FĒRĬAE, holidays, were, generally speaking, days or seasons during
which free-born Romans suspended their political transactions and
their law-suits, and during which slaves enjoyed a cessation from
labour. All feriae were thus _dies nefasti_. The feriae included
all days consecrated to any deity; consequently all days on which
public festivals were celebrated were feriae or dies feriati. But
some of them, such as the feria vindemialis, and the feriae aestivae,
seem to have had no direct connection with the worship of the gods.
The nundinae, however, during the time of the kings and the early
period of the republic, were feriae only for the populus, and days
of business for the plebeians, until, by the Hortensian law, they
became fasti or days of business for both orders. All _feriae
publicae_, _i.e._ those which were observed by the whole nation,
were divided into _feriae stativae_, _feriae conceptivae_, and
_feriae imperativae_. _Feriae stativae_ or _statae_ were those which
were held regularly, and on certain days marked in the calendar. To
these belonged some of the great festivals, such as the Agonalia,
Carmentalia, Lupercalia, &c. _Feriae conceptivae_ or _conceptae_
were held every year, but not on certain or fixed days, the time
being every year appointed by the magistrates or priests. Among these
we may mention the feriae Latinae, feriae Sementivae, Paganalia,
and Compitalia. _Feriae imperativae_ were those which were held on
certain emergencies at the command of the consuls, praetors, or of
a dictator. The manner in which all public feriae were kept bears
great analogy to the observance of our Sunday. The people visited the
temples of the gods, and offered up their prayers and sacrifices. The
most serious and solemn seem to have been the feriae imperativae, but
all the others were generally attended with rejoicings and feasting.
All kinds of business, especially law-suits, were suspended during
the public feriae, as they were considered to pollute the sacred
season. The most important of the holidays designated by the name of
feriae, are the _Feriae Latinae_, or simply _Latinae_ (the original
name was _Latiar_), which were said to have been instituted by the
last Tarquin in commemoration of the alliance between the Romans and
Latins. This festival, however, was of much higher antiquity; it was
a panegyris, or a festival, of the whole Latin nation, celebrated on
the Alban mount; and all that the last Tarquin did was to convert the
original Latin festival into a Roman one, and to make it the means
of hallowing and cementing the alliance between the two nations.
Before the union, the chief magistrate of the Latins had presided
at the festival; but Tarquin now assumed this distinction, which
subsequently, after the destruction of the Latin commonwealth,
remained with the chief magistrates of Rome. The object of this
panegyris on the Alban mount was the worship of Jupiter Latiaris,
and, at least as long as the Latin republic existed, to deliberate
and decide on matters of the confederacy, and to settle any disputes
which might have arisen among its members. As the feriae Latinae
belonged to the conceptivae, the time of their celebration greatly
depended on the state of affairs at Rome, since the consuls were
never allowed to take the field until they had held the Latinae. This
festival was a great engine in the hands of the magistrates, who
had to appoint the time of its celebration (_concipere_, _edicere_,
or _indicere Latinas_); as it might often suit their purpose either
to hold the festival at a particular time or to delay it, in order
to prevent or delay such public proceedings as seemed injurious and
pernicious, and to promote others to which they were favourably
disposed. The festival lasted six days.
FESCENNINA, scil. _carmina_, one of the earliest kinds of Italian
poetry, which consisted of rude and jocose verses, or rather
dialogues of extempore verses, in which the merry country folks
assailed and ridiculed one another. This amusement seems originally
to have been peculiar to country people, but it was also introduced
into the towns of Italy and at Rome, where we find it mentioned as
one of those in which young people indulged at weddings.
FĒTĬĀLES or FĒCĬĀLES, a college of Roman priests, who acted as
the guardians of the public faith. It was their province, when
any dispute arose with a foreign state, to demand satisfaction,
to determine the circumstances under which hostilities might be
commenced, to perform the various religious rites attendant on the
solemn declaration of war, and to preside at the formal ratification
of peace. When an injury had been received from a foreign state,
four fetiales were deputed to seek redress, who again elected one
of their number to act as their representative. This individual was
styled the _pater patratus populi Romani_. A fillet of white wool was
bound round his head, together with a wreath of sacred herbs gathered
within the inclosure of the Capitoline hill (_Verbenae_; _Sagmina_),
whence he was sometimes named _Verbenarius_. Thus equipped, he
proceeded to the confines of the offending tribe, where he halted,
and addressed a prayer to Jupiter, calling the god to witness, with
heavy imprecations, that his complaints were well founded and his
demands reasonable. He then crossed the border, and the same form was
repeated in nearly the same words to the first native of the soil
whom he might chance to meet; again a third time to the sentinel or
any citizen whom he encountered at the gate of the chief town; and
a fourth time to the magistrates in the forum in presence of the
people. If a satisfactory answer was not returned within thirty days,
after publicly delivering a solemn denunciation of what might be
expected to follow, he returned to Rome, and, accompanied by the rest
of the fetiales, made a report of his mission to the senate. If the
people, as well as the senate, decided for war, the pater patratus
again set forth to the border of the hostile territory, and launched
a spear tipped with iron, or charred at the extremity and smeared
with blood (emblematic doubtless of fire and slaughter), across the
boundary, pronouncing at the same time a solemn declaration of war.
The demand for redress, and the proclamation of hostilities, were
alike termed _clarigatio_. The whole system is said to have been
borrowed from the Aequicolae or the Ardeates, and similar usages
undoubtedly prevailed among the Latin states. The number of the
fetiales cannot be ascertained with certainty, but they were probably
twenty. They were originally selected from the most noble families,
and their office lasted for life.
FĪBŬLA (περόνη, πόρπη), a brooch or buckle, consisting of a pin
(_acus_), and of a curved portion furnished with a hook (κλείς).
[Illustration: Fibulae, brooches or buckles. (British Museum.)]
FICTĬLE (κεράμος, κεράμιον, ὄστρακον, ὀστράκινον), earthenware, a
vessel or other article made of baked clay. The instruments used in
pottery (_ars figulina_) were the following:--1. The wheel (τροχός,
_orbis_, _rota_, _rota figularis_). 2. Pieces of wood or bone, which
the potter (κεραμεύς, _figulus_) held in his right hand, and applied
occasionally to the surface of the clay during its revolution. 3.
Moulds (_formae_, τύποι), used either to decorate with figures in
relief vessels which had been thrown on the wheel, or to produce
foliage, animals, or any other appearances, on Antefixa, on cornices
of terra cotta, and imitative or ornamental pottery of all other
kinds, in which the wheel was not adapted to give the first shape. 4.
Gravers or scalpels, used by skilful modellers in giving to figures
of all kinds a more perfect finish and a higher relief than could
be produced by the use of moulds. The earth used for making pottery
(κεράμικη γῆ), was commonly red, and often of so lively a colour
as to resemble coral. Other pottery is brown or cream-coloured,
and sometimes white. Some of the ancient earthenware is throughout
its substance black, an effect produced by mixing the earth with
comminuted asphaltum (_gagates_), or with some other bituminous or
oleaginous substance. It appears also that asphaltum, with pitch and
tar, both mineral and vegetable, was used to cover the surface like a
varnish. The best pottery was manufactured at Athens, in the island
of Samos, and in Etruria. A quarter of Athens was called Cerameicus,
because it was inhabited by potters. Vessels, before being sent for
the last time to the furnace, were sometimes immersed in that finely
prepared mud, now technically called “slip,” by which the surface
is both smoothed and glazed, and at the same time receives a fresh
colour. Ruddle, or red ochre (μίλτος, _rubrica_), was principally
employed for this purpose. To produce a further variety in the
paintings upon vases the artists employed a few brightly coloured
earths and metallic ores. [PICTURA.]
FĬDEICOMMISSUM may be defined to be a testamentary disposition,
by which a person who gives a thing to another imposes on him the
obligation of transferring it to a third person. The obligation was
not created by words of legal binding force (_civilia verba_), but
by words of request (_precativè_), such as _fideicommitto_, _peto_,
_volo dari_, and the like; which were the operative words (_verba
utilia_).
FĪDŪCĬA. If a man transferred his property to another, on condition
that it should be restored to him, this contract was called Fiducia,
and the person to whom the property was so transferred was said
_fiduciam accipere_. The trustee was bound to discharge his trust
by restoring the thing: if he did not, he was liable to an actio
fiduciae or fiduciaria, which was an actio bonae fidei. If the
trustee was condemned in the action, the consequence was infamia.
FISCUS, the imperial treasury. Under the republic the public treasury
was called _Aerarium_. [AERARIUM.] On the establishment of the
imperial power, there was a division of the provinces between the
senate, as the representative of the old republic, and the Caesar or
emperor; and there was consequently a division of the most important
branches of public income and expenditure. The property of the senate
retained the name of _Aerarium_, and that of the Caesar, as such,
received the name of _Fiscus_. The private property of the Caesar
(_res privata principis, ratio Caesaris_) was quite distinct from
that of the fiscus. The word fiscus signified a wicker-basket, or
pannier, in which the Romans were accustomed to keep and carry about
large sums of money; and hence fiscus came to signify any person’s
treasure or money chest. The importance of the imperial fiscus soon
led to the practice of appropriating the name to that property which
the Caesar claimed as Caesar, and the word fiscus, without any
adjunct, was used in this sense. Ultimately the word came to signify
generally the property of the state, the Caesar having concentrated
in himself all the sovereign power, and thus the word fiscus finally
had the same signification as aerarium in the republican period.
Various officers, as Procuratores, Advocati, Patroni, and Praefecti,
were employed in the administration of the fiscus.
FLĀBELLUM, _dim._ FLĀBELLŬLUM, (ῥιπίς), a fan. Fans were of elegant
forms, of delicate colours, and sometimes of costly and splendid
materials, such as peacock’s feathers; but they were stiff and of a
fixed shape, and were held by female slaves (_flabelliferae_), by
beautiful boys, or by eunuchs, whose duty it was to wave them so as
to produce a cooling breeze. Besides separate feathers the ancient
fan was sometimes made of linen, extended upon a light frame.
[Illustration: Flagellum, Scourge. (From a Bas-relief at Rome, and
from a Coin.)]
FLAGRUM, _dim._ FLĂGELLUM (μάστιξ), a whip, a scourge, to the
handle of which was fixed a lash made of cords (_funibus_), or
thongs of leather (_loris_), especially thongs made from the ox’s
hide (_bubulis exuviis_). The _flagellum_ properly so called was
a dreadful instrument, and is thus put in opposition to the
_scutica_, which was a simple whip. (Hor. _Sat._ i. 3. 119.) Cicero
in like manner contrasts the severe _flagella_ with the _virgae_.
The flagellum was chiefly used in the punishment of slaves. It was
knotted with bones or heavy indented circles of bronze or terminated
by hooks, in which case it was aptly denominated a _scorpion_. We
likewise find that some gladiators fought with the flagella, as in
the coin here introduced.
FLĀMEN, the name for any Roman priest who was devoted to the service
of one particular god, and who received a distinguishing epithet
from the deity to whom he ministered. The most dignified were those
attached to Dijovis, Mars, and Quirinus, the _Flamen Dialis_,
_Flamen Martialis_, and _Flamen Quirinalis_. They are said to have
been established by Numa. The number was eventually increased to
fifteen: the three original flamens were always chosen from among
the patricians, and styled _Majores_; the rest from the plebeians,
with the epithet _Minores_. Among the minores, we read of the _Flamen
Floralis_, the _Flamen Carmentalis_, &c. The flamens were elected
originally at the Comitia Curiata, but it is conjectured that
subsequently to the passing of the _Lex Domitia_ (B.C. 104) they
were chosen in the Comitia Tributa. After being nominated by the
people, they were received (_capti_) and installed (_inaugurabantur_)
by the pontifex maximus, to whose authority they were at all times
subject. The office was understood to last for life; but a flamen
might be compelled to resign (_flaminio abire_) for a breach of
duty, or even on account of the occurrence of an ill-omened accident
while discharging his functions. Their characteristic dress was the
_apex_ [APEX], the _laena_ [LAENA], and a laurel wreath. The most
distinguished of all the flamens was the _Dialis_; the lowest in rank
the _Pomonalis_. The former enjoyed many peculiar honours. When a
vacancy occurred, three persons of patrician descent, whose parents
had been married according to the ceremonies of _confarreatio_, were
nominated by the Comitia, one of whom was selected (_captus_), and
consecrated (_inaugurabatur_) by the pontifex maximus. From that
time forward he was emancipated from the control of his father, and
became sui juris. He alone of all priests wore the _albogalerus_;
he had a right to a _lictor_, to the _toga praetexta_, the _sella
curulis_, and to a seat in the senate in virtue of his office. If
one in bonds took refuge in his house, his chains were immediately
struck off. To counterbalance these high honours, the dialis was
subjected to a multitude of restrictions. It was unlawful for him
to be out of the city for a single night; and he was forbidden to
sleep out of his own bed for three nights consecutively. He might not
mount upon horseback, nor even touch a horse, nor look upon an army
marshalled without the pomoerium, and hence was seldom elected to the
consulship. The object of the above rules was manifestly to make him
literally _Jovi adsiduum sacerdotem_; to compel constant attention
to the duties of the priesthood. _Flaminica_ was the name given to
the wife of the dialis. He was required to wed a virgin according
to the ceremonies of _confarreatio_, which regulation also applied
to the two other flamines majores; and he could not marry a second
time. Hence, since her assistance was essential in the performance
of certain ordinances, a divorce was not permitted, and if she died,
the dialis was obliged to resign. The municipal towns also had their
flamens. Thus the celebrated affray between Milo and Clodius took
place while the former was on his way to Lanuvium, of which he was
then dictator, to declare the election of a flamen (_ad flaminem
prodendum_).