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

2 ABORTIO. ACCEPTILATIO.
(Cic. Veerr. iv. 16, Tuse. v. 21; Liv. xxxix. 6; rially diminished the population of Rome. But this
Plin. H.. xxxvii. 6; Petron. 73; Sid. Apoll. xvii. general assertion is not sufficiently proved. The
7, 8.) These abaci are sometimes called mensae practice of abortion appears not to have been viewed
Delpicae. (Cic. Verr. iv. 59; Mart. xii. 67; in the same light by the Greeks and Romans as
Becker, Gallus, vol. i. p. 140.) by the Christian nations of modern times. Aris7. A part of the theatre on or near the stage. totle in his Politik (vii. 14), recommends it on the
8. The diminutive ABACULUS (~a'eCaKcoL' s) de- condition that the child has not yet got sensation
noted a tile of marble, glass, or any other substance and life, as he expresses it. In Plato's Republic
used for making ornamental pavements. They were (v. p. 25), it is also permitted. At Athens, a perof various colours. (Plin. MT. N'. xxxvi. 67; Mos-son who had caused the abortion of a child by
chion, ap. Ath. v. 207, d.) [J. Y.] means of a potion (aiCAXceOpishov), was liable to an
ABACTUS VENTER. [AsoRTIo.] action (&1XtcosoeEos ypaqw)e), but we do not know
ABALIENA/TIO. [MANCIPIUM.] what was the penalty in case of conviction: it was
ABDICA'TIO. [MAGISTRATUS.] certainly not death. There was a speech of Lysias
ABOLLA, the Latin form of a&oXJAAe, i. e. on this subject, which is lost. (Frag. p.18. ed.
&avaoAX, a loose woollen cloak. Nonius quotes a Reiske.) [G. L.]
passage of Varro to show that it was a garment ABROGAITIO. [LEx.]
worn by soldiers (vestis militaris), and thus op- ABSOLU'TIO. [JUDEX.]
posed to the toga. Its form and the mode of ABSTINENDI BENEFI'CIUM. [HriEts.]
wearing it are seen in the figures annexed, taken ABU'SUS. [Usus FRvCTUS.]
from the bas-reliefs on the triumphal arch of Sep- ACAENA ('AKair/n, &SKaia, or in later Greek
timins Severus at Rome. iKEYain one place &icaisov) is a very ancient Greek
word, for it is said to have been derived from the
Thessalians or from the Pelasgians. It seems originally to have meant a pointed stick: thus it was
applied both to a goad and to a shepherd's stff.
Afterwards it came (like our pole and perch, and
the German stanse) to mean a measuring rod of the
length of ten Greek feet, or, according to Hesychius,
92 7r XELS, which is the same thing. It was used
in measuring land, and thus it resembles the Roman decempeda. It is doubtful whether there
was a corresponding square measure. (Schol. in
I Apoll. Rhod. iii. 1326; Suid. s. v.; Hesych. s. v.;
Schow, Hesych. Restit. p. 648; Olympiodor. ad
Aristot. 11feteorolog. p. 25; Heron. ap. Salmnas. ad.
Solzs. p. 481; Wurm, de Pond. p. 93.) Compare
ACNA. [P. S.]
ACA'TIUM. [NAvIs.]
ACCENSI. 1. Public officers who attended on
several of the Roman magistrates. They summoned the people to the assemblies, and those who
had lawsuits to court; they preserved order in the
assemblies and the courts, and proclaimed the time
of the day when it was the third hour, the sixth
It was, however, not confined to military occa- hour, and the ninth hour. An accensus anciently
sions, but was also worn in the city. (Suet. Cal. preceded the consul who had not the fasces, and
35.) It was especially used by the Stoic philoso- lictors without fasces walked behind him, which
phers at Rome as the pallium philosophicum, just as custom after being disused was restored by Julius
the Greek philosophers were accustomed to dis- Caesar in his firstconsulship. (Varr. L. L. vii. 58,
tinguish themselves by a particular dress. (Juv. ed. Muller; Plin. H. N. vii. 60; Suet. Jul. 20;
iv. 75; Mart. iv. 53, viii. 48,) Hence the expres- Livo iii. 33.) Accensi also attended on the governors
sion of Juvenal (iv. 75) facinus meajoris abollae of provinces (Cic. ad Fratr. i. 1. ~ 4), and were
merely signifies, " a crime committed by a very commonly freedmen of the magistrate on whom they
deep philosopher." (Heinrich, ad Juv. L. c,; Becker, attended.
Gallus, vol. ii. p. 99.) 2. A body of reserve troops, who followed the
ABO'RTIO. This word and the cognate word Roman army without having any military duties to
abortivus, aboritesj were applied to a child pre- perform, and who were taken one by one to supply
maturely born, whence it appears that they were any vacaneies that might occur in the legions.
also applied to signify a premature birth brought They were according to the census of Servius
about designedly. The phrase abactus venter in Tullius taken from the fifth class of citizens. They
Paulus (Sent. Recep. iv. 9) simply means a pre- were placed in battle in the rear of the army, bemature birth. That abortion in the secondary sense 1hind the triarii, and seem to have acted sometimes
of the word was practised among the Romans% as orderlies to the officers. They were also called
appears from various passages and from there being Adscripticii and in later times Supernumerarii.
an enactment against it. (Dig. 48. tit. 19. s. 38.) (Fest. s. V. Accensi, Adscripticii; Liv. i. 43, viii.
It is not stated at what time a penalty against pro- 8, 10; Veget. ii. 19; Niebuhr, Rom. Tlist. vol. i.
curing abortion was established. It is maintained p. 449, &c.)
by some modern writers that the practice of abor- ACCEPTILA'TIO is defined to be a release by
tion became so common among the Romans, that mutual interrogation between debtor and creditor,
combined with celibacy and other causes it mate- by which each party is exonerated from the same