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

DISCUS. DIVINATIO. 4 1,
in the same malmer as dirimere is of dis and emere; and resting principally on -this foot. The discus
the h disappears as in praebere and debere, which being held, ready to be thrown, in his right hand,
come respectively from prae and habere, and de he stooped, turning his body towards it, and his
and lsabere. In several passages the word cannot left hand was naturally turned in the same direchave any other signification than that given by tion. (Philostr. Isnag. i. 24; Welcker, ad loc.)
Wunder. (Cic. Pro Plancio, 20, ad Qza. Fratr. This attitude was represented by the sculptor
iii. 4. ~ 1; Varro, De Re Rust. iii. 2. ~ 1, iii. 5. Myron in one of his works, and is adduced by
~ 18.) Quintilian (Inst. Or. ii. 13. ~ 10) to show how
When Cicero says (in Pison. 15), " vos roga- much greater skill is displayed by the artist, and
tores, vos diribitores, vos custodes tabellarum," we how much more powerful an effect is produced on
may presume that he mentions these officers in the the spectator, when a person is represented in
order in which they discharged their duties in the action, than when he is at rest or standing erect.
comitia. It was the office of the rogatores to col- We fortunately possess several copies, more or less
lect the tabellae which each century gave, as they entire, of this celebrated statue; and one of the
used, before the ballot was introduced, to ask best of them is in the British Museum (see the
(sogaae) each century for its votes, and report preceding woodcut). It represents the player just
them to the magistrate who presided over the ready to swing round his outstretched arm, so as
comitia. The diribitores, as has been already re- to describe with it a semicircle in the air, ancl
marked, divided the votes when taken out of the thus, with his collected force, to project the discus
cistae, and handed them over to the custodes, who at an angle of forty-five degrees, at the same time
checked them off by points marked on a tablet. springing forward so as to give to it the impetus of
[Compare CISTA; SITULA.] his whole body. Discurn "vasto contorquet turDISCUS (8f~lcos), a circular plate of stone bine, et ipse prosequitur." (Statius, 1. c.)
(MrL'eoL 8LoKOL, Pind. Isth. i. 34), or metal (splen- Sometimes a heavy mass of a spherical form
dida pondera disci, Mart. xiv. 164), made for (odAos) was used instead of a discus, as when the
throwing to a distance as an exercise of strength Greeks at the funeral games contended for a lump
and dexterity. This was, indeed, one of the prin- of iron, which was to be given to him who could
cipal gymnastic exercises of the ancients, being throw it furthest. (11. xxiii. 826-846.) The
included in the Pentathlon. It was practised in diXros was perforated in the centre, so that a rope or
the heroic age. (Horn. II. ii. 774, Od. viii. 129, thong might be passed through and used in throw186-188, xvii. 168.) ing it. (Eratosth. ed. Bernhardy, p. 251.) In this
The discus was ten or twelve inches in diameter, form the discobolia is still practised by the mounso as to reach above the middle of the forearm taineers of the canton of Appenzell, in Switzerwhen held in the right hand. The object was to land. They meet twice a year to throw round
throw it from a fixed spot to the greatest distance; stones of great weight and size. This they do by
and in doing this each player had a friend to mark a sudden leap and forcible swinging of the whole
the point at which the discus, when thrown by body. The same stone is taken by all, as in the
him, struck the ground. (Od. viii. 186-200; case-of the ancient discus and edXos: he who sends
Stat. Timeb. i. 703.) The distance to which it it to the greatest distance receives a public prize.
was commonly thrown became a measure of length, The stone is lifted as high as the right shoulder
called Ta 8&'aKovpa. (It. xxiii. 431, 523.) (see woodcut; mKa-rcwuaSioo, 11. xxiii. 431) before
The space on which the discobolus, or thrower being projected. (Ebel, Schilderung der Gebirgsof the discus, stood, was called axeg's-, and was volker der Schuweit., i. p. 174.) [J. Y.]
indicated by being a little higher than the ground DISPENSA'TOR. [CALCULATOR.]
surrounding it. As each man took his station, DITHYRAMBUS. [CHORUS.]
with his body entirely naked, on the $aXfis, he DIVERSO'RIUM. [CAUPONA.]
placed his right foot forward, bending his knee, DIVIDI'CULUM. [AQUAEBUCTUS, p.
114, a.]
DIVINA'TIO is, according to Cicero (De
Divinat. i. 1), a presension and a knowledge of
filture things; or, according to Chrysippus (Cic.
\ e Divinat. ii. 63), a power in man which foresees
and explains those signs which the gods throw in
his way, and the diviner must therefore know the
disposition of the gods towards men, the import of
their signs, and by what means these signs are to
be obtained. According to this latter definition,
the meaning of the Latin word divinatio is nar..
rower than that of the Greek tavrtuma, in as much
as the latter signifies any means by which the
decrees of the gods can be discovered, the natural
as well as the artificial; that is to say, the seers
and the oracles, where the will of the gods is revealed by inspiration, as well as the divinatio in
the sense of Chrysippus. In the one, man is the
passive medium through which the deity reveals
the future; while in the other, man discovers it,
by his own skill or experience, without any pretension to inspiration. As, however, the seer or
vates was also frequently called divinus, we blhall
g~. - treat, under this head, of seers as well as of other