ASTRŎLŎGĬA, astrology. A belief very early arose, which still prevails unshaken in the East, that a close connection subsisted between the position and movements of the heavenly bodies and the fate of man. Few doubted that the destiny of a child might be predicted with certainty by those who were skilled to interpret the position of the stars at the moment of his birth, and that the result of any undertaking might be foretold from the aspect of the firmament when it was commenced. Hence a numerous and powerful class of men arose who were distinguished by various designations. From the country where their science was first developed, they were called Chaldaei or Babylonii; from observing the stars, astronomi, astrologi, planetarii; from employing diagrams such as were used by geometricians, mathematici; from determining the lot of man at his natal hour, genethliaci; from prophesying the consummation of his struggles, ἀποτελεσματικοί; while their art was known as ἀστρολογία, μετεωρολογία, γενεθλιαλογία, ἀποτελεσματική, Ars Chaldaeorum, Mathesis, or, from the tables they consulted, πινακική. Their calculations were termed Babylonii numeri, Χαλδαίων μέθοδοι, Χαλδαίων ψηφίδες, Rationes Chaldaicae; their responses when consulted Chaldaeorum monita, Chaldaeorum natalicia praedicta, Astrologorum praedicta. The stars and constellations to which attention was chiefly directed were the planets and the signs of the zodiac, some of which were supposed to exert uniformly a benign influence (ἀγαθοποιοὶ ἀστέρες), such as Venus, Jupiter, Luna, Virgo, Libra, Taurus; others to be uniformly malign (κακοποιοὶ ἀστέρες), such as Saturnus, Mars, Scorpio, Capricornus; others to be doubtful (ἐπίκοινοι ἀστέρες), such as Mercurius. The exact period of birth (hora genitalis) being the critical moment, the computations founded upon it were styled γένεσις (genitura), ὡροσκόπος (horoscopus), or simply θέμα, and the star or stars in the ascendant sidus natalitium, sidera natalitia. Astrologers seem to have found their way very early into Italy. In B.C. 139 an edict was promulgated by C. Cornelius Hispallus, at that time praetor, by which the Chaldaeans were ordered to quit Italy within ten days, and they were again banished from the city in B.C. 33, by M. Agrippa, who was then aedile. Another severe ordinance was levelled by Augustus against this class, but the frequent occurrence of such phrases as “expulit et mathematicos,” “pulsis Italia mathematicis,” in the historians of the empire prove how firm a hold these pretenders must have obtained over the public mind, and how profitable the occupation must have been which could induce them to brave disgrace, and sometimes a cruel death.
ASTỸNŎMI (ἀστυνόμοι), or street-police of Athens, were ten in number, five for the city, and as many for the Peiraeeus. The astynomi and agoranomi divided between them most of the functions of the Roman aediles. [[Agoranomi].]
ĂSῩLUM (ἄσυλον). In the Greek states the temples, altars, sacred groves, and statues of the gods, generally possessed the privilege of protecting slaves, debtors, and criminals, who fled to them for refuge. The laws, however, do not appear to have recognised the right of all such sacred places to afford the protection which was claimed, but to have confined it to a certain number of temples, or altars, which were considered in a more especial manner to have the ἀσυλία, or jus asyli. There were several places in Athens which possessed this privilege; of which the best known was the Theseium, or temple of Theseus, in the city, near the gymnasium, which was chiefly intended for the protection of ill-treated slaves, who could take refuge in this place, and compel their masters to sell them to some other person. In the time of Tiberius, the number of places possessing the jus asyli in the Greek cities in Greece and Asia Minor became so numerous, as seriously to impede the administration of justice; and, consequently, the senate, by the command of the emperor, limited the jus asyli to a few cities. The asylum, which Romulus is said to have opened at Rome to increase the population of the city, was a place of refuge for the inhabitants of other states, rather than a sanctuary for those who had violated the laws of the city. In the republican and early imperial times, a right of asylum, such as existed in the Greek states, does not appear to have been recognised by the Roman law; but it existed under the empire, and a slave could fly to the temples of the gods, or the statues of the emperors, to avoid the ill-usage of his master.
ĂTĔLEIA (ἀτέλεια), immunity from public burthens, was enjoyed at Athens by the archons for the time being; by the descendants of certain persons, on whom it had been conferred as a reward for great services, as in the case of Harmodius and Aristogeiton; and by the inhabitants of certain foreign states. It was of several kinds: it might be a general immunity (ἀτέλεια ἁπάντων); or a more special exemption, as from custom-duties, from the liturgies, or from providing sacrifices.
ĀTELLĀNAE FĂBŬLAE were a species of farce or comedy, so called from Atella, a town of the Osci, in Campania. From this circumstance, and from being written in the Oscan dialect, they were also called Ludi Osci. These Atellane plays were not praetextatae, i.e. comedies in which magistrates and persons of rank were introduced, nor tabernariae, the characters in which were taken from low life; they rather seem to have been a union of high comedy and its parody. They were also distinguished from the mimes by the absence of low buffoonery and ribaldry, being remarkable for a refined humour, such as could be understood and appreciated by educated people. They were not performed by regular actors (histriones), but by Roman citizens of noble birth, who were not on that account subjected to any degradation, but retained their rights as citizens, and might serve in the army. The Oscan or Opican language, in which these plays were written, was spread over the whole of the south of Italy, and from its resemblance to the Latin could easily be understood by the more educated Romans.
ĂTHĒNAEUM (ἀθήναιον), a school (ludus) founded by the Emperor Hadrian at Rome, for the promotion of literary and scientific studies (ingenuarum artium), and called Athenaeum from the town of Athens, which was still regarded as the seat of intellectual refinement. The Athenaeum was situated on the Capitoline hill. It was a kind of university, with a staff of professors, for the various branches of study. Besides the instruction given by these magistri, poets, orators, and critics were accustomed to recite their compositions there, and these prelections were sometimes honoured with the presence of the emperors themselves. The Athenaeum seems to have continued in high repute till the fifth century.
ATHLĒTAE (ἀθληταί, ἀθλητῆρες), persons who contended in the public games of the Greeks and Romans for prizes (ἆθλα, whence the name of ἀθληταί), which were given to those who conquered in contests of agility and strength. The name was in the later period of Grecian history, and among the Romans, properly confined to those persons who entirely devoted themselves to a course of training which might fit them to excel in such contests, and who, in fact, made athletic exercises their profession. The athletae differed, therefore, from the agonistae (ἀγωνισταί), who only pursued gymnastic exercises for the sake of improving their health and bodily strength, and who, though they sometimes contended for the prizes in the public games, did not devote their whole lives, like the athletae, to preparing for these contests. Athletae were first introduced at Rome, B.C. 186, in the games exhibited by M. Fulvius, on the conclusion of the Aetolian war. Aemilius Paullus, after the conquest of Perseus, B.C. 167, is said to have exhibited games at Amphipolis, in which athletae contended. Under the Roman emperors, and especially under Nero, who was passionately fond of the Grecian games, the number of athletae increased greatly in Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor. Those athletae who conquered in any of the great national festivals of the Greeks were called Hieronicae (ἱερονῖκαι), and received the greatest honours and rewards. Such a conqueror was considered to confer honour upon the state to which he belonged; he entered his native city through a breach made in the walls for his reception, in a chariot drawn by four white horses, and went along the principal street of the city to the temple of the guardian deity of the state. Those games, which gave the conquerors the right of such an entrance into the city, were called Iselastici (from εἰσελαύνειν). This term was originally confined to the four great Grecian festivals, the Olympian, Isthmian, Nemean, and Pythian, but was afterwards applied to other public games. In the Greek states, the victors in these games not only obtained the greatest glory and respect, but also substantial rewards. They were generally relieved from the payment of taxes, and also enjoyed the first seat (προεδρία) in all public games and spectacles. Their statues were frequently erected at the cost of the state, in the most frequented part of the city, as the market-place, the gymnasia, and the neighbourhood of the temples. At Athens, according to a law of Solon, the conquerors in the Olympic games were rewarded with a prize of 500 drachmae; and the conquerors in the Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian, with one of 100 drachmae; and at Sparta they had the privilege of fighting near the person of the king. The privileges of the athletae were secured, and in some respects increased, by the Roman emperors. The term athletae, though sometimes applied metaphorically to other combatants, was properly limited to those who contended for the prize in the five following contests:—1. Running (δρόμος, cursus). [[Stadium].] 2. Wrestling (πάλη, lucta). 3. Boxing (πυγμή, pugilatus). 4. The pentathlum (πένταθλον), or, as the Romans called it, quinquertium. 5. The pancratium (παγκράτιον). Of all these an account is given in separate articles. Great attention was paid to the training of the athletae. They were generally trained in the palaestrae, which, in the Grecian states, were distinct places from the gymnasia. Their exercises were superintended by the gymnasiarch, and their diet was regulated by the aliptes. [[Aliptae].]—The athletae were accustomed to contend naked. In the descriptions of the games given in the Iliad, the combatants are represented with a girdle about their loins; and the same practice, as we learn from Thucydides, anciently prevailed at the Olympic games, but was discontinued afterwards.
ĂTĪMĬA (ἀτιμία), the forfeiture of a man’s civil rights at Athens. It was either total or partial. A man was totally deprived of his rights, both for himself and for his descendants (καθάπαξ ἄτιμος), when he was convicted of murder, theft, false witness, partiality as arbiter, violence offered to a magistrate, and so forth. This highest degree of atimia excluded the person affected by it from the forum, and from all public assemblies; from the public sacrifices, and from the law courts; or rendered him liable to immediate imprisonment, if he was found in any of these places. It was either temporary or perpetual, and either accompanied or not with confiscation of property. Partial atimia only involved the forfeiture of some few rights, as, for instance, the right of pleading in court. Public debtors were suspended from their civic functions till they discharged their debt to the state. People who had once become altogether atimi were very seldom restored to their lost privileges. The converse term to atimia was epitimia (ἐπιτιμία).
ATLANTES (ἄτλαντες) and TĔLĂMŌNES (τελαμῶνες), terms used in architecture, the former by the Greeks, the latter by the Romans, to designate those male figures which are sometimes fancifully used, like the female Caryatides, in place of columns. Both words are derived from τλῆναι, and the former evidently refers to the fable of Atlas, who supported the vault of heaven, the latter perhaps to the strength of the Telamonian Ajax.