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.

ARAE,

certain Rocks in the Sea, at which Luttutius Catulus obtain'd a Naval Victory over the Carthaginians, and where a Peace was made between them and the Romans, which put an end to the first Punick Wat in the Year from the building of Rome DXII.

Saxa vocant Itali, mediis quae in fluctibus aras, &c. Virg. 1. Aeneid. v. 112.

Ara Maxima, an Altar call'd the greatest, from the great quantity of Stones of which it was built, as Servius tells us. This Altar was erected at Rome to Hercules in the Market∣ket place for Oxen, near the Schola Graeca, and hard by the Entrance of the Circus maximus: The occasion of building it was this.

Ca∣cus being kill'd by Hercules, Evander, who had observ'd something very great and ex∣traordinary in his Physiognomy, desir'd to know his Name; and understanding that he was call'd Hercules, he cry'd out imme∣diatly, that it was he of whom his Mother Carmenta had foretold extraordinary Prodi∣gies of Courage, for which an Altar was to be erected to him which should be call'd, Ara maxima; that he himself should ap∣point his own Sacrifice, and prescribe the manner of it to Posterity: Immediatly Her∣cules sacrific'd a fine Heifer out of the Herd, and appointed those of the Family of the Potitii and Pinarii to be his Priests:

Or, according to Propertius, this Altar was ere∣cted to him for finding again his Drove of Cattel,

Maxima quae gregibus deveta est ara repertis; Ara per has, inquit, Maxima sacta manus.

Ara Lugdunensis, an Altar in the City of Lyons, dedicated to Augustus, in the Year of Rome DCCXLIV. This Altar was in a Tem∣ple, which was erected at the common charge of Sixty several Nations of the Gauls, together with so many Statues, which bore the Names of each of these Nations. In this Temple the Emperor Caligula appoin∣ted Ludi Academici, as Suetonius says, to which great numbers of Orators and Poets came from several parts of the World, to perform their best in Eloquence and Poetry. But be∣cause it was ordain'd, that they who were out-done should be plung'd in the River Saone, if they did not like the perfor∣mance of their Tongue; this gave occa∣sion to Juvenal to express any great fear, by way of Proverb, by the timerousness of an Orator, who was to harangue before the Altar of Lyons.

Palleat ut nudis pressit qui calcibus anguem, Aut Lugdunensem Rhetor dicturus ad aram. Juv. Sat. 1. v. 43.

Arachne, the Daughter of Idmon of Lydia, very skilful in the art of Weaving She was so rash that she would be esteem'd more ex∣cellent than Minerva; but this Goddess pu∣nish'd her by tearing her Work in pieces, and giving her a blow with her shuttle, which so mightily offended Arachne that she hang'd her self in despair: But Minerva afterwards pity∣ing her misfortune, chang'd her into a Spi∣der, which still makes Cobwebs in the Air.