Dictionary
OCTAETERES	100.00%
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A period of eight years. (See CALENDAR.)
VETERANI	55.19%
[A Latin word properly meaning old soldiers.] During the later Republican period and under the Empire the term was applied to those who at the end of their time of service retired from the legion. They were kept with the army under the standard, under which they were taken to the military colonies appointed for them, and again served there for an indefinite period. (Cp.VEXILLARII.)
PRYTANEIA	41.85%
Any public office held by rotation for given periods; e.g. in Herodotus, vi 110, the chief command for the day, held by each of the ten generals in turn.
CALIGA	31.28%
A boot with large nails in the sole, worn in ancient Italy by huntsmen, waggoners, and peasants, and, during the imperial period, common soldiers.
AUREUS	30.03%
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A Roman coin of the imperial period, originally weighing 1/40 of a Roman pound, and worth from the time of Julius Caesar to Nero, 25 denarii, or 100 sestertii; from 23 to 20 shillings. (See COINAGE.)
CONCORDIA	28.70%
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 The Latin personification of concord or harmony, especially among Roman citizens. Shrines were repeatedly erected to Concordia during the republican period after the cessation of civil dissensions. The earliest was dedicated by Camillus in 367 B.C. The goddess Concordia was also invoked, together with Janus, Salus, and Pax, at the family festival of the Caristia, on the 30th March, and, with Venus and Fortuna, by married women on the 1st of April (see MANES). During the imperial period Concordia Augusta was worshipped as the protectress of harmony, especially of matrimonial agreement; in the emperor's household.
GAMES	26.97%
DARICUS	25.29%
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A gold Persian coin, bearing the stamp of a crowned archer, current in Greece down to the Macedonian period. It was equal in value to the Attic gold stater, i.e. according to the present value of gold, 24 shillings. [See COINAGE, fig. 3.]
PHANOCLES	24.10%
A Greek elegiac poet of the Alexandrine period. He celebrated in erotic elegies the loves of beautiful boys. A considerable fragment remaining describes the love of Orpheus for Calais, the beautiful son of Boreas, and his death ensuing there from. The language is simple and spirited, and the versification melodions.
ARISTOCLES	23.29%
(1) A Greek artist, and like his brother Canadchus, a sculptor in bronze at Sicyon. He flourished about 480 B.C.; and founded a school at Sicyon that lasted for a long time. (2) There was an Athenian sculptor of the same name and of the same period, author of a relief known as The Athenian Hoplite, one of our oldest monuments of Attic art. (See cut under HOPLITES).
PAGANALIA	22.82%
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 In Italy, a movable festival of the old village communities (see PAGUS), celebrated after the winter-sowing in January, on two days separated by an interval of a week. On this occasion a pregnant sow was sacrificed to Tellus or to Ceres, who at a later period was worshipped together with Tellus.
PRYTANEIA	22.71%
The period of thirty-five or thirty-six days, i.e. about one-tenth of the year, during which each of the ten phyloe presided in turn over the Council and ecclesia. The order was determined by lot. The presiding tribe was represented by its epistates, who was appointed by lot to preside for the day, and could not hold this office more than once in each year (Aristotle, On Constitution of Athens, 44).]
EUNAPIUS	22.07%
A Greek rhetorician, born at Sardis in 347 A.D. In 405 he wrote biographies of twenty-three older and contemporary philosophers and sophists. In spite of its bad style and its superficiality, this book is our chief authority for the history of the Neo-Platonism of that age. We have also several fragments of his continuation of the chronicle of Herennius Dexippus. This continuation, in fourteen books, covered the period from 268 to 404 A.D., and was much used by Zosimus.
OLYMPIAD	21.07%
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A period of four years from one celebration of the Olympian games (see OLYMPIAN GAMES) to another. The Olympiads were counted from the victory of Corcebus (776 B.C.); the last, the 283rd, ended 394 A.D., with the abolition of the Olympian games. This method of reckoning never passed into everyday life, but is of importance, inasmuch as, through the historian Timaeus, about 240 B.C., it became the one generally used by the Greek historians.
DIODORUS	21.02%
surnamed Siculus, or the Sicilian. A Greek historian, native of Agyrion, in Sicily, who lived in the times of Julius Caeesar and Augustus. After thirty years preparation, based upon the results yielded by long travels in Asia and Europe, and the use of the plentiful materials supplied by residence in Rome, he wrote his Bibliotheca, an Universal History in 40 books, extending over a period of some 1,100 years, from the oldest time to 60 B.C. In the first six books he treated the primitive history and mythology of the Egyptians, the natives of Asia, and Africa, slid the Hellenes. The next eleven embraced the period from the Trojan war to the death of Alexander the Great. The remaining 23 brought the history down to the beginning of Caesar's struggle with Gaul. We still possess books 1-5 and 11-20 (from the Persian War under Xerxes to 302 B.C.), besides fragments, partly considerable, of the other books. In the early books his treatment is ethnographical; but from the seventh book onwards, in the strictly historical part of his work, he writes like an annalist narrating all the events of one year at a time, with emphasis on the more important ones. It is obvious that this proceeding must rob the history of all its inner connection. He has other weaknesses. He is incapable of seizing the individual characteristics either of nations or of individuals, and contents himself with giving anecdotes and unconnected details. He follows his authorities blindly, without any attempt to criticize their statements. Then his work falls far short of the ideal which he himself sets up in his introduction. But it is none the less of great value as being one of the main authorities for many parts of ancient history, especially that affecting Sicily. In his style Diodorus aims at clearness and simplicity.
HELLANICUS	20.88%
One of the Greek logographi or chroniclers, born at Mytilene in Lesbos about 480 B.C. He is said to have lived till the age of 85, and to have gone on writing until after B.C. 406. In the course of his long life he composed a series of works on genealogy, chorography, and chronology. He was the first writer who attempted to introduce a systematic chronological arrangement into the traditional periods of Greek, and especially Athenian, history and mythology. His theories of the ancient Attic chronology were accepted down to the time of Eratosthenes.
VEXILLARII	20.87%
Roman veterans who, at the end of their period of service, retired from the legion, but were kept together under a standard (vexillum) up to the time of their final dismissal. They formed, by the side of the legion, a select corps like the evocati of earlier times. They were exempt from ordinary service, and only bound to take part in actual fighting. [They may be briefly described as the oldest class of veterani, and the last to be summoned to take the field.]
SCULPTURE	20.50%
AGES	19.81%
The age of gold, in which Kronos or Saturnus was king. During this period mankind enjoyed perpetual youth, joy, and peace undisturbed, reaping in their fulness the fruits which the earth spontaneously brought forth. Death came upon them like a soft slumber; and after it they became good daemones, watching men like guardians in their deeds of justice and injustice, and hovering round them with gifts of wealth.
NEOCORI	18.90%
The Greek term for certain officials subordinate to the priests, on whom devolved the cleaning and keeping in repair of the temple to which they were attached. In important temples, especially in Asia, the office of a neocorus was considered a distinction by which even the greatest personages felt honoured. In the imperial period of Rome, whole cities, in which temples of the emperors existed, styled themselves their neocori. [Ephesus is described in Acts, xix 35 as the neocorus, or "temple-keeper," of Artemis.]
GNOMON	17.66%
The Greek term for the sundial, the use of which in Greece is said to date from Anaximenes or Anaximander (500 B.C.) The first sundial used in Rome (solarium) was brought there in 263 B.C. from Catana in Sicily, and set up in public. It was not, however, till 164 B.C. that one adapted to the latitude of Rome was constructed. From that time the use of sundials became so common throughout the empire, that it was assumed in legislation during the imperial period, and all private business was regulated by the hours marked on the dial.
ASYLUM	17.39%
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A Greek word meaning an inviolable refuge for persons fleeing from pursuit. Among the Greeks all holy shrines were Asylums, and any pursuer who should remove a suppliant by force was regarded as a transgressor against the gods. The term asylum was especially applied to such shrines as secured to the suppliants absolute security within their limits, which were often considerable. The priests and the community in each case watched jealously over this right. The sanctuary of Zeus Lycaeus in Arcadia, of Poseidon in the island of Calauria, and of Apollo in Delos, are excellent examples of such asylums. These sanctuaries were exceptionally numerous in Asia. In Rome there was an asylum of great antiquity, said to have been founded by Romulus, in a grove of oaks on the Capitoline Hill. (See VEIOVIS.) The erection of buildings in its neighbourhood gradually rendered it inaccessible. During the Roman period the right of asylum attaching to Greek sanctuaries was, at first, maintained and even confirmed by Roman commanders. But its abuse led to a considerable reduction of the number of asylums under Tiberius. The right of asylum was now confined to such shrines as could found their claims upon ancient tradition. During the imperial period, however, the custom arose of making the statues of the emperors refuges against momentary acts of violence. Armies in the field used the eagles of the legions for the same purpose.
PHOTIUS	17.34%
A Greek scholar of the Byzantine period, Patriarch of Constantinople A.D. 857-867 and 871-886; died 891. Besides playing a prominent part in the ecclesiastical controversies of his time, he was conspicious for his wide reading of ancient literature. Apart from theological writings, he left two works which are of great service to the student of antiquity. The one, the Bibliotheca, is an account of 280 works, some of which are now lost, some only imperfectly preserved, which he read on his embassy to Assyria, with short notices and criticisms of matter and style, and in some caqes more or less complete abstracts; the other a Lexicon or alphabetical glossary, of special value in connexion with the Greek orators and historians.
INTERREGES	17.23%
The name given by the Romans to the senators who, between the death of one king and the election of another, held regal authority, during the interregnum, for successive periods of five days each. One of these interreges had to conduct the election itself. Even under the Republic an interrex was nominated by the senate to hold the comitia for the election of consuls, whenever the consuls had died, or resigned, or if the election had not been completed by the end of the year. If five days did not suffice, the retiring interrex named another to succeed him.
ZOSIMUS	16.92%
A Greek historian who lived as a high officer of State at Constantinople in the second half of the 5th century A.D., and composed a work, distinguished for its intelligent and liberal views, on the fall of the Roman Empire. It is in six books: i, giving a sketch of the time from Augustus to Diocletian; ii-iv, a fuller account of events down to the division of the Empire by Theodosius the Great; v and vi treat in greater detail of the period from 395-410; the conclusion of book vi is probably wanting, as Zosimus had the intention of continuing the history up to his own time. He attributes the fall of the Empire in part to the overthrow of heathenism and the introduction of Christianity, with which, of course, he was not acquainted in its purest form, but only in the degenerate state into which it had sunk in the 4th century.