Q
Quaderna, a town of Italy.
Quadi, an ancient nation of Germany, near the country of the Marcomanni, on the borders of the Danube, in modern Moravia. They rendered themselves celebrated by their opposition to the Romans, by whom they were often defeated, though not totally subdued. Tacitus, Germania, chs. 42 & 43; Annals, bk. 2, ch. 63.
Quadrātus, a surname given to Mercury, because some of his statues were square. The number 4, according to Plutarch, was sacred to Mercury, because he was born on the 4th day of the month. Plutarch, Convivium Septem Sapientium, ch. 9.——A governor of Syria in the age of Nero.
Quadrĭfrons, or Quadrĭceps, a surname of Janus, because he was represented with four heads. He had a temple on the Tarpeian rock, raised by Lucius Catulus.
Quæstōres, two officers at Rome, first created A.U.C. 269. They received their name a quærendo, because they collected the revenues of the state, and had the total management of the public treasury. The questorship was the first office which could be had in the state. It was requisite that the candidates should be 24 or 25 years of age, or, according to some, 27. In the year 332, A.U.C., two more were added to the others, to attend the consuls, to take care of the pay of the armies abroad, and sell the plunder and booty which had been acquired by conquest. These were called Peregrini, whilst the others, whose employment was in the city, received the name of Urbani. When the Romans were masters of all Italy, four more were created, A.U.C. 439, to attend the proconsuls and propretors in their provinces, and to collect all the taxes and customs which each particular district owed to the republic. They were called Provinciales. Sylla the dictator created 20 questors, and Julius Cæsar 40, to fill up the vacant seats in the senate; from whence it is evident that the questors ranked as senators in the senate. The questors were always appointed by the senate at Rome, and if any person was appointed to the questorship without their permission, he was only called proquestor. The quæstores urbani were apparently of more consequence than the rest, the treasury was entrusted to their care, they kept an account of all the receipts and disbursements, and the Roman eagles or ensigns were always in their possession when the armies were not on an expedition. They required every general before he triumphed to tell them, upon his oath, that he had given a just account of the number of the slain on both sides, and that he had been saluted imperator by the soldiers, a title which every commander generally received from his army after he had obtained a victory, and which was afterwards confirmed and approved by the senate. The city questors had also the care of the ambassadors; they lodged and received them, and some time after, when Augustus was declared emperor, they kept the decrees of the senate, which had been before entrusted with the ediles and the tribunes. This gave rise to two new offices of trust and honour, one of which was quæstor palatii, and the other quæstor principis, or augusti, sometimes called candidatus principis. The tent of the questor in the camp was called quæstorium. It stood near that of the general. Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 4.—Livy, bk. 4, ch. 43.—Dio Cassius, bk. 43.
Quari, a people of Gaul.
Quarius, a river of Bœotia.
Quercens, a Rutulian who fought against the Trojans. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 684.
Querquetulānus, a name given to mount Cœlius at Rome, from the oaks which grew there. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 4, ch. 65.
Quiētis fanum, a temple without the walls of the city of Rome. Quies was the goddess of rest. Her temple was situate near the Colline gate. Livy, bk. 4, ch. 4.—Augustine, City of God, bk. 4, ch. 16.
Lucius Quiētus, an officer under the emperor Trajan, who behaved with great valour in the expeditions which were undertaken by the army which he commanded. He was put to death by Adrian.
Quinctia prata. See: [Quintia].
Quinctiānus, a man who conspired against Nero, for which he was put to death.
Quinctilia, a comedian who refused to betray a conspiracy which had been formed against Caligula.
Quinctius Titus, a Roman consul who gained some victories over the Æqui and the Volsci, and obtained a triumph for subduing Præneste.——Cæso, a man accused before the Roman people, and vindicated by his father Cincinnatus.——A Roman celebrated for his frugality. See: [Cincinnatus].——A master of horse.——A Roman consul when Annibal invaded Italy.——A brother of Flaminius, banished from the senate by Cato, for killing a Gaul.——An officer killed by the Carthaginians.——An officer under Dolabella.——Another who defeated the Latins.——A consul who obtained a victory over the Volsci.——Hirpinus. See: [Hirpinus].
Quinda, a town of Cilicia.
Quindecimvĭri, an order of priests whom Tarquin the Proud appointed to take care of the Sibylline books. They were originally two, but afterwards the number was increased to 10, to whom Sylla added five more, whence their name. See: [Decemviri] and [Duumviri].
Quinquatria, a festival in honour of Minerva at Rome, which continued during five days. The beginning of the celebration was the 18th of March. The first day sacrifices and oblations were presented, but, however, without the effusion of blood. On the second, third, and fourth days, shows of gladiators were exhibited, and on the fifth day there was a solemn procession through the streets of the city. On the days of the celebration, scholars obtained holidays, and it was usual for them to offer prayers to Minerva for learning and wisdom, which the goddess patronized; and on their return to school they presented their master with a gift which has received the name of Minerval. They were much the same as the Panathenæa of the Greeks. Plays were also acted, and disputations were held on subjects of literature. They received their name from the five days which were devoted for the celebration.
Quinquennāles ludi, games celebrated by the Chians in honour of Homer every fifth year. There were also some games among the Romans which bore this name. They are the same as the Actian games. See: [Actia].
Quintia Prata, a place on the borders of the Tiber near Rome, which had been cultivated by the great Cincinnatus. Livy, bk. 3, ch. 26.
Quintiliānus Marcus Fabius, a celebrated rhetorician born in Spain. He opened a school of rhetoric at Rome, and was the first who obtained a salary from the state as being a public teacher. After he had remained 20 years in this laborious employment, and obtained the merited applause of the most illustrious Romans, not only as a preceptor, but as a pleader at the bar, Quintilian, by the permission of the emperor Domitian, retired to enjoy the fruits of his labours and industry. In his retirement he assiduously dedicated his time to the study of literature, and wrote a treatise on the causes of the corruption of eloquence. Some time after, at the pressing solicitations of his friends, he wrote his institutiones oratoricæ, the most perfect and complete system of oratory extant. It is divided into 12 books, in which the author explains from observation, as well as from experience, what can constitute a good and perfect orator, and in this he not only mentions the pursuits and the employments of the rhetorician, but he also speaks of his education, and begins with the attention which ought to be shown him even in his cradle. He was appointed preceptor to the two young princes whom Domitian destined for his successors on the throne, but the pleasures which the rhetorician received from the favours and the attention of the emperor and from the success which his writings met in the world, were embittered by the loss of his wife, and of his two sons. It is said that Quintilian was poor in his retirement, and that his indigence was relieved by the liberality of his pupil Pliny the younger. He died A.D. 95. His Institutions were discovered in the 1415th year of the christian era, in an old tower of a monastery at St. Gal, by Poggio Bracciolini, a native of Florence. The best editions of Quintilian are those of Gesner, 4to, Göttingen, 1738; of Leiden, 8vo, cum notis variorum, 1665; of Gibson, 4to, Oxford, 1693; and that of Rollin, republished in 8vo, London, 1792.
Quintilius Varus, a Roman governor of Syria. See: [Varus].——A friend of the emperor Alexander.——A man put to death by the emperor Severus.
Quintilla, a courtesan at Rome, &c. Juvenal, satire 7, li. 75.
Quintillus Marcus Aurelius Claudius, a brother of Claudius, who proclaimed himself emperor, and 17 days after destroyed himself by opening his veins in a bath, when he heard that Aurelian was marching against him, about the 270th year of the christian era.
Quintius Curtius Rufus, a Latin historian, who flourished, as some suppose, in the reign of Vespasian or Trajan. He has rendered himself known by his history of the reign of Alexander the Great. This history was divided into 10 books, of which the two first, the end of the fifth, and the beginning of the sixth, are lost. This work is admired for the elegance, the purity, and the floridness of its style. It is, however, blamed for great anachronisms and glaring mistakes in geography as well as history. Freinshemius has written a supplement to Curtius, in which he seems to have made some very satisfactory amends for the loss of which the history had suffered, by a learned collection of facts and circumstances from all the different authors who have employed their pen in writing an account of Alexander, and of his Asiatic conquests. Some suppose that the historian is the same with that Curtius Rufus who lived in the age of Claudius, under whom he was made consul. This Rufus was born of an obscure family, and he attended a Roman questor in Africa, when he was met at Adrumentum by a woman above a human shape, as he was walking under the porticoes in the middle of the day. This extraordinary character addressed the indigent Roman, and told him that the day should come in which he should govern Africa with consular power. This strange prophecy animated Rufus; he repaired to Rome, where he gained the favours of the emperor, obtained consular honours, and at last retired as proconsul to Africa, where he died. The best editions of Curtius are those of Elzevir, 8vo, Amsterdam, 1673; of Snakenburg, 4to, Leiden, 1724; and of Barbou, 12mo, Paris, 1757. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 11, ch. 23, &c.
[♦]Quintus, or Quinctius, one of the names of Cincinnatus. Persius, bk. 1, li. 73.——Pedius, a painter. See: [Pedius].
[♦] Out of alphabetical order in the text.
Quintus Veranius, a governor of Cappadocia.——Cicero, the brother of Cicero.——Catulus, a Roman consul.——A friend of Cæsar.
Quirinalia, festivals in honour of Romulus, surnamed Quirinus, celebrated on the 13th of the calends of March.
Quirinālis, a hill at Rome, originally called Agonius, and afterwards Collinus. The name of Quirinalis is obtained from the inhabitants of Cures, who settled there under their king Tatius. It was also called Cabalinus, from two marble statues of a horse, one of which was the work of Phidias, and the other of Praxiteles. Livy, bk. 1, ch. 44.—Ovid, Fasti, li. 375; Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 843.——One of the gates of Rome near mount Quirinalis.
Quirīnus, a surname of Mars among the Romans. This name was also given to Romulus when he had been made a god by his superstitious subjects. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 2, li. 475.——Also a surname of the god Janus.——Sulpitius, a Roman consul, born at Lanuvium. Though descended of an obscure family, he was raised to the greatest honours by Augustus. He was appointed governor of Syria, and was afterwards made preceptor to Caius the grandson of the emperor. He married Æmilia Lepida the granddaughter of Sylla and Pompey, but some time after he shamefully repudiated her. He died A.D. 22. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 3, &c.
Quirītes, a name given to the Roman citizens, because they admitted into their city the Sabines, who inhabited the town of Cures, and who on that account were called Quirites. After this union, the two nations were indiscriminately and promiscuously called by that name. It is, however, to be observed that the word was confined to Rome, and not used in the armies, as we find some of the generals applying it only to such of their soldiers as they dismissed or disgraced. Even some of the emperors appeased a sedition, by calling their rebellious soldiers by the degrading appellation of Quirites. Suetonius, Cæsar, ch. 170.—Lampridius, bk. 53.—Lucan, bk. 5, li. 558.—Horace, bk. 4, ode 14, li. 1.—Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 4.—Livy, bk. 1, ch. 13.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 2, li. 479.