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

816 NUNDINAE. OBELISCUS.
deo caret. But at the time when the Julian calen- the people, the tribunes were obligled' to announce
dar was introduced, these scruples, whatever they it three nundines beforehand, as if it were quite a
mnay have been, were neglected, and in several new subject.
ancient calendaria the nlindinae fall on the first of Instead of nundiinae the form nundin2um is someJanuary as well as on the nones. (See Graevius, times used, but only when it is preceded by a
77tesaur. vol. viii. p. 7, and the various ancient numeral, as in trinundinum, or trionu, nUmtndinieni.
Calendaria. Both before and after the time of (See the passages above referred to.) It is also
Caesar it was sometimes thought necessary, for re- used in the expression internundinum or inter
ligious reasons, to transfer the nundinae from the nundinzun, that is, the time which elapses between
day on which they should have fallen to another two nundinae. (Varro and Lucil. apud lAoniznt,
one. (Dion Cass. lx. 24.) The nundinae them- iii. 145.) The word nundinae is sometimes used
selves were, according to Plutarch (Quaest. Roein. to designate a market-place or a time for marketing
p. 275, B), sacred to Saturn, and, according to in general. (Cic. de Leg. Agyr. ii. 33, Philio.
Granius Licinianus (ap. Aiccrob. Sat. i. 16) the v. 4.) [L. S.J
Flaminica offered at all nundinae a sacrifice of a NU'NDINUM. [NITNDINAE.]
ram to Jupiter. NUNTIA'TIO. [OPErsIS NOVI NUNTIATIO.]
It is uncertain to whom the institution of the N U'PTIAE. [MATRIauONIUM.]
nundinae is to be ascribed, for some say that it was
Romulus (Dionys. ii. 28; Tuditanus, ap. Mlfacsob.
Sat. I. c.), and others that it was Servius Tullins 0.
(Cassius Hemina, aep. AG acrob. 1. c.), who instituted
them, while the nature of the things for which OBAE. [TRIBaJus.]
they were originally set apart seems to show that OBELISCUS (56eAIrttos) is a diminutive of
their institution was as old as the Romulian year Obelsus (~CeAos), which properly signifies a sharpof tell months, or at least that they were instituted ened thing, a slkewer or spit, and is the name given
at the tinle when the Roman population extended to certain works of Egyptian art." A detailed
beyond the precincts of the city itself. For the description of such worlks would be inconsistent
mlndinae were originally market-days for the with the plan of this work, but some notice of
country-folk, on which they came to Rome to sell them is required by the fact that several of them
the produce of their labour, and on which the king were transported to Rome under the emperors.
settled the legal disputes among them. When, Atomiantis Marcellinus (xvii. 4) says "that an
therefore, we reaLd that the nundinae were feriae, obelisk is a very rough stone in the shape of a kind
or dies nefsssti, and that no comitia were allowed of land-msark or boundary stone, rising with a small
to be held, we have to understand this of the po- inclination on all sides to a great height; and in
pullus, and not of the plebs; and while for the order that it may imitate a solar ray by a gradual
poputlus the nundinae were feriae, they were real diminution of its bulk, it terminates in a prolongadays of business (dies fasti or coiniticules) for the tion of four faces united in a sharp point. It is
plebeians, who on these occasions pleaded their very careffilly smoothed." Most ancient writers
causes with members of their own order, and held consider obelisks as emblematic of the sun's rays.
their public meetings (the ancient comitia of the (Comp. Plin. 1-1. N. xxxvi. 14.)
plebeians) asld debates on such matters as con- An obelisk is properly a single block of stone,
cerned their own order, or to discuss which they cut into a quadrilateral form, the sides of which
were invited by the senate. (Dionys. vii. 58B; Ma- diminish gradually, but almost imperceptibly from
crob. 1. c.; Plin. I. A. xviii. 3; Festus, s. v. Nun- the base to the top of the shaft, but do not termidinas; compare Niebuhr, Hist. of Ronme, vol. ii. p. nate in an apex upon the top, which is crowned
213.) How long this distisnction existed that the by a small pyramid, consisting of four sides termilnuldinae were nefasti for the patricians and fasti nating in a point. The Egyptian obelislks were
for the plebeians, is not quite clear. In the law of mostly made of the red granite of Syene, from
the Twelve Tables they appear to have been re- which place they were carried to the different parts
garded as fasti for both orders (Gellius, xx. 1. of Egypt. They were generally placed in pairs sat
~ 49), though, according to Granius Licinianus the entrance to a temple, and occasionally il the
tap-. 3lltierob. 1. c.), this change was introduced at a interior, and were usually covered with hieroglylater time by the Lex 1Hortensia, 286 B. c. This phical inscriptions.
innovation, whenever it was introduced, facilitated Obelisks were first transported to Rome under
the attendance of the plebeians at the comitia cen- Augustus, who caused one to be erected in the
turiataL. In the ancient calendaria, therefore, the Circus and another in the Campus Martius. (Plin.
nundisnae and dies fasti coincide. The subjects xxxvi. 14.) The former was restored in 1589,
to be laid before the comitia, whether they were and is called at present the Flaminian obelisk.
proposals for new laws or the appointment of Its whole height is about 116 feet, and without
officers, were announced to the people three nun- the base about 78 feet. The obelisk in the Campus
dillae beforehand (trinunzdiino die propeonere, Ma- Martius was set up by Auigstus as a sun-dial. It
crob. 1. c.; Cic. ad Fari. xvi. 12, Philip. v. 3, piro stands at present on the Monte Citorio, where it
Doemo, 16; Liv. iii. 35.) was placed in 1792. Its whole height is about
The nulndinae being thus at all times days of 110 feet, and without the base about 71 feet.
business for the plebeianls (at first exclusively for Another obelisk was brought to Rome by Casligula,
tlhem, and afterwards for the patricians also), the and placed on the Vatican in the Circus of Caliproceedings of the tribunes of the people were con- gula. (Plin. xxxvi. 15, xvi. 76. ~ 2.) It standils
fined to these days, and it was nlecessary that they at presenlt in front of St. Peter's, where it was
should be terminated in one day, that is, if a proposition did not come to a decision in one day it * IHerodotus (ii. 111) uses goeXos in the sense
-was lost, and if it was to be brought again before of an obelisk.