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

FELIX. FELIX. 143
expiatory sacrifices were burnt, the people threw Hist. Eccl. ii. 20.) His government, however,
the ashes backwards over their heads into the though cruel and oppressive, was strong. Disturbwater. (Serv. ad Virg. Georg. i. 43; Isidor. Orig. ances were vigorously suppressed, the country was
v. 33; Voss. in Virg. Eclog. viii. 101.) [L. S.] cleared of the robbers who infested it, and the
FELI'CITAS, the personification of happiness, seditions raised by the false prophets an& other
to whom a temple was erected by Lucullus in impostors, who availed themselves of the fanaticism
s. c. 75, which, however, was burnt down in the of the people, were effedually quelled. (Joseph.;
reign of Claudius. (Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 8; Au- Ant. xx. 8, Bell. Jud. ii. 13; Euseb. Hist. Ecd.
gustin. de Civ. Dei, iv. 18, 23; comp. Cic. in Verr. ii. 21;* comp. Acts, xxi. 38, xxiv. 2.) He was
iv. 2, 57.) Felicitas is frequently seen on Roman recalled in A. D. 62, and succeeded by Porcius Fesinedals, in the form of a matron, with the staff of tus; and the chief Jews of Caesareia (the seat of
Mercury (caduceus) and a cornucopia. Sometimes his government) having lodged accusations against
also she has other attributes, according to the kind him at Rome, he was saved from condign punishof happiness she represents. (Lindner, de Felicitate ment only by the influence of his brother Pallas
Dea ex Nunmis illustsatae, Arnstadt, 1770; Rasche, with Nero (Joseph. Ant. xx. 8. ~ 9; Euseb. Hist.
Len Num. ii. 1, p. 956.) The Creeks worshipped Eccl. ii. 22.; Acts, xxiv. 27). For the account
the same personification, under the name of Ev- which Tacitus (Hist. v. 9) gives of his marriage with
TvXia, who. is frequently represented in works of one Drusilla, clearly a different person from the
art. [L. S.] Jewess already mentioned, and a grand-daughter
FELIX, an agnomen, having, like Magnus and of Antony and Cleopatra, see Vol. I. p. 1075, b,
Augustus, a personal rather than a general or family and comp. Casaub. ad Sueton. Claud. 28. [E. E.]
import. (Senec.'De Clement. 14.) It was given to FELIX, BULLA, a celebrated robber chief,
the dictator Sulla, and became a frequent addition who, having collected a band of 600 followers, anto the imperial titles, being probably borrowed vaged Italy for the space of two years, during the
from the formula "felix faustum." [W. B. D.] reign of Septimius Severus, setting at defiance all
FELIX, ANTO'NIUS, procurator of Judaea, the efforts of the imperial officers to effect his capwas a brother of the freedman Pallas, and was ture, till at length he was betrayed by a mistress,
himself a freedman of the emperor Claudius I. taken prisoner, and thrown to wild beasts. Dion
Suidas (s. v. KxaeBLos) calls him Claudius Felix; Cassius (Ixxvi. 21) has preserved several curious
and it is probable that he ras known by his pa- anecdotes of his exploits, which were characterised
tron's name as well as by that which marked his by a combination of reckless daring and consumrelation to the empress's mother, Antonia, by mate prudence. [W. R,J
whom he may have been manumitted. The date FELIX, CA'SSIUS. [CAssIUS IATIOSOof his appointment by Claudius to the government PHISTA.]
of Judaea is uncertain. It would seem from the FELIX CLAU'DIUS. [FELIX, ANTONIUS.]
account of Tacitus (Ann. xii. 54), that he and FELIX, FLA'VIUS, an African who flourished
Ventidius Cumanus were for some time joint pro- towards the close of the fifth century, the author of
curators, Galilee being held by Cumanus, and five short pieces in the Latin Anthology. Of these
Samaria by Felix; that both of them connived at the first four celebrate the magnificence and utility
the actsof violence and robbery mutually committed of the "Thermae Alianae," constructed in the
by their respective subjects, and enriched them- vicinity of Carthage by King Thrasimund, within
selves by the spoils which each party brought back the space of a single year; the fifth is a whining
from their incursions; that Quadratus, who com- petition for an ecclesiastical appointment, addressed
manded in Syria, was commissioned to take cogni- to Victorianus, the chief secretary of the Vandal
sance of these proceedings, and to try both the monarch. (Anthol. Lat. iii. 34-37, vi. 86, ed.
provincials and their governors; and that, while Burmann, or n. 291-295, ed. Meyer.) [W. R.]
he condemned Cumanus, he saved Felix by placing FELIX, LAE'LIUS. A jurist, named Laelius,
him openly among the judges and thus deterring flourished in the time of Hadrian; for it appears
his accusers. But, if we follow Josephus, we must from a fragment of Paulus, in Dig. 5. tit. 4. s. 3,
believe that Cumanus was sole procurator during that Laelius, in one of his works, mentions having
the disturbances in question, and that, when he seen in the palace a free woman, who was brought
was condemned and deposed, Felix was sent from from Alexandria, in' Egypt, in order to be exhibited
Rome as his successor, probably about A. D. 51, to Hadrian, with five children, four of whom were
and with an authority extending over Judaea, brought into the world at one birth, and the fifth
Samaria, Galilee, and Petraea (Joseph. Ant. xx. forty days afterwards. Gaius (Dig. 34. tit. 5. s. 7)
5-7, Bell. Jud. ii. 12; Euseb. Hist. Eccl. ii. 19; tells the same story, without mentioning the inVales. ad loe.). In his private and his public cha- terval of forty days; and we find from him that
racter alike Felix was unscrupulous and profligate, the name of the woman was Serapia. (Compare
nor is he unjustly described in the killing words of also Julianus, in Dig. 46. tit. 3. s. 36; Capitolin.
Tacitus (Hist. v. 9), "per omnem saevitiam et Anton. Pius, 9; Phlegon, de Rebus Mirab. 29.)
libidinem jus regium servili ingenio exercuit." Indeed, the learned Ant. Augustinus, without
Having fallen in love with Drusilla, daughter of sufficient reason, suspects that Gaius was no other
Agrippa I., and wife of Azizus, king of Emesa, he than Laelius, designated by his praenomen. Laelius
induced her to leave her husband; and she was is cited by Paulus in another passage (Dig. 5.
still living with him in A. D. 60, when St. Paul tit. 3. s. 43), which also relates to the law of hepreached before him "of righteousness, temper- reditas.
ance, and judgment to come." (Joseph. Ant. xx. 7. The Laelius of the Digest is, by most writers
~ 2; Acts, xxiv. 25.) Jonathan, the high priest, upon the subject (e. g. Guil. Grotius, Heineccius,
having become obnoxious to him by unpalatable and Bach), identified with Laelius Felix, who
advice, he procured his assassination. (Joseph. wrote notes upon Q. Mucius Scaevola (librsum ad
Ant, xx. 8. ~ 5, Bell. Jud. ii. 13. ~ 3; Euseb. Q. M *cium), from which Gellius (xv. 27) makes