A Dictionary of Classical Antiquities

by Oskar Seyffert

A DICTIONARY

OF

CLASSICAL ANTIQUITIES

MYTHOLOGY, RELIGION, LITERATURE & ART

from the german of

Dr. Oskar Seyffert

revised and edited, with additions, by

HENRY NETTLESHIP, M.A. Late Fellow of Corpus Christi College and Corpus Professor of Latin Literature in the University of Oxford

J. E. SANDYS, Litt. D. Fellow and Tutor of St. John's College and Public Orator in the University of Cambridge

WITH MORE THAN 450 ILLUSTRATIONS

THE ARCH OF TITUS, ROME.

London:

SWAN SONNENSCHEIN AND CO., Lim.

New York: the macmillan company

1901

PREFACE.

THE Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, which is here offered to the public, is founded on a work by Dr. Oskar Seyffert, of Berlin, which has deservedly attained a wide circulation in Germany.^[1] Dr. Seyffert is already known in England as one of the editors of a philological periodical, entitled the Berliner Philologische Wochenschrift, and as a distinguished Latin scholar, whose name is specially associated with the criticism of Plautus. The departments of classical learning included in his dictionary are the Mythology and Religion, the Literature and Art, and the constitutional and social Antiquities of Greece and Rome. Within the compass of a single volume it comprises all the subjects usually treated in a Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, while it also supplies information on matters of Mythology and Literature which has generally to be looked for in the pages of a Classical Dictionary. Besides separate articles on Greek and Roman divinities, and on the lives and works of the philosophers, the historians, the orators, the poets, and the artists of Greece and Rome, it gives a general and comprehensive view of such subjects as Greek and Roman Religion, Philosophy, History, Rhetoric, Literature, Architecture, Painting, Sculpture, Music, and the Drama. Similarly, in the department of Antiquities, besides separate treatment of subordinate details, it deals with important topics, such as the Boule and Ecclesia, the Comitia and the Senate, Commerce and War, the Houses, the Ships, the Temples, and the Theatres of the ancients.

The original text has been largely supplemented and corrected by Dr. Seyffert himself; and the whole of the translation has been carefully revised and, in many cases, re-written or re-arranged by the editors. The larger part of the letter A (Abacus to Astrology) was translated by Mr. Stallybrass, owing to whose lamented death the remainder of the work was put into other hands. The succeeding articles, from Astrology to Herœa, have been translated and prepared for the press by Professor Nettleship; the second part (Hermœ to Zosimus) has been translated under the supervision of Dr. Sandys; while the proof sheets of the whole have been repeatedly read by both editors. The additions inserted by the editors are generally distinguished by being placed within square brackets, or printed as notes at the foot of the page. Most of the notes and other additions bearing on Latin Literature, and a few bearing on Latin Antiquities, are due to Professor Nettleship; while Dr. Sandys has supplied references to classical authors and modern authorities wherever such references appeared either necessary or desirable. It is hoped that these additions may serve to increase the usefulness of the book. The references to Cicero and Pliny are by the shorter sections now in general use. The ancient authorities quoted include Aristotle’s newly discovered Constitution of Athens, which has been cited under the head of the Solonian Constitution and other articles which have passed through the press since the publication of the editio princeps. In this and other respects every endeavour has been made to bring the articles up to date.

Dr. Sandys has written articles on the following archæological subjects, which were either omitted in the original work or appeared to deserve a fuller treatment than was there accorded them: Mosaics, Pigments (under Painting), Cœlatura (under Toreutic Art), and Vases (with 17 illustrations). He has also supplied brief notices of the Edict of Diocletian, the Olympieum, the artists Mentor, Mys, Pauson, and the younger Polyclitus; Philo, the architect, and three others of the same name who were not included in Dr. Seyffert’s Lexikon. The short article on Fulcra is abridged from a valuable paper in the Classical Review by Mr. W. C. F. Anderson, Professor of Classics at Firth College, Sheffield; that on the Law of Gortyn has been kindly contributed by Mr. C. A. M. Pond, Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge.

The number of the illustrations has been largely increased. These have been selected mainly from the following works: Schreiber’s Kulturhistorischer Bilder-Atlas, ed. 1888, and Bilder-Atlas zur Ilias und Odyssee, 1889, both published by Seemann of Leipzig; Baumeister’s Denkmäler des Klassischen Alterthums, 1884–1888, by Oldenbourg of Munich; Guhl and Koner's Life of the Greeks and Romans, English edition (Chatto & Windus); and Perry’s Greek and Roman Sculpture (Longmans, 1882). Hie publishers are also indebted to Messrs. George Bell & Sons for the additional illustrations in the article on Gems, and for the portraits of Horace, Lucretius, Plato, and Socrates, selected from King’s Antique Gems and Rings (1872) and Westropp’s Handbook of Archæology (ed. 1878); to Messrs. Macmillan & Co. for Dr. Dörpfeld’s Plan of Olympia and of the Propylœa, and for the engraving of a vase by Hieron (Vases, fig. 12). The two latter are from Miss Harrison’s Mythology and Monuments of Ancient Athens. The Plan of the Acropolis is copied from the Journal of Hellenic Studies with the kind permission of the Council of the Hellenic Society. That of the Roman Fora is reproduced from Droysen’s Historischer Handatlas, 1886. In the article on the Olympian Games, the metope on page 430 is a reduced copy from Overbeck’s Geschichte der Griechischen Plastik. In that on Vases, figs. 3 and 5 are borrowed from the Catalogue of Pottery in the Jermyn Street Museum. The engraving of the Mænads (Vases, fig. 13) is reproduced by permission from Dr. Sandys’ edition of the Bacchœ of Euripides published by the University Press, Cambridge. All these additional illustrations (which are distinguished by an asterisk) have been selected by Dr. Sandys, who has indicated, so far as practicable, the original authority on which they rest, and, in the case of works of art, the collections in which they are to be found.

In stating the English equivalents for Greek money, the editors have adopted the estimate of Professor W. W. Goodwin, in his article On the Value of the Attic Talent in Modern Money published in the Transactions of the American Philological Association, 1885, xvi, pp. 117–119, according to which the intrinsic value of a drachma is approximately 8d., and that of a talent £200. In the case of Roman money, they have followed Marquardt’s Handbuch der römischen Alterthümer in reckoning 1,000 sesterces as equivalent to £10.^[2]

For the convenience of students, as well as of general readers, the quantities of Greek and Latin words have been marked once, but once only, in every article in which they occur. The Latin spelling of Greek words has been generally adopted, but the Greek form has, in all cases where it appeared advisable, been added in brackets.

H. NETTLESHIP.
J. E. SANDYS.

March, 1891.

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.

The favourable reception that has been accorded to this work has enabled the publishers to issue a second edition at an exceptionally early date. The book has been revised by Dr. Sandys, and some minor inaccuracies have been removed. References to Aristotle's Constitution of Athens, which, in the former edition, could only be inserted in the last two hundred pages, have now been added in the first five hundred, wherever such addition seemed to be required. Lastly, an Index has been supplied, which, it is hoped, will make the work still further useful as a book of reference.

September, 1891.

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PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION.

The present edition has been further revised and corrected by Dr. Sandys. The articles in which the most considerable changes have been introduced are those on Comitia, Music, and Theatre. The article on Comitia has been revised in accordance with the views of Mommsen; that on Music takes account of Mr. Monro’s recent work on the Modes of Ancient Music; and that on Theatre gives some additional details respecting the architectural theories of Dr. Dörpfeld.

In stating approximate English equivalents for Roman money, Dr. Sandys has thought it right to reconsider the choice made by the late Professor Nettleship between the alternative estimates given in Marquardt’s Handbuch, vol. ii., p. 71. The sum of 1,000 sesterces is there reckoned as equivalent, under a gold standard, to 217.52 marks, or £10 17s. 6d.; and, under a silver standard, to 175.41 marks, or £8 15s. 6d. In the former editions the gold standard was adopted, and 1,000 sesterces taken as equivalent to £10; in the present, the silver standard has been preferred, and the equivalent is accordingly £8 15s. Under this estimate a Roman denarius is equivalent to 81/2d., or very little more than a Greek drachma, which is here set at 8d.

It should be added that the Index here reprinted from the Second Edition is the work of the late Mr. H. D. Darbishire, Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge.

December, 1894.

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ABBREVIATIONS, ETC.
cp.	compare.		ib.	ibidem.
q.v.	quod vide.		‿	indicates a short syllable.
l.c.	locus (or liber) citatus.		—	indicates a long syllable.

1. Lexikon der klassischen Alterthumskunde; Kulturgeschichte der Griechen und Römer; Mythologie und Religion, Litteratur, Kunst, und Alterthümer des Staats- und Privatlebens. (Leipzig: Verlag des Bibliographischen Instituts, 1882.)
2. See Preface to Third Edition of this Dictionary.