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

414 DIONYSIA. DIRITBITORES.
their parents or husbands, that they might receive virilis. (Cic. ad Att. vi. 1.) That the Liberalia
their punishmrent in private. The consuls then were celebrated with various amusements and great
were ordered by the senate to destroy all Baccha- merriment, might be inferred from the general
nalia throughout Rome and Italy, with the excep- character of Dionysiac festivals; but we may also
tion of such altars or statues of the god as had see it from the name Ludi Liberales, which is
existed there from ancient times. In order to pro- sometimes used instead of Liberalia; and Naevius
vent a restoration of the Bacchic orgies, the cele- (ap. Fest.) expressly says that persons expressed
brated decree of the senate (Senatus auctoritas de themselves very freely at the Liberalia. St.
Bacchccanalibus) was issued, commanding that no Augustine (De Civ. Dei, vii. 21) even speaks of
Bacchanalia should be held either in Rome or a high degree of licentiousness carried on at this
Italy; that if any one should think such cere- festival. [L. S.]
monies necessary, or if he could not neglect them DIOSCU'RIA (8om'copLa), festivals celewithout scruples or making atonements, he should brated in various parts of Greece in honour of the
apply to the praetor urbanus, who might then dioscuri The Spartan dioscuria mentioned by
consult the senate. If the permission should be Pausanias (iv. 27. ~ 1; compare with iii. 16. ~ 3)
granted to him in an assembly of the senate, con- and Spanheim (ad Callint. Hymn. in Pall. 24),
sisting of not less than one hundred members, he were celebrated with sacrifices, rejoicings, and
Inight solemnise the Bacchic sacra; but no more drinking. At Cyrene the dioscuri were likewise
than five persons were to be present at the cele- honoured with a great festival. (Schol. ad Pied.
bration; there should be no common fund, and no Pyth. v. 629.) The Athenian festival of the diosmaster of the sacra or priest. (Liv. xxxix. 18.) curi has been described -under ANACEIA. Their
This decree is also mentioned by Cicero (De worship was very generally adopted in Greece,
-Legg. ii. 15). A brazen table containing this im- especially in the Doric and Achaean states, as we
portant document was discovered near Bari, in conclude from the great number of temples dedisouthern Italy, in the year 1640, and is at present cated to them; but scarcely anything is known
in the imperial Museum of Vienna. A copy of it respecting the manner in which their festivals
is given in Drakenborch's edition of Livy (vol. were celebrated. [L. S.]
vii. p. 197, &c. ). DIO'TA. [AmPHoaA.]
We have in our account of the Roman Baccha- DIPHTHERA (& ip0E'a), a kind of cloak
nalia closely followed the description given by made of the skins of animals and worn by herds.
Livy, which may, indeed, be somewhat exag- men and country people in general. It is fregerated; but considering the difference of character quently mentioned by Greek writers. (Aristoph.
between the Greeks and Rcmans, it cannot be Nlub. 72, and Schol. Vesp. 444; Plato, Crit. p. 53;
surprising that a festival like the Dionysia, when Lucian, Tim. c. 12.) Pollux (vii. 70) says that it
once introduced among the Romans, should have had a covering for the head (irttcpd'ov), in which
immediately degenerated into the grossest and respect it would correspond to the Roman cucclcoarsest excesses. Similar consequences were seen lus. [CUvcLLvs.] (Becker, Csariktes, vol. ii. p.
immediately after the time when the Romans were 359.)
made acquainted with the elegance and the luxuries DIPHROS (K!qpos). [CunRRUS; THRONUS.]
of Greek life; for, like barbarians, they knew not DIPLAX (6ibrXae). [PALLIUsI.]
where to stop, and became brutal in their enjoy- DIPLOIS (L7nrAo's). [PALLIUM.]
ments. But whether the account of Livy be ex- DIPLO'MA, a writ or public document, which
aggerated or not, this much is certain, that the conferred upon a person any right or privilege.
Romans, ever since the time of the suppression of During the republic, it was granted by the conthe Bacchanalia, considered these orgies as in the suls and senate; and under the empire by the
highest degree immoral and licentious, as we see emperor and the magistrates whom he authorised
from the manner in which they applied the words to do so. (Cic. ad Fain. vi. 12, ad Alt. x. 17,
derived from Bacchus, e. g. bacchlor, bacc7ahans, bae- c. Pis. 37; Sen. Ben. vii. 10; Suet. Cal. 38, Neo.
chatio, baeccicus, and others. But the most sur- 12, Oth. 7; Dig. 48. tit. 10. s. 27.) The diploma
prising circumstance in the account of Livy is, that was sealed by the emperor (Suet. Aug. 50); it conthe Bacchanalia should have been celebrated for sisted of two leaves, whence it derived its name.
several years in the boisterous manner described These writs were especially given to public couriers,
by him, and by thousands of persons, without any or to those who wifshed to procure the use of the
of the magistrates appearing to have been aware public horses or carriages. (Plin. Ep. x. 14, 121;
of it. compare x. 54, 55.) The tabellarii of the emWhile the Bacchanalia were thus suppressed, peror woul:ld naturally always have a diploma;
another more simple and innocent festival of Bac- whence we read in an inscription (Orelli, No.
chus, the Liberalia (from Liber, or Liberl Pater, a 2917) of a diplomacius tabellarmis.
name of Bacchus), continued to be celebrated at DI'PTYCHA. [TABULAE.]
Rome every year on the 16th of March. (Ovid. DIRECTA ACTIO. [AcTIo.]
Fast. iii. 713.) A description of the ceremonies DIRIBITO'RES, are said by most modern
customary at this festival is given by Ovid (1. c.), writers to have been the persons who gave to the
with which may be compared Varro (De Ling. Lat. citizens the tabella with which they voted in the
v. 55, ed. Bipont). Priests and aged priestesses, comitia; but Wunder has most distinctly proved,
adorned with garlands of ivy, carried through the in the preface to his Codex Elyiutensis (pp. cxxvi.city wine, honey, cakes, and sweet-meats, toge. clviii.), that it was the office of the diribitores to
ther with an altar with a handle (ansata ara), in divide the votes when taken out of the cistae, so as
the middle of which there was a small fire-pan to determine which had the majority. He remarks
(foculus), in which from time to time sacrifices that the etymology of diribere would lead us to
were burnt. On this day Roman youths who had assign to it tihe meaning of "separation" or
attained their sixteenth year received the toga divisiolln," as it is comlpounded of dic and tl abre,