F

FABRI are workmen who make anything out of hard materials, asfabri tignarii, carpenters,fabri aerarii, smiths, &c. The different trades were divided by Numa into nine collegia, which correspond to our companies or guilds. In the constitution of Servius Tullius, thefabri tignariiand thefabri aerariiorferrariiwere formed into two centuries, which were called the centuriaefabrum(notfabrorum). They did not belong to any of the five classes into which Servius divided the people; but thefabri tign.probably voted with the first class, and thefabri aer.with the second. The fabri in the army were under the command of an officer calledpraefectus fabrûm.

FĂBŬLA. [Comoedia.]

FĂLĀRĬCA. [Hasta.]

FALSUM. The oldest legislative provision at Rome against Falsum was that of the Twelve Tables against false testimony. The next legislation on Falsum, so far as we know, was a Lex Cornelia, passed in the time of the Dictator Sulla against forging, concealing, destroying, or committing any other fraudulent act respecting a will or other instrument. The offence was aCrimen Publicum, and, under the emperors, the punishment wasdeportatio in insulam for the “honestiores;” and the mines or crucifixion for the “humiliores.”

FALX,dim.FALCŬLA (ἅρπη,δρέπανον,poet.δρεπάνη,dim.δρεπάνιον), a sickle; a scythe; a pruning-knife; a falchion, &c. AsCulterdenoted a knife with one straight edge,falxsignified any similar instrument, the single edge of which was curved. Some of its forms are given in the annexed cut. One represents Perseus with the falchion in his right hand, and the head of Medusa in his left. The two smaller figures are headsof Saturn with the falx in its original form; and the fourth represents the same divinity at full length.

Falx. (From ancient Cameos.)

FĂMĬLĬA. The wordfamiliacontains the same element as the word famulus, a slave, and the verbfamulari. In its widest sense it signifies the totality of that which belongs to a Roman citizen who is sui juris, and therefore a paterfamilias. Thus, in certain cases of testamentary disposition, the wordfamiliais explained by the equivalentpatrimonium; and the person who received the familia from the testator was calledfamiliae emptor. But the wordfamiliais sometimes limited to signify “persons,” that is, all those who are in the power of a paterfamilias, such as his sons (filii-familias), daughters, grandchildren, and slaves. Sometimesfamiliais used to signify the slaves belonging to a person, or to a body of persons (societas).

FĀNUM. [Templum.]

FARTOR, a slave who fattened poultry.

FASCES, rods bound in the form of a bundle, and containing an axe (securis) in the middle, the iron of which projected from them. They were usually made of birch, but sometimes also of the twigs of the elm. They are said to have been derived from Vetulonia, a city of Etruria. Twelve were carried before each of the kings by twelve lictors; and on the expulsion of the Tarquins, one of the consuls was preceded by twelve lictors with the fasces and secures, and the other by the same number of lictors with the fasces only, or, according to some accounts, with crowns around them. But P. Valerius Publicola, who gave to the people the right of provocatio, ordained that the secures should be removed from the fasces, and allowed only one of the consuls to be preceded by the lictors while they were at Rome. The other consul was attended only by a single accensus [Accensus]. When they were out of Rome, and at the head of the army, each of the consuls retained the axe in the fasces, and was preceded by his own lictors, as before the time of Valerius. The fasces and secures were, however, carried before the dictator even in the city, and he was also preceded by twenty-four lictors, and the magister equitum by six. The praetors were preceded in the city by two lictors with the fasces; but out of Rome and at the head of an army by six, with the fasces and secures. The tribunes of the plebs, the aediles and quaestors, had no lictors in the city, but in the provinces the quaestors were permitted to have the fasces. The lictors carried the fasces on their shoulders; and when an inferior magistrate met one who was higher in rank, the lictors lowered their fasces to him. This was done by Valerius Publicola, when he addressed the people, and hence came the expressionsubmittere fascesin the sense of to yield, to confess one’s self inferior to another. When a general had gained a victory, and had been saluted as Imperator byhis soldiers, he usually crowned his fasces with laurel.

Fasces. (From the original in the Capitol at Rome.)

FASCĬA, a band or fillet of cloth, worn, (1) round the head as an ensign of royalty;—(2) by women over the breast;—(3) round the legs and feet, especially by women. When the toga had fallen into disuse, and the shorter pallium was worn in its stead, so that the legs were naked and exposed,fasciae cruralesbecame common even with the male sex.

FASCĬNUM (βασκανία), fascination, enchantment. The belief that some persons had the power of injuring others by their looks, was prevalent among the Greeks and Romans. The evil eye was supposed to injure children particularly, but sometimes cattle also; whence Virgil (Ecl.iii. 103) says,

“Nescio quis teneros oculos mihi fascinat agnum.”

Various amulets were used to avert its influence.

FASTI.Fassignifiesdivine law: the epithetfastusis properly applied to anything in accordance with divine law; and hence those days upon which legal business might, without impiety (sine piaculo), be transacted before the praetor, were technically denominatedfasti dies, i.e.lawful days. The sacred books in which thefasti diesof the year were marked were themselves denominatedfasti; the term, however, was employed to denote registers of various descriptions. Of these the two principal are theFasti SacriorFasti Kalendares, andFasti AnnalesorFasti Historici.—I.Fasti SacriorKalendares. For nearly four centuries and a half after the foundation of the city a knowledge of the calendar was possessed exclusively by the priests. One of the pontifices regularly proclaimed the appearance of the new moon, and at the same time announced the period which would intervene between the Kalends and the Nones. On the Nones the country people assembled for the purpose of learning from the rex sacrorum the various festivals to be celebrated during the month, and the days on which they would fall. In like manner all who wished to go to law were obliged to inquire of the privileged few on what day they might bring their suit, and received the reply as if from the lips of an astrologer. The whole of this lore, so long a source of power and profit, and therefore jealously enveloped in mystery, was at length made public by a certain Cn. Flavius, scribe to App. Claudius; who, having gained access to the pontifical books, copied out all the requisite information, and exhibited it in the forum for the use of the people at large. From this time forward such tables became common, and were known by the name ofFasti. They usually contained an enumeration of the months and days of the year; the Nones, Ides, Nundinae, Dies Fasti, Nefasti, Comitiales, Atri, &c., together with the different festivals, were marked in their proper places: astronomical observations on the risings and settings of the fixed stars, and the commencement of the seasons were frequently inserted. [Calendarium;Dies.]—II.Fasti AnnalesorHistorici. Chronicles such as theAnnales Maximi, containing the names of the chief magistrates for each year, and a short account of the most remarkable events noted down opposite to the days on which they occurred, were, from the resemblance which they bore in arrangement to the sacred calendars, denominatedfasti; and hence this word is used, especially by the poets, in the general sense ofhistorical records. In prose writersfastiis commonly employed as the technical term for the registers of consuls, dictators, censors, and other magistrates, which formed part of the public archives. Some most importantfastibelonging to this class, executed probably at the beginning of the reign of Tiberius, have been partially preserved, and are deposited in the Capitol in Rome, where they are known by the name of theFasti Capitolini.

FASTĬGĬUM. An ancient Greek or Romantemple, of rectangular construction, is terminated at its upper extremity by a triangular figure, both in front and rear, which rests upon the cornice of the entablature as a base, and has its sides formed by the cornices which terminate the roof. The whole of this triangle above the trabeation is implied in the termfastigium, calledἀέτωμαby the Greeks, pediment by our architects. The dwelling-houses of the Romans had no gable ends; consequently when the word is applied to them, it is not in its strictly technical sense, but designates the roof simply, and is to be understood of one which rises to an apex, as distinguished from a flat one. The fastigium, properly so called, was appropriated to the temples of the gods; therefore, when the Romans began to bestow divine honours upon Julius Caesar, amongst other privileges which they decreed to him, was the liberty of erecting a fastigium to his house, that is, a portico and pediment towards the street, like that of a temple.

Fastigium. (From a Coin.)

FAX (φανός), a torch. As the principal use of torches was to give light to those who went abroad after sunset, the portion of the Roman day immediately succeeding sun-set was calledfaxorprima fax. The use of torches after sun-set, and the practice of celebrating marriages at that time, probably led to the consideration of the torch as one of the necessary accompaniments and symbols of marriage. Among the Romans thefax nuptialishaving been lighted at the parental hearth, was carried before the bride by a boy whose parents were alive. The torch was also carried at funerals (fax sepulchralis), both because these were often nocturnal ceremonies, and because it was used to set fire to the pile.

FĒCIĀLES. [Fetiales.]

FĔMĬNĀLĬA, worn in winter by Augustus Caesar, who was very susceptible of cold. It seems probable that they were breeches resembling ours.

FĔNESTRA. [Domus.]

FĒNUS or FOENUS (τόκος), interest of money.—(1)Greek.At Athens there was no restriction upon the rate of interest. A rate might be expressed or represented in two different ways: (1.) by the number of oboli or drachmae paid by themonthfor everymina; (2) by the part of the principal (τὸ ἀρχαῖονorκεφάλαιον) paid as interest either annually or for the whole period of the loan. According to the former method, which was generally used when money was lent upon real security (τόκοι ἔγγυοιorἔγγειοι), different rates were expressed as follows:—10 per cent. byἐπὶ πέντε ὀβολοῖς,i.e.5 oboli per month for every mina, or 60 oboli a year = 10 drachmae =1/10of a mina. Similarly,

Another method was generally adopted in cases of bottomry (τὸ ναυτικόν,τόκοι ναυτικοί, orἔκδοσις), where money was lent upon the ship’s cargo or freightage (ἐπὶ τῷ ναύλῳ), or the ship itself, for a specified time, commonly that of the voyage. By this method the following rates were thus represented:—10 per cent. byτόκοι ἐπιδέκατοι, i.e. interest at the rate of a tenth; 12½, 16⅔, 20, 33⅓, byτόκοι ἐπόγδοοι,ἔφεκτοι,ἐπίπεμπτοι, andἐπίτριτοι, respectively. The usual rates of interest at Athens about the time of Demosthenes varied from 12 to 18 per cent.—(2)Roman.Towards the close of the republic, and also under the emperors, 12 per cent. was the legal rate of interest. The interest became due on the first of every month: hence the phrasestristesorceleres calendaeandcalendarium, the latter meaning a debt-book or book of accounts. The rate of interest was expressed in the time of Cicero, and afterwards, by means of the as and its divisions, according to the following table:—

Instead of the phraseasses usurae, a synonyme was used, viz.centesimae usurae, inasmuchas at this rate of interest there was paid in a hundred months a sum equal to the whole principal. Hencebinae centesimae= 24 per cent., andquaternae centesimae= 48 per cent. The monthly rate of the centesimae was of foreign origin, and first adopted at Rome in the time of Sulla. The oldyearlyrate established by the Twelve Tables (B.C.450) was theunciarium fenus. Theunciawas the twelfth part of the as, and since the full (12 oz.) copper coinage was still in use at Rome when the Twelve Tables became law, the phraseunciariumfenus would be a natural expression for interest of one ounce in the pound;i.e.a twelfth part of the sum borrowed, or 8⅓ per cent., not per month, but per year. This rate, if calculated for the old Roman year of ten months, would give 10 per cent. for the civil year of twelve months, which was in common use in the time of the decemvirs. If a debtor could not pay the principal and interest at the end of the year, he used to borrow money from a fresh creditor, to pay off his old debt. This proceeding was very frequent, and called aversura. It amounted to little short of paying compound interest, or ananatocismus anniversarius, another phrase for which wasusurae renovatae;e.g.centesimae renovataeis 12 per cent. compound interest, to which Cicero opposescentesimae perpetuo fenore= 12 per cent. simple interest. The following phrases are of common occurrence in connection with borrowing and lending money at interest:—Pecuniam apud aliquem collocare, to lend money at interest;relegere, to call it in again;cavere, to give security for it;opponereoropponere pignori, to give as a pledge or mortgage. The wordnomenis also of extensive use in money transactions. Properly it denoted the name of a debtor, registered in a banker’s or any other account-book: hence it came to signify the articles of an account, a debtor, or a debt itself. Thus we havebonum nomen, a good debt;nomina facere, to lend monies, and also to borrow money.

FĒRĀLIA. [Funus,p. 191, a.]

FERCŬLUM (fromfer-o) is applied to any kind of tray or platform used for carrying anything. Thus it is used to signify the tray or frame on which several dishes were brought in at once at dinner; and henceferculacame to mean the number of courses at dinner, and even the dishes themselves. The ferculum was also used for carrying the images of the gods in the procession of the circus, the ashes of the dead in a funeral, and the spoils in a triumph; in all which cases it appears to have been carried on the shoulders or in the hands of men.

FĔRĔTRUM. [Funus.]

FĒRĬAE, holidays, were, generally speaking, days or seasons during which free-born Romans suspended their political transactions and their law-suits, and during which slaves enjoyed a cessation from labour. All feriae were thusdies nefasti. The feriae included all days consecrated to any deity; consequently all days on which public festivals were celebrated were feriae or dies feriati. But some of them, such as the feria vindemialis, and the feriae aestivae, seem to have had no direct connection with the worship of the gods. The nundinae, however, during the time of the kings and the early period of the republic, were feriae only for the populus, and days of business for the plebeians, until, by the Hortensian law, they became fasti or days of business for both orders. Allferiae publicae,i.e.those which were observed by the whole nation, were divided intoferiae stativae,feriae conceptivae, andferiae imperativae.Feriae stativaeorstataewere those which were held regularly, and on certain days marked in the calendar. To these belonged some of the great festivals, such as the Agonalia, Carmentalia, Lupercalia, &c.Feriae conceptivaeorconceptaewere held every year, but not on certain or fixed days, the time being every year appointed by the magistrates or priests. Among these we may mention the feriae Latinae, feriae Sementivae, Paganalia, and Compitalia.Feriae imperativaewere those which were held on certain emergencies at the command of the consuls, praetors, or of a dictator. The manner in which all public feriae were kept bears great analogy to the observance of our Sunday. The people visited the temples of the gods, and offered up their prayers and sacrifices. The most serious and solemn seem to have been the feriae imperativae, but all the others were generally attended with rejoicings and feasting. All kinds of business, especially law-suits, were suspended during the public feriae, as they were considered to pollute the sacred season. The most important of the holidays designated by the name of feriae, are theFeriae Latinae, or simplyLatinae(the original name wasLatiar), which were said to have been instituted by the last Tarquin in commemoration of the alliance between the Romans and Latins. This festival, however, was of much higher antiquity; it was a panegyris, or a festival, of the whole Latin nation, celebrated on the Alban mount; and all that the last Tarquin did was to convert the original Latin festival into a Roman one, and to make it the means of hallowing and cementing the alliance between the two nations. Beforethe union, the chief magistrate of the Latins had presided at the festival; but Tarquin now assumed this distinction, which subsequently, after the destruction of the Latin commonwealth, remained with the chief magistrates of Rome. The object of this panegyris on the Alban mount was the worship of Jupiter Latiaris, and, at least as long as the Latin republic existed, to deliberate and decide on matters of the confederacy, and to settle any disputes which might have arisen among its members. As the feriae Latinae belonged to the conceptivae, the time of their celebration greatly depended on the state of affairs at Rome, since the consuls were never allowed to take the field until they had held the Latinae. This festival was a great engine in the hands of the magistrates, who had to appoint the time of its celebration (concipere,edicere, orindicere Latinas); as it might often suit their purpose either to hold the festival at a particular time or to delay it, in order to prevent or delay such public proceedings as seemed injurious and pernicious, and to promote others to which they were favourably disposed. The festival lasted six days.

FESCENNINA, scil.carmina, one of the earliest kinds of Italian poetry, which consisted of rude and jocose verses, or rather dialogues of extempore verses, in which the merry country folks assailed and ridiculed one another. This amusement seems originally to have been peculiar to country people, but it was also introduced into the towns of Italy and at Rome, where we find it mentioned as one of those in which young people indulged at weddings.

FĒTĬĀLES or FĒCĬĀLES, a college of Roman priests, who acted as the guardians of the public faith. It was their province, when any dispute arose with a foreign state, to demand satisfaction, to determine the circumstances under which hostilities might be commenced, to perform the various religious rites attendant on the solemn declaration of war, and to preside at the formal ratification of peace. When an injury had been received from a foreign state, four fetiales were deputed to seek redress, who again elected one of their number to act as their representative. This individual was styled thepater patratus populi Romani. A fillet of white wool was bound round his head, together with a wreath of sacred herbs gathered within the inclosure of the Capitoline hill (Verbenae;Sagmina), whence he was sometimes namedVerbenarius. Thus equipped, he proceeded to the confines of the offending tribe, where he halted, and addressed a prayer to Jupiter, calling the god to witness, with heavy imprecations, that his complaints were well founded and his demands reasonable. He then crossed the border, and the same form was repeated in nearly the same words to the first native of the soil whom he might chance to meet; again a third time to the sentinel or any citizen whom he encountered at the gate of the chief town; and a fourth time to the magistrates in the forum in presence of the people. If a satisfactory answer was not returned within thirty days, after publicly delivering a solemn denunciation of what might be expected to follow, he returned to Rome, and, accompanied by the rest of the fetiales, made a report of his mission to the senate. If the people, as well as the senate, decided for war, the pater patratus again set forth to the border of the hostile territory, and launched a spear tipped with iron, or charred at the extremity and smeared with blood (emblematic doubtless of fire and slaughter), across the boundary, pronouncing at the same time a solemn declaration of war. The demand for redress, and the proclamation of hostilities, were alike termedclarigatio. The whole system is said to have been borrowed from the Aequicolae or the Ardeates, and similar usages undoubtedly prevailed among the Latin states. The number of the fetiales cannot be ascertained with certainty, but they were probably twenty. They were originally selected from the most noble families, and their office lasted for life.

FĪBŬLA (περόνη,πόρπη), a brooch or buckle, consisting of a pin (acus), and of a curved portion furnished with a hook (κλείς).

Fibulae, brooches or buckles. (British Museum.)

FICTĬLE (κεράμος,κεράμιον,ὄστρακον,ὀστράκινον), earthenware, a vessel or other article made of baked clay. The instruments used in pottery (ars figulina) were the following:—1. The wheel (τροχός,orbis,rota,rota figularis). 2. Pieces of wood or bone, which the potter (κεραμεύς,figulus) held in his right hand, and applied occasionally to the surface of the clay during its revolution. 3.Moulds(formae,τύποι), used either to decorate with figures in relief vessels whichhad been thrown on the wheel, or to produce foliage, animals, or any other appearances, on Antefixa, on cornices of terra cotta, and imitative or ornamental pottery of all other kinds, in which the wheel was not adapted to give the first shape. 4. Gravers or scalpels, used by skilful modellers in giving to figures of all kinds a more perfect finish and a higher relief than could be produced by the use of moulds. The earth used for making pottery (κεράμικη γῆ), was commonly red, and often of so lively a colour as to resemble coral. Other pottery is brown or cream-coloured, and sometimes white. Some of the ancient earthenware is throughout its substance black, an effect produced by mixing the earth with comminuted asphaltum (gagates), or with some other bituminous or oleaginous substance. It appears also that asphaltum, with pitch and tar, both mineral and vegetable, was used to cover the surface like a varnish. The best pottery was manufactured at Athens, in the island of Samos, and in Etruria. A quarter of Athens was called Cerameicus, because it was inhabited by potters. Vessels, before being sent for the last time to the furnace, were sometimes immersed in that finely prepared mud, now technically called “slip,” by which the surface is both smoothed and glazed, and at the same time receives a fresh colour. Ruddle, or red ochre (μίλτος,rubrica), was principally employed for this purpose. To produce a further variety in the paintings upon vases the artists employed a few brightly coloured earths and metallic ores. [Pictura.]

FĬDEICOMMISSUM may be defined to be a testamentary disposition, by which a person who gives a thing to another imposes on him the obligation of transferring it to a third person. The obligation was not created by words of legal binding force (civilia verba), but by words of request (precativè), such asfideicommitto,peto,volo dari, and the like; which were the operative words (verba utilia).

FĪDŪCĬA. If a man transferred his property to another, on condition that it should be restored to him, this contract was called Fiducia, and the person to whom the property was so transferred was saidfiduciam accipere. The trustee was bound to discharge his trust by restoring the thing: if he did not, he was liable to an actio fiduciae or fiduciaria, which was an actio bonae fidei. If the trustee was condemned in the action, the consequence was infamia.

FISCUS, the imperial treasury. Under the republic the public treasury was calledAerarium. [Aerarium.] On the establishment of the imperial power, there was a division of the provinces between the senate, as the representative of the old republic, and the Caesar or emperor; and there was consequently a division of the most important branches of public income and expenditure. The property of the senate retained the name ofAerarium, and that of the Caesar, as such, received the name ofFiscus. The private property of the Caesar (res privata principis, ratio Caesaris) was quite distinct from that of the fiscus. The word fiscus signified a wicker-basket, or pannier, in which the Romans were accustomed to keep and carry about large sums of money; and hence fiscus came to signify any person’s treasure or money chest. The importance of the imperial fiscus soon led to the practice of appropriating the name to that property which the Caesar claimed as Caesar, and the word fiscus, without any adjunct, was used in this sense. Ultimately the word came to signify generally the property of the state, the Caesar having concentrated in himself all the sovereign power, and thus the word fiscus finally had the same signification as aerarium in the republican period. Various officers, as Procuratores, Advocati, Patroni, and Praefecti, were employed in the administration of the fiscus.

FLĀBELLUM,dim.FLĀBELLŬLUM, (ῥιπίς), a fan. Fans were of elegant forms, of delicate colours, and sometimes of costly and splendid materials, such as peacock’s feathers; but they were stiff and of a fixed shape, and were held by female slaves (flabelliferae), by beautiful boys, or by eunuchs, whose duty it was to wave them so as to produce a cooling breeze. Besides separate feathers the ancient fan was sometimes made of linen, extended upon a light frame.

Flagellum, Scourge. (From a Bas-relief at Rome, and from a Coin.)

FLAGRUM,dim.FLĂGELLUM (μάστιξ), a whip, a scourge, to the handle of which was fixed a lash made of cords (funibus), or thongs of leather (loris), especially thongs made from the ox’s hide (bubulis exuviis). Theflagellumproperly so called was a dreadfulinstrument, and is thus put in opposition to thescutica, which was a simple whip. (Hor.Sat.i. 3. 119.) Cicero in like manner contrasts the severeflagellawith thevirgae. The flagellum was chiefly used in the punishment of slaves. It was knotted with bones or heavy indented circles of bronze or terminated by hooks, in which case it was aptly denominated ascorpion. We likewise find that some gladiators fought with the flagella, as in the coin here introduced.

FLĀMEN, the name for any Roman priest who was devoted to the service of one particular god, and who received a distinguishing epithet from the deity to whom he ministered. The most dignified were those attached to Dijovis, Mars, and Quirinus, theFlamen Dialis,Flamen Martialis, andFlamen Quirinalis. They are said to have been established by Numa. The number was eventually increased to fifteen: the three original flamens were always chosen from among the patricians, and styledMajores; the rest from the plebeians, with the epithetMinores. Among the minores, we read of theFlamen Floralis, theFlamen Carmentalis, &c. The flamens were elected originally at the Comitia Curiata, but it is conjectured that subsequently to the passing of theLex Domitia(B.C.104) they were chosen in the Comitia Tributa. After being nominated by the people, they were received (capti) and installed (inaugurabantur) by the pontifex maximus, to whose authority they were at all times subject. The office was understood to last for life; but a flamen might be compelled to resign (flaminio abire) for a breach of duty, or even on account of the occurrence of an ill-omened accident while discharging his functions. Their characteristic dress was theapex[Apex], thelaena[Laena], and a laurel wreath. The most distinguished of all the flamens was theDialis; the lowest in rank thePomonalis. The former enjoyed many peculiar honours. When a vacancy occurred, three persons of patrician descent, whose parents had been married according to the ceremonies ofconfarreatio, were nominated by the Comitia, one of whom was selected (captus), and consecrated (inaugurabatur) by the pontifex maximus. From that time forward he was emancipated from the control of his father, and became sui juris. He alone of all priests wore thealbogalerus; he had a right to alictor, to thetoga praetexta, thesella curulis, and to a seat in the senate in virtue of his office. If one in bonds took refuge in his house, his chains were immediately struck off. To counterbalance these high honours, the dialis was subjected to a multitude of restrictions. It was unlawful for him to be out of the city for a single night; and he was forbidden to sleep out of his own bed for three nights consecutively. He might not mount upon horseback, nor even touch a horse, nor look upon an army marshalled without the pomoerium, and hence was seldom elected to the consulship. The object of the above rules was manifestly to make him literallyJovi adsiduum sacerdotem; to compel constant attention to the duties of the priesthood.Flaminicawas the name given to the wife of the dialis. He was required to wed a virgin according to the ceremonies ofconfarreatio, which regulation also applied to the two other flamines majores; and he could not marry a second time. Hence, since her assistance was essential in the performance of certain ordinances, a divorce was not permitted, and if she died, the dialis was obliged to resign. The municipal towns also had their flamens. Thus the celebrated affray between Milo and Clodius took place while the former was on his way to Lanuvium, of which he was then dictator, to declare the election of a flamen (ad flaminem prodendum).

FLAMMEUM. [Matrimonium.]

FLŌRĀLĬA, or Florales Ludi, a festival which was celebrated at Rome in honour of Flora or Chloris, during five days, beginning on the 28th of April and ending on the 2nd of May. It was said to have been instituted at Rome in 238B.C., at the command of an oracle in the Sibylline books, for the purpose of obtaining from the goddess the protection of the blossoms. The celebration was, as usual, conducted by the aediles, and was carried on with excessive merriment, drinking, and lascivious games.

FŌCĀLĔ, a covering for the ears and neck, made of wool, and worn by infirm, and delicate persons.

FŎCUS,dim.FOCŬLUS (ἑστία,ἐσχάρα,ἐσχαρίς), a fire-place; a hearth; a brazier. The fire-place possessed a sacred character, and was dedicated among the Romans to the Lares of each family. Moveable hearths, or braziers, properly calledfoculi, were frequently used.

Foculus, Moveable Hearth. (British Museum.)

FOEDĔRĀTAE CĪVĬTĀTES, FOEDĔRĀTI, SŎCĬI. In the seventh century of Rome these names expressed those Italian states which were connected with Rome by a treaty (foedus). These names did not include Roman colonies or Latin colonies, or any place which had obtained the Roman civitas or citizenship. Among thefoederatiwere theLatini, who were the most nearly related to the Romans, and were designated by this distinctive name; the rest of the foederati were comprised under the collective name ofSociiorFoederati. They were independent states, yet under a general liability to furnish a contingent to the Roman army. Thus they contributed to increase the power of Rome, but they had not the privileges of Roman citizens. The discontent among the foederati, and their claims to be admitted to the privileges of Roman citizens, led to the Social War. The Julia Lex (B.C.90) gave the civitas to the Socii and Latini; and a lex of the following year contained, among other provisions, one for the admission to the Roman civitas of those peregrini who were entered on the lists of the citizens of federate states, and who complied with the provisions of the lex. [Civitas.]

FOENUS. [Fenus.]

Folles, Bellows. (From a Roman Lamp.)

FOLLIS—(1) An inflated ball of leather, which boys and old men among the Romans threw from one to another as a gentle exercise of the body.—(2) A leather purse or bag.—(3) A pair of bellows, consisting of two inflated skins, and having valves adjusted to the natural apertures at one part for admitting the air, and a pipe inserted into another part for its emission.

Fountain of Peirene at Corinth.

FONS (κρήνη), a spring of water, and also an artificial fountain, made either by covering and decorating a spring with buildings and sculpture, or by making a jet or stream of water, supplied by an elevated cistern, play into an artificial basin. Such fountains served the double purpose of use and ornament. They were covered to keep them pure and cool, and the covering was frequently in the form of a monopteral temple: there were also statues, the subjects of which were suggested by the circumstance that every fountain was sacred to some divinity, or they were taken from the whole range of mythological legends. A very large proportion ofthe immense supply of water brought to Rome by the aqueducts was devoted to the public fountains, which were divided into two classes; namely,lacus, ponds or reservoirs, andsalientes, jets of water, besides which many of the castella were so constructed as to be also fountains. There were also many small private fountains in the houses and villas of the wealthy.

Fountain. (From a Painting at Pompeii.)

FŎRES. [DOMUS.]

FORNĀCĀLĬA, a festival in honour of Fornax, the goddess of furnaces, in order that the corn might be properly baked. This ancient festival is said to have been instituted by Numa. The time for its celebration was proclaimed every year by the curio maximus, who announced in tablets, which were placed in the forum, the different part which each curia had to take in the celebration of the festival. Those persons who did not know to what curia they belonged performed the sacred rites on theQuirinalia, called from this circumstance theStultorum feriae, which fell on the last day of the Fornacalia.

FORNIX, in its primary sense, is synonymous withArcus, but more commonly implies an arched vault, constituting both roof and ceiling to the apartment which it encloses.

FŎRUM. [SeeClassical Dict.]

FRĂMĔA. [Hasta.]

FRĀTRES ARVĀLES. [Arvales Fratres.]

FRĒNUM (χαλινός), a bridle. That Bellerophon might be enabled to perform the exploits required of him by the king of Lycia, he was presented by Athena with a bridle as the means of subduing the winged horse Pegasus, who submitted to receive it whilst he was slaking his thirst at the fountain Peirene. Such was the Grecian account of the invention of the bridle, and in reference to it Athena was worshipped at Corinth, under the titlesἽππιαandΧαλινῖτις. The bit (orea,δῆγμα,στόμιον), was commonly made of several pieces, and flexible, so as not to hurt the horse’s mouth; although there was likewise a bit which was armed with protuberances resembling wolves’ teeth, and therefore calledlupatum.

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