Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/68

 AGE

AGE

New Age, on antient medals, denotes the beginning, or firft year of a new faculum, or century of years. V. Mem. de Trev. Jan. 1701. p. 133. feq.

Age is alfo underftood of the fcveral degrees or periods of of human life.

Age is ranked among the res tiatttrales, and as fuch con- tributes to health or difeafe.

It is faid to be found by experience, that there are more perfons living between fixtcen and twenty-fix years, than of any other age, or Decad in the life of man. On this prin- ciple Sir William Petty eftablifhes a rule, that the roots of every number of mens Ages under fixteen, whofe root is four, compared with this number four, {hews the propor- tion of the probabilities of each man's arriving at feventy years of age. Thus it is four times more likely that one of fixteen years fhould live to feventy, than that anew born babe fhould ; and twice as likely that one of fixteen fhould reach that Age, as that one of four years fhould do it, &c. Petty, Difc.of Dupl. Propor. p. 82. feq. See Phil. Tranf. N°. 196. p. 598. Jour, des Scav. T. r. p. 613. Mifc. Lipf. T. 11. Obf, 221. p. 12. feq.

But it is to be oferved, that the rules laid down by this gentleman, are often the refult of hafty and incomplete in- ductions; and in this particular cafe, of two lives of fixteen and four years of Age, the chance of the former's arriving to the Age of feventy, is fo far from being double of the chance of the latter, that the proportion of the chances is but as 760 to 622. Sec Hallefs table of lives in De Moivre, Doetr. of Chanc. 2d. Ed. p. 253.

Age is more particularly underftood of a certain fiate, or portion of the ordinary life of man, ufually diftinguifhed by fome confiderable change in the temperament, or conftitu- tion. Cajl. Renov. p. 22. Voc. Mtas.

Age is differently considered by naturalifts from what it is by lawyers ; and even in each of thofe profefiions we find vari- ous fyftems and divifions of Age. Upon which the curious may confult Brijfon. de Verb. Signif. Calvin. Lex. Jur. Voc. Mtas. Farnel. Univ. Medic. 1. 3. c. 10. Chauv'm, Lex. Phil. voc. Mtas. By the Roman law we find divers Ages afcertained, viz.

Confular Age, or that wherein a perfon might regularly hold the confulihip, was the forty-third year, fo that he might fue for it in the forty-fecond. Where it is to be obferved, that it was not neceflary either of thofe years fhould be ex- pired, but only begun ; befides, that men of extraordinary merits towards the republic, were in this matter exempt from the ordinary laws. Hence Corvinus war. conful at twenty- three years, Scipio .ffiniilianus at thirty-fix, and Pompey the great at thirty-five ; others broke thro' the laws by violence, as C. Marius the younger, and Octavius Csefar, who pro- cured themfelves to be made confuls, before twenty years of Age. Macchiav. Difc. in Liv. 1. 1. c. 60. p. 210. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. T. 1. p. 52.

Judiciary Age, or that wherein a perfon was capable of fitting as judge, was not always the fame; for by the lex Servilia Glaucia, none was allowed to be chofen under thirty years of Age, or above fixty. By fome other laws the Age feems to have been limited to thirty-five, but reduced afterwards by Auguftus to 30 ; tho' Pitifcus fuppofes a miftake here in the text, and that inftead of thirty-five and thirty, it ought to be read twenty- five and twenty. Pitifc. hex. Ant. T. 1. p. 52.

Military Age, or that wherein the Romans were obliged to enter themfelves in the army, was at feventcen years ; at forty-five, they might demand their difmiffion. Aquin. Lex. Milit. T. 1. p. 26. feq. Pitifc. loc. cit. Bedin. de Republ. I. 5. c. 5. p. 869.

Among the Lombards, the Age of entry was between eigh- teen and nineteen ; among the Saxons, at thirteen. Bibl. Univ. T. 6. p. 336. feq.

Age for holding offices in the city, as quseftor, Eedile, tribune of the people, &c, is not determined by the annal-Iaws of Vil- lius, but appears to have been the twenty-feventh year. For it was necefTary that the perfon who claimed any urban employment, had firft ferved ten years without interrup- tion in the army, commencing from the feventeenth year. Tho' fome think the quseftorfhip might have been held at twenty-five years. Polyb. 1, 6. c. 17. Pitifc. loc. cit.

Preetorian Age, or that wherein a perfon might follicit for the prastorfhip, was at forty ; two years earlier, than the Age required for conful.

Legitimate Age, denotes the Age of twenty-five, fo called as fome imagine, becaufe, youth were then by law allowed, to take the direction of their affairs into their own hands. Briff. Select. Antiq. ex Jur. civ. I. 3. c. 2.

Difpenfation of Age, atatis venia, is a right which a perfon obtained from the prince, or fovereign of fetting afide a tutor or curator, and taking the administration of his affairs into his own hands, before the legitimate Age. Brijf. de Verb. Signif. p. 31. Calv. Lex. Jur. p. 52. in voc. Miatis Venia.

Adoptive Age, called alfo plena pub ertas, requires the adopter to be eighteen years older than the perfon adopted, that there may appear a probability of his being a natural child, Manut.

de Lcgib. c. 14. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. T. 1. p. 51, in voc. Mtas. See Adoption, Cycl. and Suppl. Matrimonial Age, is defined by the time, wherein a perfon is deemed capable of natural procreation, which again is de- fined by the beginning of puberty.

Various methods have been in ufe for determining this Age. One feci; of antient Roman lawyers called Caffiani, fixed it by the ftate of the body, which Juftinian and others after him, fuppofe to have been done by fearch, or inflection of the genital parts, at leaft in the male fex ; for as to the female, it is pretended the twelfth year was the only guide, tho' others alledge that the eruption of the menfes ferved in- ftead hereof. The Proculiani, on the contrary, determined the puberty of males, by the expiration of the fourteenth year. Javolenus took a middle courfe, and made ufe of both methods. V. Hartung. Exerc. de Stat. Matrim. c. 2. p. 12. Nouv. Rep. Lett. T. 7. p. 784. It. T. 49. p. 230. Jour, des Scav. T. 66. p. 497. Pitifc. loc. cit. The Age of marriage has undergone divers modifications : in princes it is allowed earlier than in private perfons a ; in fome countries than in others' 1. In Perfia girls are married at nine, boys only at thirteen % in Holland, males are not allowed to marry without confent of parents or curators, be- fore twenty-five, girls not before twenty A ; the Romans chofe to marry their wives young, for the advantage of having them innocent and tractable c. Others declaim againft praematurc marriages. Some have pretended to limit the other extreme of marriageable age to forty-five, but this too will be varia- ble in different conftitutions. We meet with inftances of generation from fixty to one hundred and four, or even one hundred and twenty-one years of Age f. In Formofa, if we may truft Pfalmanazar, women are not allowed to bear chil- dren before thirty-five or thirty-feven, and if any prove with child before that Age, the law orders an abortion to be procured in a very extraordinary manner s. — [ a Jour, des Scav. T. 51. p. 484. b Nouv. Rep. Lett. T. 44. p. 527. c Mem. of Li- ter. T. 3. p. 155. d Jour, des Scav. T. 30. p. 954. c Giorn. de Letter, d'ltal. T. 6. p. 99. s Plott. Nat. Hift. Stafford. c. 8. §. 3. p. 269. Schenck. Obferv. Medic. T. 2. p. 89. e Nouv. Rep. Lett. T. 38. p. 57. Work of Learn. T. 8. p. 516.] See Abortion.

The canon or ecclefiaftical law alfo notes divers Ages, viz. of baptifm, of ordination to priefthood, which is not to be before twenty-four ; nor to epifcopacy before thirty-three. V. Arnd. Lex, Ecclef. p. 214. Du Pin. Bibl. Ecclef. T. 18. p. 10.

It is difputed whether confirmation may be before feven years of Age. Jour, des Scav. T. 82. p. 116. By an edict of the late king of France, the children of the reformed, were enabled to choofe their religion at (even years of Age h . By the antient canons, the clergy were not allowed to have maid-fervants in their houfes, till paft the Age of child-bearing'. — [ h Ouvr. des Scav. Mar. 1695.P.307. 1 Sacy, Not. fur 1. Tim. c. 5. Jour, des Scav. T. 43.

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AGED of the mountain is a title or denomination given to the chief or prince of the people called Aflaflins. Jour, des Scav. T. 83. p. 20. See Assassin, Cycl.

AGEMA, in the antient military art, a kind of foldicry, chiefly in the Macedonian armies.

The word is Greek and literally denotes vehemence ; to ex- prefs the ftrength and eagernefs of this corps. Suid. Lex. T. 1. p. 27. Aquin. Lex. Milit. T. 1. p. 28. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. T. 1. p. 55.

Some will rather have Agema to have denoted a certain num- ber of picked men, anfwering to a legion among the Ro- mans, which is authorifed by a pafTage in Livy ; Arrian on the contrary, fpeaks of the Agema, as a wing of horfe ; not but the term is alfo applied to foot. Liv. Decad. 5. 1. 2.

AGEMOGLANS {Cycl.)— The Agemoglans only differ from the Ichoglans, as the former are bred up for the lower, and the latter referved for the higher offices of the empire. Tour- nef. Voy. du Levant. T. 2. Lett. 13. p. 24. D' Ilerbcl. Bibl. Orient, p. 69. Trev. Diet. Univ. T. 1. p. 197.

AGENDA, in a general fenfe, denotes things to be done or performed, in confequence of a man's duty. The word is Latin, formed from agere, to do, and divines fpeak of the Agenda of a chriftian, meaning the things to be practifed bv way of contradiftinction from credenda, or the things to be believed ; the former imports the articles of obedi- ence, the latter of faith.

Agenda is alfo ufed for a book containing notes, or memo- randums of things neceflary to be done.

In which fenfe, Agenda amounts to much the fame with table-book, &c. An anonymous French author, has publifhed the Agenda of a man of the world, containing maxims or rules, proper for the conduct of life. Tablettes. de l 1 Homme de Cofmop. 1715. an extract of which is given in Jour. Liter. T. 6. p. 174, — 184.

Agenda is more particularly ufed among ecclefiaftical writers for the fervice, or office of the church. We meet with Agenda matutina & vefpertina, morning and evening prayers j Agenda diei, the office pf the day, whether feaft or faftday ;

Agenda