. 4, ch. 10.――――A son of Hercules and Eubœa. _Apollodorus._――――A mountain of Macedonia and Thessaly, now _Lacha_. The ancients supposed that it touched the heavens with its top; and, from that circumstance, they have placed the residence of the gods there, and have made it the court of Jupiter. It is about one mile and a half in perpendicular height, and is covered with pleasant woods, caves, and grottoes. On the top of the mountain, according to the notions of the poets, there was neither wind nor rain, nor clouds, but an eternal spring. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 1, &c.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bks. 2, 6, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_. ――_Lucan_, bk. 5.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――――A mountain of Mysia, called the Mysian Olympus, a name which it still preserves.――――Another in Elis.――――Another in Arcadia.――――Another in the island of Cyprus, now _Santa Croce_. Some suppose the Olympus of Mysia and of Cilicia to be the same.――――A town on the coast of Lycia.

=Olympusa=, a daughter of Thespius. _Apollodorus._

=Olynthus=, a celebrated town and republic of Macedonia, on the isthmus of the peninsula of Pallene. It became famous for its flourishing situation, and for its frequent disputes with the Athenians and Lacedæmonians, and with king Philip, who destroyed it, and sold the inhabitants for slaves. _Cicero_, _Against Verres_.――_Plutarch_, _de Cohibenda Ira_, &c.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 127.――_Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 9.

=Olyras=, a river near Thermopylæ, which, as the mythologists report, attempted to extinguish the funeral pile on which Hercules was consumed. _Strabo_, bk. 9.

=Olyzon=, a town of Thessaly.

=Omarius=, a Lacedæmonian sent to Darius, &c. _Curtius_, bk. 3, ch. 13.

=Ombi= and =Tentyra=, two neighbouring cities of Egypt, whose inhabitants were always in discord one with another. _Juvenal_, satire 15, li. 35.

=Ombri.= _See:_ ♦Umbria.

♦ ‘Umbri’ replaced with ‘Umbria’ to match listing

=Omŏle=, or =Homŏle=, a mountain of Thessaly. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 675.――――There were some festivals called _Homoleia_, which were celebrated in Bœotia in honour of Jupiter, surnamed _Homoleius_.

=Omophagia=, a festival in honour of Bacchus. The word signifies _the eating of raw flesh_. _See:_ Dionysia.

=Omphăle=, a queen of Lydia, daughter of Jardanus. She married Tmolus, who, at his death, left her mistress of his kingdom. Omphale had been informed of the great exploits of Hercules, and wished to see so illustrious a hero. Her wish was soon gratified. After the murder of Eurytus, Hercules fell sick, and was ordered to be sold as a slave, that he might recover his health, and the right use of his senses. Mercury was commissioned to sell him, and Omphale bought him, and restored him to liberty. The hero became enamoured of his mistress, and the queen favoured his passion, and had a son by him, whom some call Agelaus, and others Lamon. From this son were descended Gyges and Crœsus; but this opinion is different from the account which makes these Lydian monarchs spring from Alcæus, a son of Hercules by Malis, one of the female servants of Omphale. Hercules is represented by the poets as so desperately enamoured of the queen that, to conciliate her esteem, he spins by her side among her women, while she covers herself with the lion’s skin, and arms herself with the club of the hero, and often strikes him with her sandals for the uncouth manner with which he holds the distaff, &c. Their fondness was mutual. As they once travelled together, they came to a grotto on mount Tmolus, where the queen dressed herself in the habit of her lover, and obliged him to appear in a female garment. After they had supped, they both retired to rest in different rooms, as a sacrifice on the morrow to Bacchus required. In the night, Faunus, or rather Pan, who was enamoured of Omphale, introduced himself into the cave. He went to the bed of the queen, but the lion’s skin persuaded him that it was the dress of Hercules, and therefore he repaired to the bed of Hercules, in hopes to find there the object of his affection. The female dress of Hercules deceived him, and he laid himself down by his side. The hero was awakened, and kicked the intruder into the middle of the cave. The noise awoke Omphale, and Faunus was discovered lying on the ground, greatly disappointed and ashamed. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 2, li. 305, &c.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 11, li. 17.

=Omphălos=, a place of Crete, sacred to Jupiter, on the borders of the river Triton. It received its name from the umbilical cord (ὀμφαλος) of Jupiter, which fell there soon after his birth. _Diodorus._

=Omphis=, a king of India, who delivered himself up to Alexander the Great. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 12.

=Onæum=, or =Oæneum=, a promontory and town of Dalmatia. _Livy_, bk. 43, ch. 19.

=Onārus=, a priest of Bacchus, who is supposed to have married Ariadne after she had been abandoned by Theseus. _Plutarch_, _Theseus_.

=Onasĭmus=, a sophist of Athens, who flourished in the reign of Constantine.

=Onātas=, a famous statuary of Ægina son of Micon. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 42.

=Onchemītes=, a wind which blows from Onchesmus, a harbour of Epirus, towards Italy. The word is sometimes spelt _Anchesites_ and _Anchemites_. _Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 7, ltr. 2. ――_Ptolemæus._

=Onchestus=, a town of Bœotia, founded by Onchestus, a son of Neptune. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 26.

=Oneion=, a place of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 25.

=Onesicrĭtus=, a cynic philosopher of Ægina, who went with Alexander into Asia, and was sent to the Indian Gymnosophists. He wrote a history of the king’s life, which has been censured for the romantic, exaggerated, and improbable narrative it gives. It is asserted that Alexander, upon reading it, said that he should be glad to come to life again for some time, to see what reception the historian’s work met with. _Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――_Curtius_, bk. 9, ch. 10.

=Onesĭmus=, a Macedonian nobleman, treated with great kindness by the Roman emperors. He wrote an account of the life of the emperor Probus, and of Carus, with great precision and elegance.

=Onesippus=, a son of Hercules. _Apollodorus._

=Onesius=, a king of Salamis, who revolted from the Persians.

=Onetorĭdes=, an Athenian officer, who attempted to murder the garrison which Demetrius had stationed at Athens, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 5.

=Onium=, a place of Peloponnesus, near Corinth.

=Onoba=, a town near the columns of Hercules. _Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 1.

=Onobala=, a river of Sicily.

=Onochŏnus=, a river of Thessaly, falling into the Peneus. It was dried up by the army of Xerxes. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 196.

=Onomacrĭtus=, a soothsayer of Athens. It is generally believed that the Greek poem on the Argonautic expedition, attributed to Orpheus, was written by Onomacritus. The elegant poems of Musæus are also, by some, supposed to be the production of his pen. He flourished about 516 years before the christian era, and was expelled from Athens by Hipparchus, one of the sons of Pisistratus. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 6. ――――A Locrian, who wrote concerning laws, &c. _Aristotle_, bk. 2, _Politics_.

=Onomarchus=, a Phocian, son of Euthycrates and brother of Philomelus, whom he succeeded, as general of his countrymen, in the sacred war. After exploits of valour and perseverance, he was defeated and slain in Thessaly by Philip of Macedon, who ordered his body to be ignominiously hung up, for the sacrilege offered to the temple of Delphi. He died 353 B.C. _Aristotle_, _Politics_, bk. 5, ch. 4. ――_Diodorus_, bk. 16.――――A man to whose care Antigonus entrusted the keeping of Eumenes. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Eumenes_.

=Onomastorĭdes=, a Lacedæmonian ambassador sent to Darius, &c. _Curtius_, bk. 3, ch. 13.

=Onomastus=, a freedman of the emperor Otho. _Tacitus._

=Onophas=, one of the seven Persians who conspired against the usurper Smerdis. _Ctesias._――――An officer in the expedition of Xerxes against Greece.

=Onosander=, a Greek writer, whose book _De Imperatoris Institutione_ has been edited by Schwebel, with a French translation, folio, Nuremberg, 1752.

=Onythes=, a friend of Æneas, killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 514.

=Opalia=, festivals celebrated by the Romans, in honour of Ops, on the 14th of the calends of January.

=Ophēlas=, a general of Cyrene, defeated by Agathocles.

=Opheltes=, a son of Lycurgus king of Thrace. He is the same as Archemorus. _See:_ Archemorus.――――The father of Euryalus, whose friendship with Nisus is proverbial. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 201.――――One of the companions of Acœtes, changed into a dolphin by Bacchus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, fable 8.

=Ophensis=, a town of Africa. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 50.

=Ophiădes=, an island on the coast of Arabia, so called from the great number of serpents found there. It belonged to the Egyptian kings, and was considered valuable for the topaz it produced. _Diodorus_, bk. 3.

=Ophias=, a patronymic given to Combe, as daughter of Ophius, an unknown person. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 382.

=Ophioneus=, was an ancient soothsayer in the age of Aristodemus. He was born blind.

=Ophis=, a small river of Arcadia, which falls into the Alpheus.

=Ophiūsa=, the ancient name of Rhodes.――――A small island near Crete. ――――A town of Sarmatia.――――An island near the Baleares, so called from the number of serpents which it produced (ὀφις, _serpens_). It is now called _Formentera_.

=Ophrynium=, a town of Troas on the Hellespont. Hector had a grove there. _Strabo_, bk. 13.

=Opĭci=, the ancient inhabitants of Campania, from whose mean occupations the word _Opicus_ has been used to express disgrace. _Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 207.

=Opilius=, a grammarian who flourished about 94 years before Christ. He wrote a book called _Libri Musarum_.

=Lucius Opimius=, a Roman who made himself consul in opposition to the interests and efforts of the Gracchi. He showed himself a most inveterate enemy to Caius Gracchus and his adherents, and behaved, during his consulship, like a dictator. He was accused of bribery, and banished. He died of want at Dyrrachium. _Cicero_, _For Sestius_, _For Plancius_, & _Against Piso_.――_Plutarch._――――A Roman, who killed one of the Cimbri in single combat.――――A rich usurer at Rome in the age of Horace, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 142.

=Opis=, a town on the Tigris, afterwards called Antiochia. _Xenophon_, _Anabasis_, bk. 2.――――A nymph who was among Diana’s attendants. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, lis. 532 & 867.――――A town near the mouth of the Tigris.――――One of Cyrene’s attendants. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 343.

=Opĭter=, a Roman consul, &c.

=Opitergīni=, a people near Aquileia, on the Adriatic. Their chief city was called _Opitergum_, now _Oderso_. _Lucan_, bk. 4, li. 416.

=Opītes=, a native of Argos, killed by Hector in the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_.

=Oppia=, a vestal virgin, buried alive for her incontinence.

=Oppia lex=, by Caius Oppius the tribune, A.U.C. 540. It required that no woman should wear above half an ounce of gold, have party-coloured garments, or be carried in any city or town, or to any place within a mile’s distance, unless it was to celebrate some sacred festivals or solemnities. This famous law, which was made while Annibal was in Italy, and while Rome was in distressed circumstances, created discontent, and, 18 years after, the Roman ladies petitioned the assembly of the people that it might be repealed. Cato opposed it strongly, and made many satirical reflections upon the women for their appearing in public to solicit votes. The tribune Valerius, who had presented their petition to the assembly, answered the objections of Cato, and his eloquence had such an influence on the minds of the people, that the law was instantly abrogated with the unanimous consent of all the _comitia_, Cato alone excepted. _Livy_, bks. 33 & 34.――_Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 3.

=Oppiānus=, a Greek poet of Cilicia in the second century. His father’s name was Agesilaus, and his mother’s Zenodota. He wrote some poems, celebrated for their elegance and sublimity. Two of his poems are now extant, five books on fishing called _alieuticon_, and four on hunting called _cynegeticon_. The emperor Caracalla was so pleased with his poetry, that he gave him a piece of gold for every verse of his cynegeticon; from which circumstance the poem received the name of the golden verses of Oppian. The poet died of the plague in the 30th year of his age. His countrymen raised statues to his honour, and engraved on his tomb that the gods had hastened to call back Oppian in the flower of youth, only because he had already excelled all mankind. The best edition of his works is that of Schneider, 8vo, Strasbourg, 1776.

=Oppidius=, a rich old man introduced by Horace, bk. 2, satire 3,