Browse the Dictionary

JASON	The son of Aeson, and leader of the Argonauts (q.v.), husband of Medea.
JEIUNIUM	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 The first breakfast among the Romans (see MEALS). On Ieiunium Cereris, the fast of Ceres, see CERES.
JORDANES	An Alanian by birth, and probably bishop of Crotona. He wrote two historical works: (1) a compendium of Universal History down to 562 A.D.; (2) an abstract of Cassiodorus' History of the Goths (De Rebus Geticis), which, though done in a cursory and unskilful manner, is nevertheless of great value, owing to the, loss of the original work.
JOSEPHUS	Born at Jerusalem, A.D. 37, of a respectable priestly family. He received a scholarly education, and in 63 went to Rome, where he gained the favour of Poppaeea, the wife of Nero. After having returned to his native land, he endeavoured in vain to check the revolt of his own people against the Romans; thereupon he himself joined the rebellion, but, while in command of Galilee, was taken prisoner by the Romans. He was freed from this after two years' captivity, owing to his having prophesied the coming reign of Vespasian, from whom he took the family name of Flavius. After having been present at the siege of Jerusalem, in the suite of Titus, he lived in Rome until his death about 93, devoting himself to learned studies and literary activity. His works, which are written in Greek, are: (1) The History of the Jewish War, in seven books, originally composed in Syro-Chaldee, but translated into Greek at the request of Titus. It is remarkable for its masterly delineation of events in which he himself took part or of which he was an eyewitness. (2) The Jewish Antiquities, in twenty books; a history of the Jews from the creation down to the twelfth year of Nero (A.D. 66), written with the object of making a favourable impression on the Greeks and Romans. (3) An Autobiography, to complete the Jewish History. (4) A treatise in defence of his Jewish Antiquities against the attacks of a scholar named Apion. The Eulogy of the Maccabees is probably spurious. There is a Latin version of the History of the Jews, dating from the end of the 4th century A.D., under the name of Hegesippus, a corruption of Josephus.
JUDEX	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 In the Roman constitution a general designation of all judges, whether officials exercising judicial functions or individuals in a private position, entrusted on oath with the duty of deciding in either civil or criminal trials. For standing and for extraordinary criminal courts (see QUAeSTIO) the iudices were at first chosen from the number of the senators by agreement of the parties concerned. Gains Gracchus first introduced a list of iudices (album) for the permanent tribunals (quoestiones perpetuoe). At first this list was permanent, but afterwards it was published annually by the proetor urbanus, who had to swear that he would be impartial in his selection of names. Under the Empire, as long as the quoestiones perpetuoe, existed, it was published by the emperor, who nominated the iudices to hold office for life, and from time to time revised and completed the list. By the lex Sempronia of Gaius Gracchus, B.C. 123, the office of judge was taken away from the senators, who had held it previously, and transferred to the possessors of the knight's census (the equites). In B.C. 80 a lex Cornelia of L. Cornelius Sulla restored it to the Senate. In B.C. 70 the office was equally divided between the senators, the knights, and the tribuni oerdii. These last were once more excluded by Caesar. Augustus formed four decurioe, or divisions, of iudices. Of these the first three were obliged to possess the knight's census, and the last the half of it. Caligula added a fifth decuria. Under the Empire the judicial functions, hitherto confined to certain definite classes, had become so general in their obligations, that it was considered a privilege to be freed from them. This exemption was granted to a man with many children, and, afterwards, to those following the professions of grammarians and teachers. The requisite qualifications, apart from that of property, were that a person should be by birth a citizen, and not less than thirty years of age (after Augustus, not less than twentyfive). The other requirements were bodily and mental capacity, an unblemished reputation, and a long residence in Italy. Under the Republic, the number of those who were sworn in varied at different times; under the Empire it was fixed at 4,000, and later at 5,000. For every court of justice the judges were taken from the general list by lot, and out of this special list the presiding magistrate appointed a definite number for each trial. Out of these a certain number might be challenged and rejected by either side; perhaps the president filled up the vacancies by again drawing lots. The swearing in took place before the trial. When the number of the praetors appointed for the quoestiones was not sufficiently large, a iudex guoestionis was appointed, generally one who had served as aedile. In civil cages it was customary from early times for the judicial magistrates, i.e. the praetors, to depute the investigation and decision to a person instructed by them and appointed by consent of both sides. From the time of Augustus a single judge (iudex unus.) was appointed in each case from the general album of sworn iudices, but for certain cases several judges were introduced. (See RECUPERATORES, and JUDICIAL PROCEDURE, II, below.) The iudices centumviri formed the single great judicial body for trying civil cases. (See CENTUMVIRI) Concerning the iudices litibus iudicandis, who were also appointed in civil cases, see VIGINTI-SEX VIRI.
JUDICIUM	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 The Latin name for a court: iudicium populi, a court in which the populus acted as iudices. Iudicium privatum, a civil, iudicium publicum, a criminal court; iudicium domesticum, a family court. (See JUDICIAL PROCEDURE.)
JUGERUM	The unit of superficial measure among the Romans. A rectangle 240 Roman feet in length and 120 feet broad - 28,800 Roman square feet-rather more than half an English acre of 43,560 square feet. Two hundred iugera form one centuria [about 132 acres].
JULIANUS	Salvius. An eminent Roman jurist, born in Africa, who lived in the days of Hadrian. Besides many original works which were long held in high esteem, he compiled at the command of the emperor in 131 A.D., a systematic collection of Edicts of the Praetors, beginning with the republican time (edictum perpetuum). This was the first scientific collection of Roman legal documents. Numerous fragments of his works are quoted in the Digest. Cp. CORPUS JURIS CIVILIS (2).
JULIANUS	Flavius Claudius, " the Apostate." Born at Constantinople A.D. 331; he was the son of Julius Constantius, a brother of Constantine the Great. In spite of his early monastic education, he was so strongly prepossessed against the Christian religion owing to the murderous deeds of his own family, the persecutious he suffered at the hands of his cousin Constantius, and his own intercourse with the most renowned Sophists both in Nicomedia and at Athens, that, on his elevation to the imperial throne in 361, he attempted to drive out Christianity, and to restore Paganism on the foundation of Neo-Platonic philosophy. His attempts were however cut short by his death in the war against the Persians. We still possess eight essays written by him in Greek, in the form of speeches; seventy-eight letters of the most varied contents, valuable as throwing light on his character and his aims; and two satirical writings: (i) The Caesars, or the Banquet, a brilliant criticism on the Roman emperors, from Caesar downwards, in the form of Varro's Menippean satires; (ii) the Misopogon (Beard-Hater), a satire directed against the inhabitants of Antioch, who had cast ridicule on his beard and his philosophic garb. Of his work directed against the Christians and their religion, which he composed in Antioch before the expedition against the Persians, only extracts and fragments survive. Julian is one of the cleverest, most cultivated and elegant writers of the period after the birth of Christ.
JULIUS CAPITOLINUS	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A Roman historian. (See SCRIPTORES HISTORIAe AUGUSTAe.)
JULIUS VALERIUS	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 The Latin translator of the romance of pseudo-Callisthenes on Alexander the Great. (See CALLISTHENES.)
JUNIUS CORDUS	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A Roman historian. (See SCRIPTORES HISTORIAe AUGUSTAe.)
JUNO
JUPITER	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 In the Italian mythology, the highest god in heaven, corresponding to the Greek Zeus (q.v.), with whom he was identical, not only in his nature, but also in his name. For Jupiter is compounded of Iovis (an older form is Diovis) and pater; Zeus stands for Dieus (Indian Diaus- "the bright heaven"). As in course of time the Italian god became identified with the Greek, he was regarded as a son of Saturn and of Ops, the deities deemed to correspond to the Greek Uranus and Rhea respectively. From Jupiter comes all that appears in the heavens. As Lucetius (from lux, "light") he is the bringer of light, the cause of the dawn of day, as well as of the full moon at night. Just as the calends (1st) of each month are sacred to Juno, so the ides (13th or 15th), which are full-moon days, are sacred to Jupiter. On these his special priest, the flamen dialis, offers him the Idulia, a sacrifice of a white lamb. While he watches over fair weather, he also controls all other weather; as Fulgurator and Fulminator ("flasher of lightning") and as Tonans or Tonitrualis ("thunderer") he brings down those fearful storms which were familiar to Rome; as Pluvius he sends a fertilizing rain. Any place, or thing, struck by lightning was supposed to be sacred to Jupiter as having been taken possession of by him, and thus it needed a particular dedication. (See PUTEAL.) As the god of rain, there was instituted in his honour at Rome a festival of supplication, called aquoelicium. In this the pontifices brought into Rome from the temple of Mars outside the Porta Capena a cylindrical stone called the lapis manalis (rain-stone), while the matrons followed the procession with bare feet, as did also the magistrates, unaccompanied by their insignia. In the same character he was appealed to by the country-folk, before sowing time and in the spring and autumn, when a sacrificial feast was offered to him. He and Juno were worshipped before the commencement of the harvest, even before any sacrifice to Ceres. Throughout all Latium, the feast of the Vinalia (q.v.) was celebrated in his honour as the giver of wine; and at the commencement of the vintage season he was offered a lamb by the flamen Dialis. He was honoured in all Italy, after Mars, as the decider of battles and giver of victory; this was specially the case at Rome, where, as early as the days of Romulus, shrines were founded to him as Stator ("he who stays flight ") and Feretrius (to whom the spoils taken by a Roman general in the field from a hostile general were offered. See SPOLIA). He watches over justice and truth, and is therefore the most ancient and most important god of oaths; he was specially called on by the fetiales (q.v.) as a witness at the ceremonies connected with treaties of peace. Not only the law of nations, but also the law of hospitality, is under his special protection, and while he causes his blessing to fall on the whole country, he is also the god of good fortune and blessing to the family. His gracious power does not confine itself to the present alone; by means of signs comprehensible to experts, he reveals the future (see AUSPICIA) and shows his approval or disapproval of a contemplated undertaking. He was worshipped of old on the Alban Hill, by the Latin people, as their ancestral god, under the name of Iuppiter Latiaris (or Latialis); at the formation of the Latin league he was honoured as the god of the league by a sacrificial feast, which they all held in common; even after its dissolution the sacrifice was continued under the superintendence of the consuls. (See FERIAe.) The chief seat of his worship in Rome was the Capitol, where he was honoured as the ideal head of the State, as the Increaser and Preserver of Roman might and power, under the name of Iuppiter Optimus Maximus ("Best and Greatest"). It was there that his earthenware image was enthroned, with the thunderbolt in its right hand. It stood in the centre of the temple begun by Tarquinius Superbus, the last of the kings, and finished and dedicated in the first year of the Republic. In the pediment of the temple was the quadriga, the attribute of the god of thunder, while the chambers to the left and right were dedicated to Juno and to Minerva respectively. Here the consuls, at their entry into office and their departure to war, made their solemn vows; hither came the triumphal procession of the victor, who was clad in the festal garb of the god, and who, before offering to Jupiter the customary thank-offering of white oxen, prayed to his image and placed in his lap the laurel-wreath of victory bound about the fasces. Hither poured in, to adorn the temple and to fill its treasures, countless multitudes of costly votive offerings from the State, from generals and private citizens, and from foreign kings and nations. When, after its existence for 400 years, the ancient temple was destroyed by fire in B.C. 83, it was rebuilt on its original plan but with increased magnificence (B.C. 78). The image of the god was a copy in gold and ivory of the Olympian Zeus (q.v.). The temple was burnt down again A.D. 70, and Vespasian had scarcely restored it when a fresh fire burnt it down A.D. 80, whereupon Domitian in A.D. 82 erected the temple which continued to stand as late as the 9th century. As was natural for the most exalted god of the Roman State, he had the most splendid festivals in his honour. Amongst the greatest of these were the ludi Romani, the ludi magni, and the ludi plebeii. (See GAMES.) Under the Empire the Capitoline Jupiter was recognised as the loftiest representative of the Roman name and State, whose vicegerent on earth was the emperor. As his worship gradually spread over the whole empire, he finally became the representative of the pagan world in general. He was often identified with the native gods of the provinces, including the sun-god of Heliopolis and Doliche in Syria, who, from the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D., Was worshipped far and wide under the name of Iuppiter Heliopolitanus and Dolichenus. Antoninus built for the former the magnificent temple of Heliopolis, or Baalbec. He was similarly identified with various Celtic and German gods, especially those who were worshipped on Alpine mountain-tops as protectors of travellers. As an example of the latter we have Iuppiter Optimus Maximus Poeninus, whose seat was on the Great St. Bernard.
JURISPRUDENCE	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 The science of law is the one branch of Roman literature which had a purely national development. From an early date there were definite legal ordinances in Rome, and shortly after the expulsion of the kings a collection of leges regiae was made by a certain Gaius Papirius. These consisted of archaic customary laws of a strongly sacerdotal character, and arbitrarily attributed to individual kings (known as the Ius Papirianum). However, the foundation of the collective legal life of the Romans was primarily the well known law of the Twelve Tables, B.C. 451-450. (See TWELVE TABLES.) This put an end to the want of a generally known law; for the knowledge of previous legal decisions, like the whole of the judicial procedure, had been hitherto kept in the exclusive possession of the patricians. The administration of the law remained as formerly in the hands of the patricians alone, for they kept from the plebeians all knowledge of the dies fasti and nefasti, i.e. the days on which legal proceedings might or might not be taken, as also the forms of pleading which were regularly employed (legis actiones). The latter were so highly important that the least infraction of them would involve the loss of the cause. This condition of things existed for a long time, until Appius Claudius Caecus drew up a calendar of the days on which causes could be pleaded, and a list of ihe form of pleading. These were made public about 304 B.C. by his secretary, Gnaeus Flavius, after whom they were then called Ius Flavianum. By these means a knowledge of the law became generally attainable. It soon had eminent representatives among the plebeians in the persons of Publius Sempronius Sophus and Tiberius Coruncanius. In ancient days, however, the work of the jurists was purely practical. It was considered an honourable thing for men learned in the law to allow people to consult them (consulere, hence iuris, or iure consulti) either in the Forum or at appointed hours in their own houses, and to give them legal advice (responsa). It was mainly by a kind of oral tradition that the knowledge of law was handed down, as the most eminent jurists allowed younger men to be present at these consultations as listeners (auditores or discipuli). The beginning of literary activity in this department, as in others, dates from the second Punic War. It begins with the earliest exposition of existing law. Sextus Aelius Catus published in 204 B.C. a work named Tripertita (from its being divided into three parts) or Ius Aelianum, which consisted of the text of the laws of the Twelve Tables together with interpretations, and the legal formulae for carrying on suits. From the middie of the 2nd century it became common to make collections of the responsa of eminent jurists, and to use them as a source of legal information. Among others, Marcus Porcius Cato, the son of Cato the Elder, made a collection of this kind. In some families knowledge of the law was in a measure hereditary, as in those of the Aelii, Porcii, Sulpicii, and Mucii. A member of the last family, the pontifex Quintus Milcius Scoevola (died B.C. 82), was the first who, with the aid of the formal precision of the Stoic philosophy, gave a scientific and systematic account of all existing law, in his work, De Iure Civili. Servius Sulpicius Rufus, the contemporary and friend of Cicero, further advanced this new and more methodical treatment of law by his numerous writings and by training up pupils, such as Aulus Ofilius and Publius Alfenus Varus. The former rendered great assistance to Caesar in his scheme for forming the whole of the Ius Civile into a single code. Besides these there were several eminent jurists at the close of the Republic: Gaius Trebatius Testa, Quintus Aelius Tubero, Gaius Aelius Gallus, and Aulus Cascellius. While under the Republic the learned jurist had hold an inferior position to the orator in influence and importance, there is no doubt that under the Empire public eloquence became subordinate, and the position of the jurists was the most coveted end influential in the State, especially when Augustus decreed that the opinions of jurists authorized by the head of the State were to have the validity of law. It was from the jurists as advisers of the emperor that all legislation now proceeded. They had access to all the highest offices of the court and of the State. Accordingly the men of the highest gifts and character betook themselves naturally to this profession, and even introduced into the laws an increased unity, consistency, and systematic order. Under Augustus two jurists were pre-eminent, Quintus Antistius Labeo and Gaius Ateius Capito, the founders of the two later schools, named, after their pupils Sempronius Proculiani and Masurius Sabinus, the Proculiani and Sabini respectively. Labeo sought to extend his professional knowledge, whilst Capito held fast to the traditions of former jurists. The first scientific collection of laws was made under Hadrian by the Sabinian lawyer Salvius Iulianus, with his Edictum Perpetuum, a classified collection of the praetorian edicts from the times of the Republic. (See EDICTUM.) Sextus Pomponius, his somewhat younger contemporary, composed amongst other things a history of the law till the time of Hadrian. Under the Antonines jurisprudence was able to claim a remarkable representative in the Asiatic Gaius, but it received its completion and conclusion in the first half of the 3rd century A.D., through Aemilius Papinianus, Domitius Ulpianus, and Iulius Paulus. After their time there were no jurists of great and original capacity. In the 4th century literary activity revived again, but confined itself to the collection of legal authorities, especially that of imperial ordinances. Thus the Codex Theodosianus, finished in A.D. 438, contains an official record of all the enactments decreed by the emperors from the time of Constantine. Under Justinian I (527-565 A.D.) the last and most complete Roman collection of laws was made, under the name of the Corpus Iuris Civilis (q.v.).
JUSTINUS	A Latin author, who composed, probably in the 2nd century A.D., an abstract, still extant, of the Universal History of Pompeins Trogus (Trogi Pompei Historiarum Philippicarum Epitoma). It enjoyed a great reputation in the Middle Ages. Of the circumstances of his life nothing is known.
JUSTITIUM	The term by which the Romans designated a legal vacation, or cessation from business in the courts of justice, in the sittings of the senate, and even in private life, when all the shops were closed. This took place on extraordinary occasions, such as famine, or during the perils of war, and, under the Empire, on the death of a member of the imperial family, It was decreed by the highest magistrate present in Rome, subject to the approval of the senate. When the occasion had passed by, it was removed by a special edict on the part of the magistrate.
JUTURNA	An old Latin goddess of fountains, sometimes said to have been beloved by Jupiter, from whom she received the dominion over all the rivers and waters of Latium. She is also called the wife of Janus, and by him the mother of Fontus, the god of springs. Vergil makes her the sister of Turnus of Ardea, king of the Rutuli, probably in allusion to a spring named after her in the country between Ardea and Lavinium. Besides the pond of Juturna in the Forum at Rome, there was also a spring bearing her name in the Campus Martins, the water of which was considered sacred and salutary, and was therefore employed in all sacrificial rites and services, and also used by sick people. On January 11th, the anniversary of the day on which her temple was erected in the Campus Martina by Lutatius Catulus, all workmen engaged on aqueducts and the like celebrated the Juturnalia. As a goddess who dispenses water, she was, together with Vulcan, specially invoked at the breaking out of flies. [Iuturna - Diuturna.]
JUVENALIS	The great Roman Satirist, born at Aquinum, a town of the Volscians, about 47 A.D. According to the accounts of his life which have come down to us, he was the son, either real or adopted, of a wealthy freedman, and spent the first half of his life in Rome engaged in declamatory exercises, more for pleasure than as a preparation for the Forum or the schools. He continued there until he became a knight. In an inscription of the time of Domitian he is named as duumvir and as a flamen of Vespasian in his native town, and also as tribune of the first Dalmatian cohort. The command of a cohort is also specified in the accounts already mentioned. According to these he was sent into banishment under the pretence of military distinction, because in a satirical composition he had taken the liberty of denouncing the political influence of a favourite comedian of the emperor. As to the place and date of his banishment, the accounts vary between Britain and Egypt; and also between the last years of Domitian (against which theory there are weighty objections) and the reigns of either Trajan or Hadrian. In any case he died after 127 A.D., according to one account, in the eighty-second year of his life, or about 130, the cause being grief at his exile. By others he is made to return to Rome before his death. We possess sixteen satires by him, which the grammarians have divided into five books. In these he delineates with moral indignation and with pitiless scorn the universal corruption of society, particularly in the times of Domitian, painting its vices in all their nakedness and ugliness with the most glaring colours. His composition is often concise to the verge of obscurity, and by its strong rhetorical colouring betrays his earlier studies. In his own day, and afterwards, his satires enjoyed great popularity, and were hold in high repute even in the Middle Ages. Owing to his obscurity he early attracted the attention of learned men of old, and we still possess the remains of their industry in a collection of Scholia. [About the life of the poet nothing certain can be really ascertained except from the hints given in his own writings. The biographies which have come down to us must be used with extreme caution: and it is not at all certain that tie inscription mentioned above refers to him at all.]
JUVENCUS	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A Christian Latin poet and a presbyter in Spain. About 330 he composed a poetic version of the gospel narrative (Historia Evangelica) in four books; he also cast the books of Moses and Joshua [and Judges] into the form and phraseology of the Roman epic poets. This seems to have been the earliest attempt to make the Christian literature rival the pagan in beauty of form, and to supplant and supersede heathen poetry as a means of education. [The epic paraphrase of the Heptateuch is now no longer ascribed to Juvencus but to Cyprian, not the bishop of Carthage: but a Gaul of the 6th century, in all probability the third bishop of Toulon. (The Latin Heptateuch, critically reviewed by Prof. Mayor, pp. xxxiv-xlii). See CYPRIAN, 2.]
Back to Dictionary Browse