Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, page 183 (original) (raw)

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On this page: Authentica – Automolias Graphe – Autonomi – Auxiliares – Avulsio – Axamenta – Axine – Axones – Bacchanalia – Balatro – Balneae

AXONES.

**AUTHENTICA. [novellab.] AUTHEPSA (cuifle'^s), which literally means " self-boiling" or " self-cooking," was the name of a vessel, which is supposed by Bottiger to have been used for heating water, or for keeping it hot. Its form is not known for certain ; but Bottiger (Sabina,) vol. ii. p. 30) conjectures that a vessel, which is engraved in Caylus (Recueil d'Antiquites, vol. ii. tab. 27), is a specimen of an authepsa. Cicero (pro Rose. Amerin. 46) speaks of authepsae among other costly Corinthian and Delian vessels. In later times they were made of silver. (Lam-prid. Heliogab. 19 ; but the reading is doubtful.) The cacabus seems to have been a vessel of a similar kind.

AUTOMOLIAS GRAPHE (avro^oXias 7pa</>^), the accusation of persons charged with having deserted and gone over to the enemy during war (Pollux, vi. 151). There are no speeches extant upon this subject. Petitus, however, col­ lects (Leg. Alt. p. 674) from the words of a com­ mentator upon Demosthenes (Ulpian), that the punishment of this crime was death. Meier (Ait. Proc. p. 365) awards the presidency of the court in which it was tried to the generals ; but the circum­ stance of persons who left the city in times of danger without any intention of going over to the enemy, being tried by the Areiopagus as traitors (Lycurg. c. Leocrat. p. 177), will make us pause before we conclude that persons not enlisted as soldiers could be indicted of this offence before a military tribunal. [J. S. M.]

**AUTONOMI (avr^vo/jloi), the name given by the Greeks to those states which were governed by their own laws, and were not subject to any foreign power. (Thuc. v. 18, 27 ; Xen. Hell. v. 1. § 31.) This name was also given to those cities subject to the Romans, which were permitted to enjoy their own laws, and elect their own magis­trates (Omnes9 suis legibus et judiciis usae^ cwtovo-fjiiav adeptae, revixerunt, Cic. Ad Ait. vi. 2). This permission was regarded as a great privilege, and mark of honour ; and we accordingly find it recorded on coins and medals, as, for instance, on those of Antioch ANTlOXEftN MHTPOHOA. ATTONOMOT, on those of Halicarnassus AAIKAP-NACCEHN ATTONOMnN, and on those of many other cities. (Spanheim, De Pretest, et Usu Nu-mism. p. 789. Amst. 1671.)

**AVULSIO. [confusio.]

**AUXILIARES. [SociL.]

**AXAMENTA. [salii.]

**AXINE (a£iVrj). [securis.]

AXIS. [CURRUS.]

**AXONES (&£ofes), also called _Jcurbeis (ffvp-_£eis), wooden tablets of a square or pyramidical form made to turn on an axis, on which were written the laws of Solon. According to some writers the Aosones contained the civil, and the Kurbeis the religious laws ; according to others the Kurbeis had four sides and the Axones three sides. But at Athens, at all events, they must have been identical, since such is the statement of Aristotle (ap. PLut. Sol. 25). They were at first preserved in the acropolis, but were afterwards placed, through the advice of Ephialtes, in the agora, in order that all persons might be able to read them. A small portion of them was preserved in the time of Plutarch in the prytaneium. (Pint. Sol. 25 ; Schol. ad Aristoph. Av. 1360; Schol. ad Apoll. Rlivd. iv. 280; Harpocrat. 6 /carc60e;/ v6fj.os; Her-

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BALNEAE.

maim, Gricch. Staatsalterth. § 107, n. 1 ; Wachs-muth HelL Alterthumsk. vol. i. p. 491, 2nd ed.)

B.

**BACCHANALIA. [dionysia.] BAKTE'RIA (j3a«Tijpfa), a staff borne by the dicasts. at Athens. [DicASTES.]

**BALATRO, a professional jester, buffoon, or parasite. (Hor. Sat. i. 2. 2.) In Horace (Sat ii. 8. 21) Balatro is used as a proper name—Servilius Balatro. An old Scholiast, in commenting on this word, derives the common word from the proper names ; buffoons being called balatrones, because Servilius Balatro was. a buffoon: but this is op­posed to the natural inference from the former pas­sage, and was said to get rid of a difficulty. Festus derives the word from blatea, and supposes buffoons to have been called balatrones, because they were dirty follows, and were covered with spots of mud (blateae\ with which they got spattered in walking; but this is opposed to sound etymology and com­mon sense. Another writer has derived it from barathrum, and supposes buffoons to have been called balatrones, because they, so to speak, carried their jesting to market, even into the very depth (barathrum) of the shambles (barathrum macelU^ Hor. Ep. i. 15. 31). Perhaps balatro may be connected with bala-re (to bleat like a sheep, and hence) to speak sillily. It is probably connected with blatero, a busy-body. (Gell. i. 15.) Bala­trones were paid for their jests, and the tables of the wealthy were generally open to them for the sake of the amusement they afforded. [A. A.J

BALISTA. [TORMENTUM.]

**BALNEAE, Balineae, Balneum, Balineum, Thermae (a.(rafJiivQos,fiaKav€iov, \oerp6v, Xovrpov). These words are all commonly translated by our general term bath or baths ; but in the writings of the earlier and better authors they are used with, discrimination. Balneum or balineum, which is derived from the Greek _fiaXaveiov (_Varro, De Ling. Lat. ix. 68, ed. Miiller), signifies, in its primary sense, a bath or bathing-vessel, such as most persons of any consequence amongst the Ro­mans possessed in their own houses (Cic. Ad Alt. ii. 3), and hence the chamber which contained the bath (Cic. Ad Fam. xiv. 20), which is also the proper translation of the word balnearium. The diminutive balneolum is adopted by Seneca (Ep. 86) to designate the bath-room of Scipio, in the villa at Liternum, and is expressly used to cha­racterise the modesty of republican manners as compared with the luxury of his own times. But when the baths of private individuals became more sumptuous, and comprised many rooms, instead of the one small chamber described by Seneca, the plural balnea or balinea was adopted, which still, in correct language, had reference only to the baths of private persons. Thus Cicero terms the baths at the villa of his brother Quintus (Ad Q. Frat. iii. 1. § 1) balnearia. Balneae and balineae, which according to Varro (De Ling. Lat. viii. 25, ix. 41, ed. Miiller) have no singular number *, were the public baths. Thus Cicero (Pro Gael. 25) speaks of balneas Semas, balneas publicas^ and in vestibulo

* Balnea is, however, used in the singular to de­signate a private bath in an inscription quoted by Reinesius. (Inscr. xi. 115.)