Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

VIS. VITRUM. 1209
Pollux, vi. foll.; Athenaeuls, lib. i. and lib. x.; was death; and the penalty was the same for carrybesides which there are a multitude of passages ing off a -woman, married or unmarried. The cases
in other parts of the above authors, in Cato, Varro, enumerated in the Digest, as falling within the
and in the classics generally, which bear more or penalties of the Lex Julia de Vi Privata, are cases
less upon these topics. where the act was of less atrocity; for instance, if
Of modern writers we may notice particularly, a man got a number of men together for a riot,
Prosper Rendella, Tsactatus de Vinea, Vindemina et which ended in the beating of a person, but nct
Jlino, Venet. 1629; Galeatius Landrinus, Quaestio in his death, he came within the penalties of the
de Mliiztione Vini et Aquae, Ferrar. 1593; An- Lesx de Vi Privata. It was also a case of Vis
dreas Baccius, de Natural i Vinorume IHistoria, &c., Privata, when persons combined to prevent another
Reom. 1596, de Conviviis Antiquoritm, &c,'., Gronov. being brought before the praetor. The SenatusThes. Graec. Antiq.; Sir Edward Barry, Observa- consultum Volusianum extended the penalties of
tions on the lVines of tl/e Ancients, Loud. 1775; the Lex to those who maintained another in his
Henderson, Ihistory of Ancient and snodcrn TVines, suit, with the view of sharing any advantage that
Lend. 1824. Some of the most important facts might result from it. The penalties of this Lex
are presented in a condensed form in Becker's were the loss of a third part of the offender's proGallaes, vol. ii. pp. 163-176, and pp. 238 —241, perty and he was also declared to be incapable of
and Chssarikles, vol. i. p. 456, foll. [W. R.] being a Senator or Decurio, or a Judex: by a SeVIOCURI. [QUATuoRvIRa VIALES.] natusconsultum, the name of which is not given,
VIRGA, dim. VIRGULA (pdCsos), a rod or li he was incapacitated from enjoying any honour,
wand. This was in many cases the emblem of a quasi infamis. (This matter is discussed at
certain rank or office; being carried, for example, length by Rein, Das 1riminal'ecebt der Rimer,
by the Salii, by a judge or civil officer (see wood- p. 732.) [G. L.]
cut, p. 98), a herald [CADUCEUS] (Non. Marc. p. VIS et VIS ARMATA. There was an inter528; Ovid. Mfret. i. 716), and by the Tricliniarce7a diet De Vi et Vi Armata, which applied to the
[TRICLINIUM], or any other person who had to case of a man who was forcibly ejected from the
exercise authority over slaves. (Senec. Epist. 47.) possession of a piece of ground or edifice (oui vi deThe use of the rod (paceivE',, Acls, xvi. 22) in jectuzs est). The object of the interdict was to restore
the punishment of Roman citizens was abolished the party ejected to possession. (Dig. 43. tit. 16
by the Lex Porciac (p. 696, a). In the FAscES a INTERDICTUMA.) [G. L.]
number of rods were bound together. VISCERA'TIO. [FuNuS, p. 562, a.]
The wand was also the common instrument of VITELLIA'NI.' [TABULAE, p. 1092, a.]'magical display, as in the hand of Circe (Hom. Od. VITIS. [ExERCITUS, P. 504, b.]
x. 238, 293, 318, 389), and of Minerva (xvi. 172). VITRUM (3ahos), glass. A singular amount
To do any thing viqgqula divina was to do it by of ignorance and scepticism long prevailed with
ILagic. (Cic. Art. i. 44.) The stripes of cloth were regard to the knowledge possessed by the ancients
called virgae. (Ovid. Asr. Am. iii. 269.) [PAL- in the art of glass-making. Some asserted that it
LIUse; TELA.] [J. Y.] was to be regarded as exclusively a modern invenVI'RGINES VESTA'LES. [VESTALES VIR- tion, while others, unable altogether to resist the
GINES.] mass of evidence to the contrary, contented themVIRIDA'RIUM. [HORTUS.] selves with believing that the substance was known
VIS. Leges were passed at Rome for the pur- only in its coarsest and rudest form. It is now
pose of preventing acts of violence. The Lex clearly demonstrated to have been in common use
Plotia or Plautia was enacted against those who at a very remote epoch. Various specimens still in
occupied public places and carried arms (Cic. ad existence prove that the manufacture had in some
Att. ii. 24, dle Iirusp. Respons. 8; the Disserta- branches reached a point of perfection to which
tion of Waechter, NeoZes Arc/liv. des C'ininablrec/ds, recent skill has not yet been able to attain; and
vol. xiii. reprinted in Orellii Onomasticon). The Lex although we may not feel disposed to go so far as
proposed by the consul Q. Catulus on this subject, Winckelmann (i. c. 2. ~ 20), who contends that it
with the assistance of Plautius the tribunus, ap- was used more generally and for a greater variety
pears to be the Lex Plotia. (Cic. pro Coel. 29; of purposes in the old world than among ourselves,
Sallust. inz Cic. Declam.) There was a Lex yet when we examine the numerous collections
Julia of the dictator Caesar on this subject, which arranged in all great public museums, we must feel
imposed the penalty of aquae et ignis interdictio. convinced that it was employed as an ordinary
(Cic. Philip. i. 9.) Two Juliae Leges were passed material for all manner of domestic utensils by the
as to this matter in the time of Augustus, which Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans.
were respectively entitled De Vi Publica, and dei We find the process of glass-blowing distinctly
Vi Privata. (Dig. 48. tit. 6, 7.) The Lex de Vi represented in the paintings of Beni Hassan, which
Publica did not apply, as the title might seem to if ally faith can be reposed in the interpretation of
import, exclusi rely to acts againts the public peace, hieroglyphics according to the phonetic system, were
and it is not possible to describe it very accurately executed during the reigns of Osirtasen the First,
except by enumerating its chief provisions. The the contemporary of Joseph, and his immediate
collecting of arms (arsma, tela) in a house (domus), successors, while a glass bead has been found at
or in a villa (agrove iai villa), except for the pur- Thebes bearing the name of a monarch who lived
pose of hunting, or going a journey or a voyage, 3300 years ago, about the time of the Jewish
was in itself a violation of the Lex. The signifi- Exodus. Vases also, wine-bottles, drinking-cups.
cation of the word tela in this Lex was very ex- bugles, and a multitude of other objects have been
tensive. The punishment for the violation of this discovered in sepulchres and attached to mummies
Lex was aquae et ignis interdictio, except in the, both in Upper and Lower Egypt, and although in
case of attacking and plundering houses or villas most cases no precise date can be affixed to these
with an armed band, in which case the punishment relies, many of them are referred by the most con