Cicero delivered four speeches against the bill, of which three are still extant, although the first is mutilated at the beginning. The second is the most important for the history of the bill; nothing is known of the fourth. Very little enthusiasm was shown in the matter by the people, who preferred the distribution of doles in the city to the prospect of distant allotments. One of the tribunes even threatened to put his veto on the bill, which was withdrawn before the voting took place. The whole affair was obviously a political move, probably engineered by Caesar, his object being to make the democratic leaders the rulers of the state. Although Caesar could hardly have expected the bill to pass, the aristocratic party would be saddled with the odium of rejecting a popular measure, and the people themselves would be more ready to welcome a proposal by Caesar himself, an expectation fulfilled by the passing of the lex Julia in 59, whereby Caesar at least partly succeeded where Rullus had failed.
See the orations of Cicero De lege agraria, with the introduction in G. Long’s edition, and the same author’s Decline of the Roman Republic, iii. p. 241; Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, bk. v. ch. 5; art. Agrarian Laws.
RUM, or Roum (Arab. ar-Rūm), a very indefinite term in use among Mahommedans at different dates for Europeans generally and for the Byzantine empire in particular; at one time even for the Seljuk empire in Asia Minor, and now for Greeks inhabiting Ottoman territory. When the Arabs met the Byzantine Greeks, these called themselves Ῥωμαῖοι, or Romans, a reminiscence of the Roman conquest and of the founding of the new Rome at Byzantium. The Arabs, therefore, called them “the Rūm” as a race-name (already in Kor. xxx. 1), their territory “the land of the Rūm,” and the Mediterranean “the Sea of the Rūm.” The original ancient Greeks they called “Yūnān” (Ionians), the ancient Romans, “Rūm” and sometimes “Laṭīnīyūn” (Latins). Later, inasmuch as Muslim contact with the Byzantine Greeks was in Asia Minor, the term Rūm became fixed there geographically and remained even after the conquest by the Seljuk Turks, so that their territory was called the land of the Seljuks of Rūm. But as the Mediterranean was “the Sea of the Rūm,” so all peoples on its N. coast were called sweepingly, “the Rūm.” In Spain any Christian slave-girl who had embraced Islam was named Rūmīya, and we find the crew of a Genoese vessel being called Romans by a Muslim traveller. The crusades introduced the Franks (Ifranja), and later Arabic writers recognize them and their civilization on the N. shore of the Mediterranean W. from Rome; so Ibn Khaldūn in the latter part of the 14th century. But Rūmī is still used in Morocco for a Christian or European in general, instead of the now elsewhere commoner Ifranjī. (D. B. Ma.)
RUM (according to Skeat, a corruption of Malay brum or bram; the adjective “rum,” i.e. “queer,” being a distinct word, in Gipsy rom), a potable spirit distilled chiefly from fermented cane-sugar. It is mainly the produce of the West Indian Islands, notably Jamaica, and of Demerara. There are two kinds of Jamaica rum, namely, “common” or “clean” rum, and “flavoured” or “German” rum. The latter is used almost entirely for purposes of blending with lighter types of spirit. Compared with other potable spirits such as whisky and brandy, the Jamaica rums are distinguished by their very high proportion of secondary products, particularly of the compound esters. Among the latter butyric “ether” (ethyl butyrate) predominates. The Demerara rums are of a lighter character. Rum has a deep brown colour imparted by caramel or by storage in sherry casks, or, most generally, by both. “Tafia” is an inferior quality of rum produced in the French colonies. “Negro” rum, which is the lowest quality of all, and into the wash for which the débris of the sugar-cane enters, is consumed locally by the coloured workers. The spirit prepared from beet-sugar molasses cannot be regarded as rum, for, unless it is highly rectified, it possesses a disagreeable odour and taste. Fictitious rum is, however, sometimes prepared from highly rectified beet spirit and rum “essence”—a mixture of artificial esters (ethyl butyrate, &c.), birch bark oil and so on. Highly rectified beet spirit is also occasionally used for blending with genuine rum, particularly with the “flavoured” or “German” rum. The latter name originated in the fact that this kind of rum was exported very largely to Germany for the purpose of blending. The general composition of various kinds of rum is manifest from the annexed table. The consumption of rum in the United Kingdom has fallen off considerably of late years, concurrently with the general tendency of the public towards lighter and “drier” alcoholic beverages (see Spirits).
Composition of Different Varieties of Rum
(Analyses by W. Collingwood Williams; cf. J. Soc. Chem. Ind. 1907, p. 498.)
| Description. | Alcohol per cent by vol. |
Total Acid. |
Volatile Acid. |
Esters. | Higher Alcohols. |
Furfural. | Aldehydes. |
| (Results expressed in grams per 100 litres of absolute alcohol.) | |||||||
| 1. Jamaica Rums— | |||||||
| A. “Common Clear” | |||||||
| Average | 79.1 | 78.5 | 61 | 366.5 | 98.5 | 4.5 | 15.3 |
| Maximum | 82.1 | 155 | 146 | 1058 | 150 | 11.5 | 30.0 |
| Minimum | 68.6 | 30 | 21 | 88 | 46 | 1.0 | 5.0 |
| B. “Flavoured” | |||||||
| Average | 77.3 | 102.5 | 95.5 | 768.5 | 107 | 5.2 | 20.7 |
| Maximum | 80.0 | 145 | 137 | 1204 | 144 | 12.0 | 37.5 |
| Minimum | 66.1 | 45 | 39 | 391 | 80 | 2.7 | 13.0 |
| 2. Demerara Rums | 71 to 123 | 18.4 to 75 | 37 to 96 | 0.6 to 2.7 | |||
RUMANIA, or Roumania [România], a kingdom of south-eastern Europe, situated to the north-east of the Balkan Peninsula,[1] and on the Black Sea. Pop. (1910, estimate) 6,850,000; area, about 50,720 sq. m., or about 6500 sq. m. less than the combined areas of England and Wales. Rumania begins on the seaward side with a band of territory called the Dobrudja (q.v.); and broadens westward into the form of a blunted crescent, its northern horn being called Moldavia, its southern Walachia.
Physical Features.—Along the inner edge of this crescent run the Carpathian Mountains, also called, towards their western extremity, the Transylvanian Mountains (q.v.) or Transylvanian Alps; and the frontier which marks off Rumania from Hungary is drawn along their crests. The eastern boundary is formed by the river Pruth (Prutu), between Moldavia and Russia; farther south by the Kilia mouth of the Danube (Dunarea), between the Dobrudja and Russia, and by the Black Sea. In the extreme south-east, an irregular line, traced from Ilanlâc, 10 m. S. of Mangalia, on the coast, as far as the Danube at Silistria, 85 m. inland, separates the Dobrudja from Bulgaria. Otherwise, the Danube constitutes the whole southern frontier; its right bank being Bulgarian for 290 m., and Servian, in the extreme west, for 50 m. The Danube (q.v.) enters Rumania through the Verciorova or Kazan[2] Pass. It here resembles a long lake, overshadowed by precipitous mountains, which vary from 1000 to 2000 ft. in height, and are covered by birches and pines. In this neighbourhood the channel contracts to about 116 yds. in width, with a depth of 30 fathoms. At the eastern end of the pass are the celebrated Iron Gates, a rapid so named by the Turks, not from the surrounding heights, which here descend gradually to the river, but from the number of submerged rocks in the waterway. As it flows eastward from the frontier, the Danube gains in breadth and volume. Islands are frequent; the banks recede and become lower until, after 50 m., they stand almost level with the water. Henceforward, for 290 m., the Rumanian shore is a desolate fen-country, varied only by a few hills, by cities, and by lagoons often 15 m. long. East of Bucharest, a chain of lagoons and partially drained marshes stretches inland for 45 m. At Silistria the river bends N.N.E. for 110 m. with the Dobrudja on its right, and a barren plain, called the Baragan Steppe, on its left. It here encloses two large swampy islands, the upper being 57 m., the lower 43 m. long. Both have an average breadth of 10 m. Beyond Galatz, the river again turns eastward, branching out, near Tulcea, into three great waterways, which wind through a low-lying alluvial delta to the sea. The northern estuary is named the Kilia Mouth; the central, the Sulina; the southern, the St George's. Between Verciorova and the Sulina Mouth, the Danube traverses 540 m. Its current is rapid, and supplies the motive
- ↑ In 1904, in a lecture read before the Rumanian Geographical Society, M. A. Sturdza showed that Rumania should not be included in the Balkan Peninsula, where it is placed by many writers and cartographers. This view was accepted by the Society, and a copy of the lecture was forwarded to all similar associations in Europe. See A. Sturdza, La Roumanie n'appartient pas à la peninsule balkanique (Bucharest, 1904).
- ↑ I.e. Cauldron.
