Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/150

132 This difference is the more important in an historical view, from Alimentus having written on the old Roman calendar and having carefully examined the most ancient Etruscan and Roman chronology. It is ingeniously accounted for by Niebuhr, by supposing our author to have reduced the ancient cyclical years, consisting of ten months, to an equivalent number of common years of twelve months. Now, the pontiff reckoned 132 cyclical years before the reign of Tarquinius Priscus, from which time, according to Julius Gracchanus, the use of the old calendar was discontinued. The reduction makes a difference of 22 years, for, and 22 years, added to the era of Polybius and Nepos, viz. Ol. 7. 2, bring us to the very date of Alimentus, Ol. 12. 4.

Alimentus composed a treatise De Officio Jurisconsulti, containing at least two books; one book De Verbis priscis, one De Consulum Potestate, one De Comitiis, one De Fastis, two, at least, Mystagogicon, and several De Re Militari. In the latter work he handles the subjects of military levies, of the ceremonies of declaring war, and generally of the Jus Fetiale. (Gel. 16.4; Voss. Hist. Gr. 4.13, fin., Hist. Lat. 1.4; F. Lachmann, de Fontib. Histor. Tit. Livii Com. 1.17, 4to. 1822; Zimmern, Röm. Rechts-gesch. 1.73.) R6m. Rechts-gesch. i. § 73.)

ALIMENTUS, M. CI'NCIUS, tribune of the plebs B. C. 204, proposed in his tribuneship the law known by the name of Cincia Lex de Donis et Muneribus, or Muneralis Lex. (Liv. 34.4 ; Cic. Cato, 4, de Orat. 2.71, ad Att. 1.20; Festus, s. v. Muneralis.) This law was confirmed in the time of Augustus. (Dict. of Ant. s. v. Cincia Lex.）

ALIPHE'RUS or HALIPHE'RUS (Ἀλίφηρος), one of the sons of Lycaon, killed by Zeus with a flash of lightning for their insolence. (Apollod. 3.8.1.) The town of Aliphera or Alipheira in Arcadia was believed to have been founded by him, and to have derived its name from him. (Paus. 8.3.1, 26.4; Steph. Byz. s. v. Ἀλίφειρα.)

 ALITTA or ALILAT (🇬🇷 or 🇬🇷), the name by which, according to Herodotus (i. 131, iii. 8), the Arabs called Aphrodite Urania.

 ALLECTUS, was raised to the highest dignities in Britain during the dominion of Carausius; but the crimes which he committed, and the fear of punishment on account of them, led him in A. D. 293 to murder Carausius and assume the imperial title in Britain for himself. He enjoyed his honours for three years, at the end of which Constantius sent Asclepiodotus with an anny and fleet against him. AUectus vas defeated in a. d. 296, and Britain was thus cleared of usurpers. (Aurel. Vict, de Caes. 39 ; Eutrop. ix. 14.) On the annexed coin the inscription is Imp. C. Allectus. P. F. AUG.

 A. ALLIE'NUS. 1. A friend of Cicero's, who 3B spoken of by him in high terms. He was the legate of Q. Cicero in Asia, B. c. 60 (Cic. ad Qu. Fr. i. I. § 3), and praetor in B. c. 49. {Ad Att. x. 15.) In the following year, he had the province of Sicily, and sent to Caesar, who was then in Africa, a large body of troops. He continued in Sicily till B. c. 47, and received the title of pro- consul. Two of Cicero's letters are addressed to him. (Hirt. Bell. Afr. 2, 34 ; Cic. ad Fani. xiii. 78, 79.) His name occurs on a coin, which has on one side C. Caes. Imp. Cos. Iter., and on the other A. Allienvs Procos. . Was sent by Dolabella, B. c. 43, to bring to him the legions which were in Egj-pt. On his re- turn from Egypt with four legions, he was sur- prised by Cassius in Palestine, who was at the head of eight legions. As his forces were so infe- rior, AUienus joined Cassius. (Appian, B. C. iii. 78, iv. 59 ; Cic. Phil. xi. 12, 13 ; Cassius, ap. Cic. ad Fain. xii. 11, 12.) This AUienus may perhaps be the same person as No. 1.

 ALLU'CIUS, a prince of theCeltiberi, betrothed to a most beautiful virgin, who was taken prisoner by Scipio in Spain, b. c. 209. Scipio generously gave her to Allucius, and refused the presents her parents offered him. The story is beautifully told in Livy (xxvi. 50), and is also related bv other writers. (Polyb. x. 19 ; Val. Max, iv. 3. /l; Sil. Ital. XV. 268, &c.)

 ALMO, the god of a river in the neighbourhood of Rome, who, like Tiberinus and others, were prayed to by the augurs. In the water of Alrao the statue of the mother of the gods used to be washed. (Cic. de A'at. Deor. iii. 20 ; comp. Varro, de Ling. Lat. v. 71, ed. MUller.)

 ALMOPS (Ἄλμωψ), a giant, the son of Poseidon and Helle, from whom the district of Almopia and its inhabitants, the Almopes in Macedonia, were believed to have derived their name. (Steph. Byz. s. v. Ἀλμωπία.)

 ALOEIDAE, ALOI'ADAE, or ALO'ADAE (Ἀλωεῖδαι, Ἀλωϊάο̂αι or Ἀλώαδαι), are patronymic forms from Aloeus, but are used to designate the two sons of his wife Iphimedeia by Poseidon: viz. Otus and Ephialtes. The Aloeidae are renowned in the earliest stories of Greece for their extraordinary strength and daring spirit. When they were nine years old, each of their bodies measured nine cubits in breadth and twenty-seven in height. At this early age, they threatened the Olympian gods with war, and attempted to pile mount Ossa upon Olympus, and Pelion upon Ossa. They would have accomplished their object, says Homer, had they been allowed to grow up to the age of manhood; but Apollo destroyed them before their beards began to appear. (Od. 11.305, &c.) In the Iliad (5.385, &c.; comp. Philostr. de Vit. Soph. 2.1.1) the poet relates another feat of their early age. They put the god Ares in chains, and kept him imprisoned for thirteen months; so that he would have perished, had not Hermes been informed of it by Eriboea, and secretly liberated the prisoner. The same stories are related by Apollodorus (1.7.4), who however does not make them perish in the attempt upon Olympus. According to him, they actually piled the mountains upon one another, and threatened to change land into sea and sea into land. They are further said to have grown every year one cubit in breadth and three in height. As another proof of their daring, it is related, that Ephialtes sued for the hand of Hera, and Otus for that of Artemis. But this led to their destruction in the island of Naxos, Comp.

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