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Nabazanes, an officer of Darius III., at the battle of Issus. He conspired with Bessus to murder his royal master, either to obtain the favour of Alexander or to seize the kingdom. He was pardoned by Alexander. Curtius, bk. 3, &c.—Diodorus, bk. 17.

Năbăthæa, a country of Arabia, of which the capital was called Petra. The word is often applied to any of the eastern countries of the world by the poets, and seems to be derived from Nabath the son of Ishmael. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 1, li. 61; bk. 5, li. 163.—Strabo, bk. 16.—Lucan, bk. 4, li. 63.—Juvenal, satire 11, li. 126.—Seneca, Hercules Œtaeus, li. 160, &c.

Nābis, a celebrated tyrant of Lacedæmon, who in all acts of cruelty and oppression surpassed a Phalaris or a Dionysius. His house was filled with flatterers and with spies, who were continually employed in watching the words and the actions of his subjects. When he had exercised every art in plundering the citizens of Sparta, he made a statue, which in resemblance was like his wife, and was clothed in the most magnificent apparel, and whenever any one refused to deliver up his riches, the tyrant led him to the statue, which immediately, by means of secret springs, seized him in its arms, and tormented him in the most excruciating manner with bearded points and prickles, hid under the clothes. To render his tyranny more popular, Nabis made an alliance with Flaminius the Roman general, and pursued with the most inveterate enmity the war which he had undertaken against the Achæans. He besieged Gythium and defeated Philopœmen in a naval battle. His triumph was short; the general of the Achæans soon repaired his losses, and Nabis was defeated in an engagement, and treacherously murdered, as he attempted to save his life by flight, B.C. 192, after a usurpation of 14 years. Polybius, bk. 13.—Justin, bks. 30 & 31.—Plutarch, Philopœmen.—Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 8.—Florus, bk. 2, ch. 7.——A priest of Jupiter Ammon, killed in the second Punic war, as he fought against the Romans. Silius Italicus, bk. 15, li. 672.

Nabonassar, a king of Babylon, after the division of the Assyrian monarchy. From him the Nabonassarean epoch received its name, agreeing with the year of the world 3237, or 746 B.C.

Nacri campi, a place of Gallia Togata near Mutina. Livy, bk. 41, ch. 18.

Nadagara. See: ♦Nagara.

♦ reference not found

Nænia, the goddess of funerals at Rome, whose temple was without the gates of the city. The songs which were sung at funerals were also called nænia. They were generally filled with the praises of the deceased, but sometimes they were so unmeaning and improper, that the word became proverbial to signify nonsense. Varro, ♦Antiquitates rerum humanarum et divinarum.—Plautus, Asinaria. ♠act 4, scene 1, li. 63.

Cnæus Nævius, a Latin poet in the first Punic war. He was originally in the Roman armies, but afterwards he applied himself to study and wrote comedies, besides a poetical account of the first Punic war, in which he had served. His satirical disposition displeased the consul Metellus, who drove him from Rome. He passed the rest of his life in Utica, where he died, about 203 years before the christian era. Some fragments of his poetry are extant. Cicero, Tusculanæ Disputationes, bk. 1, ch. 1; de Senectute.—Horace, bk. 2, ltr. 1, li. 53.——A tribune of the people at Rome, who accused Scipio Africanus of extortion.——An augur in the reign of Tarquin. To convince the king and the Romans of his power as an augur, he cut a flint with a razor, and turned the ridicule of the populace into admiration. Tarquin rewarded his merit by erecting to him a statue in the comitium, which was still in being in the age of Augustus. The razor and flint were buried near it under an altar, and it was usual among the Romans to make witnesses in civil causes swear near it. This miraculous event of cutting a flint with a razor, though believed by some writers, is treated as fabulous and improbable by Cicero, who himself had been an augur. Dionysius of Halicarnassus.—Livy, bk. 1, ch. 36.—Cicero, de Divinatione, bk. 1, ch. 17; De Natura Deorum, bk. 2, ch. 3; bk. 3, ch. 6.

Nævŏlus, an infamous pimp in Domitian’s reign. Juvenal, satire 9, li. 1.

Naharvali, a people of Germany. Tacitus, Germania, ch. 43.

Nāiădes, or Naides, certain inferior deities who presided over rivers, springs, wells, and fountains. The Naiades generally inhabited the country, and resorted to the woods or meadows near the stream over which they presided, whence the name (ναιειν, to flow). They are represented as young and beautiful virgins, often leaning upon an urn, from which flows a stream of water. Ægle was the fairest of the Naiades, according to Virgil. They were held in great veneration among the ancients, and often sacrifices of goats and lambs were offered to them, with libations of wine, honey, and oil. Sometimes they received only offerings of milk, fruit, and flowers. See: Nymphæ. Virgil, Eclogues.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 328.—Homer, Odyssey, bk. 13.

Nais, one of the Oceanides, mother of Chiron or Glaucus by Magnes. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9.——A nymph, mother by Bucolion of Ægesus and Pedasus. Homer, Iliad, bk. 6.——A nymph in an island of the Red sea, who by her incantations turned to fishes all those who approached her residence, after she had admitted them to her embraces. She was herself changed into a fish by Apollo. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4, li. 49, &c.——The word is used for water by Tibullus, bk. 3, poem 7.

Naissus, or Nessus, now Nissa, a town of Mœsia, the birthplace of Constantine, ascribed by some to Illyricum or Thrace.

Nantuates, a people of Gaul near the Alps. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 3, ch. 1.

Napææ, certain divinities among the ancients, who presided over the hills and woods of the country. Some suppose that they were tutelary deities of the fountains, and the Naiades of the sea. Their name is derived from ναπη, a grove. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 4, li. 535.

Napata, a town of Æthiopia.

Naphĭlus, a river of Peloponnesus, falling into the Alpheus. Pausanias, bk. 1.

Nar, now Nera, a river of Umbria, whose waters, famous for their sulphureous properties, pass through the lake Velinus, and issuing from thence with great rapidity, fall into the Tiber. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 330.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 517.—Cicero, Letters to Atticus, bk. 4, ltr. 15.—Tacitus, Annals, bk. 1, ch. 79; bk. 3, ch. 9.

Narbo Martius, now Narbonne, a town of Gaul, founded by the consul Marcius, A.U.C. 636. It became the capital of a large province of Gaul, which obtained the name of Gallia Narbonensis. Paterculus, bk. 1, ch. 15; bk. 2, ch. 8.—Pliny, bk. 3.

Narbonensis Gallia, one of the four great divisions of ancient Gaul, was bounded by the Alps, the Pyrenean mountains, Aquitania, Belgicum, and the Mediterranean, and contained the modern provinces of Languedoc, Provence, Dauphiné, and Savoy.

Narcæus, a son of Bacchus and Physcoa. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 15.

Narcea, a surname of Minerva in Elis, from her temple there, erected by Narcæus.

Narcissus, a beautiful youth, son of Cephisus and the nymph Liriope, born at Thespis in Bœotia. He saw his image reflected in a fountain, and became enamoured of it, thinking it to be the nymph of the place. His fruitless attempts to approach this beautiful object so provoked him, that he grew desperate and killed himself. His blood was changed into a flower, which still bears his name. The nymphs raised a funeral pile to burn his body, according to Ovid, but they found nothing but a beautiful flower. Pausanias says that Narcissus had a sister as beautiful as himself, of whom he became deeply enamoured. He often hunted in the woods in her company, but his pleasure was soon interrupted by her death; and still to keep afresh her memory, he frequented the groves, where he had often attended her, or reposed himself on the brim of a fountain, where the sight of his own reflected image still awakened tender sentiments. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 21.—Hyginus, fable 271.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3, li. 346, &c.—Philostratus, bk. 1.——A freedman and secretary of Claudius, who abused his trust and the infirmities of his imperial master, and plundered the citizens of Rome to enrich himself. Messalina, the emperor’s wife, endeavoured to remove him, but Narcissus sacrificed her to his avarice and resentment. Agrippina, who succeeded in the place of Messalina, was more successful. Narcissus was banished by her intrigues, and compelled to kill himself, A.D. 54. The emperor greatly regretted his loss, as he had found him subservient to his most criminal and extravagant pleasures. Tacitus.—Suetonius.——A favourite of the emperor Nero, put to death by Galba.——A wretch who strangled the emperor Commodus.

Nargara, a town of Africa, where Hannibal and Scipio came to a parley. Livy, bk. 30, ch. 29.

Narisci, a nation of Germany, in the Upper Palatinate. Tacitus, Germania, ch. 42.

Narnia, or Narna, anciently Nequinum, now Narni, a town of Umbria, washed by the river Nar, from which it received its name. In its neighbourhood are still visible the remains of an aqueduct and of a bridge, erected by Augustus. Livy, bk. 10, ch. 9.

Naro, now Narenta, a river of Dalmatia, falling into the Adriatic, and having the town of Narona, now called Narenza, on its banks, a little above the mouth.

Narses, a king of Persia, A.D. 294, defeated by Maximianus Galerius, after a reign of seven years.——A eunuch in the court of Justinian, who was deemed worthy to succeed Belisarius, &c.——A Persian general, &c.

Narthēcis, a small island near Samos.

Narycia, Narycium, or Naryx, a town of Magna Græcia, built by a colony of Locrians after the fall of Troy. The place in Greece from which they came bore the same name, and was the country of Ajax Oileus. The word Narycian is more universally understood as applying to the Italian colony, near which pines and other trees grew in abundance. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, li. 438; Æneid, bk. 3, li. 399.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 15, li. 705.

Nasămōnes, a savage people of Libya near the Syrtes, who generally lived upon plunder. Curtius, bk. 4, ch. 7.—Lucan, bk. 9, li. 439.—Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 165.—Silius Italicus, bk. 2, li. 116; bk. 11, li. 180.

Nascio, or Natio, a goddess at Rome who presided over the birth of children. She had a temple at Ardea. Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 3, ch. 18.

Nasīca, the surname of one of the Scipios. Nasica was the first who invented the measuring of time by water, B.C. 159, about 134 years after the introduction of sun-dials at Rome. See: Scipio.——An avaricious fellow who married his daughter to Coranus, a man as mean as himself, that he might not only not repay the money he had borrowed, but moreover become his creditor’s heir. Coranus, understanding his meaning, purposely alienated his property from him and his daughter, and exposed him to ridicule. Horace, bk. 2, satire 5, li. 64, &c.

Nasidiēnus, a Roman knight, whose luxury, arrogance, and ostentation, exhibited at an entertainment which he gave to Mecænas, were ridiculed by Horace, bk. 2, satire 8.

Lucius Nasidius, a man sent by Pompey to assist the people of Massilia. After the battle of Pharsalia, he followed the interests of Pompey’s children, and afterwards revolted to Antony. Appian.

Naso, one of the murderers of Julius Cæsar.——One of Ovid’s names. See: Ovidius.

Nassus, or Nasus, a town of Acarnania, near the mouth of the Achelous. Livy, bk. 26, ch. 24. Also a part of the town of Syracuse.

Nasua, a general of the Suevi, when Cæsar was in Gaul.

Natālis Antonius, a Roman knight who conspired against Nero with Piso. He was pardoned for discovering the conspiracy, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 15, ch. 50.

Natiso, now Natisone, a river rising in the Alps, and falling into the Adriatic east of Aquileia. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 18.

Natta, a man whose manner of living was so mean, that his name became almost proverbial at Rome. Horace, bk. 1, ode 6, li. 224.

Nava, now Nape, a river of Germany, falling into the Rhine at Bingen, below Mentz. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 4, ch. 70.

Naubŏlus, a charioteer of Laius king of Thebes.——A Phocean, father of Iphitus. The sons of Iphitus were called Naubolides, from their grandfather.——A son of Lernus, one of the Argonauts.

Naucles, a general of the mercenary troops of Lacedæmon against Thebes, &c.

Naucrătes, a Greek poet, who was employed by Artemisia to write a panegyric upon Mausolus.——Another poet. Athenæus, bk. 9.——An orator who endeavoured to alienate the cities of Lycia from the interest of Brutus.

Naucrătis, a city of Egypt on the left side of the Canopic mouth of the Nile. It was celebrated for its commerce, and no ship was permitted to land at any other place, but was obliged to sail directly to the city, there to deposit its cargo. It gave birth to Athenæus. The inhabitants were called Naucratitæ, or Naucratiotæ. Herodotus, bk. 2, chs. 97 & 179.—Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 9.

Navius Actius, a famous augur. See: Nævius.

Naulŏchus, a maritime town of Sicily near Pelorum.——A town of Thrace on the Euxine sea. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 11.——A promontory of the island of Imbros.——A town of the Locri. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 3.

Naupactus, or Naupactum, a city of Ætolia, at the mouth of the Evenus, now called Lepanto. The word is derived from ναυς and πηγνυμι because it was there that the Heraclidæ built the first ship, which carried them to Peloponnesus. It first belonged to the Locri Ozolæ, and afterwards fell into the hands of the Athenians, who gave it to the Messenians, who had been driven from Peloponnesus by the Lacedæmonians. It became the property of the Lacedæmonians, after the battle of Ægospotamos, and it was restored to the Locri. Philip of Macedonia afterwards took it, and gave it to the Ætolians, from which circumstance it has generally been called one of the chief cities of their country. Strabo, bk. 4.—Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 25.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 3.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 2, li. 43.

Nauplia, a maritime city of Peloponnesus, the naval station of the Argives. The famous fountain Canathos was in its neighbourhood. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 38.—Strabo, bk. 8.

Naupliădes, a patronymic of Palamedes son of Nauplius. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, li. 39.

Nauplius, a son of Neptune and Amymone, king of Eubœa. He was father to the celebrated Palamedes, who was so unjustly sacrificed to the artifice and resentment of Ulysses by the Greeks during the Trojan war. The death of Palamedes highly irritated Nauplius, and to avenge the injustice of the Grecian princes, he attempted to debauch their wives and ruin their character. When the Greeks returned from the Trojan war, Nauplius saw them with pleasure distressed in a storm on the coasts of Eubœa, and to make their disaster still more universal, he lighted fires on such places as were surrounded with the most dangerous rocks, that the fleet might be shipwrecked upon the coast. This succeeded, but Nauplius was so disappointed when he saw Ulysses and Diomedes escape from the general calamity, that he threw himself into the sea. According to some mythologists, there were two persons of this name.——A native of Argos, who went to Colchis with Jason. He was son of Neptune and Amymone. The other was king of Eubœa, and lived during the Trojan war. He was, according to some, son of Clytonas, one of the descendants of Nauplius the Argonaut. The Argonaut was remarkable for his knowledge of sea affairs, and of astronomy. He built the town of Nauplia, and sold Auge daughter of Aleus to king Teuthras, to withdraw her from her father’s resentment. Orpheus, Argonautica.—Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Apollonius, bk. 1, &c.—Flaccus, bks. 1 & 5.—Strabo, bk. 8.—Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 35.—Hyginus, fable 116.

Nauportus, a town of Pannonia on a river of the same name, now called Ober, or Upper Laybach. Velleius Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 110.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 18.—Tacitus, Annals, bk. 1, ch. 20.

Naura, a country of Scythia in Asia. Curtius, bk. 3.——Of India within the Ganges. Arrian.

Nausĭcaa, a daughter of Alcinous king of the Phæaceans. She met Ulysses shipwrecked on her father’s coasts, and it was to her humanity that he owed the kind reception which he experienced from the king. She married, according to Aristotle and Dictys, Telemachus the son of Ulysses, by whom she had a son called Perseptolis or Ptoliporthus. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 6.—Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 19.—Hyginus, fable 126.

Nausĭcles, an Athenian, sent to assist the Phocians with 5000 foot, &c.

Nausīmĕnes, an Athenian, whose wife lost her voice from the alarm she received in seeing her son guilty of incest.

Nausithoe, one of the Nereides.

Nausithous, a king of the Phæaceans, father to Alcinous. He was son of Neptune and Peribœa. Hesiod makes him son of Ulysses and Calypso. Hesiod, Theogony, bk. 1, li. 16.——The pilot of the vessel which carried Theseus into Crete.

Naustathmus, a port of Phocæa in Ionia. Livy, bk. 37, ch. 31.——Also a part of Cyrenaica, now Bondaria. Strabo, bk. 17.

Nautes, a Trojan soothsayer, who comforted Æneas when his fleet had been burnt in Sicily. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 704. He was the progenitor of the Nautii at Rome, a family to whom the Palladium of Troy was, in consequence of the service of their ancestors, entrusted. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 794.

Naxos, now Naxia, a celebrated island in the Ægean sea, the largest and most fertile of all the Cyclades, about 105 miles in circumference, and 30 broad. It was formerly called Strongyle, Dia, Dionysias, and Callipolis, and received the name of Naxos from Naxus, who was at the head of a Carian colony, which settled in the island. Naxos abounds with all sorts of fruits, and its wines are still in the same repute as formerly. The Naxians were anciently governed by kings, but they afterwards exchanged this form of government for a republic, and enjoyed their liberty till the age of Pisistratus, who appointed a tyrant over them. They were reduced by the Persians; but in the expedition of Darius and Xerxes against Greece, they revolted and fought on the side of the Greeks. During the Peloponnesian war, they supported the interest of Athens. Bacchus was the chief deity of the island. The capital was also called Naxos; and near it, on the 20th Sept., B.C. 377, the Lacedæmonians were defeated by Chabrias. Thucydides, bk. 1, &c.—Herodotus.—Diodorus, bk. 5, &c.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3, li. 636.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 125.—Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 16.—Pindar.——An ancient town on the eastern side of Sicily, founded 759 years before the christian era. There was also another town at the distance of five miles from Naxos, which bore the same name, and was often called, by contradistinction, Taurominium. Pliny, bk. 3.—Diodorus, bk. 13.——A town of Crete, noted for hones. Pliny, bk. 36, ch. 7.——A Carian who gave his name to the greatest of the Cyclades.

Nazianzus, a town of Cappadocia where St. Gregory was born, and hence he is called Nazianzenus.

Nea, or Nova insula, a small island between Lemnos and the Hellespont, which rose out of the sea during an earthquake. Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 87.

Neæra, a nymph, mother of Phaetusa and Lampetia by the Sun. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 12.——A woman mentioned by Virgil’s Eclogues, poem 3.——A mistress of the poet Tibullus.——A favourite of Horace.——A daughter of Pereus, who married Aleus, by whom she had Cepheus, Lycurgus, and Auge, who was ravished by Hercules. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 9.—Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 4.——The wife of Autolycus. Pausanias.——A daughter of Niobe and Amphion.——The wife of Strymon. Apollodorus.

Neæthus, now Neto, a river of Magna Græcia near Crotona. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 15, li. 51.

Nealces, a friend of Turnus in his war against Æneas. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 753.

Nealices, a painter, amongst whose capital pieces are mentioned a painting of Venus, a sea-fight between the Persians and Egyptians, and an ass drinking on the shore, with a crocodile preparing to attack it.

Neandros (or ia), a town of Troas. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 30.

Neanthes, an orator and historian of Cyzicum, who flourished 257 years B.C.

Neapŏlis, a city of Campania, anciently called Parthenope, and now known by the name of Naples, rising like an amphitheatre at the back of a beautiful bay 30 miles in circumference. As the capital of that part of Italy, it is now inhabited by upwards of 350,000 souls, who exhibit the opposite marks of extravagant magnificence, and extreme poverty. Augustus called it Neapolis. Suetonius, Augustus, ch. 98.——A town in Africa.——A city of Thrace.——A town of Egypt,——of Palestine,——of Ionia.——Also a part of Syracuse. Livy, bk. 25, ch. 24.—Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 5.

Nearchus, an officer of Alexander in his Indian expedition. He was ordered to sail upon the Indian ocean with Onesicritus, and to examine it. He wrote an account of this voyage and of the king’s life; but his veracity has been called in question by Arrian. After the king’s death he was appointed over Lycia and Pamphylia. Curtius, bk. 9, ch. 10.—Polyænus, bk. 9.—Justin, bk. 13, ch. 4.—Strabo, bk. 2, &c.——A beautiful youth, &c. Horace, bk. 3, ode 20.——An old man mentioned by Cicero, de Senectute.

Nebo, a high mountain near Palestine, beyond Jordan, from the top of which Moses was permitted to view the promised land.

Nebrissa, a town of Spain, now Lebrixa.

Nebrōdes, a mountain of Sicily, where the Himera rises. Silius Italicus, bk. 14, li. 237.

Nebrophŏnos, a son of Jason and Hypsipyle. Apollodorus.——One of Actæon’s dogs. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3.

Nebŭla, a name given to Nephele the wife of Athamas. Lactantius [Placidus] on Achilleid of Statius, bk. 1, ch. 65.

Necessĭtas, a divinity who presided over the destinies of mankind, and who was regarded as the mother of the Parcæ. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 4.

Nechos, a king of Egypt, who attempted to make a communication between the Mediterranean and Red seas, B.C. 610. No less than 12,000 men perished in the attempt. It was discovered in his reign that Africa was circumnavigable. Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 158; bk. 4, ch. 42.

Necropŏlis, one of the suburbs of Alexandria.

Nectanēbus and Nectanābis, a king of Egypt, who defended his country against the Persians, and was succeeded by Tachos, B.C. 363. His grandson, of the same name, made an alliance with Agesilaus king of Sparta, and with his assistance he quelled a rebellion of his subjects. Some time after he was joined by the Sidonians, Phœnicians, and inhabitants of Cyprus, who had revolted from the king of Persia. This powerful confederacy was soon attacked by Darius the king of Persia, who marched at the head of his troops. Nectanebus, to defend his frontiers against so dangerous an enemy, levied 20,000 mercenary soldiers in Greece, the same number in Libya, and 60,000 were furnished in Egypt. This numerous body was not equal to the Persian forces; and Nectanebus, defeated in a battle, gave up all hopes of resistance, and fled into Æthiopia, B.C. 350, where he found a safe asylum. His kingdom of Egypt became from that time tributary to the king of Persia. Plutarch, Agesilaus.—Diodorus, bk. 16, &c.—Polyænus.—Cornelius Nepos, Agesilaus.

Necysia, a solemnity observed by the Greeks in memory of the dead.

Neis, the wife of Endymion. Apollodorus.

Neleus, a son of Neptune and Tyro. He was brother to Pelias, with whom he was exposed by his mother, who wished to conceal her infirmities from her father. They were preserved and brought to Tyro, who had then married Cretheus king of Iolchos. After the death of Cretheus, Pelias and Neleus seized the kingdom of Iolchos, which belonged to Æson, the lawful son of Tyro by the deceased monarch. After they had reigned for some time conjointly, Pelias expelled Neleus from Iolchos. Neleus came to Aphareus king of Messenia, who treated him with kindness, and permitted him to build a city, which he called Pylos. Neleus married Chloris the daughter of Amphion, by whom he had a daughter and 12 sons, who were all, except Nestor, killed by Hercules, together with their father. Neleus promised his daughter in marriage only to him who brought him the bulls of Iphiclus. Bias was the successful lover. See: Melampus. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6, li. 418.—Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 36.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 2, ch. 6.——A river of Eubœa.

Nelo, one of the Danaides. Apollodorus, bk. 2.

Nemæa, a town of Argolis between Cleonæ and Phlius, with a wood, where Hercules, in the 16th year of his age, killed the celebrated Nemæan lion. This animal, born of the hundred-headed Typhon, infested the neighbourhood of Nemæa, and kept the inhabitants under continual alarms. It was the first labour of Hercules to destroy it; and the hero, when he found that his arrows and his club were useless against an animal whose skin was hard and impenetrable, seized him in his arms and squeezed him to death. The conqueror clothed himself in the skin, and games were instituted to commemorate so great an event. The Nemæan games were originally instituted by the Argives in honour of Archemorus, who died by the bite of a serpent [See: Archemorus], and Hercules some time after renewed them. They were one of the four great and solemn games which were observed in Greece. The Argives, Corinthians, and the inhabitants of Cleonæ generally presided by turns at the celebration, in which were exhibited foot and horse races, chariot races, boxing, wrestling, and contests of every kind, both gymnical and equestrian. The conqueror was rewarded with a crown of olives, afterwards of green parsley, in memory of the adventure of Archemorus, whom his nurse laid down on a sprig of that plant. They were celebrated every third, or, according to others, every fifth year, or more properly on the first and third year of every Olympiad, on the 12th day of the Corinthian month Panemos, which corresponds to our August. They served as an era to the Argives, and to the inhabitants of the neighbouring country. It was always usual for an orator to pronounce a funeral oration in memory of the death of Archemorus, and those who distributed the prizes were always dressed in mourning. Livy, bk. 27, chs. 30 & 31; bk. 34, ch. 41.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 9, li. 97, Epistles, ltr. 9, li. 61.—Pausanias, Corinthia.—Clement of Alexandria.—Athenæus.—Polyænus.—Strabo, bk. 8.—Hyginus, fables 30 & 273.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 6.——A river of Peloponnesus falling into the bay of Corinth. Livy, bk. 33, ch. 15.

Nemausus, a town of Gaul, in Languedoc, near the mouth of the Rhone, now Nismes.

Nemesia, festivals in honour of Nemesis. See: Nemesis.

Marcus Aurelius Olympius Nemesiānus, a Latin poet, born at Carthage, of no very brilliant talents, in the third century, whose poems on hunting and bird-catching were published by Burman, inter scriptores rei venaticæ, 4to, Leiden, 1728.

Nĕmĕsis, one of the infernal deities, daughter of Nox. She was the goddess of vengeance, always prepared to punish impiety, and at the same time liberally to reward the good and virtuous. She is made one of the Parcæ by some mythologists, and is represented with a helm and a wheel. The people of Smyrna were the first who made her statues with wings, to show with what celerity she is prepared to punish the crimes of the wicked, both by sea and land, as the helm and the wheel in her hands intimate. Her power did not only exist in this life, but she was also employed after death to find out the most effectual and rigorous means of correction. Nemesis was particularly worshipped at Rhamnus in Attica, where she had a celebrated statue 10 cubits long, made of Parian marble by Phidias, or, according to others, by one of his pupils. The Romans were also particularly attentive to the adoration of a deity whom they solemnly invoked, and to whom they offered sacrifices before they declared war against their enemies, to show the world that their wars were undertaken upon the most just grounds. Her statue at Rome was in the Capitol. Some suppose that Nemesis was the person whom Jupiter deceived in the form of a swan, and that Leda was entrusted with the care of the children which sprang from the two eggs. Others observe that Leda obtained the name of Nemesis after death. According to Pausanias, there were more than one Nemesis. The goddess Nemesis was surnamed Rhamnusia because worshipped at Rhamnus, and Adrastia from the temple which Adrastus king of Argos erected to her, when he went against Thebes, to revenge the indignities which his son-in-law Polynices had suffered in being unjustly driven from his kingdom by Eteocles. The Greeks celebrated a festival called Nemesia, in memory of deceased persons, as the goddess Nemesis was supposed to defend the relics and the memory of the dead from all insult. Hyginus, Poetica Astronomica, bk. 2, ch. 8.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 33.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 10.——Hesiod, Theogony, li. 224.—Pliny, bk. 11, ch. 28; bk. 26, ch. 5.——A mistress of Tibullus, bk. 2, poem 3, li. 55.

Nemesius, a Greek writer, whose elegant and useful treatise, de Naturâ Hominis, was edited in 12mo, Ant. apud Plant. 1565, and in 8vo, Oxford, 1671.

Nemetacum, a town of Gaul, now Arras.

Nemetes, a nation of Germany, now forming the inhabitants of Spire, which was afterwards called Noviomagus. Tacitus, Germania, ch. 28.

Nemoralia, festivals observed in the woods of Aricia, in honour of Diana, who presided over the country and the forests, on which account that part of Italy was sometimes denominated Nemorensis ager. Ovid, de Ars Amatoria, bk. 1, li. 259.

Nemossus (or um), the capital of the Arverni in Gaul, now Clermont. Lucan, bk. 1, li. 419.—Strabo, bk. 4.

Neobūle, a daughter of Lycambes, betrothed to the poet Archilochus. See: Lycambes. Horace, epode 6, li. 13; bk. 1, ltr. 3, li. 79.—Ovid, Ibis, li. 54.——A beautiful woman, to whom Horace addressed bk. 3, ode 12.

Neocæsaria, a town of Pontus.

Neochabis, a king of Egypt.

Neŏcles, an Athenian philosopher, father, or according to Cicero, brother to the philosopher Epicurus. Cicero, bk. 1, de Natura Deorum, ch. 21.—Diogenes Laërtius.——The father of Themistocles. Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 2, &c.—Cornelius Nepos, Themistocles.

Neogĕnes, a man who made himself absolute, &c. Diodorus, bk. 15.

Neomoris, one of the Nereides. Apollodorus, bk. 1.

Neon, a town of Phocis.——There was also another of the same name in the same country, on the top of Parnassus. It was afterwards called Tithorea. Plutarch, Sulla.—Pausanias, Phocis.—Herodotus, bk. 8, ch. 32.——One of the commanders of the 10,000 Greeks who assisted Cyrus against Artaxerxes.

Neontīchos, a town of Æolia near the Hermus. Herodotus.—Pliny.

Neōptŏlĕmus, a king of Epirus, son of Achilles and Deidamia, called Pyrrhus from the yellow colour of his hair. He was carefully educated under the eye of his mother, and gave early proofs of his valour. After the death of Achilles, Calchas declared, in the assembly of the Greeks, that Troy could not be taken without the assistance of the son of the deceased hero. Immediately upon this, Ulysses and Phœnix were commissioned to bring Pyrrhus to the war. He returned with them with pleasure, and received the name of Neoptolemus (new soldier), because he had come late to the field. On his arrival before Troy, he paid a visit to the tomb of his father, and wept over his ashes. He afterwards, according to some authors, accompanied Ulysses to Lemnos, to engage Philoctetes to come to the Trojan war. He greatly signalized himself during the remaining time of the siege, and he was the first who entered the wooden horse. He was inferior to none of the Grecian warriors in valour, and Ulysses and Nestor alone could claim a superiority over him in eloquence, wisdom, and address. His cruelty, however, was as great as that of his father. Not satisfied with breaking down the gates of Priam’s palace, he exercised the greatest barbarities upon the remains of his family, and without any regard to the sanctity of the place where Priam had taken refuge, he slaughtered him without mercy; or, according to others, dragged him by the hair to the tomb of his father, where he sacrificed him, and where he cut off his head, and carried it in exultation through the streets of Troy, fixed on the point of a spear. He also sacrificed Astyanax to his fury, and immolated Polyxena on the tomb of Achilles, according to those who deny that that sacrifice was voluntary. When Troy was taken, the captives were divided among the conquerors, and Pyrrhus had for his share Andromache the widow of Hector, and Helenus the son of Priam. With these he departed for Greece, and he probably escaped from destruction by giving credit to the words of Helenus, who foretold him that, if he sailed with the rest of the Greeks, his voyage would be attended with fatal consequences, and perhaps with death. This obliged him to take a different course from the rest of the Greeks, and he travelled over the greatest part of Thrace, where he had a severe encounter with queen Harpalyce. See: Harpalyce. The place of his retirement after the Trojan war is not known. Some maintain that he went to Thessaly, where his grandfather still reigned; but this is confuted by others, who observe, perhaps with more reason, that he went to Epirus, where he laid the foundation of a new kingdom, because his grandfather Peleus had been deprived of his sceptre by Acastus the son of Pelias. Neoptolemus lived with Andromache after his arrival in Greece, but it is unknown whether he treated her as a lawful wife or a concubine. He had a son by this unfortunate princess, called Molossus, and two others, if we rely on the authority of Pausanias. Besides Andromache, he married Hermione the daughter of Menelaus, as also Lanassa the daughter of Cleodæus, one of the descendants of Hercules. The cause of his death is variously related. Menelaus, before the Trojan war, had promised his daughter Hermione to Orestes, but the services he experienced from the valour and the courage of Neoptolemus during the siege of Troy, induced him to reward his merit by making him his son-in-law. The nuptials were accordingly celebrated, but Hermione became jealous of Andromache, and because she had no children, she resolved to destroy her Trojan rival, who seemed to steal away the affections of their common husband. In the absence of Neoptolemus at Delphi, Hermione attempted to murder Andromache, but she was prevented by the interference of Peleus, or, according to others, of the populace. When she saw her schemes defeated, she determined to lay violent hands upon herself, to avoid the resentment of Neoptolemus. The sudden arrival of Orestes changed her resolution, and she consented to elope with her lover to Sparta. Orestes at the same time, to revenge and to punish his rival, caused him to be assassinated in the temple of Delphi, and he was murdered at the foot of the altar by Machareus the priest, or by the hand of Orestes himself, according to Virgil, Paterculus, and Hyginus. Some say that he was murdered by the Delphians, who had been bribed by the presents of Orestes. It is unknown why Neoptolemus went to Delphi. Some support that he wished to consult the oracle to know how he might have children by the barren Hermione; others say that he went thither to offer the spoils which he had obtained during the Trojan war, to appease the resentment of Apollo, whom he had provoked by calling him the cause of the death of Achilles. The plunder of the rich temple of Delphi, if we believe others, was the object of the journey of Neoptolemus, and it cannot but be observed that he suffered the same death and the same barbarities which he had inflicted in the temple of Minerva upon the aged Priam and his wretched family. From this circumstance, the ancients have made use of the proverb Neoptolemic revenge, when a person had suffered the same savage treatment which others had received from his hand. The Delphians celebrated a festival with great pomp and solemnity in memory of Neoptolemus, who had been slain in his attempt to plunder their temple, because, as they said, Apollo, the patron of the place, had been in some manner accessary to the death of Achilles. Paterculus, bk. 1, ch. 1.—Virgil, Æneid, bks. 2 & 3.—Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 24.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, lis. 334, 455, &c.; Heroides, poem 8.—Strabo, bk. 9.—Pindar, Nemean, poem 7.—Euripides, Andromache & Orestes, &c.—Plutarch, Pyrrhus.—Justin, bk. 17, ch. 3.—Dictys Cretensis, bks. 4, 5, & 6.—Homer, Odyssey, bk. 11, li. 504; Iliad, bk. 19, li. 326.—Sophocles, Philoctetes.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 13.—Hyginus, fables 97 & 102.—Philostratus, Heroicus, ch. 19, &c.—Dares Phrygius.—Quintus Smyrnæus, bk. 14.——A king of the Molossi, father of Olympias the mother of Alexander. Justin, bk. 17, ch. 3.——Another, king of Epirus.——An uncle of the celebrated Pyrrhus who assisted the Tarentines. He was made king of Epirus by the Epirots, who had revolted from their lawful sovereign, and was put to death when he attempted to poison his nephew, &c. Plutarch, Pyrrhus.——A tragic poet of Athens, greatly favoured by Philip king of Macedonia. When Cleopatra, the monarch’s daughter, was married to Alexander of Epirus, he wrote some verses which proved to be prophetic of the tragical death of Philip. Diodorus, bk. 16.——A relation of Alexander. He was the first who climbed the walls of Gaza when that city was taken by Alexander. After the king’s death he received Armenia as his province, and made war against Eumenes. He was supported by Craterus, but an engagement with Eumenes proved fatal to his cause. Craterus was killed, and himself mortally wounded by Eumenes, B.C. 321. Cornelius Nepos, Eumenes.——One of the officers of Mithridates the Great, beaten by Lucullus in a naval battle. Plutarch, Lucullus.——A tragic writer.

Neoris, a large country of Asia, near Gedrosia, almost destitute of waters. The inhabitants were called Neoritæ, and it was usual among them to suspend their dead bodies from the boughs of trees. Diodorus, bk. 17.

Nepe, a constellation of the heavens, the same as Scorpio.——An inland town of Etruria, called also Nepete, whose inhabitants are called Nepesini. Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 490.—Livy, bk. 5, ch. 19; bk. 26, ch. 34.

Nephalia, festivals in Greece, in honour of Mnemosyne the mother of the Muses, and Aurora, Venus, &c. No wine was used during the ceremony, but merely a mixture of water and honey. Pollux, bk. 6, ch. 3.—Athenæus, bk. 15.—Suidas.

Nĕphĕle, the first wife of Athamas king of Thebes, and mother of Phryxus and Helle. She was repudiated on pretence of being subject to fits of insanity, and Athamas married Ino the daughter of Cadmus, by whom he had several children. Ino became jealous of Nephele, because her children would succeed to their father’s throne before hers, by right of seniority, and she resolved to destroy them. Nephele was apprised of her wicked intentions, and she removed her children from the reach of Ino, by giving them a celebrated ram, sprung from the union of Neptune and Theophane, on whose back they escaped to Colchis. See: Phryxus. Nephele was afterwards changed into a cloud, whence her name is given by the Greeks to the clouds. Some call her Nebula, which word is the Latin translation of Nephele. The fleece of the ram, which saved the life of Nephele’s children, is often called the Nephelian fleece. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9.—Hyginus, fable 2, &c.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 11, li. 195.—Flaccus, bk. 11, li. 56.——A mountain of Thessaly, once the residence of the Centaurs.

Nephĕlis, a cape of Cilicia. Livy, bk. 33, ch. 20.

Nepherītes, a king of Egypt, who assisted the Spartans against Persia, when Agesilaus was in Asia. He sent them a fleet of 100 ships, which were intercepted by Conon, as they were sailing towards Rhodes, &c. Diodorus, bk. 14.

Nephus, a son of Hercules.

Nepia, a daughter of Jasus, who married Olympus king of Mysia, whence the plains of Mysia are sometimes called Nepiæ campi.

Nepos, Cornelius, a celebrated historian in the reign of Augustus. He was born at Hostilia, and, like the rest of his learned contemporaries, he shared the favours and enjoyed the patronage of the emperor. He was the intimate friend of Cicero and of Atticus, and recommended himself to the notice of the great and opulent by delicacy of sentiment and a lively disposition. According to some writers, he composed three books of chronicles, as also a biographical account of all the most celebrated kings, generals, and authors of antiquity. Of all his valuable compositions, nothing remains but his lives of the illustrious Greek and Roman generals, which have often been attributed to Æmylius Probus, who published them in his own name in the age of Theodosius, to conciliate the favour and the friendship of that emperor. The language of Cornelius has always been admired, and as a writer of the Augustan age, he is entitled to many commendations for the delicacy of his expressions, the elegance of his style, and the clearness and precision of his narrations. Some support that he translated Dares Phrygius from the Greek original; but the inelegance of the diction, and its many incorrect expressions, plainly prove that it is the production, not of a writer of the Augustan age, but the spurious composition of a more modern pen. Cornelius speaks of his account of the Greek historians Dion, ch. 3. Among the many good editions of Cornelius Nepos, two may be selected as the best, that of Verheyk, 8vo, Leiden, 1773, and that of Glasgow, 12mo, 1761.——Julius, an emperor of the west, &c.

Nepotiānus Flavius Popilius, a son of Eutropia the sister of the emperor Constantine. He proclaimed himself emperor after the death of his cousin Constans, and rendered himself odious by his cruelty and oppression. He was murdered by Anicetus, after one month’s reign, and his family were involved in his ruin.

Nepthys, wife of Typhon, became enamoured of Osiris her brother-in-law, and introduced herself to his bed. She had a son called Anubis by him. Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride.

Neptūni fanum, a place near Cenchreæ. Mela, bk. 1, ch. 19.——Another in the island of Calauria.——Another near Mantinea.

Neptūnia, a town and colony of Magna Græcia.

Neptūnium, a promontory of Arabia at the entrance of the gulf.

Neptūnius, an epithet applied to Sextus Pompey, because he believed himself to be god of the sea, or descended from him, on account of his superiority in ships, &c. Horace epode 9.—Dio Cassius, bk. 48.

Neptūnus, a god, son of Saturn and Ops, and brother to Jupiter, Pluto, and Juno. He was devoured by his father the day of his birth, and again restored to life by means of Metis, who gave Saturn a certain potion. Pausanias says that his mother concealed him in a sheepfold in Arcadia, and that she imposed upon her husband, telling him that she had brought a colt into the world, which was instantly devoured by Saturn. Neptune shared with his brothers the empire of Saturn, and received as his portion the kingdom of the sea. This, however, did not seem equivalent to the empire of heaven and earth, which Jupiter had claimed, therefore he conspired to dethrone him, with the rest of the gods. The conspiracy was discovered, and Jupiter condemned Neptune to build the walls of Troy. See: Laomedon. A reconciliation was soon after made, and Neptune was reinstituted to all his rights and privileges. Neptune disputed with Minerva the right of giving a name to the capital of Cecropia, but he was defeated, and the olive which the goddess suddenly raised from the earth was deemed more serviceable for the good of mankind than the horse which Neptune had produced by striking the ground with his trident, as that animal is the emblem of war and slaughter. This decision did not please Neptune; he renewed the combat by disputing for Trœzene, but Jupiter settled their disputes by permitting them to be conjointly worshipped there, and by giving the name of Polias, or the protectress of the city, to Minerva, and that of king of Trœzene to the god of the sea. He also disputed his right for the isthmus of Corinth with Apollo; and Briareus the Cyclops, who was mutually chosen umpire, gave the isthmus to Neptune, and the promontory to Apollo. Neptune, as being god of the sea, was entitled to more power than any of the other gods, except Jupiter. Not only the ocean, rivers, and fountains were subjected to him, but he also could cause earthquakes at his pleasure, and raise islands from the bottom of the sea with a blow of his trident. The worship of Neptune was established in almost every part of the earth, and the Libyans in particular venerated him above all other nations, and looked upon him as the first and greatest of the gods. The Greeks and the Romans were also attached to his worship, and they celebrated their isthmian games and Consualia with the greatest solemnity. He was generally represented sitting in a chariot made of a shell, and drawn by sea-horses or dolphins. Sometimes he is drawn by winged horses, and holds his trident in his hand, and stands up as his chariot flies over the surface of the sea. Homer represents him as issuing from the sea, and in three steps crossing the whole horizon. The mountains and the forests, says the poet, trembled as he walked; the whales, and all the fishes of the sea, appear round him, and even the sea herself seems to feel the presence of her god. The ancients generally sacrificed a bull and a horse on his altars, and the Roman soothsayers always offered to him the gall of the victims, which in taste resembles the bitterness of the sea water. The amours of Neptune are numerous. He obtained, by means of a dolphin, the favours of Amphitrite, who had made a vow of perpetual celibacy, and he placed among the constellations the fish which had persuaded the goddess to become his wife. He also married Venilia and Salacia, which are only the names of Amphitrite according to some authors, who observed that the former word is derived from venire, alluding to the continual motion of the sea. Salacia is derived from Salum, which signifies the sea, and is applicable to Amphitrite. Neptune became a horse to enjoy the company of Ceres. See: Arion. To deceive Theophane, he changed himself into a ram. See: Theophane. He assumed the form of the river Enipeus, to gain the confidence of Tyro the daughter of Salmoneus, by whom he had Pelias and Neleus. He was also father of Phorcus and Polyphemus by Thoossa; of Lycus, Nycteus, and Euphemus by Celeno; of Chryses by Chrysogenia; of Ancæus by Astypalea; of Bœotus and Helen by Antiope; of Leuconoe by Themisto; of Agenor and Bellerophon by Eurynome the daughter of Nysus; of Antas by Alcyone the daughter of Atlas; of Abas by Arethusa; of Actor and Dictys by Agemede the daughter of Augias; of Megareus by Œnope daughter of Epopeus; of Cycnus by Harpalyce; of Taras, Otus, Ephialtes, Dorus, Alesus, &c. The word Neptunus is often used metaphorically by the poets, to signify sea water. In the Consualia of the Romans, horses were led through the streets finely equipped and crowned with garlands, as the god in whose honour the festivals were instituted had produced the horse, an animal so beneficial for the use of mankind. Pausanias, bks. 1, 2, &c.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 7, &c.—Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 4.—Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 2, ch. 26; bk. 2, ch. 25.—Hesiod, Theogony.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, li. 12, &c.; bks. 2, 3, &c.—Apollodorus, bks. 1, 2, &c.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6, li. 117, &c.—Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 50; bk. 4, ch. 188.—Macrobius, Saturnalia, bk. 1, ch. 17.—Augustine, City of God, bk. 18.—Plutarch, Themistocles.—Hyginus, fable 157.—Euripides, Phœnician Women.—Flaccus.—Apollonius Rhodius.

Nēreĭdes, nymphs of the sea, daughters of Nereus and Doris. They were 50, according to the greater number of the mythologists, whose names are as follows: Sao, Amphitrite, Proto, Galatæa, Thoe, Eucrate, Eudora, Galena, Glauce, Thetis, Spio, Cymothoe, Melita, Thalia, Agave, Eulimene, Erato, Pasithea, Doto, Eunice, Nesea, Dynamene, Pherusa, Protomelia, Actea, Panope, Doris, Cymatolege, Hippothoe, Cymo, Eione, Hipponoe, Cymodoce, Neso, Eupompe, Pronoe, Themisto, Glauconome, Halimede, Pontoporia, Evagora, Liagora, Polynome, Laomedia, Lysianassa, Autonoe, Menippe, Evarne, Psamathe, Nemertes. In those which Homer mentions, to the number of 30, we find the following names different from those spoken of by Hesiod: Halia, Limmoria, Iera, Amphitroe, Dexamene, Amphinome, Callianira, Apseudes, Callanassa, Clymene, Janira, Nassa, Mera, Orythya, Amathea. Apollodorus, who mentions 45, mentions the following names different from the others: Glaucothoe, Protomedusa, Pione, Plesaura, Calypso, Cranto, Neomeris, Dejanira, Polynoe, Melia, Dione, Isea, Dero, Eumolpe, Ione, Ceto. Hyginus and others differ from the preceding authors in the following names: Drymo, Xantho, Ligea, Phyllodoce, Cydippe, Lycorias, Cleio, Beroe, Ephira, Opis, Asia, Deopea, Arethusa, Crenis, Eurydice, and Leucothoe. The Nereides were implored as the rest of the deities; they had altars chiefly on the coast of the sea, where the piety of mankind made offerings of milk, oil, and honey, and often of the flesh of goats. When they were on the sea-shore they generally resided in grottos and caves which were adorned with shells, and shaded by the branches of vines. Their duty was to attend upon the more powerful deities of the sea, and to be subservient to the will of Neptune. They were particularly fond of alcyons, and as they had the power of ruffling or calming the waters, they were always addressed by sailors, who implored their protection, that they might grant them a favourable voyage and a prosperous return. They are represented as young and handsome virgins, sitting on dolphins and holding Neptune’s trident in their hand, or sometimes garlands of flowers. Orpheus, Hymn 23.—Catullus, Marriage of Peleus and Thetis.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 11, li. 361, &c.—Statius, bk. 2, Sylvæ, poem 2; bk. 3, Sylvæ, poem 1.—Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 1.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, chs. 2, & 3.—Hesiod, Theogony.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 18, li. 39.—Pliny, bk. 36, ch. 5.—Hyginus, &c.

Nereius, a name given to Achilles, as son of Thetis, who was one of the Nereides. Horace, epode 17, li. 8.

Nēreus, a deity of the sea, son of Oceanus and Terra. He married Doris, by whom he had 50 daughters, called the Nereides. See: Nereides. Nereus was generally represented as an old man with a long flowing beard, and hair of an azure colour. The chief place of his residence was in the Ægean sea, where he was surrounded by his daughters, who often danced in choruses round him. He had the gift of prophecy, and informed those that consulted him with the different fates that attended them. He acquainted Paris with the consequences of his elopement with Helen; and it was by his directions that Hercules obtained the golden apples of the Hesperides. But the sea-god often evaded the importunities of inquirers by assuming different shapes, and totally escaping from their grasp. The word Nereus is often taken for the sea itself. Nereus is sometimes called the most ancient of all the gods. Hesiod, Theogony.—Hyginus.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 18.—Apollodorus.—Orpheus, Argonautica.—Horace, bk. 1, ode 13.—Euripides, Iphigeneia.

Nerio, or Neriēne, the wife of Mars. Aulus Gellius, ch. 21.

Nerĭphus, a desert island near the Thracian Chersonesus.

Nerĭtos, a mountain in the island of Ithaca, as also a small island in the Ionian sea, according to Mela. The word Neritos is often applied to the whole island of Ithaca, and Ulysses the king of it is called Neritius dux, and his ship Neritia navis. The people of Saguntum, as descended from a Neritian colony, are called Neritia proles. Silius Italicus, bk. 2, li. 317.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 271.—Pliny, bk. 4.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, li. 712; Remedia Amoris, li. 263.

Nerĭtum, a town of Calabria, now called Nardo.

Nerius, a silversmith in the age of Horace, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 69.——A usurer in Nero’s age, who was so eager to get money that he married as often as he could, and as soon destroyed his wives by poison, to possess himself of their estates. Persius, bk. 2, li. 14.

Nero Claudius Domitius Cæsar, a celebrated Roman emperor, son of Caius Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina the daughter of Germanicus. He was adopted by the emperor Claudius, A.D. 50, and four years after he succeeded to him on the throne. The beginning of his reign was marked by acts of the greatest kindness and condescension, by affability, complaisance, and popularity. The object of his administration seemed to be the good of his people; and when he was desired to sign his name to a list of malefactors that were to be executed, he exclaimed, “I wish to heaven I could not write.” He was an enemy to flattery, and when the senate had liberally commended the wisdom of his government, Nero desired them to keep their praises till he deserved them. These promising virtues were soon discovered to be artificial, and Nero displayed the propensities of his nature. He delivered himself from the sway of his mother, and at last ordered her to be assassinated. This unnatural act of barbarity might astonish some of the Romans, but Nero had his devoted adherents; and when he declared that he had taken away his mother’s life to save himself from ruin, the senate applauded his measures, and the people signified their approbation. Many of his courtiers shared the unhappy fate of Agrippina, and Nero sacrificed to his fury or caprice all such as obstructed his pleasure, or diverted his inclination. In the night he generally sallied out from his palace, to visit the meanest taverns and all the scenes of debauchery which Rome contained. In this nocturnal riot he was fond of insulting the people in the streets, and his attempts to offer violence to the wife of a Roman senator nearly cost him his life. He also turned actor, and publicly appeared on the Roman stage in the meanest characters. In his attempts to excel in music, and to conquer the disadvantages of a hoarse, rough voice, he moderated his meals, and often passed the day without eating. The celebrity of the Olympian games attracted his notice. He passed into Greece, and presented himself as a candidate for the public honours. He was defeated in wrestling, but the flattery of the spectators adjudged him the victory, and Nero returned to Rome with all the pomp and ♦splendour of an eastern conqueror, drawn in the chariot of Augustus, and attended by a band of musicians, actors, and stage dancers, from every part of the empire. These private and public amusements of the emperor were indeed innocent; his character was injured, but not the lives of the people. But his conduct soon became more abominable; he disguised himself in the habit of a woman, and was publicly married to one of his eunuchs. This violence to nature and decency was soon exchanged for another; Nero resumed his sex, and celebrated his nuptials with one of his meanest catamites, and it was on this occasion that one of the Romans observed that the world would have been happy if Nero’s father had had such a wife. But now his cruelty was displayed in a more superlative degree, and he sacrificed to his wantonness his wife Octavia Poppæa, and the celebrated writers, Seneca, Lucan, Petronius, &c. The christians also did not escape his barbarity. He had heard of the burning of Troy, and as he wished to renew that dismal scene, he caused Rome to be set on fire in different places. The conflagration became soon universal, and during nine successive days the fire was unextinguished. All was desolation; nothing was heard but the lamentations of mothers whose children had perished in the flames, the groans of the dying, and the continual fall of palaces and buildings. Nero was the only one who enjoyed the general consternation. He placed himself on the top of a high tower, and he sang on his lyre the destruction of Troy, a dreadful scene which his barbarity had realized before his eyes. He attempted to avert the public odium from his head, by a feigned commiseration of the miseries of his subjects. He began to repair the streets and the public buildings at his own expense. He built himself a celebrated palace, which he called his golden house. It was profusely adorned with gold and precious stones, and with whatever was rare and exquisite. It contained spacious fields, artificial lakes, woods, gardens, orchards, and whatever could exhibit beauty and grandeur. The entrance of this edifice could admit a large colossus of the emperor 120 feet high; the galleries were each a mile long, and the whole was covered with gold. The roofs of the dining halls represented the firmament in motion as well as in figure, and continually turned round night and day, showering down all sorts of perfumes and sweet waters. When this grand edifice, which, according to Pliny, extended all round the city, was finished, Nero said, that now he could lodge like a man. His profusion was not less remarkable in all his other actions. When he went a-fishing, his nets were made with gold and silk. He never appeared twice in the same garment, and when he undertook a voyage, there were thousands of servants to take care of his wardrobe. This continuation of debauchery and extravagance at last roused the resentment of the people. Many conspiracies were formed against the emperor, but they were generally discovered, and such as were accessary suffered the greatest punishments. The most dangerous conspiracy against Nero’s life was that of Piso, from which he was delivered by the confession of a slave. The conspiracy of Galba proved more successful; and the conspirator, when he was informed that his plot was known to Nero, declared himself emperor. The unpopularity of Nero favoured his cause; he was acknowledged by all the Roman empire, and the senate condemned the tyrant that sat on the throne to be dragged naked through the streets of Rome, and whipped to death, and afterwards to be thrown down from the Tarpeian rock like the meanest malefactor. This, however, was not done, and Nero, by a voluntary death, prevented the execution of the sentence. He killed himself, A.D. 68, in the 32nd year of his age, after a reign of thirteen years and eight months. Rome was filled with acclamations at the intelligence, and the citizens, more strongly to indicate their joy, wore caps such as were generally used by slaves who had received their freedom. Their vengeance was not only exercised against the statues of the deceased tyrant, but his friends were the objects of the public resentment, and many were crushed to pieces in such a violent manner, that one of the senators, amid the universal joy, said that he was afraid they should soon have cause to wish for Nero. The tyrant, as he expired, begged that his head might not be cut off from his body, and exposed to the insolence of an enraged populace, but that the whole might be burned on the funeral pile. His request was granted by one of Galba’s freedmen, and his obsequies were performed with the usual ceremonies. Though his death seemed to be the source of universal gladness, yet many of his favourites lamented his fall, and were grieved to see that their pleasures and amusements were stopped by the death of the patron of debauchery and extravagance. Even the king of Parthia sent ambassadors to Rome to condole with the Romans, and to beg that they would honour and revere the memory of Nero. His statues were also crowned with garlands of flowers, and many believed that he was not dead, but that he would soon make his appearance, and take a due vengeance upon his enemies. It will be sufficient to observe, in finishing the character of this tyrannical emperor, that the name of Nero is even now used emphatically to express a barbarous and unfeeling oppressor. Pliny calls him the common enemy and the fury of mankind, and in this he has been followed by all writers, who exhibit Nero as the pattern of the most execrable barbarity and unpardonable wantonness. Plutarch, Galba.—Suetonius, Lives.—Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 8, &c.—Dio Cassius, bk. 64.—Aurelius Victor.—Tacitus, Annals.——Claudius, a Roman general sent into Spain to succeed the two Scipios. He suffered himself to be imposed upon by Asdrubal, and was soon after succeeded by young Scipio. He was afterwards made consul, and intercepted Asdrubal, who was passing from Spain into Italy with a large reinforcement for his brother Annibal. An engagement was fought near the river Metaurus, in which 56,000 of the Carthaginians were left on the field of battle, and great numbers taken prisoners, 207 B.C. Asdrubal the Carthaginian general was also killed, and his head cut off and thrown into his brother’s camp by the conquerors. Appian, Hannibalic War.—Orosius, bk. 4.—Livy, bk. 27, &c.—Horace, bk. 4, ode 4, li. 37.—Florus, bk. 2, ch. 6.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 4, ch. 1.——Another, who opposed Cicero when he wished to punish with death such as were accessary to Catiline’s conspiracy.——A son of Germanicus, who was ruined by Sejanus, and banished from Rome by Tiberius. He died in the place of his exile. His death was voluntary, according to some. Suetonius, Tiberius.——Domitian was called Nero, because his cruelties surpassed those of his predecessors, and also Calvus, from the baldness of his head. Juvenal, satire 4.——The Neros were of the Claudian family, which, during the republican times of Rome, was honoured with 28 consulships, five dictatorships, six triumphs, seven censorships, and two ovations. They assumed the surname of Nero, which, in the language of the Sabines, signifies strong and warlike.