A complete dictionary of the Greek and Roman antiquities explaining the obscure places in classic authors and ancient historians relating to the religion, mythology, history, geography and chronology of the ancient Greeks and Romans, their ... rites and customs, laws, polity, arts and engines of war : also an account of their navigations, arts and sciences and the inventors of them : with the lives and opinions of their philosophers / compiled originally in French ... by Monsieur Danet ; made English, with the addition of very useful mapps.

NUMA,

called Pompilius; the Son of Pomponius Pompilius: He was born at Cures, the Capital City of the Sabines; the Fame of his Vertue made the Romans chuse him for their King, after Romulus his Death: He revived all the Ancient Ceremonies of Religion, and insti∣tuted new Ones; and writ down a whole Form of Religious Worship in Eight Books, which he caused to be laid with him in his Tomb after his Death. But one Terentius, says Varro, having an Estate haid by the Janiculum, as his Servant was ploughing near unto Numa's Tomb, he turn'd up the Books wherein the said Prince had set down the Reasons of his instituting such My∣steries. Terentius carried them presently to the Praetor, who, when he had read the Beginning of them, thought it was a Matter of that Impor∣tance as deserved to be communicated to the Senate: The Principal Senators having read some things therein, would not meddle with the Regulations of Numa, but thought it conducive to the Interest of Religion to have the said Books burnt. Numa had had Recourse to the Art of Hydromancy, in order to see the Images of the Gods in the Water and to learn of them the Re∣ligious Mysteries he ought to establish: Varro says, that this kind of Divination was found out by the Persians, and that King Numa, and after him Pythagoras the Philosopher made use thereof: To which he adds, that they also in∣voked Mens Souls upon this Occasion by sprink∣ling of Blood, and this is that which the Greeks called Necromancy; and because Numa made use of Water to perform his Hydromancy, they said, he married the Nymph Egeria, as the said Varro explains it: It was therefore by this way of Hy∣dromancy that this inquisite King learnt those Mysteries which he set down in the Pontiff's Books, and the Causes of the same Mysteries, the Knowledge whereof he reserved to himself alone: He boasted he had very often Conver∣sation with the Moses, to whom he added a Tenth, which he named Tacita, and made the Romans worship her.

He somewhat rectified the Calender, and ad∣ded Two Months to the Year, which at first con∣sisted but of 10 Months, and so made them 12, adding every Two Year one Month consisting of 22 Days, which he called Mercedinum, and which he immediately placed after the Month of Fe∣bruary; he lived about 80 Years and of them reigned 40. This Numa Pompilius, second King of Rome was indeed both a King and a Philo∣sopher, who gave himself up so much to the Doctrine which Pythagoras afterwards publish'd to the World, that many through a gross. Ig∣norance of the Time took him to be a Disciple of Pythagoras: Dionysius of Hallicarnassus has re∣futed this Error, by shewing that Numa was more ancient than Pythagoras by Four Genera∣tions, as having reigned in the 6th Olympiad, whereas Pythagoras was not famous in Italy before

the 50th. The same Historian says, that Numa pretended his Laws and Maxims were communi∣cated to him by the Nymph Egeria, which o∣thers believed to be a Muse; at last the said Historian says, Numa pretended to have that Conversation with a Coelestial Mistress, that so they might believe his Laws were the Ema∣tions of the Eternal Wisdom it self.