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.