Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1296

 4. A surname of Nemesis at Rhamnus. (Paus. i. 33. § 2.)  URA'NIA (🇬🇷) 1. One of the Muses, a daughter of Zeus by Mnemosyne. (Hes. Theog. 78 ; Ov. Fast. v. 55.) The ancient bard Linus is called her son by Apollo (Hygin. Fab. 161), and Hymenaeus also is said to have been a son of Urania. (Catull. lxi. 2.) She was regarded, as her name indicates, as the Muse of Astronomy, and was represented with a celestial globe to which she points with a little staff. (Hirt, Mythol. Bilderb. p. 210.)

 2. A daughter of Oceanus and Tethys (Hes. Theog. 350), who also occurs as a nymph in the train of Persephone. (Hom. Hymn. in Cer. 424.）

 3. A surname of Aphrodite, describing her as " the heavenly," or spiritual, to distinguish her from Aphrodite Pandemos. Plato represents her as a daughter of Uranus, begotten without a mother. (Sympos. p. 180; Xenoph. Sympos. 8. § 9.) Wine was not used in the libations offered to her. (Schol. ad Soph. Oed. Col. 101; Herod. i. 105; Suid. s. v. 🇬🇷.)

 URA'NIUS (🇬🇷), a Greek writer of uncertain date, wrote a work on Arabia in three books at the least, which is frequently referred to by Stephanus of Byzantium and occasionally quoted by other writers. (Steph. Byz. s. vv. 🇬🇷, 🇬🇷, 🇬🇷, et alibi; Tzetzes, Chil.. vii. 144 ; Eustath, in Dionys. Perieg. 38.)

 URA'NIUS, a Gaul by birth, a presbyter of the church at Nola, is known to us as the author of a biography of his friend Paulinus Nolanus, at whose death he was present. His work, entitled De Vita et Obitu Paulini Nolani, was first published by Surius in his Vitae Sanctorum (fol. Colon. Agripp. 1572) under the 22nd of June. It was subsequently edited from a better MS. by Chifflet in his Patdinus illustratus (4to. Div. 1662), but the text appears in its best form in the edition of Paulinus by Le Bran, 4to. Paris, 1685. (Schoenemann, Biblioth. Patrum Lat. vol. ii. § 33.)

 URA'NIUS (🇬🇷), a Syrian physician at Constantinople about the middle of the sixth century after Christ. He pretended to be a very subtle and acute philosopher, and went to Persia, where he obtained great favour and influence with Chosroës; but Agathias, from whom we learn these particulars, gives him a very indifferent character, and compares him to Thersites, for his love of wrangling. (Hist, ii. sub fin.)

 U'RANUS (🇬🇷), the Latin Caelus, a son of Gaea (Hes. Theog. 126, &c. ; comp. Cic. De Nat. Deor. iii. 17), but is also called the husband of Gaea, and by her the father of Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Theia, Rheia, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe Tethys, Cronos, of the Cyclopes, Brontes, Steropes, Arges, and of the Hecatoncheires Cottus, Briareus and Gyes. (Hes. Theog. 133, &c.) According to Cicero (De Nat. Deor. iii. 22, 23), he also was the father of Mercury (Hermes) by Dia, and of Venus by Hemera. Uranus hated his children, and immediately after their birth, he confined them in Tartarus, in consequence of which he was unmanned and dethroned by Cronos at the instigation of Gaea. (Hes. Theog. 180.) Out of the drops of his blood sprang the Gigantes, the Melian nymphs, and according to some, Silenus, and from the foam gathering around his limbs in the sea, sprang Aphrodite (Hes. Theog. 195; Apollod. i. l ; Serv. ad Aen. v. 801, ad Virg. Ecl. vi. 13).

<section end="Uranus"/> <section begin="Urbica, Magnia"/>UR'BTCA, MA'GNIA. A considerable number of coins are extant in all the three metals, which exhibit on the obverse a female head with the legend magnia (s. magn.) urbica aug., or, MAGNiAE URBicAE AUG., and on the reverse PUDiciTiA AUG., with a woman seated and two boys standing by her side, or some of the ordinary types characteristic of the Augustae. To what epoch these medals ought to be assigned, has been a subject of lively controversy among numis- matologists. By some they are believed to belong to the age of Maxentius, and Patin has pro- nounced that Urbica was his wife ; others, again, maintain that she was married to Carus, while Stosch asserted that she was one of the numerous consorts of Carinus, bringing forward in support of this opinion a third brass, bearing on the obverse a male head with the words imp. carinus ai;g., and on the reverse the head of Urbica with mag*- NIA URBICA AUG. If this piece were genuine it would at least establish the fact that Urbica was closely connected with the family of Carus ; but unfortunately there is great reason to believe that it is a modern forgery, and consequently we are still left without sure information concerning an empress who is not named by any historian. (See Eckhel, vol. vii. p. 517.) [W. R.]

URBI'CIUS, or more correctly ORBFCIUS, a writer on tactics. [Orbicius.]

U'RBICUS, POMPEIUS, put to death by the emperor Claudius as one of the parties privy to Messalina's marriage with Silius. (Tac. Ann. xi. 35.)

URBT'NIUS PANOTION. [Panopion.]

URGULA'NIA, a great favourite of Livia, the mother of the emperor Tiberius. The empress had raised Urgulania above the laws, says Tacitus, who gives two instances of her arrogance. When cited by L. Piso, to whom she owed a sum of money, to appear before the praetor, she refused to obey the summons ; and on another occasion she would not appear in the senate to give evidence in a case, and a praetor had to be sent to examine her in her own house. She was the grandmother of Plautius Sil- vanus, to whom she sent a dagger when it was evident that he woiild be condemned to death on account of the murder of his wife in a. d. 24. (Tac. Ann. ii. 34, iv. 21, 22.)

URGULANILLA. PLAUTIA, one of the wives of the emperor Claudius. [Plautia.]

C. URSA'NIUS, tribune of the plebs, B. c. 197. (Liv. xxxiii. 22.) In some editions of Livy the reading is C. Afranius. We do not meet with the name of Ursanius elsewhere.

URSEIUS FEROX. [Ferox.]

URSICINUS, Saint, a physician in the ancient district of Liguria, who was converted to Christianity at a very early period by some of the immediate followers of the Apostles. He went to Ravenna,

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