A Smaller Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities

by William Smith

HŎNŌRES, the high offices of the state to which qualified individuals were called by the votes of the Roman citizens. The words “magistratus” and “honores” are sometimes coupled together. The capacity of enjoying the honores was one of the distinguishing marks of citizenship. [[Civitas].] Honor was distinguished from munus. The latter was an office connected with the administration of the state, and was attended with cost (sumptus) but not with rank (dignitas). Honor was properly said deferri, dari; munus was said imponi. A person who held a magistrates might be said to discharge munera, but only as incident to the office, for the office itself was the honor. Such munera as these were public games and other things of the kind.

HOPLĪTAE. [[Exercitus].]

HŌRA. [[Dies].]

HŌRŎLŎGĬUM (ὡρολόγιον), the name of the various instruments by means of which the ancients measured the time of the day and night. The earliest and simplest horologia of which mention is made, were called polos (πόλος) and gnomon (γνώμων). Both divided the day into twelve equal parts, and were a kind of sun-dial. The gnomon, which was also called stoicheion (στοιχεῖον), was the more simple of the two, and probably the more ancient. It consisted of a staff or pillar standing perpendicular, in a place exposed to the sun (σκιάθηρον), so that the length of its shadow might be easily ascertained. The shadow of the gnomon was measured by feet, which were probably marked on the place where the shadow fell. In later times the name gnomon was applied to any kind of sun-dial, especially to its finger which threw the shadow, and thus pointed to the hour. The polos or heliotropion (ἡλιοτρόπιον), on the other hand, seems to have been a more perfect kind of sun-dial; but it appears, nevertheless, not to have been much used. It consisted of a basin (λεκανίς), in the middle of which the perpendicular staff or finger (γνώμων) was erected, and in it the twelve parts of the day were marked by lines.—Another kind of horologium, was the clepsydra (κλεψύδρα). It derived its name from κλέπτειν and ὕδωρ, as in its original and simple form it consisted of a vessel with several little openings (τρυπήματα) at the bottom, through which the water contained in it escaped, as it were by stealth. This instrument seems at first to have been used only for the purpose of measuring the time during which persons were allowed to speak in the courts of justice at Athens. It was a hollow globe, probably somewhat flat at the top-part, where it had a short neck (αὐλός), like that of a bottle, through which the water was poured into it. This opening might be closed by a lid or stopper (πῶμα), to prevent the water running out at the bottom. As the time for speaking in the Athenian courts was thus measured by water, the orators frequently use the term ὕδωρ instead of the time allowed to them. An especial officer (ὁ ἐφ’ ὕδωρ) was appointed in the courts for the purpose of watching the clepsydra, and stopping it when any documents were read, whereby the speaker was interrupted. The time, and consequently the quantity of water allowed to a speaker, depended upon the importance of the case. The clepsydra used, in the courts of justice was, properly speaking, no horologium; but smaller ones, made of glass, and of the same simple structure, were undoubtedly used very early in families for the purposes of ordinary life, and for dividing the day into twelve equal parts. In these glass-clepsydrae the division into twelve parts must have been visible, either on the glass globe itself, or in the basin into which the water flowed.—The first horologium with which the Romans became acquainted was a sun-dial (solarium or horologium sciothericum), and was said to have been brought to Rome by Papirius Cursor twelve years before the war with Pyrrhus. But as sun-dials were useless when the sky was cloudy, P. Scipio Nasica, in his censorship, 159 B.C., established a public clepsydra, which indicated the hours both of day and night. This clepsydra was in after times generally called solarium. After the time of Scipio Nasica several horologia, chiefly solaria, seem to have been erected in various public places at Rome. Clepsydrae were used by the Romans in their camps, chiefly for the purpose of measuring accurately the four vigiliae into which the night was divided. The custom of using clepsydrae as a check upon the speakers in the courts of justice at Rome, was introduced by a law of Cn. Pompeius, in his third consulship. Before that time the speakers had been under no restrictions, but spoke as long as they deemed proper. At Rome, as at Athens, the time allowed to the speakers depended upon the importance of the case.

HORRĔUM (ὡρεῖον, σιτοφυλακεῖον, ἀποθήκη) was, according to its etymological signification, a place in which ripe fruits, and especially corn, were kept, and thus answered to our granary. During the empire the name horreum was given to any place destined for the safe preservation of things of any kind. Thus we find it applied to a place in which beautiful works of art were kept, to cellars (horrea subterranea, horrea vinaria), to depôts for merchandise, and all sorts of provisions (horreum penarium). Seneca even calls his library a horreum. But the more general application of the word horreum was to places for keeping fruit and corn; and as some kinds of fruit required to be kept more dry than others, the ancients had besides the horrea subterranea, or cellars, two other kinds, one of which was built like every other house upon the ground; but others (horrea pensilia or sublimia) were erected above the ground, and rested upon posts or stone pillars, that the fruits kept in them might remain dry.—From about the year 140 after Christ, Rome possessed two kinds of public horrea. The one class consisted of buildings in which the Romans might deposit their goods, and even their money, securities, and other valuables. The second and more important class of horrea, which may be termed public granaries, were buildings in which a plentiful supply of corn was constantly kept at the expense of the state, and from which, in seasons of scarcity, the corn was distributed among the poor, or sold at a moderate price.

HORTUS (κῆπος), garden. Our knowledge of the horticulture of the Greeks is very limited. In fact the Greeks seem to have had no great taste for landscape beauties, and the small number of flowers with which they were acquainted afforded but little inducement to ornamental horticulture. At Athens the flowers most cultivated were probably those used for making garlands, such as violets and roses. In the time of the Ptolemies the art of gardening seems to have advanced in the favourable climate of Egypt so far, that a succession of flowers was obtained all the year round. The Romans, like the Greeks, laboured under the disadvantage of a very limited flora. This disadvantage they endeavoured to overcome, by arranging the materials they did possess in such a way as to produce a striking effect. We have a very full description of a Roman garden in a letter of the younger Pliny, in which he describes his Tuscan villa. In front of the porticus there was generally a xystus, or flat piece of ground, divided into flower-beds of different shapes by borders of box. There were also such flower-beds in other parts of the garden. Sometimes they were raised so as to form terraces, and their sloping sides planted with evergreens or creepers. The most striking features of a Roman garden were lines of large trees, among which the plane appears to have been a great favourite, planted in regular order; alleys or walks (ambulationes) formed by closely clipped hedges of box, yew, cypress, and other evergreens; beds of acanthus, rows of fruit-trees, especially of vines, with statues, pyramids, fountains, and summer-houses (diaetae). The trunks of the trees and the parts of the house or any other buildings which were visible from the garden, were often covered with ivy. In one respect the Roman taste differed most materially from that of the present day, namely, in their fondness for the ars topiaria, which consisted in tying, twisting, or cutting trees and shrubs (especially the box) into the figures of animals, ships, letters, &c. Their principal garden-flowers seem to have been violets and roses, and they also had the crocus, narcissus, lily, gladiolus, iris, poppy, amaranth, and others. Conservatories and hot-houses are frequently mentioned by Martial. Flowers and plants were also kept in the central place of the peristyle [[Domus]], on the roofs and in the windows of houses. An ornamental garden was also called viridarium, and the gardener topiarius or viridarius. The common name for a gardener is villicus or cultor hortorum.

Hortus, Garden. (From a Painting at Herculaneum.)

HOSPĬTĬUM (ξενία, προξενία), hospitality, was in Greece, as well as at Rome, of a two-fold nature, either private or public, in so far as it was either established between individuals, or between two states. (Hospitium privatum and hospitium publicum, ξενία and προξενία.) In ancient Greece the stranger, as such (ξένος and hostis), was looked upon as an enemy; but whenever he appeared among another tribe or nation without any sign of hostile intentions, he was considered not only as one who required aid, but as a suppliant, and Zeus was the protecting deity of strangers and suppliants (Ζεὺς ξένιος). On his arrival, therefore, the stranger was kindly received, and provided with every thing necessary to make him comfortable. It seems to have been customary for the host, on the departure of the stranger, to break a die (ἀστράγαλος) in two, one half of which he himself retained, while the other half was given to the stranger; and when at any future time they or their descendants met, they had a means of recognising each other, and the hospitable connection was renewed. Hospitality thus not only existed between the persons who had originally formed it, but was transferred as an inheritance from father to son. What has been said hitherto, only refers to hospitium privatum; but of far greater importance was the hospitium publicum (προξενία, sometimes simply ξενία) or public hospitality, which existed between two states, or between an individual or a family on the one hand, and a whole state on the other. Of the latter kind of public hospitality many instances are recorded, such as that between the Peisistratids and Sparta, in which the people of Athens had no share. The hospitium publicum among the Greeks arose undoubtedly from the hospitium privatum, and it may have originated in two ways. When the Greek tribes were governed by chieftains or kings, the private hospitality existing between the ruling families of two tribes may have produced similar relations between their subjects, which, after the abolition of the kingly power, continued to exist between the new republics as a kind of political inheritance of former times. Or a person belonging to one state might have either extensive connections with the citizens of another state, or entertain great partiality for the other state itself, and thus offer to receive all those who came from that state either on private or public business, and to act as their patron in his own city. This he at first did merely as a private individual, but the state to which he offered this kind service would naturally soon recognise and reward him for it. When two states established public hospitality, and no individuals came forward to act as the representatives of their state, it was necessary that in each state persons should be appointed to show hospitality to, and watch over the interests of, all persons who came from the state connected by hospitality. The persons who were appointed to this office as the recognised agents of the state for which they acted were called proxeni (πρόξενοι), but those who undertook it voluntarily etheloproxeni (ἐθελοπρόξενοι). The office of proxenus, which bears great resemblance to that of a modern consul or minister-resident, was in some cases hereditary in a particular family. When a state appointed a proxenus, it either sent out one of its own citizens to reside in the other state, or it selected one of the citizens of this state, and conferred upon him the honour of proxenus. The former was, in early times, the custom of Sparta, where the kings had the right of selecting from among the Spartan citizens those whom they wished to send out as proxeni to other states. But in subsequent times this custom seems to have been given up, for we find that at Athens the family of Callias were the proxeni of Sparta, and at Argos, the Argive Alciphron. The principal duties of a proxenus were to receive those persons, especially ambassadors, who came from the state which he represented; to procure for them admission to the assembly, and seats in the theatre; to act as the patron of the strangers, and to mediate between the two states if any disputes arose. If a stranger died in the state, the proxenus of his country had to take care of the property of the deceased.—The hospitality of the Romans was, as in Greece, either hospitium privatum or publicum. Private hospitality with the Romans, however, seems to have been more accurately and legally defined than in Greece. The character of a hospes, i.e. a person connected with a Roman by ties of hospitality, was deemed even more sacred, and to have greater claims upon the host, than that of a person connected by blood or affinity. The relation of a hospes to his Roman friend was next in importance to that of a cliens. The obligations which the connection of hospitality with a foreigner imposed upon a Roman, were to receive in his house his hospes when travelling; and to protect, and, in case of need, to represent him as his patron in the courts of justice. Private hospitality thus gave to the hospes the claims upon his host which the client had on his patron, but without any degree of the dependence implied in the clientele. Private hospitality was established between individuals by mutual presents, or by the mediation of a third person, and hallowed by religion; for Jupiter hospitalis was thought to watch over the jus hospitii, as Zeus xenios did with the Greeks, and the violation of it was as great a crime and impiety at Rome as in Greece. When hospitality was formed, the two friends used to divide between themselves a tessera hospitalis, by which, afterwards, they themselves or their descendants—for the connection was hereditary as in Greece—might recognise one another. Hospitality, when thus once established, could not be dissolved except by a formal declaration (renuntiatio), and in this case the tessera hospitalis was broken to pieces. Public hospitality seems likewise to have existed at a very early period among the nations of Italy; but the first direct mention of public hospitality being established between Rome and another city, is after the Gauls had departed from Rome, when it was decreed that Caere should be rewarded for its good services by the establishment of public hospitality between the two cities. The public hospitality after the war with the Gauls gave to the Caerites the right of isopolity with Rome, that is, the civitas without the suffragium and the honores. [[Colonia].] In the later times of the republic we no longer find public hospitality established between Rome and a foreign state; but a relation which amounted to the same thing was introduced in its stead, that is, towns were raised to the rank of municipia, and thus obtained the civitas without the suffragium and the honores; and when a town was desirous of forming a similar relation with Rome, it entered into clientela to some distinguished Roman, who then acted as patron of the client-town. But the custom of granting the honour of hospes publicus to a distinguished foreigner by a decree of the senate, seems to have existed down to the end of the republic. His privileges were the same as those of a municeps, that is, he had the civitas, but not the suffragium or the honores. Public hospitality was, like the hospitium privatum, hereditary in the family of the person to whom it had been granted.

HỸĂCINTHĬA (ὑακίνθια), a great national festival, celebrated every year at Amyclae by the Amyclaeans and Spartans, probably in honour of the Amyclaean Apollo and Hyacinthus together. This Amyclaean Apollo, however, with whom Hyacinthus was assimilated in later times, must not be confounded with Apollo, the national divinity of the Dorians. The festival was called after the youthful hero Hyacinthus, who evidently derived his name from the flower hyacinth (the emblem of death among the ancient Greeks), and whom Apollo accidentally struck dead with a quoit. The Hyacinthia lasted for three days, and began on the longest day of the Spartan month Hecatombeus, at the time when the tender flowers, oppressed by the heat of the sun, drooped their languid heads. On the first and last day of the Hyacinthia sacrifices were offered to the dead, and the death of Hyacinthus was lamented. During these two days, nobody wore any garlands at the repasts, nor took bread, but only cakes and similar things, and when the solemn repasts were over, everybody went home in the greatest quiet and order. The second day, however, was wholly spent in public rejoicings and amusements, such as horse-races, dances, processions, &c. The great importance attached to this festival by the Amyclaeans and Lacedaemonians is seen from the fact, that the Amyclaeans, even when they had taken the field against an enemy, always returned home on the approach of the season of the Hyacinthia, that they might not be obliged to neglect its celebration; and that in a treaty with Sparta, B.C. 421, the Athenians, in order to show their good-will towards Sparta, promised every year to attend the celebration of this festival.