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

1214 NUMERIANUS. NUMICIA.
god, in whom he beholds the ideas according to was publicly arraigned of the murder in a military
which he arranges the world harmoniously, being council, held at Chalcedon, and, without being perseized with a desire to create the world. The first mitted to speak in his own defence, was stabbed to
god communicates his ideas to the second, without the heart by Diocletian, whom the troops had allosing them himself, just as we communicate ready proclaimed emperor, and who on this occasion
knowledge to one another, without depriving our- acted with a degree of hasty violence strangely at
selves of it. (Ibid. xi. 18.) In regard to the relation variance with the calmness of his well-regulated
existing between the third and second god, and mind. [DIOCLETIANUS.]
to the manner in which they also are to be con- The Augustan historian represents Numerianus
ceived as one (probably in opposition to the vague as a prince remarkable alike for moral and intellecduration of matter), no information can be de- tual excellence. He gained universal love and adrived from the fragments which have come down miration by gentleness of temper, affability of
to us. [Ch. A. B.] address, and purity of life, while at the same time
NUME'NIUS (Nov uuvos). 1. A sceptical phi- he bore away the palm in eloquence and poetry
losopher, and a pupil of Pyrrhon, must be distin- from all his contemporaries-virtues and accomguished from Numenius of Apameia. (Diog. Lairt. plishments which shone the more conspicuous and
ix. 68, 102, 114.) bright when contrasted with the brutal profligacy
2. A rhetorician, who lived in the reign of and savage cruelty of his brother and colleague
Hadrian, to whom he addressed a consolatory dis- Carinus [CARINUS]. (Vopisc. Numerian.; Aur.
course (7rapapCvOrTKo'v) on the death of Antinous. Vict. Epit. 38, de Caes. 38; Eutrop. ix. 12; Zonar.
He also wrote lepil rGC 7rS hAe'eWs oXuacdrcwv, xii. 30.) [W. R.]
XpEltz aouvaYWYou, and arguments (uroO40CEls) to
the works of Thucydides and Demosthenes. (Suid.
torician Alexander, who is hence frequently called %
Alexander Numenius. [See Vol. I. p. 123, a.]
NUME'NIUS (Novylrios), a medical writer,
quoted by Celsus (v. 18. ~ 35, 21. ~ 4, pp. 88,
92) and Aetius (iv. 1. ~ 20, p. 621, in which
passage for Numius we should read iumnenius).
He is, perhaps, the native of Heracleia, who was a
pupil of Dieuches, and lived probably in the fourth COIN OF NUMERIANUS.
or third century B. c. (Athen. i. p. 5.) He wrote
a poem on fishing,'AAhevrrKlcd, which is frequently NUME'RIUS, a praenomen among the Romans
quoted by Athenaeus. A person of the same name, of rather rare occurrence. Hence the copyists of
who wrote on venomous animals, O~-piaKcd, is quoted munuscripts frequently changed N., its contracted
by the Scholiast on Nicander. (Fabric. Bibl. Gr. form, into M. Varro says that this praenomen was
vol. ii. p. 627, ed. vet.) [W. A. G.] given to those who were born quickly; and that
NUME'RIA, the goddess. [NuMERtIUS.] women in childbirth were accustomed to pray to a
NUMERIA/NUS, M. AURELIUS, the goddess Numeria, who must have been a deity of
younger of the two sons of the emperor Carus, and some importance, as the pontifex mentioned her in
his companion in the expedition against the Per- the ancient prayers (Var. Fragn. p. 319, Bipont.;
sians, undertaken in A. D. 283. After the death camp. Hartung, Die Religion der ARo7;er, vol. ii. p.
of his father, which happened in the following 240). As a Roman praenomen the feminine Nuyear, he was, without opposition, acknowledged as meria could not be used any more than Marca
joint emperor with his brother Carinus. The idle (Varr. L. L. ix. 55, ed. Miller). Festus relates
fears of the army compelled him to abandon all that Numerius was never used as a praenomen by
hopes of prosecuting a campaign commenced with any patrician house, till the Fabius, who alone surso much glory, and of extending the conquests vived after the six and thirty had been slaughtered
already achieved. For terrified by the mysterious by the Etruscans, married the wealthy daughter of
fate of Carus [CARUS], which they regarded as a Otacilius Maleventanus, on the condition that the
direct manifestation of the wrath of heaven, and first child should receive the praenomen of its
an evident fulfilment of the ancient prophecy which maternal grandfather, Numerius. (Festus, p. 171
fixed the river Tigris as the limit of the Roman ed. Miiller.)
sway, the soldiers refused to advance. Yielding Numerius also occurs as the gentile name of a few
to their superstitious terrors, Numerianus com- persons:menced a retreat in the very hour of victory, and 1. NUMERIus, one of the friends of Marius,
slowly retraced his steps towards the Thracian provided a vessel for him at Ostia, when he was
Bosporus. During the greater part of the march, proscribed by Sulla in B. C. 88 (Plut. Mar. 35).
which lasted for eight months, he was duly con- Numerius, however, is probably only the praenomen
fined to his litter by an affection of the eyes, in- of the friend of Marius.
duced, it is said, by excessive weeping. After this 2. Q. NUMERIUS RUFUS, tribune of the plebs,
seclusion had continuedl for a considerable period, B. C. 57. [RUFUS.]
dark reports began to circulate, and the excitement 3. NUMERIUS ATTICUS. [ATTICUS.]
increasing by degrees, at length became so fierce NUME'STIUS, NUME'RIUS, was received
that the soldiers forced their way into the Im- by Cicero among his friends, upon the recoimperial tent, and discovered the dead body of their mendation of Atticus. (Cic. ad A t. ii. 20, 22, 24.)
prince. The concealment practised by Arrius Aper, NUMI'CIA GENS, an ancient patrician house,
praefect of the praetorians, father-in-law of the a member of which, T. Numicius Priscus, obtained
deceased, and who had lately acted as his repre- the consulship as early as B. C. 469. PRiscvs is
sentative, gave rise to the worst suspicions. He the only cognomen in this gens.