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.