A classical dictionary / containing a copious account of all the proper names mentioned in ancient authors with tables of coins, weights, and measures used among the Greeks and Romans and a chronological table

by John Lemprière

N

Nabazanes, an officer of Darius III., at the battle of Issus. He conspired with Bessus to murder his royal master, either to obtain the favour of Alexander or to seize the kingdom. He was pardoned by Alexander. Curtius, bk. 3, &c.—Diodorus, bk. 17.

Năbăthæa, a country of Arabia, of which the capital was called Petra. The word is often applied to any of the eastern countries of the world by the poets, and seems to be derived from Nabath the son of Ishmael. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 1, li. 61; bk. 5, li. 163.—Strabo, bk. 16.—Lucan, bk. 4, li. 63.—Juvenal, satire 11, li. 126.—Seneca, Hercules Œtaeus, li. 160, &c.

Nābis, a celebrated tyrant of Lacedæmon, who in all acts of cruelty and oppression surpassed a Phalaris or a Dionysius. His house was filled with flatterers and with spies, who were continually employed in watching the words and the actions of his subjects. When he had exercised every art in plundering the citizens of Sparta, he made a statue, which in resemblance was like his wife, and was clothed in the most magnificent apparel, and whenever any one refused to deliver up his riches, the tyrant led him to the statue, which immediately, by means of secret springs, seized him in its arms, and tormented him in the most excruciating manner with bearded points and prickles, hid under the clothes. To render his tyranny more popular, Nabis made an alliance with Flaminius the Roman general, and pursued with the most inveterate enmity the war which he had undertaken against the Achæans. He besieged Gythium and defeated Philopœmen in a naval battle. His triumph was short; the general of the Achæans soon repaired his losses, and Nabis was defeated in an engagement, and treacherously murdered, as he attempted to save his life by flight, B.C. 192, after a usurpation of 14 years. Polybius, bk. 13.—Justin, bks. 30 & 31.—Plutarch, Philopœmen.—Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 8.—Florus, bk. 2, ch. 7.——A priest of Jupiter Ammon, killed in the second Punic war, as he fought against the Romans. Silius Italicus, bk. 15, li. 672.

Nabonassar, a king of Babylon, after the division of the Assyrian monarchy. From him the Nabonassarean epoch received its name, agreeing with the year of the world 3237, or 746 B.C.

Nacri campi, a place of Gallia Togata near Mutina. Livy, bk. 41, ch. 18.

Nadagara. See: [♦]Nagara.

[♦] reference not found

Nænia, the goddess of funerals at Rome, whose temple was without the gates of the city. The songs which were sung at funerals were also called nænia. They were generally filled with the praises of the deceased, but sometimes they were so unmeaning and improper, that the word became proverbial to signify nonsense. Varro, [♦]Antiquitates rerum humanarum et divinarum.—Plautus, Asinaria. [♠]act 4, scene 1, li. 63.

[♦] ‘de Vitâ P. R.’ replaced with ‘Antiquitates rerum humanarum et divinarum’

[♠] ‘41’ replaced with ‘4’

Cnæus Nævius, a Latin poet in the first Punic war. He was originally in the Roman armies, but afterwards he applied himself to study and wrote comedies, besides a poetical account of the first Punic war, in which he had served. His satirical disposition displeased the consul Metellus, who drove him from Rome. He passed the rest of his life in Utica, where he died, about 203 years before the christian era. Some fragments of his poetry are extant. Cicero, Tusculanæ Disputationes, bk. 1, ch. 1; de Senectute.—Horace, bk. 2, ltr. 1, li. 53.——A tribune of the people at Rome, who accused Scipio Africanus of extortion.——An augur in the reign of Tarquin. To convince the king and the Romans of his power as an augur, he cut a flint with a razor, and turned the ridicule of the populace into admiration. Tarquin rewarded his merit by erecting to him a statue in the comitium, which was still in being in the age of Augustus. The razor and flint were buried near it under an altar, and it was usual among the Romans to make witnesses in civil causes swear near it. This miraculous event of cutting a flint with a razor, though believed by some writers, is treated as fabulous and improbable by Cicero, who himself had been an augur. Dionysius of Halicarnassus.—Livy, bk. 1, ch. 36.—Cicero, de Divinatione, bk. 1, ch. 17; De Natura Deorum, bk. 2, ch. 3; bk. 3, ch. 6.

Nævŏlus, an infamous pimp in Domitian’s reign. Juvenal, satire 9, li. 1.

Naharvali, a people of Germany. Tacitus, Germania, ch. 43.

Nāiădes, or Naides, certain inferior deities who presided over rivers, springs, wells, and fountains. The Naiades generally inhabited the country, and resorted to the woods or meadows near the stream over which they presided, whence the name (ναιειν, to flow). They are represented as young and beautiful virgins, often leaning upon an urn, from which flows a stream of water. Ægle was the fairest of the Naiades, according to Virgil. They were held in great veneration among the ancients, and often sacrifices of goats and lambs were offered to them, with libations of wine, honey, and oil. Sometimes they received only offerings of milk, fruit, and flowers. See: [Nymphæ]. Virgil, Eclogues.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 328.—Homer, Odyssey, bk. 13.

Nais, one of the Oceanides, mother of Chiron or Glaucus by Magnes. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9.——A nymph, mother by Bucolion of Ægesus and Pedasus. Homer, Iliad, bk. 6.——A nymph in an island of the Red sea, who by her incantations turned to fishes all those who approached her residence, after she had admitted them to her embraces. She was herself changed into a fish by Apollo. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4, li. 49, &c.——The word is used for water by Tibullus, bk. 3, poem 7.

Naissus, or Nessus, now Nissa, a town of Mœsia, the birthplace of Constantine, ascribed by some to Illyricum or Thrace.

Nantuates, a people of Gaul near the Alps. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 3, ch. 1.

Napææ, certain divinities among the ancients, who presided over the hills and woods of the country. Some suppose that they were tutelary deities of the fountains, and the Naiades of the sea. Their name is derived from ναπη, a grove. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 4, li. 535.

Napata, a town of Æthiopia.

Naphĭlus, a river of Peloponnesus, falling into the Alpheus. Pausanias, bk. 1.

Nar, now Nera, a river of Umbria, whose waters, famous for their sulphureous properties, pass through the lake Velinus, and issuing from thence with great rapidity, fall into the Tiber. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 330.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 517.—Cicero, Letters to Atticus, bk. 4, ltr. 15.—Tacitus, Annals, bk. 1, ch. 79; bk. 3, ch. 9.

Narbo Martius, now Narbonne, a town of Gaul, founded by the consul Marcius, A.U.C. 636. It became the capital of a large province of Gaul, which obtained the name of Gallia Narbonensis. Paterculus, bk. 1, ch. 15; bk. 2, ch. 8.—Pliny, bk. 3.

Narbonensis Gallia, one of the four great divisions of ancient Gaul, was bounded by the Alps, the Pyrenean mountains, Aquitania, Belgicum, and the Mediterranean, and contained the modern provinces of Languedoc, Provence, Dauphiné, and Savoy.

Narcæus, a son of Bacchus and Physcoa. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 15.

Narcea, a surname of Minerva in Elis, from her temple there, erected by Narcæus.

Narcissus, a beautiful youth, son of Cephisus and the nymph Liriope, born at Thespis in Bœotia. He saw his image reflected in a fountain, and became enamoured of it, thinking it to be the nymph of the place. His fruitless attempts to approach this beautiful object so provoked him, that he grew desperate and killed himself. His blood was changed into a flower, which still bears his name. The nymphs raised a funeral pile to burn his body, according to Ovid, but they found nothing but a beautiful flower. Pausanias says that Narcissus had a sister as beautiful as himself, of whom he became deeply enamoured. He often hunted in the woods in her company, but his pleasure was soon interrupted by her death; and still to keep afresh her memory, he frequented the groves, where he had often attended her, or reposed himself on the brim of a fountain, where the sight of his own reflected image still awakened tender sentiments. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 21.—Hyginus, fable 271.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3, li. 346, &c.—Philostratus, bk. 1.——A freedman and secretary of Claudius, who abused his trust and the infirmities of his imperial master, and plundered the citizens of Rome to enrich himself. Messalina, the emperor’s wife, endeavoured to remove him, but Narcissus sacrificed her to his avarice and resentment. Agrippina, who succeeded in the place of Messalina, was more successful. Narcissus was banished by her intrigues, and compelled to kill himself, A.D. 54. The emperor greatly regretted his loss, as he had found him subservient to his most criminal and extravagant pleasures. Tacitus.—Suetonius.——A favourite of the emperor Nero, put to death by Galba.——A wretch who strangled the emperor Commodus.

Nargara, a town of Africa, where Hannibal and Scipio came to a parley. Livy, bk. 30, ch. 29.

Narisci, a nation of Germany, in the Upper Palatinate. Tacitus, Germania, ch. 42.

Narnia, or Narna, anciently Nequinum, now Narni, a town of Umbria, washed by the river Nar, from which it received its name. In its neighbourhood are still visible the remains of an aqueduct and of a bridge, erected by Augustus. Livy, bk. 10, ch. 9.

Naro, now Narenta, a river of Dalmatia, falling into the Adriatic, and having the town of Narona, now called Narenza, on its banks, a little above the mouth.

Narses, a king of Persia, A.D. 294, defeated by Maximianus Galerius, after a reign of seven years.——A eunuch in the court of Justinian, who was deemed worthy to succeed Belisarius, &c.——A Persian general, &c.

Narthēcis, a small island near Samos.

Narycia, Narycium, or Naryx, a town of Magna Græcia, built by a colony of Locrians after the fall of Troy. The place in Greece from which they came bore the same name, and was the country of Ajax Oileus. The word Narycian is more universally understood as applying to the Italian colony, near which pines and other trees grew in abundance. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, li. 438; Æneid, bk. 3, li. 399.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 15, li. 705.

Nasămōnes, a savage people of Libya near the Syrtes, who generally lived upon plunder. Curtius, bk. 4, ch. 7.—Lucan, bk. 9, li. 439.—Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 165.—Silius Italicus, bk. 2, li. 116; bk. 11, li. 180.

Nascio, or Natio, a goddess at Rome who presided over the birth of children. She had a temple at Ardea. Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 3, ch. 18.

Nasīca, the surname of one of the Scipios. Nasica was the first who invented the measuring of time by water, B.C. 159, about 134 years after the introduction of sun-dials at Rome. See: [Scipio].——An avaricious fellow who married his daughter to Coranus, a man as mean as himself, that he might not only not repay the money he had borrowed, but moreover become his creditor’s heir. Coranus, understanding his meaning, purposely alienated his property from him and his daughter, and exposed him to ridicule. Horace, bk. 2, satire 5, li. 64, &c.

Nasidiēnus, a Roman knight, whose luxury, arrogance, and ostentation, exhibited at an entertainment which he gave to Mecænas, were ridiculed by Horace, bk. 2, satire 8.

Lucius Nasidius, a man sent by Pompey to assist the people of Massilia. After the battle of Pharsalia, he followed the interests of Pompey’s children, and afterwards revolted to Antony. Appian.

Naso, one of the murderers of Julius Cæsar.——One of Ovid’s names. See: [Ovidius].

Nassus, or Nasus, a town of Acarnania, near the mouth of the Achelous. Livy, bk. 26, ch. 24. Also a part of the town of Syracuse.

Nasua, a general of the Suevi, when Cæsar was in Gaul.

Natālis Antonius, a Roman knight who conspired against Nero with Piso. He was pardoned for discovering the conspiracy, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 15, ch. 50.

Natiso, now Natisone, a river rising in the Alps, and falling into the Adriatic east of Aquileia. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 18.

Natta, a man whose manner of living was so mean, that his name became almost proverbial at Rome. Horace, bk. 1, ode 6, li. 224.

Nava, now Nape, a river of Germany, falling into the Rhine at Bingen, below Mentz. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 4, ch. 70.

Naubŏlus, a charioteer of Laius king of Thebes.——A Phocean, father of Iphitus. The sons of Iphitus were called Naubolides, from their grandfather.——A son of Lernus, one of the Argonauts.

Naucles, a general of the mercenary troops of Lacedæmon against Thebes, &c.

Naucrătes, a Greek poet, who was employed by Artemisia to write a panegyric upon Mausolus.——Another poet. Athenæus, bk. 9.——An orator who endeavoured to alienate the cities of Lycia from the interest of Brutus.

Naucrătis, a city of Egypt on the left side of the Canopic mouth of the Nile. It was celebrated for its commerce, and no ship was permitted to land at any other place, but was obliged to sail directly to the city, there to deposit its cargo. It gave birth to Athenæus. The inhabitants were called Naucratitæ, or Naucratiotæ. Herodotus, bk. 2, chs. 97 & 179.—Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 9.

Navius Actius, a famous augur. See: [Nævius].

Naulŏchus, a maritime town of Sicily near Pelorum.——A town of Thrace on the Euxine sea. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 11.——A promontory of the island of Imbros.——A town of the Locri. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 3.

Naupactus, or Naupactum, a city of Ætolia, at the mouth of the Evenus, now called Lepanto. The word is derived from ναυς and πηγνυμι because it was there that the Heraclidæ built the first ship, which carried them to Peloponnesus. It first belonged to the Locri Ozolæ, and afterwards fell into the hands of the Athenians, who gave it to the Messenians, who had been driven from Peloponnesus by the Lacedæmonians. It became the property of the Lacedæmonians, after the battle of Ægospotamos, and it was restored to the Locri. Philip of Macedonia afterwards took it, and gave it to the Ætolians, from which circumstance it has generally been called one of the chief cities of their country. Strabo, bk. 4.—Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 25.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 3.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 2, li. 43.

Nauplia, a maritime city of Peloponnesus, the naval station of the Argives. The famous fountain Canathos was in its neighbourhood. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 38.—Strabo, bk. 8.

Naupliădes, a patronymic of Palamedes son of Nauplius. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, li. 39.

Nauplius, a son of Neptune and Amymone, king of Eubœa. He was father to the celebrated Palamedes, who was so unjustly sacrificed to the artifice and resentment of Ulysses by the Greeks during the Trojan war. The death of Palamedes highly irritated Nauplius, and to avenge the injustice of the Grecian princes, he attempted to debauch their wives and ruin their character. When the Greeks returned from the Trojan war, Nauplius saw them with pleasure distressed in a storm on the coasts of Eubœa, and to make their disaster still more universal, he lighted fires on such places as were surrounded with the most dangerous rocks, that the fleet might be shipwrecked upon the coast. This succeeded, but Nauplius was so disappointed when he saw Ulysses and Diomedes escape from the general calamity, that he threw himself into the sea. According to some mythologists, there were two persons of this name.——A native of Argos, who went to Colchis with Jason. He was son of Neptune and Amymone. The other was king of Eubœa, and lived during the Trojan war. He was, according to some, son of Clytonas, one of the descendants of Nauplius the Argonaut. The Argonaut was remarkable for his knowledge of sea affairs, and of astronomy. He built the town of Nauplia, and sold Auge daughter of Aleus to king Teuthras, to withdraw her from her father’s resentment. Orpheus, Argonautica.—Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Apollonius, bk. 1, &c.—Flaccus, bks. 1 & 5.—Strabo, bk. 8.—Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 35.—Hyginus, fable 116.

Nauportus, a town of Pannonia on a river of the same name, now called Ober, or Upper Laybach. Velleius Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 110.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 18.—Tacitus, Annals, bk. 1, ch. 20.

Naura, a country of Scythia in Asia. Curtius, bk. 3.——Of India within the Ganges. Arrian.

Nausĭcaa, a daughter of Alcinous king of the Phæaceans. She met Ulysses shipwrecked on her father’s coasts, and it was to her humanity that he owed the kind reception which he experienced from the king. She married, according to Aristotle and Dictys, Telemachus the son of Ulysses, by whom she had a son called Perseptolis or Ptoliporthus. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 6.—Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 19.—Hyginus, fable 126.

Nausĭcles, an Athenian, sent to assist the Phocians with 5000 foot, &c.

Nausīmĕnes, an Athenian, whose wife lost her voice from the alarm she received in seeing her son guilty of incest.

Nausithoe, one of the Nereides.

Nausithous, a king of the Phæaceans, father to Alcinous. He was son of Neptune and Peribœa. Hesiod makes him son of Ulysses and Calypso. Hesiod, Theogony, bk. 1, li. 16.——The pilot of the vessel which carried Theseus into Crete.

Naustathmus, a port of Phocæa in Ionia. Livy, bk. 37, ch. 31.——Also a part of Cyrenaica, now Bondaria. Strabo, bk. 17.

Nautes, a Trojan soothsayer, who comforted Æneas when his fleet had been burnt in Sicily. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 704. He was the progenitor of the Nautii at Rome, a family to whom the Palladium of Troy was, in consequence of the service of their ancestors, entrusted. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 794.

Naxos, now Naxia, a celebrated island in the Ægean sea, the largest and most fertile of all the Cyclades, about 105 miles in circumference, and 30 broad. It was formerly called Strongyle, Dia, Dionysias, and Callipolis, and received the name of Naxos from Naxus, who was at the head of a Carian colony, which settled in the island. Naxos abounds with all sorts of fruits, and its wines are still in the same repute as formerly. The Naxians were anciently governed by kings, but they afterwards exchanged this form of government for a republic, and enjoyed their liberty till the age of Pisistratus, who appointed a tyrant over them. They were reduced by the Persians; but in the expedition of Darius and Xerxes against Greece, they revolted and fought on the side of the Greeks. During the Peloponnesian war, they supported the interest of Athens. Bacchus was the chief deity of the island. The capital was also called Naxos; and near it, on the 20th Sept., B.C. 377, the Lacedæmonians were defeated by Chabrias. Thucydides, bk. 1, &c.—Herodotus.—Diodorus, bk. 5, &c.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3, li. 636.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 125.—Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 16.—Pindar.——An ancient town on the eastern side of Sicily, founded 759 years before the christian era. There was also another town at the distance of five miles from Naxos, which bore the same name, and was often called, by contradistinction, Taurominium. Pliny, bk. 3.—Diodorus, bk. 13.——A town of Crete, noted for hones. Pliny, bk. 36, ch. 7.——A Carian who gave his name to the greatest of the Cyclades.

Nazianzus, a town of Cappadocia where St. Gregory was born, and hence he is called Nazianzenus.

Nea, or Nova insula, a small island between Lemnos and the Hellespont, which rose out of the sea during an earthquake. Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 87.

Neæra, a nymph, mother of Phaetusa and Lampetia by the Sun. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 12.——A woman mentioned by Virgil’s Eclogues, poem 3.——A mistress of the poet Tibullus.——A favourite of Horace.——A daughter of Pereus, who married Aleus, by whom she had Cepheus, Lycurgus, and Auge, who was ravished by Hercules. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 9.—Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 4.——The wife of Autolycus. Pausanias.——A daughter of Niobe and Amphion.——The wife of Strymon. Apollodorus.

Neæthus, now Neto, a river of Magna Græcia near Crotona. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 15, li. 51.

Nealces, a friend of Turnus in his war against Æneas. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 753.

Nealices, a painter, amongst whose capital pieces are mentioned a painting of Venus, a sea-fight between the Persians and Egyptians, and an ass drinking on the shore, with a crocodile preparing to attack it.

Neandros (or ia), a town of Troas. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 30.

Neanthes, an orator and historian of Cyzicum, who flourished 257 years B.C.

Neapŏlis, a city of Campania, anciently called Parthenope, and now known by the name of Naples, rising like an amphitheatre at the back of a beautiful bay 30 miles in circumference. As the capital of that part of Italy, it is now inhabited by upwards of 350,000 souls, who exhibit the opposite marks of extravagant magnificence, and extreme poverty. Augustus called it Neapolis. Suetonius, Augustus, ch. 98.——A town in Africa.——A city of Thrace.——A town of Egypt,——of Palestine,——of Ionia.——Also a part of Syracuse. Livy, bk. 25, ch. 24.—Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 5.

Nearchus, an officer of Alexander in his Indian expedition. He was ordered to sail upon the Indian ocean with Onesicritus, and to examine it. He wrote an account of this voyage and of the king’s life; but his veracity has been called in question by Arrian. After the king’s death he was appointed over Lycia and Pamphylia. Curtius, bk. 9, ch. 10.—Polyænus, bk. 9.—Justin, bk. 13, ch. 4.—Strabo, bk. 2, &c.——A beautiful youth, &c. Horace, bk. 3, ode 20.——An old man mentioned by Cicero, de Senectute.

Nebo, a high mountain near Palestine, beyond Jordan, from the top of which Moses was permitted to view the promised land.

Nebrissa, a town of Spain, now Lebrixa.

Nebrōdes, a mountain of Sicily, where the Himera rises. Silius Italicus, bk. 14, li. 237.

Nebrophŏnos, a son of Jason and Hypsipyle. Apollodorus.——One of Actæon’s dogs. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3.

Nebŭla, a name given to Nephele the wife of Athamas. Lactantius [Placidus] on Achilleid of Statius, bk. 1, ch. 65.

Necessĭtas, a divinity who presided over the destinies of mankind, and who was regarded as the mother of the Parcæ. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 4.

Nechos, a king of Egypt, who attempted to make a communication between the Mediterranean and Red seas, B.C. 610. No less than 12,000 men perished in the attempt. It was discovered in his reign that Africa was circumnavigable. Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 158; bk. 4, ch. 42.

Necropŏlis, one of the suburbs of Alexandria.

Nectanēbus and Nectanābis, a king of Egypt, who defended his country against the Persians, and was succeeded by Tachos, B.C. 363. His grandson, of the same name, made an alliance with Agesilaus king of Sparta, and with his assistance he quelled a rebellion of his subjects. Some time after he was joined by the Sidonians, Phœnicians, and inhabitants of Cyprus, who had revolted from the king of Persia. This powerful confederacy was soon attacked by Darius the king of Persia, who marched at the head of his troops. Nectanebus, to defend his frontiers against so dangerous an enemy, levied 20,000 mercenary soldiers in Greece, the same number in Libya, and 60,000 were furnished in Egypt. This numerous body was not equal to the Persian forces; and Nectanebus, defeated in a battle, gave up all hopes of resistance, and fled into Æthiopia, B.C. 350, where he found a safe asylum. His kingdom of Egypt became from that time tributary to the king of Persia. Plutarch, Agesilaus.—Diodorus, bk. 16, &c.—Polyænus.—Cornelius Nepos, Agesilaus.

Necysia, a solemnity observed by the Greeks in memory of the dead.

Neis, the wife of Endymion. Apollodorus.

Neleus, a son of Neptune and Tyro. He was brother to Pelias, with whom he was exposed by his mother, who wished to conceal her infirmities from her father. They were preserved and brought to Tyro, who had then married Cretheus king of Iolchos. After the death of Cretheus, Pelias and Neleus seized the kingdom of Iolchos, which belonged to Æson, the lawful son of Tyro by the deceased monarch. After they had reigned for some time conjointly, Pelias expelled Neleus from Iolchos. Neleus came to Aphareus king of Messenia, who treated him with kindness, and permitted him to build a city, which he called Pylos. Neleus married Chloris the daughter of Amphion, by whom he had a daughter and 12 sons, who were all, except Nestor, killed by Hercules, together with their father. Neleus promised his daughter in marriage only to him who brought him the bulls of Iphiclus. Bias was the successful lover. See: [Melampus]. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6, li. 418.—Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 36.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 2, ch. 6.——A river of Eubœa.

Nelo, one of the Danaides. Apollodorus, bk. 2.

Nemæa, a town of Argolis between Cleonæ and Phlius, with a wood, where Hercules, in the 16th year of his age, killed the celebrated Nemæan lion. This animal, born of the hundred-headed Typhon, infested the neighbourhood of Nemæa, and kept the inhabitants under continual alarms. It was the first labour of Hercules to destroy it; and the hero, when he found that his arrows and his club were useless against an animal whose skin was hard and impenetrable, seized him in his arms and squeezed him to death. The conqueror clothed himself in the skin, and games were instituted to commemorate so great an event. The Nemæan games were originally instituted by the Argives in honour of Archemorus, who died by the bite of a serpent [See: [Archemorus]], and Hercules some time after renewed them. They were one of the four great and solemn games which were observed in Greece. The Argives, Corinthians, and the inhabitants of Cleonæ generally presided by turns at the celebration, in which were exhibited foot and horse races, chariot races, boxing, wrestling, and contests of every kind, both gymnical and equestrian. The conqueror was rewarded with a crown of olives, afterwards of green parsley, in memory of the adventure of Archemorus, whom his nurse laid down on a sprig of that plant. They were celebrated every third, or, according to others, every fifth year, or more properly on the first and third year of every Olympiad, on the 12th day of the Corinthian month Panemos, which corresponds to our August. They served as an era to the Argives, and to the inhabitants of the neighbouring country. It was always usual for an orator to pronounce a funeral oration in memory of the death of Archemorus, and those who distributed the prizes were always dressed in mourning. Livy, bk. 27, chs. 30 & 31; bk. 34, ch. 41.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 9, li. 97, Epistles, ltr. 9, li. 61.—Pausanias, Corinthia.—Clement of Alexandria.—Athenæus.—Polyænus.—Strabo, bk. 8.—Hyginus, fables 30 & 273.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 6.——A river of Peloponnesus falling into the bay of Corinth. Livy, bk. 33, ch. 15.

Nemausus, a town of Gaul, in Languedoc, near the mouth of the Rhone, now Nismes.

Nemesia, festivals in honour of Nemesis. See: [Nemesis].

Marcus Aurelius Olympius Nemesiānus, a Latin poet, born at Carthage, of no very brilliant talents, in the third century, whose poems on hunting and bird-catching were published by Burman, inter scriptores rei venaticæ, 4to, Leiden, 1728.

Nĕmĕsis, one of the infernal deities, daughter of Nox. She was the goddess of vengeance, always prepared to punish impiety, and at the same time liberally to reward the good and virtuous. She is made one of the Parcæ by some mythologists, and is represented with a helm and a wheel. The people of Smyrna were the first who made her statues with wings, to show with what celerity she is prepared to punish the crimes of the wicked, both by sea and land, as the helm and the wheel in her hands intimate. Her power did not only exist in this life, but she was also employed after death to find out the most effectual and rigorous means of correction. Nemesis was particularly worshipped at Rhamnus in Attica, where she had a celebrated statue 10 cubits long, made of Parian marble by Phidias, or, according to others, by one of his pupils. The Romans were also particularly attentive to the adoration of a deity whom they solemnly invoked, and to whom they offered sacrifices before they declared war against their enemies, to show the world that their wars were undertaken upon the most just grounds. Her statue at Rome was in the Capitol. Some suppose that Nemesis was the person whom Jupiter deceived in the form of a swan, and that Leda was entrusted with the care of the children which sprang from the two eggs. Others observe that Leda obtained the name of Nemesis after death. According to Pausanias, there were more than one Nemesis. The goddess Nemesis was surnamed Rhamnusia because worshipped at Rhamnus, and Adrastia from the temple which Adrastus king of Argos erected to her, when he went against Thebes, to revenge the indignities which his son-in-law Polynices had suffered in being unjustly driven from his kingdom by Eteocles. The Greeks celebrated a festival called Nemesia, in memory of deceased persons, as the goddess Nemesis was supposed to defend the relics and the memory of the dead from all insult. Hyginus, Poetica Astronomica, bk. 2, ch. 8.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 33.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 10.——Hesiod, Theogony, li. 224.—Pliny, bk. 11, ch. 28; bk. 26, ch. 5.——A mistress of Tibullus, bk. 2, poem 3, li. 55.

Nemesius, a Greek writer, whose elegant and useful treatise, de Naturâ Hominis, was edited in 12mo, Ant. apud Plant. 1565, and in 8vo, Oxford, 1671.

Nemetacum, a town of Gaul, now Arras.

Nemetes, a nation of Germany, now forming the inhabitants of Spire, which was afterwards called Noviomagus. Tacitus, Germania, ch. 28.

Nemoralia, festivals observed in the woods of Aricia, in honour of Diana, who presided over the country and the forests, on which account that part of Italy was sometimes denominated Nemorensis ager. Ovid, de Ars Amatoria, bk. 1, li. 259.

Nemossus (or um), the capital of the Arverni in Gaul, now Clermont. Lucan, bk. 1, li. 419.—Strabo, bk. 4.

Neobūle, a daughter of Lycambes, betrothed to the poet Archilochus. See: [Lycambes]. Horace, epode 6, li. 13; bk. 1, ltr. 3, li. 79.—Ovid, Ibis, li. 54.——A beautiful woman, to whom Horace addressed bk. 3, ode 12.

Neocæsaria, a town of Pontus.

Neochabis, a king of Egypt.

Neŏcles, an Athenian philosopher, father, or according to Cicero, brother to the philosopher Epicurus. Cicero, bk. 1, de Natura Deorum, ch. 21.—Diogenes Laërtius.——The father of Themistocles. Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 2, &c.—Cornelius Nepos, Themistocles.

Neogĕnes, a man who made himself absolute, &c. Diodorus, bk. 15.

Neomoris, one of the Nereides. Apollodorus, bk. 1.

Neon, a town of Phocis.——There was also another of the same name in the same country, on the top of Parnassus. It was afterwards called Tithorea. Plutarch, Sulla.—Pausanias, Phocis.—Herodotus, bk. 8, ch. 32.——One of the commanders of the 10,000 Greeks who assisted Cyrus against Artaxerxes.

Neontīchos, a town of Æolia near the Hermus. Herodotus.—Pliny.

Neōptŏlĕmus, a king of Epirus, son of Achilles and Deidamia, called Pyrrhus from the yellow colour of his hair. He was carefully educated under the eye of his mother, and gave early proofs of his valour. After the death of Achilles, Calchas declared, in the assembly of the Greeks, that Troy could not be taken without the assistance of the son of the deceased hero. Immediately upon this, Ulysses and Phœnix were commissioned to bring Pyrrhus to the war. He returned with them with pleasure, and received the name of Neoptolemus (new soldier), because he had come late to the field. On his arrival before Troy, he paid a visit to the tomb of his father, and wept over his ashes. He afterwards, according to some authors, accompanied Ulysses to Lemnos, to engage Philoctetes to come to the Trojan war. He greatly signalized himself during the remaining time of the siege, and he was the first who entered the wooden horse. He was inferior to none of the Grecian warriors in valour, and Ulysses and Nestor alone could claim a superiority over him in eloquence, wisdom, and address. His cruelty, however, was as great as that of his father. Not satisfied with breaking down the gates of Priam’s palace, he exercised the greatest barbarities upon the remains of his family, and without any regard to the sanctity of the place where Priam had taken refuge, he slaughtered him without mercy; or, according to others, dragged him by the hair to the tomb of his father, where he sacrificed him, and where he cut off his head, and carried it in exultation through the streets of Troy, fixed on the point of a spear. He also sacrificed Astyanax to his fury, and immolated Polyxena on the tomb of Achilles, according to those who deny that that sacrifice was voluntary. When Troy was taken, the captives were divided among the conquerors, and Pyrrhus had for his share Andromache the widow of Hector, and Helenus the son of Priam. With these he departed for Greece, and he probably escaped from destruction by giving credit to the words of Helenus, who foretold him that, if he sailed with the rest of the Greeks, his voyage would be attended with fatal consequences, and perhaps with death. This obliged him to take a different course from the rest of the Greeks, and he travelled over the greatest part of Thrace, where he had a severe encounter with queen Harpalyce. See: [Harpalyce]. The place of his retirement after the Trojan war is not known. Some maintain that he went to Thessaly, where his grandfather still reigned; but this is confuted by others, who observe, perhaps with more reason, that he went to Epirus, where he laid the foundation of a new kingdom, because his grandfather Peleus had been deprived of his sceptre by Acastus the son of Pelias. Neoptolemus lived with Andromache after his arrival in Greece, but it is unknown whether he treated her as a lawful wife or a concubine. He had a son by this unfortunate princess, called Molossus, and two others, if we rely on the authority of Pausanias. Besides Andromache, he married Hermione the daughter of Menelaus, as also Lanassa the daughter of Cleodæus, one of the descendants of Hercules. The cause of his death is variously related. Menelaus, before the Trojan war, had promised his daughter Hermione to Orestes, but the services he experienced from the valour and the courage of Neoptolemus during the siege of Troy, induced him to reward his merit by making him his son-in-law. The nuptials were accordingly celebrated, but Hermione became jealous of Andromache, and because she had no children, she resolved to destroy her Trojan rival, who seemed to steal away the affections of their common husband. In the absence of Neoptolemus at Delphi, Hermione attempted to murder Andromache, but she was prevented by the interference of Peleus, or, according to others, of the populace. When she saw her schemes defeated, she determined to lay violent hands upon herself, to avoid the resentment of Neoptolemus. The sudden arrival of Orestes changed her resolution, and she consented to elope with her lover to Sparta. Orestes at the same time, to revenge and to punish his rival, caused him to be assassinated in the temple of Delphi, and he was murdered at the foot of the altar by Machareus the priest, or by the hand of Orestes himself, according to Virgil, Paterculus, and Hyginus. Some say that he was murdered by the Delphians, who had been bribed by the presents of Orestes. It is unknown why Neoptolemus went to Delphi. Some support that he wished to consult the oracle to know how he might have children by the barren Hermione; others say that he went thither to offer the spoils which he had obtained during the Trojan war, to appease the resentment of Apollo, whom he had provoked by calling him the cause of the death of Achilles. The plunder of the rich temple of Delphi, if we believe others, was the object of the journey of Neoptolemus, and it cannot but be observed that he suffered the same death and the same barbarities which he had inflicted in the temple of Minerva upon the aged Priam and his wretched family. From this circumstance, the ancients have made use of the proverb Neoptolemic revenge, when a person had suffered the same savage treatment which others had received from his hand. The Delphians celebrated a festival with great pomp and solemnity in memory of Neoptolemus, who had been slain in his attempt to plunder their temple, because, as they said, Apollo, the patron of the place, had been in some manner accessary to the death of Achilles. Paterculus, bk. 1, ch. 1.—Virgil, Æneid, bks. 2 & 3.—Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 24.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, lis. 334, 455, &c.; Heroides, poem 8.—Strabo, bk. 9.—Pindar, Nemean, poem 7.—Euripides, Andromache & Orestes, &c.—Plutarch, Pyrrhus.—Justin, bk. 17, ch. 3.—Dictys Cretensis, bks. 4, 5, & 6.—Homer, Odyssey, bk. 11, li. 504; Iliad, bk. 19, li. 326.—Sophocles, Philoctetes.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 13.—Hyginus, fables 97 & 102.—Philostratus, Heroicus, ch. 19, &c.—Dares Phrygius.—Quintus Smyrnæus, bk. 14.——A king of the Molossi, father of Olympias the mother of Alexander. Justin, bk. 17, ch. 3.——Another, king of Epirus.——An uncle of the celebrated Pyrrhus who assisted the Tarentines. He was made king of Epirus by the Epirots, who had revolted from their lawful sovereign, and was put to death when he attempted to poison his nephew, &c. Plutarch, Pyrrhus.——A tragic poet of Athens, greatly favoured by Philip king of Macedonia. When Cleopatra, the monarch’s daughter, was married to Alexander of Epirus, he wrote some verses which proved to be prophetic of the tragical death of Philip. Diodorus, bk. 16.——A relation of Alexander. He was the first who climbed the walls of Gaza when that city was taken by Alexander. After the king’s death he received Armenia as his province, and made war against Eumenes. He was supported by Craterus, but an engagement with Eumenes proved fatal to his cause. Craterus was killed, and himself mortally wounded by Eumenes, B.C. 321. Cornelius Nepos, Eumenes.——One of the officers of Mithridates the Great, beaten by Lucullus in a naval battle. Plutarch, Lucullus.——A tragic writer.

Neoris, a large country of Asia, near Gedrosia, almost destitute of waters. The inhabitants were called Neoritæ, and it was usual among them to suspend their dead bodies from the boughs of trees. Diodorus, bk. 17.

Nepe, a constellation of the heavens, the same as Scorpio.——An inland town of Etruria, called also Nepete, whose inhabitants are called Nepesini. Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 490.—Livy, bk. 5, ch. 19; bk. 26, ch. 34.

Nephalia, festivals in Greece, in honour of Mnemosyne the mother of the Muses, and Aurora, Venus, &c. No wine was used during the ceremony, but merely a mixture of water and honey. Pollux, bk. 6, ch. 3.—Athenæus, bk. 15.—Suidas.

Nĕphĕle, the first wife of Athamas king of Thebes, and mother of Phryxus and Helle. She was repudiated on pretence of being subject to fits of insanity, and Athamas married Ino the daughter of Cadmus, by whom he had several children. Ino became jealous of Nephele, because her children would succeed to their father’s throne before hers, by right of seniority, and she resolved to destroy them. Nephele was apprised of her wicked intentions, and she removed her children from the reach of Ino, by giving them a celebrated ram, sprung from the union of Neptune and Theophane, on whose back they escaped to Colchis. See: [Phryxus]. Nephele was afterwards changed into a cloud, whence her name is given by the Greeks to the clouds. Some call her Nebula, which word is the Latin translation of Nephele. The fleece of the ram, which saved the life of Nephele’s children, is often called the Nephelian fleece. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9.—Hyginus, fable 2, &c.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 11, li. 195.—Flaccus, bk. 11, li. 56.——A mountain of Thessaly, once the residence of the Centaurs.

Nephĕlis, a cape of Cilicia. Livy, bk. 33, ch. 20.

Nepherītes, a king of Egypt, who assisted the Spartans against Persia, when Agesilaus was in Asia. He sent them a fleet of 100 ships, which were intercepted by Conon, as they were sailing towards Rhodes, &c. Diodorus, bk. 14.

Nephus, a son of Hercules.

Nepia, a daughter of Jasus, who married Olympus king of Mysia, whence the plains of Mysia are sometimes called Nepiæ campi.

Nepos, Cornelius, a celebrated historian in the reign of Augustus. He was born at Hostilia, and, like the rest of his learned contemporaries, he shared the favours and enjoyed the patronage of the emperor. He was the intimate friend of Cicero and of Atticus, and recommended himself to the notice of the great and opulent by delicacy of sentiment and a lively disposition. According to some writers, he composed three books of chronicles, as also a biographical account of all the most celebrated kings, generals, and authors of antiquity. Of all his valuable compositions, nothing remains but his lives of the illustrious Greek and Roman generals, which have often been attributed to Æmylius Probus, who published them in his own name in the age of Theodosius, to conciliate the favour and the friendship of that emperor. The language of Cornelius has always been admired, and as a writer of the Augustan age, he is entitled to many commendations for the delicacy of his expressions, the elegance of his style, and the clearness and precision of his narrations. Some support that he translated Dares Phrygius from the Greek original; but the inelegance of the diction, and its many incorrect expressions, plainly prove that it is the production, not of a writer of the Augustan age, but the spurious composition of a more modern pen. Cornelius speaks of his account of the Greek historians Dion, ch. 3. Among the many good editions of Cornelius Nepos, two may be selected as the best, that of Verheyk, 8vo, Leiden, 1773, and that of Glasgow, 12mo, 1761.——Julius, an emperor of the west, &c.

Nepotiānus Flavius Popilius, a son of Eutropia the sister of the emperor Constantine. He proclaimed himself emperor after the death of his cousin Constans, and rendered himself odious by his cruelty and oppression. He was murdered by Anicetus, after one month’s reign, and his family were involved in his ruin.

Nepthys, wife of Typhon, became enamoured of Osiris her brother-in-law, and introduced herself to his bed. She had a son called Anubis by him. Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride.

Neptūni fanum, a place near Cenchreæ. Mela, bk. 1, ch. 19.——Another in the island of Calauria.——Another near Mantinea.

Neptūnia, a town and colony of Magna Græcia.

Neptūnium, a promontory of Arabia at the entrance of the gulf.

Neptūnius, an epithet applied to Sextus Pompey, because he believed himself to be god of the sea, or descended from him, on account of his superiority in ships, &c. Horace epode 9.—Dio Cassius, bk. 48.

Neptūnus, a god, son of Saturn and Ops, and brother to Jupiter, Pluto, and Juno. He was devoured by his father the day of his birth, and again restored to life by means of Metis, who gave Saturn a certain potion. Pausanias says that his mother concealed him in a sheepfold in Arcadia, and that she imposed upon her husband, telling him that she had brought a colt into the world, which was instantly devoured by Saturn. Neptune shared with his brothers the empire of Saturn, and received as his portion the kingdom of the sea. This, however, did not seem equivalent to the empire of heaven and earth, which Jupiter had claimed, therefore he conspired to dethrone him, with the rest of the gods. The conspiracy was discovered, and Jupiter condemned Neptune to build the walls of Troy. See: [Laomedon]. A reconciliation was soon after made, and Neptune was reinstituted to all his rights and privileges. Neptune disputed with Minerva the right of giving a name to the capital of Cecropia, but he was defeated, and the olive which the goddess suddenly raised from the earth was deemed more serviceable for the good of mankind than the horse which Neptune had produced by striking the ground with his trident, as that animal is the emblem of war and slaughter. This decision did not please Neptune; he renewed the combat by disputing for Trœzene, but Jupiter settled their disputes by permitting them to be conjointly worshipped there, and by giving the name of Polias, or the protectress of the city, to Minerva, and that of king of Trœzene to the god of the sea. He also disputed his right for the isthmus of Corinth with Apollo; and Briareus the Cyclops, who was mutually chosen umpire, gave the isthmus to Neptune, and the promontory to Apollo. Neptune, as being god of the sea, was entitled to more power than any of the other gods, except Jupiter. Not only the ocean, rivers, and fountains were subjected to him, but he also could cause earthquakes at his pleasure, and raise islands from the bottom of the sea with a blow of his trident. The worship of Neptune was established in almost every part of the earth, and the Libyans in particular venerated him above all other nations, and looked upon him as the first and greatest of the gods. The Greeks and the Romans were also attached to his worship, and they celebrated their isthmian games and Consualia with the greatest solemnity. He was generally represented sitting in a chariot made of a shell, and drawn by sea-horses or dolphins. Sometimes he is drawn by winged horses, and holds his trident in his hand, and stands up as his chariot flies over the surface of the sea. Homer represents him as issuing from the sea, and in three steps crossing the whole horizon. The mountains and the forests, says the poet, trembled as he walked; the whales, and all the fishes of the sea, appear round him, and even the sea herself seems to feel the presence of her god. The ancients generally sacrificed a bull and a horse on his altars, and the Roman soothsayers always offered to him the gall of the victims, which in taste resembles the bitterness of the sea water. The amours of Neptune are numerous. He obtained, by means of a dolphin, the favours of Amphitrite, who had made a vow of perpetual celibacy, and he placed among the constellations the fish which had persuaded the goddess to become his wife. He also married Venilia and Salacia, which are only the names of Amphitrite according to some authors, who observed that the former word is derived from venire, alluding to the continual motion of the sea. Salacia is derived from Salum, which signifies the sea, and is applicable to Amphitrite. Neptune became a horse to enjoy the company of Ceres. See: [Arion]. To deceive Theophane, he changed himself into a ram. See: [Theophane]. He assumed the form of the river Enipeus, to gain the confidence of Tyro the daughter of Salmoneus, by whom he had Pelias and Neleus. He was also father of Phorcus and Polyphemus by Thoossa; of Lycus, Nycteus, and Euphemus by Celeno; of Chryses by Chrysogenia; of Ancæus by Astypalea; of Bœotus and Helen by Antiope; of Leuconoe by Themisto; of Agenor and Bellerophon by Eurynome the daughter of Nysus; of Antas by Alcyone the daughter of Atlas; of Abas by Arethusa; of Actor and Dictys by Agemede the daughter of Augias; of Megareus by Œnope daughter of Epopeus; of Cycnus by Harpalyce; of Taras, Otus, Ephialtes, Dorus, Alesus, &c. The word Neptunus is often used metaphorically by the poets, to signify sea water. In the Consualia of the Romans, horses were led through the streets finely equipped and crowned with garlands, as the god in whose honour the festivals were instituted had produced the horse, an animal so beneficial for the use of mankind. Pausanias, bks. 1, 2, &c.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 7, &c.—Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 4.—Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 2, ch. 26; bk. 2, ch. 25.—Hesiod, Theogony.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, li. 12, &c.; bks. 2, 3, &c.—Apollodorus, bks. 1, 2, &c.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6, li. 117, &c.—Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 50; bk. 4, ch. 188.—Macrobius, Saturnalia, bk. 1, ch. 17.—Augustine, City of God, bk. 18.—Plutarch, Themistocles.—Hyginus, fable 157.—Euripides, Phœnician Women.—Flaccus.—Apollonius Rhodius.

Nēreĭdes, nymphs of the sea, daughters of Nereus and Doris. They were 50, according to the greater number of the mythologists, whose names are as follows: Sao, Amphitrite, Proto, Galatæa, Thoe, Eucrate, Eudora, Galena, Glauce, Thetis, Spio, Cymothoe, Melita, Thalia, Agave, Eulimene, Erato, Pasithea, Doto, Eunice, Nesea, Dynamene, Pherusa, Protomelia, Actea, Panope, Doris, Cymatolege, Hippothoe, Cymo, Eione, Hipponoe, Cymodoce, Neso, Eupompe, Pronoe, Themisto, Glauconome, Halimede, Pontoporia, Evagora, Liagora, Polynome, Laomedia, Lysianassa, Autonoe, Menippe, Evarne, Psamathe, Nemertes. In those which Homer mentions, to the number of 30, we find the following names different from those spoken of by Hesiod: Halia, Limmoria, Iera, Amphitroe, Dexamene, Amphinome, Callianira, Apseudes, Callanassa, Clymene, Janira, Nassa, Mera, Orythya, Amathea. Apollodorus, who mentions 45, mentions the following names different from the others: Glaucothoe, Protomedusa, Pione, Plesaura, Calypso, Cranto, Neomeris, Dejanira, Polynoe, Melia, Dione, Isea, Dero, Eumolpe, Ione, Ceto. Hyginus and others differ from the preceding authors in the following names: Drymo, Xantho, Ligea, Phyllodoce, Cydippe, Lycorias, Cleio, Beroe, Ephira, Opis, Asia, Deopea, Arethusa, Crenis, Eurydice, and Leucothoe. The Nereides were implored as the rest of the deities; they had altars chiefly on the coast of the sea, where the piety of mankind made offerings of milk, oil, and honey, and often of the flesh of goats. When they were on the sea-shore they generally resided in grottos and caves which were adorned with shells, and shaded by the branches of vines. Their duty was to attend upon the more powerful deities of the sea, and to be subservient to the will of Neptune. They were particularly fond of alcyons, and as they had the power of ruffling or calming the waters, they were always addressed by sailors, who implored their protection, that they might grant them a favourable voyage and a prosperous return. They are represented as young and handsome virgins, sitting on dolphins and holding Neptune’s trident in their hand, or sometimes garlands of flowers. Orpheus, Hymn 23.—Catullus, Marriage of Peleus and Thetis.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 11, li. 361, &c.—Statius, bk. 2, Sylvæ, poem 2; bk. 3, Sylvæ, poem 1.—Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 1.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, chs. 2, & 3.—Hesiod, Theogony.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 18, li. 39.—Pliny, bk. 36, ch. 5.—Hyginus, &c.

Nereius, a name given to Achilles, as son of Thetis, who was one of the Nereides. Horace, epode 17, li. 8.

Nēreus, a deity of the sea, son of Oceanus and Terra. He married Doris, by whom he had 50 daughters, called the Nereides. See: [Nereides]. Nereus was generally represented as an old man with a long flowing beard, and hair of an azure colour. The chief place of his residence was in the Ægean sea, where he was surrounded by his daughters, who often danced in choruses round him. He had the gift of prophecy, and informed those that consulted him with the different fates that attended them. He acquainted Paris with the consequences of his elopement with Helen; and it was by his directions that Hercules obtained the golden apples of the Hesperides. But the sea-god often evaded the importunities of inquirers by assuming different shapes, and totally escaping from their grasp. The word Nereus is often taken for the sea itself. Nereus is sometimes called the most ancient of all the gods. Hesiod, Theogony.—Hyginus.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 18.—Apollodorus.—Orpheus, Argonautica.—Horace, bk. 1, ode 13.—Euripides, Iphigeneia.

Nerio, or Neriēne, the wife of Mars. Aulus Gellius, ch. 21.

Nerĭphus, a desert island near the Thracian Chersonesus.

Nerĭtos, a mountain in the island of Ithaca, as also a small island in the Ionian sea, according to Mela. The word Neritos is often applied to the whole island of Ithaca, and Ulysses the king of it is called Neritius dux, and his ship Neritia navis. The people of Saguntum, as descended from a Neritian colony, are called Neritia proles. Silius Italicus, bk. 2, li. 317.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 271.—Pliny, bk. 4.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, li. 712; Remedia Amoris, li. 263.

Nerĭtum, a town of Calabria, now called Nardo.

Nerius, a silversmith in the age of Horace, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 69.——A usurer in Nero’s age, who was so eager to get money that he married as often as he could, and as soon destroyed his wives by poison, to possess himself of their estates. Persius, bk. 2, li. 14.

Nero Claudius Domitius Cæsar, a celebrated Roman emperor, son of Caius Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina the daughter of Germanicus. He was adopted by the emperor Claudius, A.D. 50, and four years after he succeeded to him on the throne. The beginning of his reign was marked by acts of the greatest kindness and condescension, by affability, complaisance, and popularity. The object of his administration seemed to be the good of his people; and when he was desired to sign his name to a list of malefactors that were to be executed, he exclaimed, “I wish to heaven I could not write.” He was an enemy to flattery, and when the senate had liberally commended the wisdom of his government, Nero desired them to keep their praises till he deserved them. These promising virtues were soon discovered to be artificial, and Nero displayed the propensities of his nature. He delivered himself from the sway of his mother, and at last ordered her to be assassinated. This unnatural act of barbarity might astonish some of the Romans, but Nero had his devoted adherents; and when he declared that he had taken away his mother’s life to save himself from ruin, the senate applauded his measures, and the people signified their approbation. Many of his courtiers shared the unhappy fate of Agrippina, and Nero sacrificed to his fury or caprice all such as obstructed his pleasure, or diverted his inclination. In the night he generally sallied out from his palace, to visit the meanest taverns and all the scenes of debauchery which Rome contained. In this nocturnal riot he was fond of insulting the people in the streets, and his attempts to offer violence to the wife of a Roman senator nearly cost him his life. He also turned actor, and publicly appeared on the Roman stage in the meanest characters. In his attempts to excel in music, and to conquer the disadvantages of a hoarse, rough voice, he moderated his meals, and often passed the day without eating. The celebrity of the Olympian games attracted his notice. He passed into Greece, and presented himself as a candidate for the public honours. He was defeated in wrestling, but the flattery of the spectators adjudged him the victory, and Nero returned to Rome with all the pomp and [♦]splendour of an eastern conqueror, drawn in the chariot of Augustus, and attended by a band of musicians, actors, and stage dancers, from every part of the empire. These private and public amusements of the emperor were indeed innocent; his character was injured, but not the lives of the people. But his conduct soon became more abominable; he disguised himself in the habit of a woman, and was publicly married to one of his eunuchs. This violence to nature and decency was soon exchanged for another; Nero resumed his sex, and celebrated his nuptials with one of his meanest catamites, and it was on this occasion that one of the Romans observed that the world would have been happy if Nero’s father had had such a wife. But now his cruelty was displayed in a more superlative degree, and he sacrificed to his wantonness his wife Octavia Poppæa, and the celebrated writers, Seneca, Lucan, Petronius, &c. The christians also did not escape his barbarity. He had heard of the burning of Troy, and as he wished to renew that dismal scene, he caused Rome to be set on fire in different places. The conflagration became soon universal, and during nine successive days the fire was unextinguished. All was desolation; nothing was heard but the lamentations of mothers whose children had perished in the flames, the groans of the dying, and the continual fall of palaces and buildings. Nero was the only one who enjoyed the general consternation. He placed himself on the top of a high tower, and he sang on his lyre the destruction of Troy, a dreadful scene which his barbarity had realized before his eyes. He attempted to avert the public odium from his head, by a feigned commiseration of the miseries of his subjects. He began to repair the streets and the public buildings at his own expense. He built himself a celebrated palace, which he called his golden house. It was profusely adorned with gold and precious stones, and with whatever was rare and exquisite. It contained spacious fields, artificial lakes, woods, gardens, orchards, and whatever could exhibit beauty and grandeur. The entrance of this edifice could admit a large colossus of the emperor 120 feet high; the galleries were each a mile long, and the whole was covered with gold. The roofs of the dining halls represented the firmament in motion as well as in figure, and continually turned round night and day, showering down all sorts of perfumes and sweet waters. When this grand edifice, which, according to Pliny, extended all round the city, was finished, Nero said, that now he could lodge like a man. His profusion was not less remarkable in all his other actions. When he went a-fishing, his nets were made with gold and silk. He never appeared twice in the same garment, and when he undertook a voyage, there were thousands of servants to take care of his wardrobe. This continuation of debauchery and extravagance at last roused the resentment of the people. Many conspiracies were formed against the emperor, but they were generally discovered, and such as were accessary suffered the greatest punishments. The most dangerous conspiracy against Nero’s life was that of Piso, from which he was delivered by the confession of a slave. The conspiracy of Galba proved more successful; and the conspirator, when he was informed that his plot was known to Nero, declared himself emperor. The unpopularity of Nero favoured his cause; he was acknowledged by all the Roman empire, and the senate condemned the tyrant that sat on the throne to be dragged naked through the streets of Rome, and whipped to death, and afterwards to be thrown down from the Tarpeian rock like the meanest malefactor. This, however, was not done, and Nero, by a voluntary death, prevented the execution of the sentence. He killed himself, A.D. 68, in the 32nd year of his age, after a reign of thirteen years and eight months. Rome was filled with acclamations at the intelligence, and the citizens, more strongly to indicate their joy, wore caps such as were generally used by slaves who had received their freedom. Their vengeance was not only exercised against the statues of the deceased tyrant, but his friends were the objects of the public resentment, and many were crushed to pieces in such a violent manner, that one of the senators, amid the universal joy, said that he was afraid they should soon have cause to wish for Nero. The tyrant, as he expired, begged that his head might not be cut off from his body, and exposed to the insolence of an enraged populace, but that the whole might be burned on the funeral pile. His request was granted by one of Galba’s freedmen, and his obsequies were performed with the usual ceremonies. Though his death seemed to be the source of universal gladness, yet many of his favourites lamented his fall, and were grieved to see that their pleasures and amusements were stopped by the death of the patron of debauchery and extravagance. Even the king of Parthia sent ambassadors to Rome to condole with the Romans, and to beg that they would honour and revere the memory of Nero. His statues were also crowned with garlands of flowers, and many believed that he was not dead, but that he would soon make his appearance, and take a due vengeance upon his enemies. It will be sufficient to observe, in finishing the character of this tyrannical emperor, that the name of Nero is even now used emphatically to express a barbarous and unfeeling oppressor. Pliny calls him the common enemy and the fury of mankind, and in this he has been followed by all writers, who exhibit Nero as the pattern of the most execrable barbarity and unpardonable wantonness. Plutarch, Galba.—Suetonius, Lives.—Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 8, &c.—Dio Cassius, bk. 64.—Aurelius Victor.—Tacitus, Annals.——Claudius, a Roman general sent into Spain to succeed the two Scipios. He suffered himself to be imposed upon by Asdrubal, and was soon after succeeded by young Scipio. He was afterwards made consul, and intercepted Asdrubal, who was passing from Spain into Italy with a large reinforcement for his brother Annibal. An engagement was fought near the river Metaurus, in which 56,000 of the Carthaginians were left on the field of battle, and great numbers taken prisoners, 207 B.C. Asdrubal the Carthaginian general was also killed, and his head cut off and thrown into his brother’s camp by the conquerors. Appian, Hannibalic War.—Orosius, bk. 4.—Livy, bk. 27, &c.—Horace, bk. 4, ode 4, li. 37.—Florus, bk. 2, ch. 6.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 4, ch. 1.——Another, who opposed Cicero when he wished to punish with death such as were accessary to Catiline’s conspiracy.——A son of Germanicus, who was ruined by Sejanus, and banished from Rome by Tiberius. He died in the place of his exile. His death was voluntary, according to some. Suetonius, Tiberius.——Domitian was called Nero, because his cruelties surpassed those of his predecessors, and also Calvus, from the baldness of his head. Juvenal, satire 4.——The Neros were of the Claudian family, which, during the republican times of Rome, was honoured with 28 consulships, five dictatorships, six triumphs, seven censorships, and two ovations. They assumed the surname of Nero, which, in the language of the Sabines, signifies strong and warlike.

[♦] ‘slendour’ replaced with ‘splendour’

Neronia, a name given to Artaxata by Tiridates, who had been restored to his kingdom by Nero, whose favours he acknowledged by calling the capital of his dominions after the name of his benefactor.

Neroniānæ Thermæ, baths at Rome, made by the emperor Nero.

Nertobrigia, a town of Spain on the Bilbilis.

Nerva Cocceius, a Roman emperor after the death of Domitian, A.D. 96. He rendered himself popular by his mildness, his generosity, and the active part he took in the management of affairs. He suffered no statues to be raised to his honour, and he applied to the use of the government all the gold and silver statues which flattery had erected to his predecessor. In his civil character he was the pattern of good manners, of sobriety, and temperance. He forbade the mutilation of male children, and gave no countenance to the law which permitted the marriage of an uncle with his niece. He made a solemn declaration that no senator should suffer death during his reign; and this he observed with such sanctity that, when two members of the senate had conspired against his life, he was satisfied to tell them that he was informed of their wicked machinations. He also conducted them to the public spectacles, and seated himself between them, and when a sword was offered to him, according to the usual custom, he desired the conspirators to try it upon his body. Such goodness of heart, such confidence in the self-conviction of the human mind, and such reliance upon the consequence of his lenity and indulgence, conciliated the affection of all his subjects. Yet, as envy and danger are the constant companions of greatness, the pretorian guards at last mutinied, and Nerva nearly yielded to their fury. He uncovered his aged neck in the presence of the incensed soldiery, and bade them wreak their vengeance upon him, provided they spared the life of those to whom he was indebted for the empire, and whom his honour commanded him to defend. His seeming submission was unavailing, and he was at last obliged to surrender to the fury of his soldiers some of his friends and supporters. The infirmities of his age, and his natural timidity, at last obliged him to provide himself against any future mutiny or tumult, by choosing a worthy successor. He had many friends and relations, but he did not consider the aggrandizement of his family, and he chose for his son and successor Trajan, a man of whose virtues and greatness of mind he was fully convinced. This voluntary choice was approved by the acclamations of the people, and the wisdom and prudence which marked the reign of Trajan showed how discerning was the judgment, and how affectionate were the intentions, of Nerva for the good of Rome. He died on the 27th of July, A.D. 98, in his 72nd year, and his successor showed his respect for his merit and his character by raising him altars and temples in Rome, and in the provinces, and by ranking him in the number of the gods. Nerva was the first Roman emperor who was of foreign extraction, his father being a native of Crete. Pliny, Panegyrics.—Dio Cassius, bk. 69.——Marcus Cocceius, a consul in the reign of Tiberius. He starved himself, because he would not be concerned in the extravagance of the emperor.——A celebrated lawyer, consul with the emperor Vespasian. He was father to the emperor of that name.

Nervii, a warlike people of Belgic Gaul, who continually upbraided the neighbouring nations for submitting to the power of the Romans. They attacked Julius Cæsar, and were totally defeated. Their country forms the modern province of Hainault. Lucan, bk. 1, li. 428.—Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 2, ch. 15.

Nerulum, an inland town of Lucania, now Lagonegro. Livy, bk. 9, ch. 20.

Nerium, or Artabrum, a promontory of Spain, now cape Finisterre. Strabo, bk. 3.

Nesactum, a town of Istria at the mouth of the Arsia, now Castel Nuovo.

Nesæa, one of the Nereides. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 4, li. 338.

Nesimăchus, the father of Hippomedon, a native of Argos, who was one of the seven chiefs who made war against Thebes. Hyginus, fable 70.—Scholiast on Statius, Thebaid, bk. 1, li. 44.

Nesis (is, or idis), now Nisita, an island on the coast of Campania, famous for asparagus. Lucan and Statius speak of its air as unwholesome and dangerous. Pliny, bk. 19, ch. 8.—Lucan, bk. 6, li. 90.—Cicero, Letters to Atticus, bk. 16, ltrs. 1 & 2.—Statius, bk. 3, Sylvæ, poem 1, li. 148.

Nessus, a celebrated centaur, son of Ixion and the Cloud. He offered violence to Dejanira, whom Hercules had entrusted to his care, with orders to carry her across the river Evenus. See: [Dejanira]. Hercules saw the distress of his wife from the opposite shore of the river, and immediately he let fly one of his poisoned arrows, which struck the centaur to the heart. Nessus, as he expired, gave the tunic he then wore to Dejanira, assuring her that, from the poisoned blood which had flowed from his wounds, it had received the power of calling a husband away from unlawful loves. Dejanira received it with pleasure, and this mournful present caused the death of Hercules. See: [Hercules]. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Ovid, ltr. 9.—Seneca, Hercules Furens.—Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 28.—Diodorus, bk. 4.——A river. See: [Nestus].

Nestŏcles, a famous statuary of Greece, rival to Phidias. Pliny, bk. 34, ch. 8.

Nestor, a son of Neleus and Chloris, nephew to Pelias and grandson to Neptune. He had 11 brothers, who were all killed, with his father, by Hercules. His tender age detained him at home, and was the cause of his preservation. The conqueror spared his life, and placed him on the throne of Pylos. He married Eurydice the daughter of Clymenes, or, according to others, Anaxibia the daughter of Atreus. He early distinguished himself in the field of battle, and was present at the nuptials of Pirithous, when a bloody battle was fought between the Lapithæ and Centaurs. As king of Pylos and Messenia he led his subjects to the Trojan war, where he distinguished himself among the rest of the Grecian chiefs by eloquence, address, wisdom, justice, and an uncommon prudence of mind. Homer displays his character as the most perfect of all his heroes; and Agamemnon exclaims, that if he had 10 generals like Nestor, he should soon see the walls of Troy reduced to ashes. After the Trojan war, Nestor retired to Greece, where he enjoyed, in the bosom of his family, the peace and tranquillity which were due to his wisdom and to his old age. The manner and the time of his death are unknown; the ancients are all agreed that he lived three generations of men, which length of time some suppose to be 300 years, though more probably only 90, allowing 30 years for each generation. From that circumstance, therefore, it was usual among the Greeks and the Latins, when they wished a long and happy life to their friends, to wish them to see the years of Nestor. He had two daughters, Pisidice and Polycaste; and seven sons, Perseus, Straticus, Aretus, Echephron, Pisistratus, Antilochus, and Trasimedes. Nestor was one of the Argonauts, according to Valerius Flaccus, bk. 1, li. 380, &c.—Dictys Cretensis, bk. 1, ch. 13, &c.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 1, &c.; Odyssey, bks. 3 & 11.—Hyginus, fables 10 & 273.—Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 26; bk. 4, chs. 3 & 31.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 2, ch. 7.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12, li. 162, &c.—Horace, bk. 1, ode 15.——A poet of Lycaonia in the age of the emperor Severus. He was father to Pisander, who, under the emperor Alexander, wrote some fabulous stories.——One of the body-guards of Alexander. Polyænus.

Nestorius, a bishop of Constantinople, who flourished A.D. 431. He was condemned and degraded from his episcopal dignity for his heretical opinions, &c.

Nestus, or Nessus, now Nesto, a small river of Thrace, rising in mount Rhodope, and falling into the Ægean sea above the island of Thasos. It was for some time the boundary of Macedonia on the east, in the more extensive power of that kingdom.

Netum, a town of Sicily, now called Noto, on the eastern coast. Silius Italicus, bk. 14, li. 269.—Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 4, ch. 26; bk. 5, ch. 51.

Neuri, a people of Sarmatia. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 1.

Nicæa, a widow of Alexander, who married Demetrius.——A daughter of Antipater, who married Perdiccas.——A city of India, built by Alexander on the very spot where he had obtained a victory over king Porus.——A town of Achaia near Thermopylæ, on the bay of Malia.——A town of Illyricum.——Another in Corsica.——Another in Thrace,——in Bœotia.——A town of Bithynia (now Nice, or Is-nik), built by Antigonus, the son of Philip king of Macedonia. It was originally called Antigonia, and afterwards Nicæa by Lysimachus, who gave it the name of his wife, who was daughter of Antipater.——A town of Liguria, built by the people of Massilia, in commemoration of a victory.

Nicagŏras, a sophist of Athens in the reign of the emperor Philip. He wrote the lives of illustrious men, and was reckoned one of the greatest and most learned men of his age.

Nicander, a king of Sparta, son of Charillus, of the family of the Proclidæ. He reigned 39 years, and died B.C. 770.——A writer of Chalcedon.——A Greek grammarian, poet, and physician, of Colophon, 137 B.C. His writings were held in estimation, but his judgment cannot be highly commended, since, without any knowledge of agriculture, he ventured to compose a book on that intricate subject. Two of his poems, entitled Theriaca, on hunting, and Alexipharmaca, on antidotes against poison, are still extant; the best editions of which are those of Gorræus, with a translation in Latin verse by Grevinus, a physician at Paris, 4to, Paris, 1557, and Salvinus, 8vo, Florence, 1764. Cicero, bk. 1, On Oratory, ch. 16.

Nicānor, a man who conspired against the life of Alexander. Curtius, bk. 6.——A son of Parmenio, who died in Hyrcania, &c.——A surname of Demetrius. See: [Demetrius II.]——An unskilful pilot of Antigonus. Polyænus.——A servant of Atticus. Cicero, bk. 5, ltr. 3.——A Samian, who wrote a treatise on rivers.——A governor of Media, conquered by Seleucus. He had been governor over the Athenians under Cassander, by whose orders he was put to death.——A general of the emperor Titus, wounded at the siege of Jerusalem.——A man of Stagira, by whom Alexander the Great sent a letter to recall the Grecian exiles. Diodorus, bk. 18.——A governor of Munychia, who seized the Piræus, and was at last put to death by Cassander, because he wished to make himself absolute over Attica. Diodorus, bk. 18.——A brother of Cassander, destroyed by Olympias. Diodorus, bk. 19.——A general of Antiochus king of Syria. He made war against the Jews, and showed himself uncommonly cruel.

Nicarchus, a Corinthian philosopher in the age of Periander. Plutarch.——An Arcadian chief, who deserted to the Persians, at the return of the 10,000 Greeks.

Nicarthīdes, a man set over Persepolis by Alexander.

Nicātor, a surname of Seleucus king of Syria, from his having been unconquered.

Nice, a daughter of Thestius. Apollodorus.

Nicephorium, a town of Mesopotamia, on the Euphrates, where Venus had a temple. Livy, bk. 32, ch. 33.—Tacitus, Annals, bk. 6, ch. 41.

Nicephŏrius, now Khabour, a river which flowed by the walls of Tigranocerta. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 15, ch. 4.

Nicephŏrus Cæsar, a Byzantine historian, whose works were edited folio, Paris, 1661.——Gregoras, another, edited folio, Paris, 1702.——A Greek ecclesiastical historian, whose works were edited by Ducæus, 2 vols., Paris, 1630.

Nicer, now the Necker, a river of Germany, falling into the Rhine at the modern town of Manheim. Ausonius, Mosella, li. 423.

Nicerātus, a poet who wrote a poem in praise of Lysander.——The father of Nicias.

Nicetas, one of the Byzantine historians, whose works were edited folio, Paris, 1647.

Niceteria, a festival at Athens, in memory of the victory which Minerva obtained over Neptune, in their dispute about giving a name to the capital of the country.

Nicia, a city. See: [Nicæa].——A river falling into the Po at Brixellum. It is now called Lenza, and separates the duchy of Modena from Parma.

Nicias, an Athenian general, celebrated for his valour and for his misfortunes. He early conciliated the good will of the people by his liberality, and he established his military character by taking the island of Cythera from the power of Lacedæmon. When Athens determined to make war against Sicily, Nicias was appointed, with Alcibiades and Lamachus, to conduct the expedition, which he reprobated as impolitic, and as the future cause of calamities to the Athenian power. In Sicily he behaved with great firmness, but he often blamed the quick and inconsiderate measures of his colleagues. The success of the Athenians remained long doubtful. Alcibiades was recalled by his enemies to take his trial, and Nicias was left at the head of affairs. Syracuse was surrounded by a wall, and though the operations were carried on slowly, yet the city would have surrendered, had not the sudden appearance of Gylippus, the Corinthian ally of the Sicilians, cheered up the courage of the besieged at the most critical moment. Gylippus proposed terms of accommodation to the Athenians, which were refused; some battles were fought, in which the Sicilians obtained the advantage, and Nicias at last, tired of his ill success, and grown desponding, demanded of the Athenians a reinforcement or a successor. Demosthenes, upon this, was sent with a powerful fleet, but the advice of Nicias was despised, and the admiral, by his eagerness to come to a decisive engagement, ruined his fleet and the interest of Athens. The fear of his enemies at home prevented Nicias from leaving Sicily; and when, at last, a continued series of ill success obliged him to comply, he found himself surrounded on every side by the enemy, without hope of escaping. He gave himself up to the conquerors with all his army, but the assurances of safety which he had received soon proved vain and false, and he was no sooner in the hands of the enemy than he was shamefully put to death with Demosthenes. His troops were sent to quarries, where the plague and hard labour diminished their numbers and aggravated their misfortunes. Some suppose that the death of Nicias was not violent. He perished about 413 years before Christ, and the Athenians lamented in him a great and valiant but unfortunate general. Plutarch, Lives.—Cicero.—Cornelius Nepos, Alcibiades.—Thucydides, bk. 4, &c.—Diodorus, bk. 15.——A grammarian of Rome, intimate with Cicero. Cicero, Letters.——A man of Nicæa, who wrote a history of philosophers.——A physician of Pyrrhus king of Epirus, who made an offer to the Romans of poisoning his master for a sum of money. The Roman general disdained his offers, and acquainted Pyrrhus with his treachery. He is oftener called Cineas.——A painter of Athens in the age of Alexander. He was chiefly happy in his pictures of women. Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 2, ch. 31.

Nicippe, a daughter of Pelops, who married Sthenelus.——A daughter of Thespius. Apollodorus.

Nicippus, a tyrant of Cos, one of whose sheep brought forth a lion, which was considered as portending his future greatness, and his elevation to the sovereignty. Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 1, ch. 29.

Nico, one of the Tarentine chiefs who conspired against the life of Annibal. Livy, bk. 30.——A celebrated architect and geometrician. He was father to the celebrated Galen the prince of physicians.——One of the slaves of Craterus.——The name of an ass which Augustus met before the battle of Actium, a circumstance which he considered as a favourable omen.——The name of an elephant remarkable for his fidelity to king Pyrrhus.

Nicochăres, a Greek comic poet in the age of Aristophanes.

Nicŏcles, a familiar friend of Phocion, condemned to death. Plutarch.——A king of Salamis, celebrated for his contest with a king of Phœnicia, to prove which of the two was most effeminate.——A king of Paphos, who reigned under the protection of Ptolemy king of Egypt. He revolted from his friend to the king of Persia, upon which Ptolemy ordered one of his servants to put him to death, to strike terror into the other dependent princes. The servant, unwilling to murder the monarch, advised him to kill himself. Nicocles obeyed, and all his family followed his example, 310 years before the christian era.——An ancient Greek poet, who called physicians a happy race of men, because light published their good deeds to the world, and the earth hid all their faults and imperfections.——A king of Cyprus, who succeeded his father Evagoras on the throne, 374 years before Christ. It was with him that the philosopher Isocrates corresponded.——A tyrant of Sicyon, deposed by means of Aratus the Achæan. Plutarch, Aratus.

Nicocrătes, a tyrant of Cyrene.——An author at Athens.——A king of Salamis in Cyprus, who made himself known by the valuable collection of books which he had. Athenæus, bk. 1.

Nicocreon, a tyrant of Salamis in the age of Alexander the Great. He ordered the philosopher Anaxarchus to be pounded to pieces in a mortar.

Nicodēmus, an Athenian appointed by Conon over the fleet which was going to the assistance of Artaxerxes. Diodorus, bk. 14.——A tyrant of Italy, &c.——An ambassador sent to Pompey by Aristobulus.

Nicodōrus, a wrestler of Mantinea, who studied philosophy in his old age. Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 2, ch. 22.—Suidas.——An Athenian archon.

Nicodrŏmus, a son of Hercules and Nice. Apollodorus.——An Athenian who invaded Ægina, &c.

Nicolāus, a philosopher.——A celebrated Syracusan, who endeavoured, in a pathetic speech, to dissuade his countrymen from offering violence to the Athenian prisoners who had been taken with Nicias their general. His eloquence was unavailing.——An officer of Ptolemy against Antigonus.——A peripatetic philosopher and historian in the Augustan age.

Nicomăcha, a daughter of Themistocles.

Nicomăchus, the father of Aristotle, whose son also bore the same name. The philosopher composed his 10 books of morals for the use and improvement of his son, and thence they are called Nicomachea. Suidas.——One of Alexander’s friends, who discovered the conspiracy of Dymus. Curtius, bk. 6.——An excellent painter.——A Pythagorean philosopher.——A Lacedæmonian general, conquered by Timotheus.——A writer in the fifth century, &c.

Nicomēdes I., a king of Bithynia, about 278 years before the christian era. It was by his exertions that this part of Asia became a monarchy. He behaved with great cruelty to his brothers, and built a town which he called by his own name, Nicomedia. Justin.—Pausanias, &c.

Nicomēdes II., was ironically surnamed Philopater, because he drove his father Prusias from the kingdom of Bithynia, and caused him to be assassinated, B.C. 149. He reigned 59 years. Mithridates laid claim to his kingdom, but all their disputes were decided by the Romans, who deprived Nicomedes of the province of Paphlagonia, and his ambitious rival of Cappadocia. He gained the affections of his subjects by a courteous behaviour, and by a mild and peaceful government. Justin.

Nicomēdes III., son and successor of the preceding, was dethroned by his brother Socrates, and afterwards by the ambitious Mithridates. The Romans re-established him on his throne, and encouraged him to make reprisals upon the king of Pontus. He followed their advice, and he was, at last, expelled another time from his dominions, till Sylla came into Asia, who restored him to his former power and affluence. Strabo.—Appian.

Nicomēdes IV., was son and successor of Nicomedes III. He passed his life in an easy and tranquil manner, and enjoyed the peace which his alliance with the Romans had procured him. He died B.C. 75, without issue, and left his kingdom, with all his possessions, to the Roman people. Strabo, bk. 12.—Appian, Mithridatic Wars.—Justin, bk. 38, ch. 2, &c.—Florus, bk. 3, ch. 5.

Nicomēdes, a celebrated geometrician in the age of the philosopher Eratosthenes. He made himself known by his useful machines, &c.——An engineer in the army of Mithridates.——One of the preceptors of the emperor Marcus Antoninus.

Nicomēdia (now Is-nikmid), a town of Bithynia, founded by Nicomedes I. It was the capital of the country, and it has been compared, for its beauty and greatness, to Rome, Antioch, or Alexandria. It became celebrated for being, for some time, the residence of the emperor Constantine and most of his imperial successors. Some suppose that it was originally called Astacus, and Olbia, though it is generally believed that they were all different cities. Ammianus, bk. 17.—Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 12.—Pliny, bk. 5, &c.—Strabo, bk. 12, &c.

Nicon, a pirate of Phære in Peloponnesus, &c. Polyænus.——An athlete of Thasos, 14 times victorious at the Olympic games.——A native of Tarentum. See: [Nico].

Niconia, a town of Pontus.

Nicophanes, a famous painter of Greece, whose pieces are mentioned with commendation. Pliny, bk. 35, ch. 10.

Nicŏphron, a comic poet of Athens some time after the age of Aristophanes.

Nicŏpolis, a city of Lower Egypt.——A town of Armenia, built by Pompey the Great in memory of a victory which he had there obtained over the forces of Mithridates. Strabo, bk. 12.——Another, in Thrace, built on the banks of the Nestus by Trajan, in memory of a victory which he obtained there over the barbarians.——A town of Epirus, built by Augustus after the battle of Actium.——Another, near Jerusalem, founded by the emperor Vespasian.——Another, in Mœsia.——Another, in Dacia, built by Trajan to perpetuate the memory of a celebrated battle.——Another, near the bay of Issus, built by Alexander.

Nicostrăta, a courtesan who left all her possessions to Sylla.——The same as Carmente mother of Evander.

Nicostrătus, a man of Argos of great strength. He was fond of imitating Hercules by clothing himself in a lion’s skin. Diodorus, bk. 16.——One of Alexander’s soldiers. He conspired against the king’s life, with Hermolaus. Curtius, bk. 8.——A painter who expressed great admiration at the sight of Helen’s picture by Zeuxis. Ælian, bk. 14, ch. 47.——A dramatic actor of Ionia.——A comic poet of Argos.——An orator of Macedonia, in the reign of the emperor Marcus Antoninus.——A son of Menelaus and Helen. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 18.——A general of the Achæans, who defeated the Macedonians.

Nicotelea, a celebrated woman of Messenia, who said that she became pregnant of Aristomenes by a serpent. Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 14.

Nicotĕles, a Corinthian drunkard, &c. Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 2, ch. 14.

Niger, a friend of Marcus Antony, sent to him by Octavia.——A surname of Clitus, whom Alexander killed in a fit of drunkenness.——Caius Pescennius Justus, a celebrated governor in Syria, well known by his valour in the Roman armies, while yet a private man. At the death of Pertinax he was declared emperor of Rome, and his claims to that elevated situation were supported by a sound understanding, prudence of mind, moderation, courage, and virtue. He proposed to imitate the actions of the venerable Antoninus, of Trajan, of Titus, and Marcus Aurelius. He was remarkable for his fondness for ancient discipline, and never suffered his soldiers to drink wine, but obliged them to quench their thirst with water and vinegar. He forbade the use of silver and gold utensils in his camp, all the bakers and cooks were driven away, and the soldiers ordered to live, during the expedition they undertook, merely upon biscuits. In his punishments Niger was inexorable; he condemned 10 of his soldiers to be beheaded in the presence of the army, because they had stolen and eaten a fowl. The sentence was heard with groans: the army interfered; and when Niger consented to diminish the punishment for fear of kindling a rebellion, he yet ordered the criminals to make each a restoration of 10 fowls to the person whose property they had stolen. They were, besides, ordered not to light a fire the rest of the campaign, but to live upon cold aliments, and to drink nothing but water. Such great qualifications in a general seemed to promise the restoration of ancient discipline in the Roman armies, but the death of Niger frustrated every hope of reform. Severus, who had also been invested with the imperial purple, marched against him; some battles were fought, and Niger was at last defeated, A.D. 194. His head was cut off and fixed to a long spear, and carried in triumph through the streets of Rome. He reigned about one year. Herodian, bk. 3.—Eutropius.

Niger, or Nigris (itis), a river of Africa, which rises in Æthiopia, and falls by three mouths into the Atlantic, little known to the ancients, and not yet satisfactorily explored by the moderns. Pliny, bk. 5, chs. 1 & 8.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 4; bk. 3, ch. 10.—Ptolemy, bk. 4, ch. 6.

Publius Nigidius Figŭlus, a celebrated philosopher and astrologer at Rome, one of the most learned men of his age. He was intimate with Cicero, and gave his most unbiassed opinions concerning the conspirators who had leagued to destroy Rome with Catiline. He was made pretor, and honoured with a seat in the senate. In the civil wars he followed the interest of Pompey, for which he was banished by the conqueror. He died in the place of his banishment, 47 years before Christ. Cicero, Letters to his Friends, bk. 4, ltr. 13.—Lucan, bk. 1, li. 639.

Nigrītæ, a people of Africa, who dwell on the banks of the Niger. Mela, bk. 1, ch. 4.—Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 1.

Nileus, a son of Codrus, who conducted a colony of Ionians to Asia, where he built Ephesus, Miletus, Priene, Colophon, Myus, Teos, Lebedos, Clazomenæ, &c. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 2, &c.——A philosopher who had in his possession all the writings of Aristotle. Athenæus, bk. 1.

Nilus, a king of Thebes, who gave his name to the river which flows through the middle of Egypt, and falls into the Mediterranean sea. The Nile, anciently called Ægyptus, is one of the most celebrated rivers in the world. Its sources were unknown to the ancients, and the moderns were till lately ignorant of their situation, whence an impossibility is generally meant by the proverb of Nili caput quærere. It flows through the middle of Egypt in a northern direction, and when it comes to the town of Cercasorum, it then divides itself into several streams, and falls into the Mediterranean by seven mouths. The most eastern canal is called the Pelusian, and the most western is called the Canopic mouth. The other canals are the Sebennytican, that of Sais, the Mendesian, Bolbitinic, and Bucolic. They have all been formed by nature, except the two last, which have been dug by the labours of men. The island which the Nile forms by its division into several streams is called Delta, from its resemblance to the fourth letter in the Greek alphabet. The Nile yearly overflows the country, and it is to those regular inundations that the Egyptians are indebted for the fertile produce of their lands. It begins to rise in the month of May for 100 successive days, and then decreases gradually the same number of days. If it does not rise as high as 16 cubits, a famine is generally expected, but if it exceeds this by many cubits, it is of the most dangerous consequences; houses are overturned, the cattle are drowned, and a great number of insects are produced from the mud, which destroy the fruits of the earth. The river, therefore, proves a blessing or a calamity to Egypt, and the prosperity of the nation depends so much upon it, that the tributes of the inhabitants were in ancient times, and are still under the present government, proportioned to the rise of the waters. The causes of the overflowings of the Nile, which remained unknown to the ancients, though searched with the greatest application, are owing to the heavy rains which regularly fall in Æthiopia, in the months of April and May, and which rush down like torrents upon the country, and lay it all under water. These causes, as some people suppose, were well known to Homer, as he seems to show it, by saying that the Nile flowed down from heaven. The inhabitants of Egypt, near the banks of the river, were called Niliaci, Niligenæ, &c., and large canals were also from this river denominated Nili or Euripi. Cicero, De Legibus, bk. 2, ch. 1; Letters to his brother Quintus, bk. 3, ltr. 9; Letters to Atticus, bk. 11, ltr. 12.—Strabo, bk. 17.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 187; bk. 15, li. 753.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 3, ch. 9.—Seneca, Quæstiones Naturales, bk. 4.—Lucan, bks. 1, 2, &c.—Claudian, de Nilus.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 4, li. 288; Æneid, bk. 6, li. 800; bk. 9, li. 31.—Diodorus, bk. 1, &c.—Herodotus, bk. 2.—Lucretius, bk. 6, li. 712.—Ammianus, bk. 22.—Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 32.—Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 10.——One of the Greek fathers, who flourished A.D. 440. His works were edited at Rome, folio, 2 vols., 1668 & 1678.

Ninnius, a tribune who opposed Clodius the enemy of Cicero.

Ninias. See: [Ninyas].

Ninus, a son of Belus, who built a city to which he gave his own name, and founded the Assyrian monarchy, of which he was the first sovereign, B.C. 2059. He was very warlike, and extended his conquests from Egypt to the extremities of India and Bactriana. He became enamoured of Semiramis the wife of one of his officers, and he married her after her husband had destroyed himself through fear of his powerful rival. Ninus reigned 52 years, and at his death he left his kingdom to the care of his wife Semiramis, by whom he had a son. The history of Ninus is very obscure, and even fabulous according to the opinion of some. Ctesias is the principal historian from whom it is derived, but little reliance is to be placed upon him, when Aristotle deems him unworthy to be believed. Ninus after death received divine honours, and became the Jupiter of the Assyrians and the Hercules of the Chaldeans. Ctesias.—Diodorus, bk. 2.—Justin, bk. 1, ch. 1.—Herodotus, bk. 2.——A celebrated city, now Nino, the capital of Assyria, built on the banks of the Tigris by Ninus, and called Nineveh in Scripture. It was, according to the relation of Diodorus Siculus, 15 miles long, nine broad, and 48 in circumference. It was surrounded by large walls 100 feet high, on the top of which three chariots could pass together abreast, and was defended by 1500 towers, each 200 feet high. Ninus was taken by the united armies of Cyaxares and Nabopolassar king of Babylon, B.C. 606. Strabo, bk. 1.—Diodorus, bk. 2.—Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 185, &c.—Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 33.—Lucian.

Ninyas, a son of Ninus and Semiramis, king of Assyria, who succeeded his mother, who had voluntarily abdicated the crown. Some suppose that Semiramis was put to death by her own son, because she had encouraged him to commit incest. The reign of Ninyas is remarkable for its luxury and extravagance. The prince left the care of the government to his favourites and ministers, and gave himself up to pleasure, riot, and debauchery, and never appeared in public. His successors imitated the example of his voluptuousness, and therefore their names or history are little known till the age of Sardanapalus. Justin, bk. 1, ch. 2.—Diodorus, bk. 1, &c.

Niŏbe, a daughter of Tantalus king of Lydia by Euryanassa or Dione. She married Amphion the son of Jasus, by whom she had 10 sons and 10 daughters according to Hesiod, or two sons and three daughters according to Herodotus. Homer and Propertius say that she had six daughters and as many sons, and Ovid, Apollodorus, &c., according to the more received opinion, support that she had seven sons and seven daughters. The names of the sons were Sipylus, Minytus, Tantalus, Agenor, Phædimus, Damasichthon, and Ismenus; and those of the daughters, Cleodoxa, Ethodæa or Thera, Astyoche, Phthia, Pelopia or Chloris, Asticratea, and Ogygia. The number of her children increased the pride of Niobe, and she not only had the imprudence to prefer herself to Latona, who had only two children, but she even insulted her, and ridiculed the worship which was paid to her, observing that she had a better claim to altars and sacrifices than the mother of Apollo and Diana. This insolence provoked Latona, who entreated her children to punish the arrogant Niobe. Her prayers were heard, and immediately all the sons of Niobe expired by the darts of Apollo, and all the daughters except Chloris, who had married Neleus king of Polos, were equally destroyed by Diana; and Niobe, struck at the suddenness of her misfortunes, was changed into a stone. The carcases of Niobe’s children, according to Homer, were left unburied in the plains for nine successive days, because Jupiter changed into stones all such as attempted to inter them. On the tenth day they were honoured with a funeral by the gods. Homer, Iliad, bk. 24.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 12, ch. 36.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 5.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, fable 5.—Hyginus, fable 9.—Horace, bk. 4, ode 6.—Propertius, bk. 2, poem 6.——A daughter of Phoroneus king of Peloponnesus by Laodice. She was beloved by Jupiter, by whom she had a son called Argus, who gave his name to Argia or Argolis, a country of Peloponnesus. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 22.—Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 1; bk. 3, ch. 8.

Niphæus, a man killed by horses, &c. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 570.

Niphātes, a mountain of Asia, which divides Armenia from Assyria, and from which the Tigris takes its rise. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 30.—Strabo, bk. 11.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 15.——A river of Armenia, falling into the Tigris. Horace, bk. 2, ode 9, li. 20.—Lucan, bk. 3, li. 245.

Niphe, one of Diana’s companions. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3, li. 245.

Nireus, a king of Naxos, son of Charops and Aglaia, celebrated for his beauty. He was one of the Grecian chiefs during the Trojan war. Homer, Iliad, bk. 2.—Horace, bk. 2, ode 20.

Nisa, a town of Greece. Homer, Iliad, bk. 2.——A country-woman. Virgil, Eclogues, poem 8.——A place. See: [Nysa].——A celebrated plain of Media near the Caspian sea, famous for its horses. Herodotus, bk. 3, ch. 106.

Nisæa, a naval station on the coasts of Megaris. Strabo, bk. 8.——A town of Parthia, called also Nisa.

Nisæe, a sea-nymph. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 826.

Niseia. See: [Nisus].

Nisĭbis, a town of Mesopotamia, built by a colony of Macedonians on the Tigris, and celebrated as being a barrier between the provinces of Rome and the Persian empire during the reign of the Roman emperors. It was sometimes called Antiochia Mygdonica. Josephus, bk. 20, ch. 2.—Strabo, bk. 11.—Ammianus, bk. 25, &c.—Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 13.

Nisus, a son of Hyrtacus, born on mount Ida near Troy. He came to Italy with Æneas, and signalized himself by his valour against the Rutulians. He was united in the closest friendship with Euryalus, a young Trojan, and with him he entered, in the dead of night, the enemy’s camp. As they were returning victorious, after much bloodshed, they were perceived by the Rutulians, who attacked Euryalus. Nisus, in endeavouring to rescue his friend from the enemy’s darts, perished himself with him, and their heads were cut off and fixed on a spear, and carried in triumph to the camp. Their death was greatly lamented by all the Trojans, and their great friendship, like that of a Pylades and an Orestes, or of a Theseus and Pirithous, is become proverbial. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 176, &c.——A king of Dulichium, remarkable for his probity and virtue. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 18.——A king of Megara, son of Mars, or more probably of Pandion. He inherited his father’s kingdom with his brothers, and received as his portion the country of Megaris. The peace of the brothers was interrupted by the hostilities of Minos, who wished to avenge the death of his son Androgeus, who had been murdered by the Athenians. Megara was besieged, and Attica laid waste. The fate of Nisus depended totally upon a yellow lock, which, as long as it continued upon his head, according to the words of an oracle, promised him life, and success to his affairs. His daughter Scylla (often called Niseia Virgo) saw from the walls of Megara the royal besieger, and she became desperately enamoured of him. To obtain a more immediate interview with this object of her passion, she stole away the fatal hair from her father’s head as he was asleep; the town was immediately taken, but Minos disregarded the services of Scylla, and she threw herself into the sea. The gods changed her into a lark, and Nisus assumed the nature of the hawk at the very moment that he gave himself death, not to fall into the enemy’s hands. These two birds have continually been at variance with each other, and Scylla, by her apprehensions at the sight of her father, seems to suffer the punishment which her perfidy deserved. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 15.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 19.—Strabo, bk. 9.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 8, li. 6, &c.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1, li. 404, &c.

Nisȳros, an island in the Ægean sea, at the west of Rhodes, with a town of the same name. It was originally joined to the island of Cos, according to Pliny, and it bore the name of Porphyris. Neptune, who was supposed to have separated them with a blow of his trident, and to have there overwhelmed the giant Polybotes, was worshipped there, and called Nisyreus. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 6.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Strabo, bk. 10.

Nitētis, a daughter of Apries king of Egypt, married by his successor Amasis to Cyrus. Polyænus, bk. 8.

Nitiobriges, a people of Gaul, supposed to be Agenois, in Guienne. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 7, ch. 7.

Nitōcris, a celebrated queen of Babylon, who built a bridge across the Euphrates, in the middle of that city, and dug a number of reservoirs for the superfluous waters of that river. She ordered herself to be buried over one of the gates of the city, and placed an inscription on her tomb, which signified that her successors would find great treasures within if ever they were in need of money, but that their labours would be but ill repaid if ever they ventured to open it without necessity. Cyrus opened it through curiosity, and was struck to find within these words: If thy avarice had not been insatiable, thou never wouldst have violated the monuments of the dead. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 185.——A queen of Egypt, who built a third pyramid.

Nitria, a country of Egypt with two towns of the same name, above Memphis.

Nivaria, an island at the west of Africa, supposed to be Teneriff, one of the Canaries. Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 32.

Noas, a river of Thrace falling into the Ister. Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 46.

Nocmon, a Trojan killed by Turnus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 767.

Noctilūca, a surname of Diana. She had a temple at Rome on mount Palatine, where torches were generally lighted in the night. Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 4.—Horace, bk. 4, ode 6, li. 38.

Nola, an ancient town of Campania, which became a Roman colony before the first Punic war. It was founded by a Tuscan, or, according to others, by an Eubœan colony. It is said that Virgil had introduced the name of Nola in his Georgics, but that, when he was refused a glass of water by the inhabitants as he passed through the city, he totally blotted it out of his poem, and substituted the word ora, in the 225th line of the second book of his Georgics. Nola was besieged by Annibal, and bravely defended by Marcellus. Augustus died there on his return from Neapolis to Rome. Bells were first invented there in the beginning of the fifth century, from which reason they have been called Nolæ, or Campanæ, in Latin. The inventor was St. Paulinus, the bishop of the place, who died A.D. 431, though many imagine that bells were known long before, and only introduced into churches by that prelate. Before his time, congregations were called to the church by the noise of wooden rattles (sacra ligna). Paterculus, bk. 1, ch. 7.—Suetonius, Augustus.—Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 517; bk. 12, li. 161.—Aulus Gellius, bk. 7, ch. 20.—Livy, bk. 23, chs. 14 & 39; bk. 24, ch. 13.

Nomădes, a name given to all those uncivilized people who had no fixed habitation, and who continually changed the place of their residence, to go in quest of fresh pasture for the numerous cattle which they tended. There were Nomades in Scythia, India, Arabia, and Africa. Those of Africa were afterwards called Numidians, by a small change of the letters which composed their name. Silius Italicus, bk. 1, li. 215.—Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 3.—Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 15; bk. 4, ch. 187.—Strabo, bk. 7.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 1; bk. 3, ch. 4.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 343.—Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 43.

Nomæ, a town of Sicily. Diodorus, bk. 11.—Silius Italicus, bk. 14, li. 266.

Nomentānus, an epithet applied to Lucius Cassius as a native of Nomentum. He is mentioned by Horace as a mixture of luxury and dissipation. Horace, bk. 1, satire 2, li. 102 & alibi.

Nomentum, a town of the Sabines in Italy, famous for wine, and now called Lamentana. The dictator Quintus Servilius Priscus gave the Veientes and Fidenates battle there A.U.C. 312, and totally defeated them. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 4, li. 905.—Livy, bk. 1, ch. 38; bk. 4, ch. 22.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 773.

Nomii, mountains of Arcadia. Pausanias.

Nomius, a surname given to Apollo, because he fed (νεμω, pasco), the flocks of king Admetus in Thessaly. Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 3, ch. 23.

Nōnācris, a town of Arcadia, which received its name from a wife of Lycaon. There was a mountain of the same name in the neighbourhood. Evander is sometimes called Nonacrius heros, as being an Arcadian by birth, and Atalanta Nonacria, as being a native of the place. Curtius, bk. 10, ch. 10.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 5, li. 97; Metamorphoses, bk. 8, fable 10.—Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 17, &c.

Nonius, a Roman soldier, imprisoned for paying respect to Galba’s statues, &c. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 1, ch. 56.——A Roman who exhorted his countrymen after the fatal battle of Pharsalia, and the flight of Pompey, by observing that eight standards (aquilæ) still remained in the camp, to which Cicero answered, Recte, si nobis cum graculis bellum esset.

Nonnius Marcellus, a grammarian, whose treatise de variâ significatione verborum was edited by Mercer, 8vo, Paris, 1614.

Nonnus, a Greek writer of the fifth century, who wrote an account of the embassy he had undertaken to Æthiopia, among the Saracens and other eastern nations. He is also known by his Dionysiaca, a wonderful collection of heathen mythology and erudition, edited 4to, Antwerp, 1569. His paraphrase on John was edited by Heinsius, 8vo, Leiden, 1627.

Nonus, a Greek physician, whose book de omnium morborum curatione was edited in 12mo, Strasbourg, 1568.

Nopia, or Cinopia, a town of Bœotia, where Amphiaraus had a temple.

Nōra, now Nour, a place of Phrygia, where Eumenes retired for some time, &c. Cornelius Nepos.——A town. See: [Norax].

Norax, a son of Mercury and Eurythæa, who led a colony of Iberians into Sardinia, where he founded a town, to which he gave the name of Nora. Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 17.

Norba, a town of the Volsci. Livy, bk. 2, ch. 34.——Cæsarea, a town of Spain on the Tagus.

Caius Norbānus, a young and ambitious Roman who opposed Sylla, and joined his interest to that of young Marius. In his consulship he marched against Sylla, by whom he was defeated, &c. Plutarch.——A friend and general of Augustus, employed in Macedonia against the republicans. He was defeated by Brutus, &c.

Norĭcum, a country of ancient Illyricum, which now forms a part of modern Bavaria and Austria. It extended between the Danube, and part of the Alps and Vindelicia. Its savage inhabitants, who were once governed by kings, made many incursions upon the Romans, and were at last conquered under Tiberius, and the country became a dependent province. In the reign of Diocletian, Noricum was divided into two parts, Ripense and Mediterranean. The iron that was drawn from Noricum was esteemed excellent, and thence Noricus ensis was used to express the goodness of a sword. Dionysius Periegetes.—Strabo, bk. 4.—Pliny, bk. 34, ch. 14.—Tacitus, Histories, bk. 3, ch. 5.—Horace, bk. 1, ode 16, li. 9.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 712.

Northippus, a Greek tragic poet.

Nortia, a name given to the goddess of Fortune among the Etrurians. Livy, bk. 7, ch. 3.

Nothus, a son of Deucalion.——A surname of Darius king of Persia, from his illegitimacy.

Notium, a town of Æolia near the Cayster. It was peopled by the inhabitants of Colophon, who left their ancient habitations because Notium was more conveniently situated in being on the seashore. Livy, bk. 37, chs. 26, 38, 39.

Notus, the south wind, called also Auster.

Novæ (tabernæ), the new shops built in the forum at Rome, and adorned with the shields of the Cimbri. Cicero, On Oratory, bk. 2, ch. 66.——The Veteres tabernæ were adorned with those of the Samnites. Livy, bk. 9, ch. 40.

Novaria, a town of Cisalpine Gaul, now Novara, in Milan. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 1, ch. 70.

Novātus, a man who severely attacked the character of Augustus, under a fictitious name. The emperor discovered him, and only fined him a small sum of money.

Novesium, a town of the Ubii, on the west of the Rhine, now called Nuys, near Cologne. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 4, ch. 26, &c.

Noviodūnum, a town of the Ædui in Gaul, taken by Julius Cæsar. It is pleasantly situated on the Ligeris, and now called Noyon, or, as others suppose, Nevers. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 2, ch. 12.

Noviomagus, or Neomagus, a town of Gaul, now Nizeux, in Normandy.——Another, called also Nemetes, now Spire.——Another, in Batavia, now Nimeguen, on the south side of the Waal.

Novium, a town of Spain, now Noya.

Novius Priscus, a man banished from Rome by Nero, on suspicion that he was accessary to Piso’s conspiracy. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 15, ch. 71.——A man who attempted to assassinate the emperor Claudius.——Two brothers obscurely born, distinguished in the age of Horace for their officiousness. Horace, bk. 1, satire 6.

Novum Comum, a town of Insubria on the lake Larinus, of which the inhabitants were called Novocomenses. Cicero, De Divinatione, bk. 13, ch. 55.

Nox, one of the most ancient deities among the heathens, daughter of Chaos. From her union with her brother Erebus she gave birth to the Day and the Light. She was also the mother of the Parcæ, Hesperides, Dreams, of Discord, Death, Momus, Fraud, &c. She is called by some of the poets the mother of all things, of gods as well as of men, and therefore she was worshipped with great solemnity by the ancients. She had a famous statue in Diana’s temple at Ephesus. It was usual to offer her a black sheep, as she was the mother of the furies. The cock was also offered to her, as that bird proclaims the approach of day, during the darkness of the night. She is represented as mounted on a chariot, and covered with a veil bespangled with stars. The constellations generally went before her as her constant messengers. Sometimes she is seen holding two children under her arms, one of which is black, representing death, or rather night, and the other white, representing sleep or day. Some of the moderns have described her as a woman veiled in mourning, and crowned with poppies, and carried on a chariot drawn by owls and bats. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 950.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 1, li. 455.—Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 38.—Hesiod, Theogony, lis. 125 & 212.

Nuceria, a town of Campania taken by Annibal. It became a Roman colony under Augustus, and was called Nuceria Constantia, or Alfaterna. It now bears the name of Nocera, and contains about 30,000 inhabitants. Lucan, bk. 2, li. 472.—Livy, bk. 9, ch. 41; bk. 27, ch. 3.—Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 531.—Tacitus, Annals, bks. 13 & 14.——A town of Umbria at the foot of the Apennines. Strabo.—Pliny.

Nuithones, a people of Germany, possessing the country now called Mecklenburg and Pomerania. Tacitus, Germania, ch. 40.

Numa Martius, a man made governor of Rome by Tullus Hostilius. He was son-in-law of Numa Pompilius, and father to Ancus Martius. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 6, ch. 11.—Livy, bk. 1, ch. 20.

Numa Pompilius, a celebrated philosopher, born at Cures, a village of the Sabines, on the day that Romulus laid the foundation of Rome. He married Tatia, the daughter of Tatius the king of the Sabines, and at her death he retired into the country to devote himself more freely to literary pursuits. At the death of Romulus, the Romans fixed upon him to be their new king, and two senators were sent to acquaint him with the decisions of the senate and of the people. Numa refused their offers, and it was not but at the repeated solicitations and prayers of his friends that he was prevailed upon to accept the royalty. The beginning of his reign was popular, and he dismissed the 300 body-guards which his predecessor had kept around his person, observing that he did not distrust a people who had compelled him to reign over them. He was not, like Romulus, fond of war and military expeditions, but he applied himself to tame the ferocity of his subjects, to inculcate in their minds a reverence for the Deity, and to quell their dissensions by dividing all the citizens into different classes. He established different orders of priests, and taught the Romans not to worship the Deity by images; and from his example no graven or painted statues appeared in the temples or sanctuaries of Rome for upwards of 160 years. He encouraged the report which was spread of his paying regular visits to the nymph Egeria, and made use of her name to give sanction to the laws and institutions which he had introduced. He established the college of the vestals, and told the Romans that the safety of the empire depended upon the preservation of the sacred ancyle or shield which, as was generally believed, had dropped down from heaven. He dedicated a temple to Janus, which, during his whole reign, remained shut, as a mark of peace and tranquillity at Rome. Numa died after a reign of 43 years, in which he had given every possible encouragement to the useful arts, and in which he had cultivated peace, B.C. 672. Not only the Romans, but also the neighbouring nations, were eager to pay their last offices to a monarch whom they revered for his abilities, moderation, and humanity. He forbade his body to be burnt according to the custom of the Romans, but he ordered it to be buried near mount Janiculum, with many of the books which he had written. These books were accidentally found by one of the Romans, about 400 years after his death, and as they contained nothing new or interesting, but merely the reasons why he had made innovations in the form of worship and in the religion of the Romans, they were burnt by order of the senate. He left behind one daughter called Pompilia, who married Numa Martius, and became the mother of Ancus Martius, the fourth king of Rome. Some say that he had also four sons, but this opinion is ill-founded. Plutarch, Lives.—Varro.—Livy, bk. 1, ch. 18.—Pliny, bks. 13 & 14, &c.—Florus, bk. 1, ch. 2.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 809; bk. 9, li. 562.—Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 3, chs. 2 & 17.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 1, ch. 2.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 2, ch. 59.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 3, &c.——One of the Rutulian chiefs killed in the night by Nisus and Euryalus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 454.

Numāna, a town of Picenum in Italy, of which the people were called Numanates. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 4.

Numantia, a town of Spain near the sources of the river Durius, celebrated for the war of 14 years which, though unprotected by walls and towers, it bravely maintained against the Romans. The inhabitants obtained some advantages over the Roman forces till Scipio Africanus was empowered to finish the war, and to see the destruction of Numantia. He began the siege with an army of 60,000 men, and was bravely opposed by the besieged, who were no more than 4000 men able to bear arms. Both armies behaved with uncommon valour, and the courage of the Numantines was soon changed into despair and fury. Their provisions began to fail, and they fed upon the flesh of their horses, and afterwards on that of their dead companions, and at last were necessitated to draw lots to kill and devour one another. The melancholy situation of their affairs obliged some to surrender to the Roman general. Scipio demanded them to deliver themselves up on the morrow; they refused, and when a longer time had been granted to their petitions, they retired and set fire to their houses, and all destroyed themselves, B.C. 133, so that not even one remained to adorn the triumph of the conqueror. Some historians, however, deny that, and support that a number of Numantines delivered themselves into Scipio’s hands, and that 50 of them were drawn in triumph at Rome, and the rest sold as slaves. The fall of Numantia was more glorious than that of Carthage or Corinth, though inferior to them. The conqueror obtained the surname of Numantinus. Florus, bk. 2, ch. 18.—Appian, Wars in Spain.—Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 3.—Cicero, bk. 1, De Officiis.—Strabo, bk. 3.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 6.—Plutarch.—Horace, bk. 2, ode 12, li. 1.

Numantīna, a woman accused under Tiberius of making her husband insane by enchantments, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 4, ch. 22.

Numānus Remŭlus, a Rutulian who accused the Trojans of effeminacy. He had married the younger sister of Turnus, and was killed by Ascanius during the Rutulian war. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 592, &c.

Numēnes, a follower of the doctrines of Plato and Pythagoras, born at Apamea in Syria. He flourished in the reign of Marcus Antoninus.

Numenia, or Neomenia, a festival observed by the Greeks at the beginning of every lunar month, in honour of all the gods, but especially of Apollo or the Sun, who is justly deemed the author of light, and of whatever distinction is made in the months, seasons, days, and nights. It was observed with games and public entertainments which were provided at the expense of rich citizens, and which were always frequented by the poor. Solemn prayers were offered at Athens during the solemnity, for the prosperity of the republic. The demigods as well as the heroes of the ancients were honoured and invoked in the festival.

Numenius, a philosopher, who supposed that Chaos, from which the world was created, was animated by an evil and maleficent soul. He lived in the second century.

Numentāna via, a road at Rome, which led to mount Sacer through the gate Viminalis. Livy, bk. 3, ch. 52.

Numeria, a goddess at Rome who presided over numbers. Augustine, City of God, bk. 4, ch. 11.

Numeriānus Marcus Aurelius, a son of the emperor Carus. He accompanied his father into the east with the title of Cæsar, and at his death he succeeded him with his brother Carinus, A.D. 282. His reign was short. Eight months after his father’s death, he was murdered in his litter by his father-in-law, Arrius Aper, who accompanied him in an expedition. The murderer, who hoped to ascend the vacant throne, continued to follow the litter as if the emperor was alive, till he found a proper opportunity to declare his sentiments. The stench of the body, however, soon discovered his perfidy, and he was sacrificed to the fury of the soldiers. Numerianus had been admired for his learning as well as his moderation. He was naturally an eloquent speaker, and in poetry he was inferior to no writer of his age.——A friend of the emperor Severus.

Numerius, a man who favoured the escape of Marius to Africa, &c.——A friend of Pompey taken by Julius Cæsar’s adherents, &c. Pliny.

Numicia via, one of the great Roman roads, which led from the capital to the town of Brundusium.

Nŭmīcus, a small river of Latium, near Lavinium, where the dead body of Æneas was found, and where Anna, Dido’s sister, drowned herself. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 150, &c.—Silius Italicus, bk. 1, li. 359.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 358, &c.; Fasti, bk. 3, li. 643.——A friend of Horace, to whom he addressed bk. 1, ltr. 6.

Numĭda, a surname given by Horace, bk. 1, ode 36, to one of the generals of Augustus, from his conquests in Numidia. Some suppose that it is Pomponius; others, Plotius.

Nŭmĭdia, an inland country of Africa, which now forms the kingdom of Algiers and Bildulgerid. It was bounded on the north by the Mediterranean sea, south by Gætulia, west by Mauritania, and east by a part of Libya, which was called Africa Propria. The inhabitants were called Nomades, and afterwards Numidæ. It was the kingdom of Masinissa, which was the occasion of the third Punic war, on account of the offence which he had received from the Carthaginians. Jugurtha reigned there, as also Juba the father and son. It was conquered, and became a Roman province, of which Sallust was the first governor. The Numidians were excellent warriors, and in their expeditions they always endeavoured to engage with the enemy in the night-time. They rode without saddles or bridles, whence they have been called infræni. They had their wives in common, as the rest of the barbarian nations of antiquity. Sallust, Jugurthine War.—Florus, bk. 2, ch. 15.—Strabo, bks. 2 & 17.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 4, &c.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 15, li. 754.

Numidius Quadratus, a governor of Syria under Claudius. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 12.

Numistro, a town of the Brutii in Italy. Livy, bk. 45, ch. 17.

Nŭmĭtor, a son of Procas king of Alba, who inherited his father’s kingdom with his brother Amulius, and began to reign conjointly with him. Amulius was too avaricious to bear a colleague on the throne; he expelled his brother, and that he might more safely secure himself, he put to death his son Lausus, and consecrated his daughter Ilia to the service of the goddess Vesta, which demanded perpetual celibacy. These great precautions were rendered abortive. Ilia became pregnant, and though the two children whom she brought forth were exposed in the river by order of the tyrant, their life was preserved, and Numitor was restored to his throne by his grandsons, and the tyrannical usurper was put to death. Dionysius of Halicarnassus.—Livy, bk. 1, ch. 3.—Plutarch, Romulus.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 4, li. 55, &c.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 768.——A son of Phorcus, who fought with Turnus against Æneas. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 342.——A rich and dissolute Roman in the age of Juvenal, satire 7, li. 74.

Numitōrius, a Roman who defended Virginia, to whom Appius wished to offer violence. He was made military tribune.——Quintus Pullus, a general of Fregellæ, &c. Cicero, de Inventione, bk. 2, ch. 34.

Numonius. See: [Vala].

Nuncoreus, a son of Sesostris king of Egypt, who made an obelisk, some ages after brought to Rome, and placed in the Vatican. Pliny, bk. 26, ch. 11.——He is called Pheron by Herodotus.

Nundīna, a goddess whom the Romans invoked when they named their children. This happened the ninth day after their birth, whence the name of the goddess, Nona dies. Macrobius, Saturnalia, bk. 1, ch. 16.

Nundīnæ. See: [Feriæ].

Nursæ, a town of Italy. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 744.

Nurscia, a goddess who patronized the Etrurians. Juvenal, satire 10, li. 74.

Nursia, now Norza, a town of Picenum, whose inhabitants are called Nursini. Its situation was exposed, and the air considered as unwholesome. Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 416.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 716.—Martial, bk. 13, ltr. 20.—Livy, bk. 28, ch. 45.

Nutria, a town of Illyricum. Polybius, bk. 2.

Nycteis, a daughter of Nycteus, who was mother of Labdacus.——A patronymic of Antiope the daughter of Nycteus, mother of Amphion and Zethus by Jupiter, who had assumed the shape of a satyr to enjoy her company. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6, li. 110.

Nyctelia, festivals in honour of Bacchus [See: [Nyctelius]], observed on mount Cithæron. Plutarch, Convivium Septem Sapientium.

Nyctelius, a surname of Bacchus, because his orgies were celebrated in the night (νυξ nox, τελεω perficio). The words latex Nyctelius thence signify wine. Seneca, Œdipus.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 40.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4, li. 15.

Nycteus, a son of Hyrieus and Clonia.——A son of Chthonius.——A son of Neptune by Celene, daughter of Atlas king of Lesbos, or of Thebes, according to the more received opinion. He married a nymph of Crete, called Polyxo or Amalthæa, by whom he had two daughters, Nyctimene and Antiope. The first of these disgraced herself by her criminal amours with her father, into whose bed she introduced herself by means of her nurse. When the father knew the incest which he had committed, he attempted to stab his daughter, who was immediately changed by Minerva into an owl. Nycteus made war against Epopeus, who had carried away Antiope, and died of a wound which he had received in an engagement, leaving his kingdom to his brother Lycus, whom he entreated to continue the war, and punish Antiope for her immodest conduct. See: [Antiope]. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 6.—Hyginus, fables 157 & 204.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 2, li. 590, &c.; bk. 6, li. 110, &c.

Nyctimĕne, a daughter of Nycteus. See: [Nycteus].

Nyctĭmus, a son of Lycaon king of Arcadia. He died without issue, and left his kingdom to his nephew Arcas the son of Callisto. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 4.

Nymbæum, a lake of Peloponnesus in Laconia. Pausanias, bk. 3, li. 23.

Nymphæ, certain female deities among the ancients. They were generally divided into two classes, nymphs of the land and nymphs of the sea. Of the nymphs of the earth, some presided over woods, and were called Dryades and Hamadryades; others presided over mountains, and were called Oreades; some presided over hills and dales, and were called Napææ, &c. Of the sea nymphs, some were called Oceanides, Nereides, Naiades, Potamides, Limnades, &c. These presided not only over the sea, but also over rivers, fountains, streams, and lakes. The nymphs fixed their residence not only in the sea, but also on mountains, rocks, in woods or caverns, and their grottos were beautified by evergreens and delightful and romantic scenes. The nymphs were immortal, according to the opinion of some mythologists; others supposed that, like men, they were subject to mortality, though their life was of long duration. They lived for several thousand years, according to Hesiod, or, as Plutarch seems obscurely to intimate, they lived above 9720 years. The number of the nymphs is not precisely known. They were, according to Hesiod, above 3000, whose power was extended over the different places of the earth, and the various functions and occupations of mankind. They were worshipped by the ancients, though not with so much solemnity as the superior deities. They had no temples raised to their honour, and the only offerings they received were milk, honey, oil, and sometimes the sacrifice of a goat. They were generally represented as young and beautiful virgins, veiled up to the middle, and sometimes they held a vase, from which they seemed to pour water. Sometimes they had grass, leaves, and shells, instead of vases. It was deemed unfortunate to see them naked, and such sight was generally attended by a delirium, to which Propertius seems to allude in this verse, wherein he speaks of the innocence and simplicity of the primitive ages of the world,

Nec fuerat nudas pœna videre Deas.

The nymphs were generally distinguished by an epithet which denoted the place of their residence; thus the nymphs of Sicily were called Sicelides; those of Corycus, Corycides, &c. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 1, li. 320; bk. 5, li. 412; bk. 9, li. 651, &c.; Fasti, bk. 3, li. 769.—Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 4.—Plutarch, de Defectu Oraculorum.—Orpheus, Argonautica.—Hesiod, Theogony.—Propertius, bk. 3, poem 12.—Homer, Odyssey, bk. 14.

Nymphæum, a port of Macedonia. Cæsar, Civil War.——A promontory of Epirus on the Ionian sea.——A place near the walls of Apollonia, sacred to the nymphs, where Apollo had also an oracle. The place was also celebrated for the continual flames of fire which seemed to rise at a distance from the plains. It was there that a sleeping satyr was once caught and brought to Sylla as he returned from the Mithridatic war. This monster had the same features as the poets ascribed to the satyr. He was interrogated by Sylla and by his interpreters, but his articulations were unintelligible, and the Roman spurned from him a creature which seemed to partake of the nature of a beast more than that of a man. Plutarch, Sulla.—Dio Cassius, bk. 41.—Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 29.—Strabo, bk. 7.—Livy, bk. 42, chs. 36 & 49.——A city of Taurica Chersonesus.——The building at Rome where the nymphs were worshipped bore also this name, being adorned with their statues and with fountains and waterfalls, which afforded an agreeable and refreshing coolness.

Nymphæus, a man who went into Caria at the head of a colony of Melians, &c. Polyænus, bk. 8.

Nymphidius, a favourite of Nero, who said that he was descended from Caligula. He was raised to the consular dignity, and soon after disputed the empire with Galba. He was slain by the soldiers, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 15.

Nymphis, a native of Heraclea, who wrote a history of Alexander’s life and actions, divided into 24 books. Ælian, bk. 7, de Natura Animalium.

Nymphodōrus, a writer of Amphipolis.——A Syracusan who wrote a history of Sicily.

Nympholleptes, or Nymphomănes, possessed by the nymphs. This name was given to the inhabitants of mount Cithæron, who believed that they were inspired by the nymphs. Plutarch, Aristeides.

Nymphon, a native of Colophon, &c. Cicero, Letters to his brother Quintus, bk. 1.

Nypsius, a general of Dionysius the tyrant, who took Syracuse, and put all the inhabitants to the sword. Diodorus, bk. 16.

Nysa, or Nyssa, a town of Æthiopia, at the south of Egypt, or, according to others, of Arabia. This city, with another of the same name in India, was sacred to the god Bacchus, who was educated there by the nymphs of the place, and who received the name of Dionysius, which seems to be compounded of Διος and [♦]Νυσα, the name of his father, and that of the place of his education. The god made this place the seat of his empire, and the capital of the conquered nations of the east. Diodorus, in his third and fourth books, has given a prolix account of the birth of the god at Nysa, and of his education and heroic actions. Mela, bk. 3, ch. 7.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4, li. 13, &c.—Silius Italicus, bk. 7, li. 198.—Curtius, bk. 8, ch. 10.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 805.——According to some geographers there were no less than 10 places of the name of Nysa. One of these was on the coast of Eubœa, famous for its vines, which grew in such an uncommon manner, that if a twig was planted in the ground in the morning, it was said immediately to produce grapes, which were full ripe in the evening.——A city of Thrace.——Another seated on the top of mount Parnassus, and sacred to Bacchus. Juvenal, satire 7, li. 63.

[♦] ‘Νμσα’ replaced with ‘Νυσα’

Nysæus, a surname of Bacchus, because he was worshipped at Nysa. Propertius, bk. 3, poem 17, li. 22.—A son of Dionysius of Syracuse. Cornelius Nepos, Dion.

Nysas, a river of Africa, rising in Æthiopia.

Nysisæ portæ, a small island in Africa.

Nysiădes, a name given to the nymphs of Nysa, to whose care Jupiter entrusted the education of his son Bacchus. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3, li. 314, &c.

Nysīros, an island. See: [Nisyros].

Nysius, a surname of Bacchus as the protecting god of Nysa. Cicero, Flaccus, ch. 25.

Nyssa, a sister of Mithridates the Great. Plutarch.

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