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On this page: Aquarii – Aquila – Ara

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ARA.

land ; or "by the owner of the lower land against the owner of the higher land, in case the latter did any thing to his land by which the water flowed from it into the lower land in a different way from what it naturally would. In the absence of any special custom or law to the contrary, the lower land was subject -to receive the water which flowed naturally from the upper land ; and this rule of law was thus expressed,— ager inferior superiori servit. The fertilising materials carried down to the lower land were considered as an ample com­pensation for any damage which it might sustain from the water. Many difficult questions occurred in the application to practice of the general rules of law as to aqua pluvia ; and, among others, this question,—What things done by the owners of the land were to be considered as preventing or alter­ing the natural flow of the waters ? The conclusion of Ulpian is, that acts done to the land for the pur­poses of cultivation were not to be considered as acts interfering with the natural flow of the waters. Water, which increased from the falling of rain, or in consequence of rain changed its colour, was con­sidered within the definition of aqua pluvia ; 1'or it was not necessary that th.3 water in question should be only rain water, it was sufficient if there was any rain water in it. Thus, when water naturally flowed from a pond or marsh, and a per­son did something to exclude such water from coming on his land, if such marsh received any increase from rain water, and so injured the land of a neighbour, the person would be compelled by this action to remove the obstacle which he had created to the free passage of the water.

This action was allowed for the special pro­ tection of land (ager} : if the water injured a town or a building, the case then belonged to flumina and stillicidia. The action was only allowed to prevent damage, and therefore a person could not have this remedy against his neighbour, who did any thing to his own land by which he stopped the water which would otherwise flow to that person's land and be profitable to it. The title in the Digest contains many curious cases. (Dig. 39. tit. 3 ; Cic. Pro Muren. 10, Topic. 9 ; Boethius, Comment, in Cic. Top. iv. 9.) [G. L.]

AQUARII, were slaves who carried water for bathing, &c. into the female apartments: they were -also called aquarioli^ and were held in great con­tempt. (Juv. vi. 332 ; Festus, s. v. and Miiller's Note ; Hieron. Ep. 27; Jul. Paul. iii. 7.) Becker imagines that the name was also applied to slaves who had the care of the fountains and ponds in gardens. (Gallus, vol. i. p. 288.) The aquarii were also public officers who attended to the aque­ducts under the aediles, and afterwards under the curatores aquarum.. (Cic. ad Fam. viii. 6; Zeno, Cod. Just. xi. tit. 42; aquaeductus.) [P. S.]

AQUILA. [SlGNA MlLITARIA.J

ARA (fiupos, eo-xdpa, &vri)piov}, an altar. Altars were in antiquity so indispensable a part of the worship of the gods, that it seemed impossible to conceive of the worship of the gods without altars. Thus we have the amusing syllogism in Lucian, e! yap etVi Papal, etVi kol freoi' aAAa l^iv ewi fivpoi, elo-lv apa /ml freoi (Jupiter Trag. c. 51). In reference to the terms, /3a>/xos properly signifies ^ any elevation, and hence we find in Homer tepbs ^coyuJr, but it afterwards came to be applied to an elevation used for the worship of the gods, and hence an altar. 'Erxdpa was used in

ARA.

the limited sense of an altar for burnt-offerings, In Latin ara and altare are often used without any distinction, but properly ara was lower than altare : the latter was erected in honour of the superior gods, the former in honour of the inferior, heroes and demigods. Thus we read in Virgil (Eel. v. 65) : —

" En quattuor aras: Ecce duas tibi, Daphni; duas, altaria, Phoebo."

On the other hand, sacrifices were offered to the infernal gods, not upon altars, but in cavities (scrobes, scrobicuii^ fioQpoi, \dtcKoi) dug in the ground. (Festus, s. v. Altaria.)

Altars were either square or round. The latter form, which was the less common of the two, is exemplified in the following figures.

As among the ancients almost every religious act was accompanied by sacrifice, it was often necessary to provide altars on the spur of the oc­casion, and they were then constructed of earth, sods, or stones, collected on the spot. When the occasion was not sudden, they were built with regular courses of masonry or brickwork, as is clearly shown in several examples on the column of Trajan at Rome. See the left-hand figure in the woodcut annexed. The first deviation from this absolute simplicity of form consisted in the addition of a base, and of a corresponding projec­tion at the top, the latter being intended to hold the fire and the objects offered in sacrifice. These two parts are so common as to be almost uniform types of the form of an altar, and will be found in all the figures inserted underneath.

In later times altars were ornamented with fes­toons and garlands of flowers ; and the altar repre­sented in the next cut shows the manner in which these festoons were suspended. They were also adorned with sculpture • and some were covered with the works of the most celebrated artists of antiquity. The first cut above exhibits a specimen of the elaborate style, the outline of an Etruscan altar, in contrast with the unadorned altar. If an altar was erected before a statue of a god, it was always to be lower than the statue before which it