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COLONIES 100.00%

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Greek. In Greece, colonies were sometimes founded by vanquished peoples, who left their homes to escape subjection at the hand of a detested enemy; sometimes as a sequel to civil disorders; sometimes to get rid of surplus population, and thereby to avoid internal convulsions. But in most cases the object was to establish and facilitate relations of trade with foreign countries. If a Greek city was sending out a colony, an oracle (before all others that of Delphi) was almost invariably consulted. Sometimes certain classes of citizens were called upon to take part in the enterprises; sometimes one son was chosen by lot from every house where there were several sons; and strangers expressing a desire to join were admitted. A person of distinction was selected to guide the emi-grants and make the necessary arrangements. It was usual to honour these founders of colonies, after their death, as heroes. Some of the sacred fire was taken from the public hearth in the Prytaneion, and the fire on the public hearth of the new city was kindled thereat. And, just as each individual had his private shrines, so the new community maintained the worship of its chief domestic deities, the colony sending embassies and votive gifts to their principal festivals. The relation between colony and mother-city was viewed as one of mutual affection. Any differences that arose were made up, if possible, by peaceful means, war being deemed excusable only in cases of extreme necessity. The charter of foundation contained general provisions for the arrangement of the affairs of the colony, and also some special enactments. The constitution of the mother-city was usually adopted by the colony, but the new city remained politically independent. If the colony sent out a fresh colony on its own account, the mother-city was generally consulted, or was at least requested to furnish a leader. The Cleruchi formed a special class of Greek colonists (see CLERUCHI). The trade factories set up in foreign countries (in Egypt, for instance) were somewhat different from the ordinary colonies, the members retaining the right of domicile in their own fatherland.
 
COLONIES 94.98%

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Roman. It was an old custom in Italy to send out colonies for the purpose of securing new conquests. The Romans, accordingly, having no standing army, used to plant bodies of their own citizens in conquered towns as a kind of garrison. These bodies would consist partly of Roman citizens, usually to the number of three hundred, partly of members of the Latin confederacy, in larger numbers. The third part of the conquered territory was handed over to the settlers. The colonioe civium Romanorum (colonies of Roman citizens) were specially intended to secure the two sea-coasts of Italy, and were hence called colonioe maritimoe. The colonioe Latinoe of which there was a far greater number, served the same purpose for the mainland. The duty of leading the colonists and founding the settlement was entrusted to a commission usually consisting of three members, and elected by the people. These men continued to stand in the relation of patrons (patroni ) to the colony after its foundation. The colonists entered the conquered city in military array, preceded by banners, and the foundation was celebrated with special solemnities. The colonioe were free from taxes, and had their own constitution, a copy of the Roman, electing from their own body their senate and other officers of state. To this constitution the original inhabitants had to submit. The colonioe civium Romanorum retained the Roman citizenship, and were free from military service, their position as out-posts being regarded as an equivalent. The members of the colonioe Latinoe served among the socii, and possessed the so-called ius Latinum (see LATINI). This secured to them the right of acquiring property (commercium) and settlement in Rome, and, under certain conditions, the power of becoming Roman citizens; though in course of time these rights underwent many limitations. From the time of the Gracchi the colonies lost their military character. Colonization came to be regarded as a means of providing for the poorest class of the Roman populace. After the time of Sulla it was adopted as a way of granting land to veteran soldiers. The right of founding colonies was taken way from the people by Caesar, and passed into the hands of the emperors, who used it (mainly in the provinces) for the exclusive purpose of establishing military settlements, partly with the old idea of securing conquered territory. It was only in exceptional cases that the provincial colonies enjoyed the immunity from taxation which was granted to those in Italy.
 
COLONI 91.38%
During the later imperial age the coloni were serfs, who, on payment of a certain rent, cultivated a piece of land, belonging to their masters, for their own profit. They were so far free that they could not be sold, could contract legal marriages, and could own property. But they were absolutely bound to the estate, and if this was sold, passed with the rest of what was upon it to the new owner. The coloni were probably the descendants of barbarians, who were settled in the provinces for agricultural purposes.
 
ASSIGNATIO 89.29%

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The Latin term for the assignment of public lands to single citizens or to colonies. See COLONIES and AGER PUBLICUS.
 
VETERANI 33.86%
[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.)
 
CLERUCHIA 32.49%
A kind of Greek colony, which differed from the ordinary colonial settlement in the fact that the settlers remained in close connection with their mother-city. The Athenian cleruchiae, are the only ones of which we have any detailed knowledge. Aconquered territory was divided into lots of land, which were assigned to the poorer citizens as cleruchi, or "holders of lots." The original inhabitants would be differently treated according to circumstances. In many cases they were compelled to emigrate; sometimes the men were killed, and the women and children enslaved; but ordinarily the old inhabitants would become the tenants of the settlers, and take, generally, a less privileged position. The settlers formed a separate community, elected their own officials, and managed their local affairs; but they continued to be Athenian citizens, with all the rights and duties of their position. They remained under the authority of Athens, and had to repair to the Athenian courts for justice in all important matters.
 
CALLINUS 27.86%
the creator of the Greek political elegy, was a native of Ephesus, and flourished, probably, about 700 B.C., at the time when the kings of Lydia were harassing the Greek colonies of Asia Minor by constant wars. One elegy from his hand has survived, in which, in a simple and manly tone, he endeavours to kindle the degenerate youth of his fatherland to courage and patriotism.
 
ACAMAS 25.54%
 
DUOVIRI OR DUUMVIRI 21.46%

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A board or commission of 2 men, as e.g. the duoviri capitales perduellionis, or duoviri sacrorum (see SIBYLS), duoviri viis purgandis (see VIGINTI SEX VIRI, 6). In colonies and municipia, the title was borne by the two highest officials, who represented the the authority of the Roman consuls. (See MUNICIPIUM.)
 
SIMONIDES 20.49%
Of Amorgos. A Greek iambic poet. He was born in the island of Samos, from which he led a colony to the island of Amorgos; he lived about the middle of the 7th century B.C., as a younger contemporary of Archilochus, from whom he is distinguished by the fact that his writing is less personal, and contains more general reflexions on the constant characteristics of human nature. He did not direct his attacks against single persons, but against whole classes. Thus, in an extant fragment of 118 lines, a derisive poem on women, he gives a general description of female characters, deriving the various bad qualities in women from the characteristic qualities of the animals from which he makes them out to be descended.
 
ACHELOUS 18.90%
The god of the river of that name between Aetolia and Acarnania; eldest of the 3000 sons of Oceanus and Tethys, and father of the Sirens by Sterope, the daughter of Porthaon. As a water-god he was capable of metamorphosis, appearing now as a bull, then as a snake, and again as a bull-faced man. In fighting with Heracles for the possession of Deianeira, he lost one horn, but got it back in exchange for the horn of Amaltheia (q.v.). As the oldest and most venerable of river-gods, he was worshipped all over Greece and her colonies, especially Rhodes, Italy, and Sicily. The oracle of Dodona, in every answer which it gave, added an injunction to sacrifice to Achelous; and in religious usage his name stood for any stream or running water.
 
THERSANDER 18.80%
Son of Polynices and Argeia, husband of Demonassa the daughter of Amphiaraus, and king of Thebes after the taking of that city by the Epigoni (q.v.). According to post-Homeric traditions he took part in the expedition against Troy, but was killed on first landing by Telephus. In Vergil ["Thessandrus," Aen. ii 261], on the other hand, he is one of the heroes of the wooden horse. His son and successor was Tisamenus. His grandson, Autesion, at the bidding of the oracle, went over to the Dorians who had settled in Lacedaemon ; and his greatgrandson Theras founded a colony in the island of Calliste, which from that time was called Thera. It was from him that Theron, the tyrant of Agrigentum in Sicily, traced his descent.
 
LATINI 15.82%
The name originally given by the Romans, in the language of constitutional law, to those who belonged to the Latin league. At its dissolution, in B.C. 338, they did not receive the right of Roman citizenship, but entered into the condition of dependent socii (q.v.); they had a definite precedence over the other socii, possessed the commercium (q.v.), and the right of settlement in Rome, and their attainment of the right of citizenship was materially facilitated. They received this when they had once filled any annual public office in their community, or whe on settling in Rome, they left a son behind them in the colony to which they belonged. After the right of citizenship had been given to all the inhabitants of Italy (B.C. 89), this ius Latii, or Latin Right, became useless for Italy; it was even given by many of the emperors to communities in the provinces, and A.D. 212 all free inhabitants of the empire received the right of citizenship. After this time the only Latini remaining were those called the Latini Iuniani, slaves who had been informally set at liberty, and who were allowed this privilege from the time of Tiberius.
 
ASCLEPLUS 15.82%
The Greek god of Medicine, according to the common account a son of the healing god Apollo by Coronis, daughter of a Thessalian prince Phlegyas. Coronis was killed by Artemis for unfaithfulness, and her body was about to be burnt on the pyre, when Apollo snatched the boy out of the flames, and handed him over to the wise centaur Chiron, who instructed him in the cure of all diseases. According to the local legend of Epidaurus, Coronis, having accompanied her father on a campaign to the Peloponnesus, is secretly delivered of the child, and exposes it on a mountain near that town, where it is nourished by a herd of goats. Such was the skill of Asclepius that he brought even dead men to life; so that Zeus, either for fear of his setting men altogether free from death, or at the complaint of Hades, killed him with his thunderbolt. Apollo in revenge slew all the Cyclopes who forged the thunderbolts, as a punishment for which he had to serve Admetus for a time. In Homer and Pindar, Asclepius is still but a hero, a cunning leech, and father of two heroes fighting before Troy, Machaon and Podaleirius. But he was afterwards universally worshipped as the god of healing, in groves, beside medicinal springs, and on mountains. The seats of his worship served also as laces of cure, where patients left thank-offerings and votive tablets describing their complaint and the manner of its cure. Often the cure was effected by the dreams of the patients, who were required to sleep in the sacred building, in which there sometimes stood, as might be expected, a statue of Sleep or Dreaming. His worship extended all over Greece with its islands and colonies; his temples were especially numerous in the Peloponnesus, the most famous being that of Epidaurus, where a great festival with processions and combats was held in his honour every five years. Next in estimation stood the temple at Pergamus, a colony from Epidanrus; that of Tricca in Thessaly enjoyed a reputation of long standing, and in the islands that Cos, the birthplace of the physician Hippocrates. At Rome, the worship of the deity there called Aesculapius was introduced by order of the Sibylline books, on occasion of the plague of 293 B.C., and the god was brought from Epidaurus in the shape of a snake. For in the form of a snake, the symbol of rejuvenescence and of prophecy, he was wont to reveal himself, and snakes were accordingly kept in his temples. He had a sanctuary and a much frequented sanatorium on the island in the Tiber. With him were worshipped his wife Epione ( = soother), his two sons mentioned above, and several daughters, especially Hygieia,(q.v.); also Telesphoros ( = fulness-bringer) the deity of Recovery, who was pictured as a boy. In later times Asclepius was often confounded with the Egyptian Serapis. He is among the most favourite subjects of ancient art; at several places where he was worshipped he had statues of gold and ivory. He is commonly represented with a beard, and resembling Zeus, but with a milder aspect, sometimes with Telesphoros, in a thick veil, or little Hygieia, at his side; his usual attribute is a staff with a serpent coiled round it. The cock was sacrificed to him.
 
CLASSIARII 15.52%
or classici (from classis, a fleet). The crews of the Roman fleet. In the republican age the rowers ( remiges) were slaves, and the sailors (nautae) were partly contributed by the allies (socii navales), partly levied from among the Roman citizens of the lowest orders, the citizens of the maritime colonies, and the freedmen. Under the Empire the fleets were manned by freedmen and foreigners, who could not obtain the citizenship until after twenty-six years' service. In the general military system, the navy stood lowest in respect of pay and position. No promotion to higher posts was open to its officers, as those were monopolized by the army. In later times, a division of the marines stationed at Misenum and Ravenna was appointed to garrison duty in Rome. This division was also used in time of war in repairing the roads for the armies. In Rome the marines were employed, among other things, in stretching the awnings over the theatre.
 
ARISTAEUS 15.33%
A beneficent deity worshipped in various parts of Greece, especially in Thessaly, Boeotia, the African colony of Cyrene, and the Islands of Ceos, Corcyra, Sicily and Sardinia. He gives his blessing to herds, hunting, bee-keeping, wine, oil and every kind of husbandry. In particular he defends men, animals and plants from the destructive heat of the dog-days. According to the story most in vogue, he is the son of Apollo by the Thessalian nymph Cyrene, whom the god carried off to the country named after her. She is the daughter of Hypseus, and granddaughter (another story says daughter) of the river-god Peneus. After his birth Hermes took Aristaeus to the Hours and Gaea, the goddess of the earth, who brought him up and made him an immortal god. Sometimes he is called the son of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaea (Earth). In the Theban legend he and Autonoe the daughter of Cadmus are represented as the parents of Actaeon. He brought destruction upon the nymph Eurydice, the beloved of Orpheus; for in fleeing from his persecutions she was killed by a snake. [Vergil, Georg. iv 316-558.]
 
DECEMVIRI 15.17%
A collegium of ten officers or commissioners. Such were the commissioners named for making a comprehensive code of laws in 451 B.C., Decemviri Legibus Seribundis. The Decemviri Sacris Faciundis were a standing collegium of priests appointed to read and expound the Sibylline books. The Decemviri Litibus Iudicandis were also a standing collegium of iudices appointed for certain trials. Commissions of ten (decemviri agris dividundis and coloniis deducendis) were frequently, though not always, appointed for assignations of public land and the foundation of colonies.
 
EVANDER 14.45%

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a figure in Latin mythology. He was said to be the son of Hermes and an Arcadian nymph. Sixty years before the Trojan War he led a Pelasgian colony to Latium from Pallantion in Arcadia, and founded a city Pallanteum near the Tiber, on the hill which was afterwards named after it the Palatine. Further it was said that he taught the rude inhabitants of the country writing, music, and other arts; and introduced from Arcadia the worship of certain gods, in particular of Pan, whom the Italians called Faunus, with the festival of the Lupercalia which was held in his honour. Evander was worshipped at Rome among the heroes of the country (see INDIGITES), and had an altar on the Aventine hill. But the whole story is evidently an invention of Greek scholars, who derived the Lupercalia from the Arcadian Lycaea. The name Euandros is a mere translation of the Italian Faunus, while Carmenta is an ancient Italian goddess. Pallas, the son of Evander, is in like manner a creation of the poets. In Vergil he marches, at the command of his father, to assist Aeneas, and falls in single combat with Turnus.
 
EPICURUS 12.85%

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A Greek philosopher, founder of the Epicurean school, which was so named after him. He was born 342 B.C. in the Attic deme of Gargettus, and spent his early years in Samos, where his father had settled as a cleruchus. (See COLONIES, Greek.) While still young he returned to Athens, and there acquired by independent reading a comprehensive knowledge of previous philosophies. In 310 (aetat. 32) he began to teach philosophy, first in Mytilene, and afterwards in Lampsacus. After 304 he carried on his profession at Athens. Here he bought a garden,in which he lived in retirement in a very modest and simple style, surrounded by his brother and his friends. He died (B.C. 268, aetat. 74) of calculus, after terrible sufferings. But to the last moment he never lost the tranquil serenity which had characterized his whole life. Such was his authority with his disciples that none of them ventured to make any innovation in his doctrines. His school continued to flourish in Athens, under fourteen masters, for 227 years; and much longer in other cities. His writings were remarkably numerous, and in parts very comprehensive. They were admired for their clearness, but their form was found fault with as too careless. Epicurus used to say himself that writing gave him no trouble. All that remains of them [exclusive of what may be gleaned from quotations in later writers], is: (1) a compendium of his doctrine in forty-four short propositions, written for his scholars to learn by heart. This we must, however, remember is not preserved in its original form. (2) Some fragments, not inconsiderable, but much mutilated and very incomplete, of his great work On Nature, in thirty books. These are preserved in the Herculanean papyri. (3) Three letters have survived from the body of his correspondence, besides his will. For his system, see PHILOSOPHY.
 
PETRONIUS ARBITER 12.73%
 
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