DACTỸLUS (δάκτυλος), a Greek measure, answering to the Romandigitus, each signifying afinger-breadth, and being the sixteenth part of a foot. [Pes.]
DAEDALA or DAEDĂLEIA (δαίδαλα,δαιδάλεια), names used by the Greeks to signify those early works of art which were ascribed to the age of Daedalus, and especially the ancient wooden statues, ornamented with gilding and bright colours and real drapery, which were the earliest known forms of the images of the gods, after the mere blocks of wood or stone, which were at first used for symbols of them.
DAEDĂLA (δαίδαλα), the name of two festivals, celebrated in Boeotia in honour of Hera, and called respectively theGreatand theLesser Daedala. The latter were celebrated by the Plataeans alone; in the celebration of the former, which took place only every sixtieth year, the Plataeans were joined by the other Boeotians.
DAMARĔTĪON (δαμαρέτειον χρύσιον), a Sicilian coin, respecting which there is much dispute; but it was probably a gold coin, equal in value to fifty litrae or ten Attic drachmae of silver; that is, a half stater.
DAMIURGI. [Demiurgi.]
DAMŎSĬA. [Exercitus.]
DANĂCE (δανάκη), properly the name of a foreign coin, was also the name given to the obolos, which was placed in the mouth of the dead to pay the ferryman in Hades.
DAPHNĒPHŎRĬA (δαφνηφόρια), a festival celebrated every ninth year at Thebes in honour of Apollo, surnamed Ismenius or Galaxius. Its name was derived from the laurel branches (δάφναι) which were carried by those who took part in its celebration.
DĀREICUS (δαρεικός), or to give the name in full, the Stater of Dareius, a gold coin of Persia, stamped on one side with the figure of an archer crowned and kneeling upon one knee, and on the other with a sort of quadrata incusa or deep cleft. It is supposed to have derived its name from the first Dareius, king of Persia. It is equal to about 1l.1s.10d.1·76 farthings.
Dareicus. (British Museum.)
Dareicus. (British Museum.)
DĔCĂDŪCHI (δεκαδοῦχοι), the members of a council of Ten, who succeeded the Thirty in the supreme power at Athens,B.C.403. They were chosen from the ten tribes, one from each; but, though opposed to the Thirty, they sent ambassadors to Sparta to ask for assistance against Thrasybulus and the exiles. They remained masters of Athens till the party of Thrasybulus obtained possession of the city and the democracy was restored.
DĔCARCHĬA or DĔCĂDARCHĬA (δεκαρχία,δεκαδαρχία), a supreme council established in many of the Grecian cities by the Lacedaemonians, who entrusted to it the whole government of the state under the direction of a Spartan harmost. It always consisted of the leading members of the aristocratical party.
DĔCASMUS (δεκασμός), bribery. There were two actions for bribery at Athens: one, calledδεκασμοῦ γραφή, lay against the person who gave the bribe; and the other, calledδώρωνorδωροδοκίας γραφή, against the person who received it. These actions applied to the bribery of citizens in the public assemblies of the people (συνδεκάζειν τὴν ἐκκλησίαν), of the Heliaea or any of the courts of justice, of theβουλή, and of the public advocates. Actions for bribery were under the jurisdiction of the thesmothetae. The punishment on conviction of the defendant was death, or payment of ten times the value of the gift received, to which the court might add a further punishment (προστίμημα).
DĔCĂTE (δεκάτη). [Decumae.]
DĔCEMPĔDA, a pole ten feet long, used by the agrimensores [Agrimensores] in measuring land. Thus we find that the agrimensores were sometimes calleddecempedatores.
DĔCEMPRĪMI. [Senatus.]
DĔCEMVĬRI, or the “ten-men,” the name of various magistrates and functionaries at Rome, of whom the most important were:—(1)Decemviri Legibus Scribendis, ten commissioners, who were appointed to draw up a code of laws. They were entrusted with supreme power in the state, and all the other magistracies were suspended. They entered upon their office at the beginning of the yearB.C.451; and they discharged their duties with diligence, and dispensed justice with impartiality. Each administered the government day by day in succession as during an interregnum; and the fasces were only carried before the one who presided for the day. They drew up a body of laws, distributed into ten sections; which, after being approved of by the senate and the comitia, were engraven on tables of metal, and set up in the comitium. On the expiration of their year of office, all parties were so well satisfied with the manner in which they had discharged their duties, that it was resolved to continue the same form of government for another year; more especially as some of the decemvirs said that their work was not finished. Ten new decemvirs were accordingly elected, of whom App. Claudius alone belonged to the former body. These magistrates framed several new laws, which were approved of by the centuries, and engraven on two additional tables. They acted, however, in a most tyrannical manner. Each was attended by twelve lictors, who carried not the rods only, but the axes, the emblem of sovereignty. They made common cause with the patrician party, and committed all kinds of outrages upon the persons and property of the plebeians and their families. When their year of office expired they refused to resign or to appoint successors. At length, the unjust decision of App. Claudius, in the case of Virginia, which led her father to kill her with his own hands to save her from prostitution, occasioned an insurrection of the people. The decemvirs were in consequence obliged to resign their office,B.C.449; after which the usual magistracies were re-established. The ten tables of the former, and the two tables of the latter decemvirs, form together the laws of the Twelve Tables, which were the groundwork of the Roman laws. This, the first attempt to make a code, remained also the only attempt for near one thousand years, until the legislation of Justinian.—(2)Decemviri LitibusorStlitibus Judicandis, were magistrates forming a court of justice, which took cognizance of civil cases. The history as well as the peculiar jurisdiction of this court during the time of the republic is involved in inextricable obscurity. In the time of Cicero it still existed, and the proceedings in it took place in the ancient form of the sacramentum. Augustus transferred to these decemvirs the presidency in the courts of the centumviri. During the empire, this court had jurisdiction in capital matters, which is expressly stated in regard to the decemvirs.—(3)Decemviri Sacris Faciundis, sometimes called simplyDecemviri Sacrorum, were the members of an ecclesiastical collegium, and were elected for life. Their chief duty was to take care of the Sibylline books, and to inspect them on all important occasions by command of the senate. Under the kings the care of the Sibylline books was committed to two men (duumviri) of high rank. On the expulsion of the kings, the care of these books was entrusted to the noblest of the patricians, who were exempted from all military and civil duties. Their number was increased about the year 367B.C.to ten, of whom five werechosen from the patricians and five from the plebeians. Subsequently their number was still further increased to fifteen (quindecemviri), probably by Sulla. It was also the duty of the decemviri to celebrate the games of Apollo, and the secular games.
DĔCENNĀLĬA or DĔCENNĬA, a festival celebrated with games every ten years by the Roman emperors. This festival owed its origin to the fact that Augustus refused the supreme power when offered to him for his life, and would only consent to accept it for ten years, and when these expired, for another period of ten years, and so on to the end of his life.
DĔCĬMĀTĬO, the selection, by lot, of every tenth man for punishment, when any number of soldiers in the Roman army had been guilty of any crime. The remainder usually had barley allowed to them instead of wheat. This punishment appears not to have been inflicted in the early times of the republic.
DĒCRĒTUM seems to mean that which is determined in a particular case after examination or consideration. It is sometimes applied to a determination of the consuls, and sometimes to a determination of the senate. Adecretumof the senate would seem to differ from asenatus-consultum, in the way above indicated: it was limited to the special occasion and circumstances, and this would be true whether the decretum was of a judicial or a legislative character. But this distinction in the use of the two words, as applied to an act of the senate, was, perhaps, not always observed.
DĔCŬMAE (sc.partes) formed a portion of thevectigaliaof the Romans, and were paid by subjects whose territory, either by conquest ordeditio, had become the property of the state (ager publicus). They consisted, as the name denotes, of a tithe or tenth of the produce of the soil, levied upon the cultivators (aratores) or occupiers (possessores) of the lands, which, from being subject to this payment, were calledagri decumani. The tax of a tenth was, however, generally paid by corn lands: plantations and vineyards, as requiring no seed and less labour, paid a fifth of the produce. A similar system existed in Greece also. Peisistratus, for instance, imposed a tax of a tenth on the lands of the Athenians, which the Peisistratidae lowered to a twentieth. At the time of the Persian war the confederate Greeks made a vow, by which all the states who had surrendered themselves to the enemy were subjected to the payment of tithes for the use of the god at Delphi. The tithes of the public lands belonging to Athens were farmed out as at Rome to contractors, calledδεκατώναι: the termδεκατηλόγοιwas applied to the collectors; but the callings were, as we might suppose, often united in the same person. The titleδεκατευταίis applied to both. Aδεκάτη, or tenth of a different kind, was the arbitrary exaction imposed by the Athenians (B.C.410) on the cargoes of all ships sailing into or out of the Pontus. They lost it by the battle of Aegospotami (B.C.405); but it was re-established by Thrasybulus aboutB.C.391. The tithe was let out to farm.
DĔCUNCIS, another name for the Dextans. [As.]
DĔCŬRĬA. [Exercitus.]
DĔCŬRĬŌNES. [Colonia:Exercitus.]
DĔCUSSIS. [As.]
DĒDĬCĀTĬO. [Inauguratio.]
DĒDĬTĬCĬI, were those who had taken up arms against the Roman people, and being conquered, had surrendered themselves. Such people did not individually lose their freedom, but as a community all political existence, and of course had no other relation to Rome than that of subjects.
DĒDUCTŌRES. [Ambitus.]
DEIGMA (δεῖγμα), a particular place in the Peiraeeus, as well as in the harbours of other states, where merchants exposed samples of their goods for sale. The samples themselves were also calleddeigmata.
DEIPNON. [Coena.]
DĒLĀTOR, an informer. The delatores, under the emperors, were a class of men who gained their livelihood by informing against their fellow-citizens. They constantly brought forward false charges to gratify the avarice or jealousy of the different emperors, and were consequently paid according to the importance of the information which they gave.
DĒLECTUS. [Exercitus.]
DĒLĬA (δήλια), the name of festivals and games celebrated in the island of Delos, to which the Cyclades and the neighbouring Ionians on the coasts belonged. The Delia had existed from very early times, and were celebrated every fifth year. That the Athenians took part in these solemnities at a very early period, is evident from theDeliastae(afterwards calledθεωροί) mentioned in the laws of Solon; the sacred vessel (θεωρίς), moreover, which they sent to Delos every year, was said to be the same which Theseus had sent after his return from Crete. In the course of time the celebration of this ancient panegyris in Delos had ceased, and it was not revived untilB.C.426, when the Athenians, after having purified the island in the winter of that year, restored the ancient solemnities, and added horse-races, which had never before taken place at the Delia. After this restoration, Athens, being at the head of theIonian confederacy, took the most prominent part in the celebration of the Delia; and though the islanders, in common with Athens, provided the choruses and victims, the leader (ἀρχιθέωρος), who conducted the whole solemnity, was an Athenian, and the Athenians had the superintendence of the common sanctuary. From these solemnities, belonging to the great Delian panegyris, we must distinguish thelesser Delia, which were mentioned above, and which were celebrated every year, probably on the 6th of Thargelion. The Athenians on this occasion sent the sacred vessel (θεωρίς), which the priest of Apollo adorned with laurel branches, to Delos. The embassy was calledθεωρία; and those who sailed to the island,θεωροί; and before they set sail a solemn sacrifice was offered in the Delion, at Marathon, in order to obtain a happy voyage. During the absence of the vessel the city of Athens was purified, and no criminal was allowed to be executed.
DELPHĪNĬA (δελφίνια), a festival of the same expiatory character as the Apollonia, which was celebrated in various towns of Greece, in honour of Apollo, surnamed Delphinius.
DELPHIS (δελφίς), an instrument of naval warfare. It consisted of a large mass of iron or lead suspended on a beam, which projected from the mast of the ship like a yard-arm. It was used to sink, or make a hole in, an enemy’s vessel, by being dropped upon it when alongside.
DĒLŪBRUM. [Templum.]
DĒMARCHI (δήμαρχοι), officers, who were the head-boroughs or chief magistrates of the demi in Attica, and are said to have been first appointed by Cleisthenes. Their duties were various and important. Thus, they convened meetings of the demus, and took the votes upon all questions under consideration; they made and kept a register of the landed estates in their districts, levied the monies due to the demus for rent, &c. They succeeded to the functions which had been discharged by thenaucrariof the old constitution.
DĒMENSUM, an allowance of corn, given to Roman slaves monthly or daily. It usually consisted of four or five modii of corn a month.
DĒMĬNŪTIO CĂPĬTIS. [Caput.]
DĒMĬURGI (δημιουργοί), magistrates, whose title is expressive of their doing the service of the people, existed in several of the Peloponnesian states. Among the Eleans and Mantineans they seem to have been the chief executive magistracy. We also read ofdemiurgiin the Achaean league, who probably ranked next to thestrategi, and put questions to the vote in the general assembly of the confederates. Officers namedepidemiurgi, or upper demiurgi, were sent by the Corinthians to manage the government of their colony at Potidaea.
DĒMŎCRĂTĬA (δημοκρατία), that form of constitution in which the sovereign political power is in the hands of the demus (δῆμος) or commonalty. In a passage of Herodotus (iii. 80), the characteristics of a democracy are specified to be—1. Equality of legal rights (ἰσονομίη). 2. The appointment of magistrates by lot. 3. The accountability of all magistrates and officers. 4. The reference of all public matters to the decision of the community at large. Aristotle remarks—“The following points are characteristic of a democracy; that all magistrates should be chosen out of the whole body of citizens; that all should rule each, and each in turn rule all; that either all magistracies, or those not requiring experience and professional knowledge, should be assigned by lot; that there should be no property qualification, or but a very small one, for filling any magistracy; that the same man should not fill the same office twice, or should fill offices but few times, and but few offices, except in the case of military commands; that all, or as many as possible of the magistracies, should be of brief duration; that all citizens should be qualified to serve as dicasts; that the supreme power in everything should reside in the public assembly, and that no magistrate should be entrusted with irresponsible power except in very small matters.” It is somewhat curious that neither in practice nor in theory did the representative system attract any attention among the Greeks. That diseased form of a democracy, in which from the practice of giving pay to the poorer citizens for their attendance in the public assembly, and from other causes, the predominant party in the state came to be in fact the lowest class of the citizens, was by later writers termed anOchlocracy(ὀχλοκρατία—the dominion of the mob).
DĒMŎSĬI (δημόσιοι), public slaves at Athens, who were purchased by the state. The public slaves, most frequently mentioned, formed the city guard; it was their duty to preserve order in the public assembly, and to remove any person whom the prytaneis might order. They are generally called bowmen (τοξόται); or from the native country of the majority, Scythians (Σκύθαι); and also Speusinians, from the name of the person who first established the force. They originally lived in tents in the market-place, and afterwards upon the Areiopagus. Their officers had the name of toxarchs (τόξαρχοι).Their number was at first 300, purchased soon after the battle of Salamis, but was afterwards increased to 1200.
DĒMUS (δῆμος), originally indicated a district or tract of land; and in this meaning of a country district, inhabited and under cultivation, it is contrasted withπόλις. When Cleisthenes, at Athens, broke up the four tribes of the old constitution, he substituted in their place ten local tribes (φυλαὶ τοπικαί), each of which he subdivided into tendemior country parishes, possessing each its principal town; and in some one of these demi were enrolled all the Athenian citizens resident in Attica, with the exception, perhaps, of those who were natives of Athens itself. These subdivisions corresponded in some degree to thenaucrariae(ναυκραρίαι) of the old tribes, and were originally one hundred in number. These demi formed independent corporations, and had each their several magistrates, landed and other property, with a common treasury. They had likewise their respective convocations or “parish meetings,” convened by thedemarchi, in which was transacted the public business of the demus, such as the leasing of its estates, the elections of officers, the revision of the registers or lists ofδημόται, and the admission of new members. Independent of these bonds of union, each demus seems to have had its peculiar temples and religious worship. There were likewise judges, calledδικασταὶ κατα δημους, who decided cases where the matter in dispute was of less value than ten drachmae. Admission into a demus was necessary before any individual could enter upon his full rights and privileges as an Attic citizen. The register of enrolment was calledληξιαρχικὸν γραμματεῖον.
DĒNĀRĬUS, the principal silver coin among the Romans, was so called because it was originally equal to ten asses; but on the reduction of the weight of the as [As], it was made equal to sixteen asses, except in military pay, in which it was still reckoned as equal to ten asses. The denarius was first coined five years before the first Punic war,B.C.269. [Argentum.] The average value of the denarii coined at the end of the commonwealth is about 8½d., and those under the empire about 7½d.If the denarius be reckoned in value 8½d., the other Roman coins of silver will be of the following value:
Denarius. (British Museum.)
Denarius. (British Museum.)
Some denarii were calledserrati, because their edges were notched like a saw, which appears to have been done to prove that they were solid silver, and not plated; and othersbigatiandquadrigati, because on their reverse were represented chariots drawn by two and four horses respectively.
DĒSIGNĀTOR. [Funus.]
DĒSULTOR, a rider in the Roman games, who generally rode two horses at the same time, sitting on them without a saddle, and vaulting upon either of them at his pleasure.
DĔUNX. [As,Libra.]
DEXTANS. [As,Libra.]
DĬĂDĒMA, originally a white fillet, used to encircle the head. It is represented on the head of Dionysus, and was, in an ornamented form, assumed by kings as an emblem of sovereignty.
DĬAETĒTAE (διαιτηταί), or arbitrators, at Athens, were of two kinds; the one public and appointed by lot (κληρωτοί), the other private, and chosen (αἱρετοί) by the parties who referred to them the decision of a disputed point, instead of trying it before a court of justice; the judgments of both, according to Aristotle, being founded on equity rather than law. The number of public arbitrators seems to have been 40, four for each tribe. Their jurisdiction was confined to civil cases.
DĬĀLIS FLĀMEN. [Flamen.]
DĬĂMASTĪGŌSIS (διαμαστίγωσις), a solemnity performed at Sparta at the festival of Artemis Orthia. Spartan youths were scourged on the occasion at the altar of Artemis, by persons appointed for the purpose, until their blood gushed forth and covered the altar. Many anecdotes are related of the courage and intrepidity with which young Spartans bore the lashes of the scourge; some even died without uttering a murmur at their sufferings, for to die under the strokes was considered as honourable a death as that on the field of battle.
DĬĂPSĔPHĬSIS (διαψήφισις), a political institution at Athens, the object of which was to prevent aliens, or such as were the offspring of an unlawful marriage, from assuming the rights of citizens. By this methoda trial of spurious citizens was to be held by the demotae, within whose deme intruders were suspected to exist.
DĪĂSĬA (διάσια), a great festival celebrated at Athens, without the walls of the city, in honour of Zeus, surnamedΜειλίχιος. The whole people took part in it, and the wealthier citizens offered victims, while the poorer classes burnt such incense as their country furnished. The diasia took place in the latter half of the month of Anthesterion with feasting and rejoicings, and was, like most other festivals, accompanied by a fair.
DĬCASTĒS (δικαστής), the name of a judge, or rather juryman, at Athens. The conditions of his eligibility were, that he should be a free citizen, in the enjoyment of his full franchise (ἐπιτιμία), and not less than thirty years of age, and of persons so qualified 6,000 were selected by lot for the service of every year. Their appointment took place annually under the conduct of the nine archons and their official scribe; each of these ten personages drew by lot the names of 600 persons of the tribe assigned to him; the whole number so selected was again divided by lot into ten sections of 500 each, together with a supernumerary one, consisting of 1000 persons, from among whom the occasional deficiencies in the sections of 500 might be supplied. To each of the ten sections one of the ten first letters of the alphabet was appropriated as a distinguishing mark, and a small tablet (πινάκιον), inscribed with the letter of the section and the name of the individual, was delivered as a certificate of his appointment to each dicast. Before proceeding to the exercise of his functions, the dicast was obliged to swear the official oath. This oath being taken, and the divisions made as above mentioned, it remained to assign the courts to the several sections of dicasts in which they were to sit. This was not, like the first, an appointment intended to last during the year, but took place under the conduct of the thesmothetae,de novo, every time that it was necessary to impanel a number of dicasts. As soon as the allotment had taken place, each dicast received a staff, on which was painted the letter and the colour of the court awarded him, which might serve both as a ticket to procure admittance, and also to distinguish him from any loiterer that might endeavour clandestinely to obtain a sitting after business had begun. While in court, and probably from the hand of the presiding magistrate (ἡγέμων δικαστηρίου), he received the token or ticket that entitled him to receive his fee (δικαστικόν). This payment is said to have been first instituted by Pericles, and was originally a single obolus; it was increased by Cleon to thrice that amount about the 88th Olympiad.
DĬCĒ (δίκη), signifies generally any proceedings at law by one party directly or mediately against others. The object of all such actions is to protect the body politic, or one or more of its individual members, from injury and aggression; a distinction which has in most countries suggested the division of all causes into two great classes, the public and the private, and assigned to each its peculiar form and treatment. At Athens the first of these was implied by the terms publicδίκαι, orἀγῶνες, or still more peculiarly byγραφαί; causes of the other class were termed privateδίκαι, orἀγῶνες, or simplyδίκαιin its limited sense. In aδίκη, only the person whose rights were alleged to be affected, or the legal protector (κύριος) of such person, if a minor or otherwise incapable of appearingsuo jure, was permitted to institute an action as plaintiff; in public causes, with the exception of some few in which the person injured or his family were peculiarly bound and interested to act, any free citizen, and sometimes, when the state was directly attacked, almost any alien, was empowered to do so. The court fees, calledprytaneia, were paid in private but not in public causes, and a public prosecutor that compromised the action with the defendant was in most cases punished by a fine of a thousand drachmae and a modified disfranchisement, while there was no legal impediment at any period of a private lawsuit to the reconciliation of the litigant parties.—The proceedings in theδίκηwere commenced by a summons (πρόσκλησις) to the defendant to appear on a certain day before the proper magistrate (εἰσαγωγεύς), and there answer the charges preferred against him. This summons was often served by the plaintiff in person, accompanied by one or two witnesses (κλητῆρες), whose names were endorsed upon the declaration (λῆξιςorἔγκλημα). Between the service of the summons and appearance of the parties before the magistrate, it is very probable that the law prescribed the intervention of a period of five days. If both parties appeared, the proceedings commenced by the plaintiff putting in his declaration, and at the same time depositing his share of the court fees (πρυτανεῖα), which were trifling in amount, but the non-payment of which was a fatal objection to the further progress of a cause. When these were paid, it became the duty of the magistrate, if no manifest objection appeared on the face of the declaration, to cause it to be written out on a tablet, and exposed for the inspection of the public on the wallor other place that served as the cause list of his court. The magistrate then appointed a day for the further proceedings of theanacrisis[Anacrisis]. If the plaintiff failed to appear at the anacrisis, the suit, of course, fell to the ground; if the defendant made default, judgment passed against him. An affidavit might at this, as well as at other periods of the action, be made in behalf of a person unable to attend upon the given day, and this would, if allowed, have the effect of postponing further proceedings (ὑπωμοσία); it might, however, be combated by a counter-affidavit, to the effect that the alleged reason was unfounded or otherwise insufficient (ἀνθυπωμοσία); and a question would arise upon this point, the decision of which, when adverse to the defendant, would render him liable to the penalty of contumacy. The plaintiff was in this case saidἐρήμην ἑλεῖν; the defendant,ἐρήμην ὀφλεῖν,δίκηνbeing the word omitted in both phrases. The anacrisis began with the affidavit of the plaintiff (προωμοσία), then followed the answer of the defendant (ἀντωμοσίαorἀντιγραφή), then the parties produced their respective witnesses, and reduced their evidence to writing, and put in originals, or authenticated copies, of all the records, deeds, and contracts that might be useful in establishing their case, as well as memoranda of offers and requisitions then made by either side (προκλήσεις). The whole of the documents were then, if the cause took a straightforward course (εὐθυδικία), enclosed on the last day of the anacrisis in a casket (ἐχῖνος), which was sealed, and entrusted to the custody of the presiding magistrate, till it was produced and opened at the trial. During the interval no alteration in its contents was permitted, and accordingly evidence that had been discovered after the anacrisis was not producible at the trial.—In some causes, the trial before the dicasts was by law appointed to come on within a given time; in such as were not provided for by such regulations, we may suppose that it would principally depend upon the leisure of the magistrate. Upon the court being assembled, the magistrate called on the cause, and the plaintiff opened his case. At the commencement of the speech, the proper officer (ὁ ἐφ’ ὕδωρ) filled the clepsydra with water. As long as the water flowed from this vessel the orator was permitted to speak; if, however, evidence was to be read by the officer of the court, or a law recited, the water was stopped till the speaker recommenced. The quantity of water, or, in other words, the length of the speeches, was different in different causes. After the speeches of the advocates, which were in general two on each side, and the incidental reading of the documentary and other evidence, the dicasts proceeded to give their judgment by ballot.—When the principal point at issue was decided in favour of the plaintiff, there followed in many cases a further discussion as to the fine or punishment to be inflicted on the defendant (παθεῖν ἢ ἀποτῖσαι). All actions were divided into two classes,—ἀγῶνες ἀτίμητοι,suits not to be assessed, in which the fine, or other penalty, was determined by the laws; andἀγῶνες τιμητοί,suits to be assessed, in which the penalty had to be fixed by the judges. If the suit was anἀγῶν τιμητος, the plaintiff generally mentioned in the pleadings the punishment which he considered the defendant deserved (τίμημα); and the defendant was allowed to make a counter-assessment (ἀντιτιμᾶσθαιorὑποτιμᾶσθαι), and to argue before the judges why the assessment of the plaintiff ought to be changed or mitigated. In certain causes, which were determined by the laws, any of the judges was allowed to propose an additional assessment (προστίμημα); the amount of which, however, appears to have been usually fixed by the laws. Thus, in certain cases of theft, the additional penalty was fixed at five days’ and nights’ imprisonment. Upon judgment being given in a private suit, the Athenian law left its execution very much in the hands of the successful party, who was empowered to seize the moveables of his antagonist as a pledge for the payment of the money, or institute an action of ejectment (ἐξούλης) against the refractory debtor. The judgment of a court of dicasts was in general decisive (δίκη αὐτοτελής); but upon certain occasions, as, for instance, when a gross case of perjury or conspiracy could be proved by the unsuccessful party to have operated to his disadvantage, the cause, upon the conviction of such conspirators or witnesses, might be commencedde novo.
DICTĀTOR, an extraordinary magistrate at Rome. The name is of Latin origin, and the office probably existed in many Latin towns before it was introduced into Rome. We find it in Lanuvium even in very late times. At Rome this magistrate was originally calledmagister populiand notdictator, and in the sacred books he was always designated by the former name down to the latest times. On the establishment of the Roman republic the government of the state was entrusted to two consuls, that the citizens might be the better protected against the tyrannical exercise of the supreme power. But it was soon felt that circumstances might arise in which it was of importance for the safety of the state that the government should be vested in thehands of a single person, who should possess for a season absolute power, and from whose decision there should be no appeal to any other body. Thus it came to pass that inB.C.501, nine years after the expulsion of the Tarquins, the dictatorship (dictatura) was instituted. By the original law respecting the appointment of a dictator (lex de dictatore creando) no one was eligible for this office unless he had previously been consul. We find, however, a few instances in which this law was not observed.—When a dictator was considered necessary, the senate passed a senatus consultum, that one of the consuls should nominate (dicere) a dictator; and without a previous decree of the senate the consuls had not the power of naming a dictator. The nomination or proclamation of the dictator was always made by the consul, probably without any witnesses, between midnight and morning, and with the observance of the auspices (surgensororiens nocte silentio dictatorem dicebat). The technical word for this nomination or proclamation wasdicere(seldomcreareorfacere). Originally the dictator was of course a patrician. The first plebeian dictator was C. Marcius Rutilus, nominated inB.C.356 by the plebeian consul M. Popillius Laenas. The reasons which led to the appointment of a dictator, required that there should be only one at a time. The dictators that were appointed for carrying on the business of the state were said to be nominatedrei gerundae causa, or sometimesseditionis sedandae causa; and upon them, as well as upon the other magistrates, the imperium was conferred by aLex Curiata. The dictatorship was limited to six months, and no instances occur in which a person held this office for a longer time, for the dictatorships of Sulla and Caesar are of course not to be taken into account. On the contrary, though a dictator was appointed for six months, he often resigned his office long previously, immediately after he had dispatched the business for which he had been appointed. As soon as the dictator was nominated, a kind of suspension took place with respect to the consuls and all the other magistrates, with the exception of the tribuni plebis. The regular magistrates continued, indeed, to discharge the duties of their various offices under the dictator, but they were no longer independent officers, but were subject to the higher imperium of the dictator, and obliged to obey his orders in every thing. The superiority of the dictator’s power to that of the consuls consisted chiefly in the three following points—greater independence of the senate, more extensive power of punishment without any appeal (provocatio) from their sentence to the people, and irresponsibility. To these three points, must of course be added that he was not fettered by a colleague. We may naturally suppose that the dictator would usually act in unison with the senate; but it is expressly stated that in many cases where the consuls required the co-operation of the senate, the dictator could act on his own responsibility. That there was originally no appeal from the sentence of the dictator is certain, and accordingly the lictors bore the axes in the fasces before them even in the city, as a symbol of their absolute power over the lives of the citizens, although by the Valerian law the axes had disappeared from the fasces of the consuls. Whether, however, the right ofprovocatiowas afterwards given cannot be determined. It was in consequence of the great and irresponsible power possessed by the dictatorship, that we find it frequently compared with the regal dignity, from which it only differed in being held for a limited time.—There were however a few limits to the power of the dictator. 1. The most important was that which we have mentioned above, that the period of his office was only six months. 2. He had not power over the treasury, but could only make use of the money which was granted him by the senate. 3. He was not allowed to leave Italy, since he might thus easily become dangerous to the republic; though the case of Atilius Calatinus in the first Punic war forms an exception to this rule. 4. He was not allowed to ride on horseback at Rome, without previously obtaining the permission of the people; a regulation apparently capricious, but perhaps adopted that he might not bear too great a resemblance to the kings, who were accustomed to ride.—The insignia of the dictator were nearly the same as those of the kings in earlier times; and of the consuls subsequently. Instead however of having only twelve lictors, as was the case with the consuls, he was preceded by twenty-four bearing the secures as well as the fasces. Thesella curulisandtoga praetextaalso belonged to the dictator.—The preceding account of the dictatorship applies more particularly to the dictator rei gerundae causa; but dictators were also frequently appointed, especially when the consuls were absent from the city, to perform certain acts, which could not be done by any inferior magistrate. These dictators had little more than the name; and as they were only appointed to discharge a particular duty, they had to resign immediately that duty was performed. The occasions on which such dictators were appointed, were principally:—1. For the purpose of holdingthe comitia for the elections (comitiorum habendorum causa). 2. For fixing theclavus annalisin the temple of Jupiter (clavi figendi causa) in times of pestilence or civil discord, because the law said that this ceremony was to be performed by thepraetor maximus, and after the institution of the dictatorship the latter was regarded as the highest magistracy in the state. 3. For appointing holidays (feriarum constituendarum causa) on the appearance of prodigies, and for officiating at the public games (ludorum faciendorum causa), the presidency of which belonged to the consuls or praetors. 4. For holding trials (quaestionibus exercendis.) 5. And on one occasion, for filling up vacancies in the senate (legendo senatui).—Along with the dictator there was always amagister equitum, the nomination of whom was left to the choice of the dictator, unless the senatus consultum specified, as was sometimes the case, the name of the person who was to be appointed. The magister equitum had, like the dictator, to receive the imperium by a lex curiata. The dictator could not be without a magister equitum, and, consequently, if the latter died during the six months of the dictatorship, another had to be nominated in his stead. The magister equitum was subject to the imperium of the dictator, but in the absence of his superior he became his representative, and exercised the same powers as the dictator. The magister equitum was originally, as his name imports, the commander of the cavalry, while the dictator was at the head of the legions, the infantry; and the relation between them was in this respect similar to that which subsisted between the king and the tribunus celerum. Dictators were only appointed so long as the Romans had to carry on wars in Italy. A solitary instance of the nomination of a dictator for the purpose of carrying on war out of Italy has been already mentioned. The last dictator rei gerundae causa was M. Junius Pera, inB.C.216. From that time dictators were frequently appointed for holding the elections down toB.C.202, but after that year the dictatorship disappears altogether.—After a lapse of 120 years, Sulla caused himself to be appointed dictator inB.C.82,reipublicae constituendae causa, but neither his dictatorship nor that of Caesar is to be compared with the genuine office. Soon after Caesar’s death the dictatorship was abolished for ever by a lex proposed by the consul Antonius. During the time, however, that the dictatorship was in abeyance, a substitute was invented for it, whenever the circumstances of the republic required the adoption of extraordinary measures, by the senate investing the consuls with dictatorial power. This was done by the well-known formula,Videantordent operam consules, ne quid respublica detrimenti capiat.
DICTYNNĬA (δικτύννια), a festival with sacrifices, celebrated at Cydonia in Crete, in honour of Artemis, surnamedΔίκτυνναorΔικτύνναια, fromδίκτυον, a hunter’s net.
DĬES (ἡμέρα), a day. The namedieswas applied, like our word day, to the time during which, according to the notions of the ancients, the sun performed his course around the earth, and this time they called the civil day (dies civilis, in Greekνυχθήμερον, because it included both night and day). The natural day (dies naturalis), or the time from the rising to the setting of the sun, was likewise designated by the name dies. The civil day began with the Greeks at the setting of the sun, and with the Romans at midnight. At the time of the Homeric poems the natural day was divided into three parts. The first, calledἠώς, began with sunrise, and comprehended the whole space of time during which light seemed to be increasing,i.e.till mid-day. The second part was calledμέσον ἦμαρor mid-day, during which the sun was thought to stand still. The third part bore the name ofδείληorδείελον ἦμαρ, which derived its name from the increased warmth of the atmosphere. Among the Athenians the first and last of the divisions made at the time of Homer were afterwards subdivided into two parts. The earlier part of the morning was termedπρωΐorπρῲ τῆς ἡμέρας: the latter,πληθούσης τῆς ἀγορᾶς, orπερὶ πλήθουσαν ἀγοράν. Theμέσον ἦμαρof Homer was afterwards expressed byμεσημβρία,μέσον ἡμέρας, orμέση ἡμέρα, and comprehended, as before, the middle of the day, when the sun seemed neither to rise nor to decline. The two parts of the afternoon were calledδείλη πρωΐηorπρωΐα, andδείλη ὀψίηorὀψία. This division continued to be observed down to the latest period of Grecian history, though another more accurate division was introduced at an early period; for Anaximander, or, according to others, his disciple Anaximenes, is said to have made the Greeks acquainted with the use of the Babylonian chronometer or sun-dial (calledπόλος, orὡρολόγιον), by means of which the natural day was divided into twelve equal spaces of time. The division of the day most generally observed by the Romans, was that intotempus antemeridianumandpomeridianum, themeridiesitself being only considered as a point at which the one ended and the other commenced. But as it was of importance that this moment should be known, an especial officer [Accensus] was appointed, whoproclaimed the time of mid-day. The division of the day into twelve equal spaces, which were shorter in winter than in summer, was first adopted when artificial means of measuring time were introduced among the Romans from Greece. This was about the yearB.C.291, when L. Papirius Cursor, after the war with Pyrrhus in southern Italy, brought to Rome an instrument calledsolarium horologium, or simplysolarium. But as the solarium had been made for a different latitude, it showed the time at Rome very incorrectly. Scipio Nasica, therefore, erected inB.C.159 a public clepsydra, which indicated the hours of the night as well as of the day. Even after the erection of this clepsydra it was customary for one of the subordinate officers of the praetor to proclaim the third, sixth, and ninth hours; which shows that the day was, like the night, divided into four parts, each consisting of three hours.—All the days of the year were, according to different points of view, divided by the Romans into different classes.Forthe purpose of the administration of justice all days were divided intodies fastianddies nefasti.Dies fastiwere the days on which the praetor was allowed to administer justice in the public courts; they derived their name fromfari(fari tria verba;do,dico,addico). On some of the dies fasti comitia could be held, but not on all. The regulardies fastiwere marked in the Roman calendar by the letter F, and their number in the course of the year was 38.—Besides these there were certain days calleddies intercisi, on which the praetor might hold his courts, but not at all hours, so that sometimes one half of such a day wasfastus, while the other half wasnefastus. Their number was 65 in the year.—Dies nefastiwere days on which neither courts of justice nor comitia were allowed to be held, and which were dedicated to other purposes. The termdies nefasti, which originally had nothing to do with religion, but simply indicated days on which no courts were to be held, was in subsequent times applied to religious days in general, asdies nefastiwere mostly dedicated to the worship of the gods.—In a religious point of view all days of the year were eitherdies festi, ordies profesti, ordies intercisi. According to the definition given by Macrobius,dies festiwere dedicated to the gods, and spent with sacrifices, repasts, games, and other solemnities;dies profestibelonged to men for the administration of their private and public affairs.Dies intercisiwere common between gods and men, that is, partly devoted to the worship of the gods, partly to the transaction of ordinary business.Dies profestiwere eitherdies fasti, ordies comitiales, that is, days on which comitia were held, ordies comperendini, that is, days to which any action was allowed to be transferred; ordies stati, that is, days set apart for causes between Roman citizens and foreigners; ordies proeliales, that is, all days on which religion did not forbid the commencement of a war.
DIFFARRĔĀTĬO. [Divortium.]
DĬĬPŎLEIA (διιπόλεια), also calledΔιπόλειαorΔιπόλια, a very ancient festival celebrated every year on the acropolis of Athens in honour of Zeus, surnamedΠολιεύς.
DĬMĂCHAE (διμάχαι), Macedonian horse-soldiers, who also fought on foot when occasion required, like our dragoons.
DĪMĬNŪTĬO CĂPĬTIS. [Caput.]
DĬŎCLEIA (διόκλεια), a festival celebrated by the Megarians in honour of an ancient Athenian hero, Diocles, around whose grave young men assembled on the occasion, and amused themselves with gymnastic and other contests. We read that he who gave the sweetest kiss obtained the prize, consisting of a garland of flowers.
DĬŎNȲSĬA (διονύσια), festivals celebrated in various parts of Greece in honour of Dionysus, and characterised by extravagant merriment and enthusiastic joy. Drunkenness, and the boisterous music of flutes, cymbals, and drums, were likewise common to all Dionysiac festivals. In the processions calledθίασοι(fromθείαζω), with which they were celebrated, women also took part in the disguise of Bacchae, Lenae, Thyades, Naiades, Nymphs, &c., adorned with garlands of ivy, and bearing the thyrsus in their hands, so that the whole train represented a population inspired, and actuated by the powerful presence of the god. The choruses sung on the occasion were called dithyrambs, and were hymns addressed to the god in the freest metres and with the boldest imagery, in which his exploits and achievements were extolled. [Chorus.] The phallus, the symbol of the fertility of nature, was also carried in these processions. The indulgence in drinking was considered by the Greeks as a duty of gratitude which they owed to the giver of the vine; hence in some places it was thought a crime to remain sober at the Dionysia. The Attic festivals of Dionysus were four in number: theRuralorLesser Dionysia(Διονύσια κατ’ ἀγρούς, orμικρά), theLenaea(Λήναια), theAnthesteria(Ἀνθεστήρια), and theCityorGreat Dionysia(Διονύσια ἐν ἄστει,ἀστικά, orμεγάλα). The season of the year sacred to Dionysus was during the months nearest to the shortest day; and the Attic festivals were accordinglycelebrated in Poseideon, Gamelion, Anthesterion, and Elaphebolion.—TheRuralorLesser Dionysia, a vintage festival, were celebrated in the various demes of Attica in the month of Poseideon, and were under the superintendence of the several local magistrates, the demarchs. This was doubtless the most ancient of all, and was held with the highest degree of merriment and freedom; even slaves enjoyed full freedom during its celebration, and their boisterous shouts on the occasion were almost intolerable. It is here that we have to seek for the origin of comedy, in the jests and the scurrilous abuse with which the peasants assailed the bystanders from a waggon in which they rode about. The Dionysia in the Peiraeeus, as well as those of the other demes of Attica, belonged to the lesser Dionysia.—The second festival, theLenaea(fromληνός, the wine-press, from which also the month of Gamelion was called by the Ionians Lenaeon), was celebrated in the month of Gamelion; the place of its celebration was the ancient temple of Dionysus Limnaeus (fromλίμνη, as the district was originally a swamp). This temple was called the Lenaeon. The Lenaea were celebrated with a procession and scenic contests in tragedy and comedy. The procession probably went to the Lenaeon, where a goat (τράγος, whence the chorus and tragedy which arose out of it were calledτραγικὸς χορός, andτραγῳδία) was sacrificed, and a chorus standing around the altar sang the dithyrambic ode to the god. As the dithyramb was the element out of which, by the introduction of an actor, tragedy arose [Chorus], it is natural that, in the scenic contests of this festival, tragedy should have preceded comedy. The poet who wished his play to be brought out at the Lenaea applied to the second archon, who had the superintendence of this festival, and who gave him a chorus if the piece was thought to deserve it.—The third festival, theAnthesteria, was celebrated on the 11th, 12th, and 13th days of the month of Anthesterion. The second archon likewise superintended the celebration of the Anthesteria, and distributed the prizes among the victors in the various games which were carried on during the season. The first day was calledπιθοιγία: the second,χόες: and the third,χύτροι. The first day derived its name from the opening of the casks to taste the wine of the preceding year; the second fromχοῦς, the cup, and seems to have been the day devoted to drinking. The third day had its name fromχύτρος, a pot, as on this day persons offered pots with flowers, seeds, or cooked vegetables, as a sacrifice to Dionysus and Hermes Chthonius. It is uncertain whether dramas were performed at the Anthesteria; but it is supposed that comedies were represented, and that tragedies which were to be brought out at the great Dionysia were perhaps rehearsed at the Anthesteria. The mysteries connected with the celebration of the Anthesteria were held at night.—The fourth festival, theCityorGreat Dionysia, was celebrated about the 12th of the month of Elaphebolion; but we do not know whether they lasted more than one day or not. The order in which the solemnities took place was as follows:—the great public procession, the chorus of boys, thecomus[Chorus], comedy, and, lastly, tragedy. Of the dramas which were performed at the great Dionysia, the tragedies at least were generally new pieces; repetitions do not, however, seem to have been excluded from any Dionysiac festival. The first archon had the superintendence, and gave the chorus to the dramatic poet who wished to bring out his piece at this festival. The prize awarded to the dramatist for the best play consisted of a crown, and his name was proclaimed in the theatre of Dionysus. As the great Dionysia were celebrated at the beginning of spring, when the navigation was re-opened, Athens was not only visited by numbers of country people, but also by strangers from other parts of Greece, and the various amusements and exhibitions on this occasion were not unlike those of a modern fair.—The worship of Dionysus, whom the Romans called Bacchus, or rather the Bacchic mysteries and orgies (Bacchanalia), are said to have been introduced from southern Italy into Etruria, and from thence to Rome, where for a time they were carried on in secret, and, during the latter period of their existence, at night. The initiated, according to Livy, not only indulged in feasting and drinking at their meetings, but when their minds were heated with wine they indulged in the coarsest excesses and the most unnatural vices. The time of initiation lasted ten days; on the tenth, the person who was to be initiated took a solemn meal, underwent a purification by water, and was led into the sanctuary (Bacchanal). At first only women were initiated, and the orgies were celebrated every year during three days. But Pacula Annia, a Campanian matron, pretending to act under the direct influence of Bacchus, changed the whole method of celebration: she admitted men to the initiation, and transferred the solemnisation, which had hitherto taken place during the daytime, to the night. Instead of three days in the year, she ordered that the Bacchanalia should be held during five days in every month. It was from that time that these orgies were carried on withfrightful licentiousness and excesses of every kind. The evil at length became so alarming, that, inB.C.186, the consuls, by the command of the senate, instituted an investigation into the nature and object of these new rites. The result was that numerous persons were arrested, and some put to death; and that a decree of the senate was issued, commanding that no Bacchanalia should be held either in Rome or Italy; that if any one should think such ceremonies necessary, or if he could not neglect them without scruples or making atonements, he should apply to the praetor urbanus, who might then consult the senate. If the permission should be granted to him in an assembly of the senate, consisting of not less than one hundred members, he might solemnise the Bacchic sacra; but no more than five persons were to be present at the celebration; there should be no common fund, and no master of the sacra or priest. A brazen table containing this important document was discovered near Bari, in southern Italy, in the year 1640, and is at present in the imperial Museum of Vienna. While theBacchanaliawere thus suppressed, another more simple and innocent festival of Bacchus, theLiberalia(fromLiber, orLiber Pater, a name of Bacchus), continued to be celebrated at Rome every year on the 16th of March. Priests and aged priestesses, adorned with garlands of ivy, carried through the city wine, honey, cakes, and sweetmeats, together with an altar with a handle (ansata ara), in the middle of which there was a small fire-pan (foculus), in which from time to time sacrifices were burnt. On this day Roman youths who had attained their sixteenth year received thetoga virilis.
DĬŎSCŪRĬA (διοσκούρια), festivals celebrated in various parts of Greece in honour of the Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux). Their worship was very generally adopted in Greece, especially in the Doric and Achaean states; but little is known of the manner in which their festivals were celebrated. At Athens the festival was called Anaceia.
DĬŌTA, a vessel having two ears (ὦτα) or handles, used for holding wine. It appears to have been much the same as the amphora. [Amphora.]
DIPHTHĔRA (διφθέρα), a kind of cloak made of the skins of animals, and worn by herdsmen and country people. It had a covering for the head (ἐπικράνον), in which respect it would correspond to the Romancucullus.
DIPLŌMA, a writ or public document, which conferred upon a person any right or privilege. During the republic, it was granted by the consuls and senate; and under the empire, by the emperor and the magistrates whom he authorised to do so. It consisted of two leaves, whence it derived its name.
DIPTỸCHA (δίπτυχα), two writing tablets, which could be folded together. They were commonly made of wood and covered over with wax.
DĬRĬBĬTŌRES. [Comitia.]
DISCUS (δίσκος), a circular plate of stone, or metal, made for throwing to a distance as an exercise of strength and dexterity. It was one of the principal gymnastic exercises of the ancients, being included in thePentathlum.