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to court; they preserved order in the courts, and proclaimed the time of the day when it was the third hour, the sixth hour, and the ninth hour. An accensus anciently preceded the consul who had not the fasces, which custom, after being long disused, was restored by Julius Cæsar in his first consulship. Accensi also attended on the governors of provinces.—(2) The accensi were also a class of soldiers in the Roman army, who were enlisted after the full number of the legion had been completed, in order to supply any vacancies that might occur in the legion. They were taken, according to the census of Servius Tullius, from the fifth class of citizens, and were placed in battle in the rear of the army, behind the triarii.

ACCLĀMĀT[)I]O, was the public expression of approbation or disapprobation, pleasure or displeasure, by loud acclamations. On many occasions, there appear to have been certain forms of acclamations always used by the Romans; as, for instance, at marriages, Io Hymen, Hymenaee, or Talassio; at triumphs, Io Triumphe; at the conclusion of plays, the last actor called out Plaudite to the spectators; orators were usually praised by such expressions as Bene et praeclare, Belle et festive, Non potest melius, &c. Under the empire the name of acclamationes was given to the praises and flatteries bestowed by the senate upon the reigning emperor and his family.

ACCŬBĂTO, the act of reclining at meals. The Greeks and Romans were accustomed, in later times, to recline at their meals; but this practice could not have been of great antiquity in Greece, since Homer always describes persons as sitting at their meals; and Isidore of Seville, an ancient grammarian, also attributes the same custom to the ancient Romans. Even in the time of the early Roman emperors, children in families of the highest rank used to sit together, while their fathers and elders reclined on couches at the upper part of the room. Roman ladies continued the practice of sitting at table, even after the recumbent position had become common with the other sex. It appears to have been considered more decent, and more agreeable to the severity and purity of ancient manners, for women to sit, more especially if many persons were present. But, on the other hand, we find cases of women reclining, where there was conceived to be nothing bold or indelicate in their posture. Such is the case in the preceding woodcut, which seems intended to represent a scene of matrimonial felicity. For an account of the disposition of the couches, and of the place which each guest occupied in a Greek and Roman entertainment, see Symposium and Triclinium.

Accubatio Act of Reclining. (Montfaucon, Ant. Exp., Suppl., iii. 60.)

ACCŪSĀTOR, ACCŪSĀTIO. [Judex.]

ĂCERRA ([Greek: thymiatêrion, libanôtris]), the incense-box or censer used in sacrifices. The acerra was also a small moveable altar placed before the dead, on which perfumes were burnt. The use of acerrae at funerals was forbidden by a law of the Twelve Tables as an unnecessary expense.

Acerra. (From a Frieze in the Museum Capitolinum.)

[)A]CĒTAB[)U]LUM ([Greek: oxis, oxybaphon, oxybaphion]). (1) A vinegar-cup, wide and open above, as we see in the annexed cut. The name was also given to all cups resembling it in size and form, to whatever use they might be applied.—(2) A Roman measure of capacity, fluid and dry. It was one-fourth of the hemian, and therefore one-eighth of the sextarius.

Acetabulum. (Dennis, Etruria, p. xcvi.)