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

22 AENUM. AERARIL.
AEINAUTAE (avElivaOvar), magistrates at antiquity, we find the expressions Sidonium assnzm
Miletus, consisting of the chief men in the state, Tyrium asnzmn, &c. (Ov. Past. iii. 822; *Mart.
who obtained the supreme power on the deposition xiv. 133.)
of the tyrants, Thoas and Damasenor. Whenever AEO'RA, or EOZRA (acipa, &6pa), a festival
they wished to deliberate on important matters, at Athens, accompanied with sacrifices and banthey embarked on board ship (hence their name), quets, whence it is sometimes called EvU'e7rvos.
put out at a distance from land, and did not return The common account of its origin is as follows: -
to shore till they had transacted their business. Icarius was killed by the shepherds to whom he
(Plut. Quaest. Graec. 32.) had given wine, and who, being unacquainted
AEIPHU'GIA (a&ELvTyia). [EXSILIUea.] with the effects of this beverage, fancied in their
AEISITI (&ietLToL). [PRYTANEIrUM.] intoxication that he had given them poison.
AENEATO'RES (ahenatores, Amm. Marc. Erigone, his daughter, guided by a faithful dog,
xxiv. 4), were those who blew upon wind instru- discovered the corpse of her father, whom she
ments in the Roman army, namely, the buc- had sought a long time in vain; and, praying to
cinatores, cornicines, and tubicines, and they were the gods that all Athenian maidens might perish
so called because all these instruments were made in the same manner, hung herself. After this ocof aes or bronze. (Suet. Caes. 32.) Aeneatores cnrrence, many Athenian women actually hung
were also employed in the public games. (Sen. Ep. themselves, apparently without any motive what834.) A colleygien aeneatorumn is mentioned in in- ever; and when the oracle was consulted respectscriptions. (Orelli, Inscr. No. 4059.) ing it, the answer was, that Icarius and Erigone
AENIGMA (ai'vly?/a), a riddle. It appears must be propitiated by a festival. (Hygin. Poet.
to have been a very ancient custom among the Astr-on. ii. 4.) According to the Etymologoicuezs
Greeks, especially at their symposia, to amuse Mlrgnnsum, the festival was celebrated in honour- of
themselves by proposing riddles to be solved. Erigone, daughter of Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra,
Their partiality for this sort of amusement is at- who came to Athens to bring the charge of matritested by the fact that some persons, such as cide against Orestes before the Areiopagus; and,
Theodectes of Phaselis and Aristonymus, acquired whesn he was acquitted, hung herself, with the
considerable reputation as inventors and writers of same wish as the daughter of Icarius, and with
riddles. (Athen. x. pp. 451, 452, xii. p. 538.) Those the same consequences. According to Hesychius,
who were successful in solving the riddle proposed the festival was celebrated in commemoration of
to them received a prize, which had been pre- the tyrant Temaleus, but no reason is assigned.
viously agreed upon by the company, and usually Eustathius (ad Honz. pp. 389, 1535) calls the
consisted of wreaths, tacniae, cakes, and other maiden who hung herselfAiora. But as the festival
sweetmeats, or kisses, whereas a person unable to is also called'AXArLrs (apparently from the wansolve a riddle was condemned to drink in one derings of Erigone, the daughter of Icarius), the
breath a certain quantity of wine, sometimes mixed legend which was first mentioned seems to be the
with salt water. (Athen. x. p. 457; Pollux, vi. 107; most entitled to belief. Pollux (iv. 7. ~ 55) menHesych. s. v. yp~7pos.) Those riddles which have tions a song made by Theodorus of Colophon,
come down to us are mostly in hexameter verse, which persons used to sing whilst swinging themand the tragic as well as comic writers not unfre- selves (E' -Prals archpaLs). It is, therefore, probable
quently introduced them into their plays. Pollux that the Athenian maidens, in remembrance of
(1. c.) distinguishes two kinds of riddles, the IErigone and the other Athenian women who had
afvyyc/a and 7ypos, and, according to him, the hung themselves, swung themselves during this
former was of a jocose and the latter of a serious festival, at the same time singing the abovenature; but in the writers whose worlks have come mentioned song of Theodorus. (See also Athen.
down to us, no such distinction is observed; and xiv. p. 618.) [L. S.]
there are passages where the name,odos is AERA. [CCHRONOLOGIA.]
given to the most ludicrous jokes of this kind. AERA'RII, a class of Roman citizens, who
(Aristoph. Vesp. 20; comp. Becker, Clharicles, are said not to have been contained in the thirty
vol. i. p. 473.) The Romans seem to have been too tribes instituted by Servius Tullius. It is, howserious to find any great amusement in riddles; ever, one of the most difficult points in the Roman
and when Gellius (xviii. 2) introduces some Ro- constitution to determine who they were; since all
muans at a banquet engaged in solving riddles, we the passages in which they are mentioned refer only
must remember that the scene is laid at Athens; to the power of the censors to degrade a citizen,
and we do not hear of any Romans who invented for bad conduct, by removing him from his tribe
or wrote riddles until a very late period. Appu- and making him an aerarian; but we nowhere
leins wrote a work entitled Liber Ludicrorsmez et find any definition of what an aerarian was. The
Grip)orz0'71, which is lost. After the time of Ap- Pseudo-Asconius (ad Cic. divin. in Caecil. p. 103,
puleins, several collections of riddles were made, ed. Orelli), says that a plebeian might be degraded
some of which are still extant in MS. in various by being transferred to the tabule e Caeritume and
libraries. [L. S.] becoming an aeraries. The error in this stateAE'NUM, or AHE'NUM (sc. vyes), a brazen ment is, that not only a plebeian, but a senator
vessel, used for boiling, is defined by Paullus to and an eques also might become an aerarian, while
be a vessel hanging over the fire, in which water for a plebeian there was no other punishment exwas boiled for drinking, whereas food was boiled cept that of becoming an aerarian. From the
in the cacabzus. (Dig. 33. tit. 7. s. 18. ~ 3.) This Pseudo-Asconius we collect that to have one's
distinction is not, however, always observed; for name transferred to the tables of the Caerites was
we read of food being cooked in the aZnwem. (Juv. equivalent to becoming an aerarian; secondly, that
xv. 8 1; Ov. MAlet. vi. 645.) The word is also an aerarian no longer belonged to a century; and,
frequently used in the sense of a dyer's copper; thirdly, that he had to pay the tribute in a difand.I.S purple was th3 most celebrated dye of ferent man:a:, from the other citizens. These state