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On this page: Agyrmus – Agyrtae – Ahenum – Aikias Dike – Aithousa – Ala – Ala

AIKIAS DIKE.

the number of oxen could not be procured, they substituted an equal number of goats. [L. S.]

AGYRMUS (ayvp^s). [elbusinia.]

AGYRTAE (aryvprai), mendicant priests, who were accustomed to travel through the different towns of Greece, soliciting a7m6 for the gods whom they served. These priests carried, either on their shoulders or on beasts of burthen, images of their respective deities. They appear to have been of Oriental origin, and were chiefly connected with the worship of Isis, Opis and Arge (Herod, iv. 35), and especially of the great mother of the gods ; whence they were called ^rpay^prai. They were generally speaking, persons of the lowest and most abandoned character. They undertook to inflict some grievous bodily injury on the enemy of any individual who paid them for such services, and also promised, for a small sum of money, to obtain forgiveness from the gods whom they served, for any sins which either the individual himself or his ancestors had committed. (Plat. Rep. ii. p. 364, b. ; Plut. Superst. c. 3 ; Zosim. i. 11 ; Max. Tyr. xix. 3 ; Athen. vi. p. 266, d ; Origen, c. Gels. i. p. 8; Phil. Leg. ii. p. 792 ; Ruhnken, ad Timaei Lex. s. vv. wyzlpovffcLV and eiraycayai ; K. F. Her­mann, Lehrbuck d. gottesdienstlichen Alterthumer d. Grieclten, § 42, n. 13.)

These mendicant priests came into Italy, but at what time is uncertain, together with the worship of the gods whom they served. (Cic. De Leg. ii. 16; Heindorif, ad Hor. Serm. i. 2. 2.)

AHENUM. [aenum.]

AIKIAS DIKE (alxlas Si/ny), an action brought at Athens, before the court of the Forty (ol tzt-TapaKovra), against any individual, who had struck a citizen of the state. Any citizen, who had been thus insulted, might proceed in two ways against the offending party, either by the alttias sikij, which was a private action, or by the ugpews ypa^, which was looked upon in the light of a public prosecution, since the state was considered to be wronged in an injury done to any citizen. It ap­pears to have been a principle of the Athenian law, to give an individual, who had been injured, more than one mode of obtaining redress. If the plaintiff brought it as a private suit, the defendant would only be condemned to pay a fine, which the plaintiff received ; but if the cause was brought as a public suit, the accused might be punished even with death, and if condemned to pay a fine, the latter went to the state.

It was necessary to prove two facts in bringing the aliclas s//ctj before the Forty. First, That the defendant had struck the plaintiff, who must have been a free man, with the intention of insulting him (<?<£' vSpet), which, however, was always pre­sumed to have been the intention, unless the de­fendant could prove that he only struck the plain­tiff in joke. Thus Ariston, after proving that he had been struck by Conon, tells the judges that Conon will attempt to show that he had only struck him in play. (Dem. c. Conon. p. 1261.) Secondly, It was necessary to prove that the de­fendant struck the plaintiff first, and did not merely return the blows which had been given by the plaintiff (&px*LV XelP^v a8f/«oj/, or merely afiiKtov &pXGiv9 Dem. c. Eu&rg. pp. 1141, 1151.)

In this action, the sum of money to be paid by the defendant as damages was not fixed by the laws ; but the plaintiff assessed the amount according to the injury, which he thought he had received, and

73

ALA.

the judges determined on the justice of the claim. It was thus an assessed action, and resembled the procedure in public causes. The orations of De mosthenes against Conon, and of Isocrates against Lochites, were spoken in an action of this kind, and both of these have come down to us ; and there were two orations of Lysias, which are lost, relating to the same action, namely, against Theopompus and Hippccrates. (Harpocrat. s. v. aiKias • Meier, Att. Process, p. 547, &c. ; Bockh, PuU, Econ. of Athens^ pp. 352, 364, 372, 374, 2nd ed.)

AITHOUSA (aftWcra), a word only used by Homer, is probably for a'tdovara oToa, a portico ex­posed to the sun. From the passages in which it occurs, it seems to denote a covered portico, opening on to the court of the house, avAir/, in front of the vestibule, irpoQvpov. Thus a chariot, leaving the house, is described as passing out of the irpoQvpov and the ctfBovffa. (II. xxiv. 323 ; Od. iii. 493, xv. 146, 191.). The word is used also in the plural, to describe apparently the porticoes which sur­rounded the avX'f). (II. vi. 243 ; Od. viii. 57.) It was in such a portico that guests were lodged for the night. (Od. iii. 399, vii. 345). It was also the place of reception for people flocking to the palace on a public occasion (//. xxiv. 239 ; Od. viii. 57) ; and hence perhaps the epithet epldoviros, which Homer usually connects with it. [P. S.]

ALA, a part of a Roman house. [DoMus.]

ALA, ALARES, ALA'RII. These words, like all other terms connected with Roman war-fere, were used in different or at least modified acceptations at different periods.

A la, which literally means aiving, was from the earliest epochs employed to denote the wing of an army, and this signification it always retained, but in process of time was frequently used in a re< stricted sense.

1. When a Roman army was composed of Roman citizens exclusively, the flanks of the in­fantry when drawn up in battle array were covered on the right and left by the cavalry ; and hence Ala denoted the body of horse which was attached to and served along with the foot-soldiers of the legion. (See Cincius, de He Militari, who, al­though he flourished b. c. 200, is evidently ex-v plaining in the passage quoted by Aulus Gellius, xvi. 4, the original acceptation of the term.)

2. When, at a later date, the Roman armies were composed partly of Roman citizens and partly of Socii, either Laiini or Italici, it became the practice to marshall the Roman troops in the centre of the battle line and the Soeii upon the wings. Hence ala and alarii denoted the contingent fur­nished by the allies, both horse and foot, and the two divisions were distinguished as dextera ala and sinistra ala. (Liv. xxvii. 2, xxx. 21, xxxi. 21 ; Lips, de Milit. Rom. ii. dial. 7. We find in Liv. x. 40, the expression cum cohortibus alariis, and in x. 43, D. Brutwn Scaevam legatum cum hgione prima et decem coliortibus alariis equitatugue ire .... jus sit.}

3. When the whole of the inhabitants of Italy had been admitted to the privileges of Roman citizens the terms alarii., coliortes alariae were trans­ferred to the foreign troops serving along with the Roman armies. In Caesar (B. G. i. 51) we see the Alarii expressly distinguished from the legionarii, and we find the phrase (B. C. i. 73) cohortes alariae et legionariae, while Cicero (ad Fam. ii. 17) speaks of the Alarii Transpadani.