Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/157

Rh FELIX. expiatory sacrifices were burnt, the people threw the ashes backwards over their heads into the water. (Serv. ad Virg. Georg. i. 43 ; Isidor. Orig. V. 33 ; Voss. in Virg. Eclog. viii. 101.) [L. S.] FELI'CITAS, the personification of happiness, to whom a temple was erected by LucuUus in B. c. 75, which, however, was burnt down in the reign of Claudius. (Plin. //. A^. xxxiv. 8 ; Au- gustin. de Civ. Dei, iv, 18, 23 ; comp. Cic. in Verr. iv. 2, 57.) Felicitas is frequently seen on Roman medals, in the form of a matron, with the staff of Mercury (caduceus) and a cornucopia. Sometimes also she has other attributes, according to the kind of happiness she represents. (Lindner, de Felicitate Dea ex Numis illustrata, Amstadt, 1770; Rasche, J^x Num. ii. 1, p. 956.) The Greeks worshipped the same personification, under the name of Eu- fvxi-a, who is frequently represented in works of art. [L. S.] FELIX, an agnomen, having, like Magnus and Augustus, a personal rather than a general or family import. (Senec. De Clement. 14.) It was given to the dictator Sulla, and became a frequent addition to the imperial titles, being probably borrowed from the formula "felix faustum." [W. B. D.] FELIX, ANTO'NIUS, procurator of Judaea, was a brother of the freedman Pallas, and was himself a freedman of the emperor Claudius I. Suidas (s. V. KKavhos) calls him Claudius Felix ; and it is probable that he was known by his pa- tron's name as well as by that which marked his relation to the empress's mother, Antonia, by whom he may have been manumitted. The date of his appointment by Claudius to the government of Judaea is uncertain. It would seem from the account of Tacitus {Ann. xii. 54), that he and Ventidius Cumanus were for some time joint pro- curators, Galilee being held by Cumanus, and Samaria by Felix ; that both of them connived at the acts of violence and robbery mutually committed by their respective subjects, and enriched them- selves by the spoils which each party brought back from their incursions ; that Quadratus, who com- manded in Syria, was commissioned to take cogni- zance of these proceedings, and to try both the provincials and their governors ; and that, while he condemned Cumanus, he saved Felix by placing him openly among the judges and thus deterring his accusers. But, if we follow Josephus, we must believe that Cumanus was sole procurator during the disturbances in question, and that, when he was condemned and deposed, Felix was sent from Rome as his successor, probably about A. D. 51, and with an authority extending over Judaea, Samaria, Galilee, and Petraea (Joseph. Ant. xx, 5—7, Bell. Jud. ii. 12; Euseb. Hist. Ecd. ii. 19 ; Vales, ad loc). In his private and his public cha- racter alike Felix was unscrupulous and profligate, nor is he unjustly described in the killing words of Tacitus (Hist. v. 9), " p^r omnem saevitiam et libidinem jus regium servili ingenio exercuit." Having fallen in love with Drusilla, daughter of Agrippa I., and wife of Azizus, king of Emesa, he induced her to leave her husband ; and she was still living with him in A. d. 60, when St. Paul preached befoie him " of righteousness, temper- ance, and judgment to come." (Joseph. Ant. xx. 7. § 2 ; Ads^ xxiv. 25.) Jonathan, the high priest, having become obnoxious to him by unpalatable advice, he procured his assassination. (Joseph. Anl, XX. 8. § 5, BeU. Jud. ii. 13. § 3 ; Euseb. FELIX. 143 Hist. Ecd. ii. 20.) His government, however, though crael and oppressive, was strong. Disturb- ances were vigorously suppressed, the country was cleared of the robbers who infested it, and the seditions raised by the false prophets and other impostors, who availed themselves of the fanaticism of the people, were eflectually quelled. (Joseph. Ant. XX. 8, Bell. Jud. ii. 13; Euseb. Hist. Ecd. ii. 21 ; comp. Acts, xxi. 38, xxiv. 2.) He was recalled in a. d. 62, and succeeded by Porcius Fes- tus ; and the chief Jews of Caesareia (the seat of his government) having lodged accusations against him at Rome, he was saved from condign punish- ment only by the influence of his brother Pallas with Nero (Joseph. Ant. xx, 8. § 9; Euseb. Hist. Ecd. ii. 22 ; Acts, xxiv. 27). For the account which Tacitus (Hist. v. 9) gives of his marriage with one Drusilla, clearly a different person from the Jewess already mentioned, and a grand-daughter of Antony and Cleopatra, see Vol. I. p. 1075, b, and comp. Casaub. ad Sueton. Claud. 28. [E. E.] FELIX, BULLA, a celebrated robber chief, who, having collected a band of 600 followers, ra- vaged Italy for the space of two years, during the reign of Septimius Severus, setting at defiance all the efforts of the imperial officers to effect his cap- ture, till at length he was betrayed by a mistress, taken prisoner, and thrown to wild beasts. Dion Cassius (Ixxvi. 21) has preserved several curious anecdotes of his exploits, which were characterised by a combination of reckless daring and consum- mate prudence. [W. R,] FELIX, CA'SSIUS. [Cassius Iatroso- PHISTA.] FELIX CLAU'DIUS. [Felix, Antonius.] FELIX, FLA'VIUS, an African who flourished towards the close of the fifth century, the author of five short pieces in the Latin Anthology. Of these the first four celebrate the magnificence and utility of the " Thermae Alianae," constructed in the vicinity of Carthage by King Thrasimund, within the space of a single year ; the fifth is a whining petition for an ecclesiastical appointment, addressed to Victorianus, the chief secretary of the Vandal monarch. (Antkol. Lat. iii. 34 — 37, vi. 86, ed. Burmann, or n. 291—295, ed. Meyer.) [W. R.] FELIX, LAE'LIUS. A jurist, named Laelius, flourished in the time of Hadrian ; for it appears from a fragment of Paulus, in Dig. 5. tit, 4. s. 3, that Laelius, in one of his works, mentions having seen in the palace a free woman, who was brought irom Alexandria, in Egypt, in order to be exhibited to Hadrian, with five children, four of whom were brought into the world at one birth, and the fifth forty days afterwards. Gains (Dig. 34, tit 5. s. 7) tells the same story, without mentioning the in- terval of forty days ; and we find from him that the name of the woman was Serapia. (Compare also Julianus, in Dig. 46. tit. 3. s. 36 ; Capitolin. Anton. Pius, 9 ; Phlegon, de Rebus Mirab. 29.) Indeed, the learned Ant. Augustinus, without sufficient reason, suspects that Gains was no other than Laelius, designated by his praenomen. Laelius is cited by Paulus in another passage (Dig. 5. tit. 3. s. 43), which also relates to the law of he- reditas. The Laelius of the Digest is, by most writers upon the subject (e. g. Guil. Grotius, Heineccius, and Bach), identified with Laelius Felix, who wrote notes upon Q. Mucins Scaevola (librum ad Q, Mucium from which Gellius (xv. 27) makes