A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

1210 NOSSIS. NOVATIANUS.
very nearly falling into the hands of the Samnites, had a daughter called Melinna. Three of her epiwho, taking advantage of the civil commotions at grams were published for the first time by BentRome, had formed the design of invading Sicily. ley; and the whole twelve are given by J. C.
(Diod. Eclog. xxxvii. p. 540, ed. Wesseling. The Wolf, Poetriarumn cto Fragm. &c., Hamb. 1734,
text of Diodorus has rdoibs'Opgavo's, for which we by A. Schneider, Poetriarum Graec. Fragm.
ought undoubtedly to read with Wesseling, ra'to Giessae, 1802, by Brunck, Anal. vet. Poet. Gr.
Nopeavks.) In the civil wars Norbanus espoused vol. i., and by Jacobs, A2nth. Graec. vol. i. (Comp.
the Marian party, and was consul in B. c. 83 with Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 133; Bentley, DisScipio Asiaticus. In this year Sulla crossed over sertation upon the Epistles of Plsalaris, pp. 256,
from Greece to Italy, and marched from Brundisium 257, Lond. 1777.)
into Campania, where Norbanus was waiting for NOTHIPPUS, a tragic poet, with whom we
him, on the Vulturnus at the foot of Mount Tifata, are only acquainted through a fragment of the
not far from Capua. Sulla at first sent deputies to Morirae of the comic poet Hermippus, who
Norbanus under the pretext of treating respecting a describes Nothippus as an enormous eater. (Athen.
peace, but evidently with the design of tampering viii. p. 344, c, d.)
with his troops; but they could not effect their pur- NOVATIA'NUS, according to Philostorgius,
pose, and returned to Sulla after being insulted whose statement, however, has not been generally
and maltreated by the other side. Thereupon a received with confidence, was a native of Phrygia.
general engagement ensued, the issue of which was From the accounts given of his baptism, which his
not long doubtful; the raw levies of Norbanus enemies alleged was irregularly administered in
were unable to resist the first charge of Sulla's consequence of his having been prevented by
veterans, and fled in all directions, and it was not sickness from receiving imposition of hands, it
till they reached the walls of Capua that Norbanus would appear that in early life he was a gentile;
was able to rally them again. Six or seven thou- but the assertion found in many modern works
sand of his men fell in this battle, while Sulla's that he was devoted to the stoic philosophy is not
loss is said to have been only seventy. Appian, supported by the testimony of any ancient writer.
contrary to all the other authorities, places this There can be no doubt that he became a presbyter
battle near Canusium in Apulia, but it is not im- of the church at Rome, that he insisted upon the
probable, as Drumann has conjectured (Geschichte rigorous and perpetual exclusion of the Lapsi, the
IRis2s, vol. ii. p. 459), that he wrote Casilinum, a weak brethren who had fallen away from the faith
town on the Vulturnus. In the following year, under the terrors of persecution, and that upon the
B. C. 82, Norbanus joined -the consul Carbo in Cis- election of Cornelius [CORNELIUS], who advocated
alpine Gaul, but their united forces were entirely more charitable opinions, to the Roman see in
defeated by Metellus Pius. [METELLUS, No. 19.] June, A. D. 251, about sixteen months after the
This may be said to have given the death-blow to the martyrdom of Fabianus, he disowned the authority
Marian party in Italy. Desertion from their ranks of the new pontiff, was himself consecrated bishop
rapidly followed, and Albinovanus, who had been by a rival party, was,condemned by the council
entrusted with the command of Ariminum, invited held in the autumn of the same year, and after a
Norbanus and his principal officers to a banquet. vain struggle to maintain his position was obliged
Norbanus suspected treachery, and declined the to give way, and became the founder of a new
invitation; the rest accepted it and were murdered. sect, who from him derived the name of Novatians.
Norbanus succeeded in making his escape from We are told, moreover, that he was a man of unItaly, and fled to Rhodes; but his person having sociable, treacherous, and wolf-like disposition, that
been demanded by Sulla, he killed himself in the his ordination was performed by three simple
middle of the market-place, while the Rhodians illiterate prelates from an obscure corner of Italy,
were consulting whether they should obey the com- whom he gained to his purpose by a most disrepumands of the dictator. (Appian, B. C. i. 82, 84, table artifice, that these poor men quickly perceived,
86, 91; Liv. Epit. 85; Vell. Pat. ii. 25; Plut. confessed, and lamented their error, and that those
Sull. 27; Ores. v. 20; Flor. iii. 21. ~ 18.) persons who had at first espoused his cause quickly
2. NORBANUS FLACCUS. [FLACCUS.] returned to their duty, leaving the schismatic
3. APPIus NORBANUS, who defeated Antonius almost alone. We must observe that these adin the reign of Domitian, is more usually called verse representations proceed from his bitter enemy
Appius Maximus. [MAXIMUS, p. 986, b.] Cornelius, being contained in a long letter from
4. NoRBANUS, praefectus praetorio under Do- that pope to Fabius, of Antioch, preserved in
mitian, was privy to the death of that emperor. Eusebius, that they bear evident marks of personal
(Dion Cass. lxvii. 15.) rancour, and that they are contradicted by the
5. NORBANUS LICINIANUS, one of the infamous circumstance that Novatianus was commissioned in
servants of Domitian, was banished (relegatus) in 250 by the Roman clergy to write a letter in their
the reign of Trajan. (Plin. Ep. iii. 9.) name to Cyprian which is still extant, by the
6. NORBANUS, banished by Commodus. (Lam- respect and popularity which he unquestionably
prid. Comrnod. 4.) enjoyed after his assumption of the episcopal digNO'RTIA or NUIRTIA, an Etruscan divinity, nity, even among those who did not recognise his
who was worshipped at Volsinii, where a nail was authority, and by the fact that a numerous and
driven every year into the wall of her temple, for devoted band of followers espousing his cause
the purpose of marking the number of years. (Liv. formed a separate communion, which spread over
vii. 3; Juvenal, x. 74.) [L. S.] the whole Christian world, and flourished for more
NOSSIS, a Greek poetess, of Locri in Southern than two hundred years. The career of NovatiaItaly, lived about B.c. 310, and is the author of nus, after the termination of his struggle with
twelve epigrams of considerable beauty, extant in Cornelius, is unknown; but we are told by Sothe Greek Anthology. From these we learn that crates (H. E. iv. 28) that he suffered death under
her mother's name was Theuphila, and that she Valerian; and from Pacianus, who flourished in the