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

/28 HORTENSIUS. HORUS.
up such a stock of wine, that he left 10,000 casks assassination, M. Antony gave the province to his
of Chian to his heir (Plin. H. Ar xiv. 6, 17). brother Caius. Brutus, however, had already
Here he had a park full of all sorts of animals; and taken possession, with the assistance of Hortensius.
it was customary, during his sumptuous dinners, (Cic. Philipp. x. 6, 11.) When the proscription took
for a slave, dressed like Orpheus, to issue from the place, Hortensius was in the list; and in revenge
woods with these creatures following the sound of he ordered C. Antonius, who had been taken pri.
his cithara (Varr. R. R. iii. 13). At Bauli he soner, to be put to death. [ANTONIUS, NO. 13,
had immense fish-ponds, into which the sea came: p. 216.] After the battle of Philippi, he was
the fish were so tame that they would feed from executed on the grave of his victim.
his hand; none of them were molested, for he 9. Q. (?) HORTENSIUS CORBIO, Q. F. Q. N., son
used to buy for his table at Puteoli; and he was of the last, mentioned by Valerius Maximus as a
so fond of them, that he is said to have wept for the person sunk in base and brutal profligacy (iii. 5,
death of a favourite muraena (Varr. R. R. iii. 17; ~ 4).
Plin. H. N. ix. 55). He was also very curious in 10. M. HORTENSIUS HORTALUS, Q. F. Q. N.,
trees: he is said to have fed them with wine, and brother of the last, and grandson of the orator. In
we read that he once begged Cicero to change places the time of Augustus he was in great poverty.
in speaking, that he might perform this office for The emperor gave him enough to support a senator's
a favourite plane-tree at the proper time (Macrob. rank, and promoted his marriage. Under Tiberius
Saturn. ii. 9). In pictures also he must have spent we find him, with four children, again reduced to
large sums, at least he gave 144,000 sesterces for poverty. (Tacit. Ann. ii. 37, 38; Suet. Aug. 41;
a single work from the hand of Cydias (Plin. Dion Cass. liv. 17.)
H. N. xxxv. 40, ~ 26). It is a characteristic trait, 1l. L. HORTENSIUS, legate of Sulla in the first
that he came forward from his retirement (B. c. 55) Mithridatic war. He distinguished himself at
to oppose the sumptuary law of Pompey and Chaeroneia in the year B. c. 86. (Memnon, Fr. 32,
Crassus, and spoke so eloquently and wittily as to 34, Orelli; Plut. Sull. 15, 17, 19; Dion Cass. Fr.
procure its rejection (Dion Cass. xxxix. 37). He 125.) [H. G. L.]
was the first person at Rome who brought peacocks HORUS (tlpos), the Egyptian god of the sun,
to table. (Plin. H. N. x. 23). whose worship was established very extensively in
He was not happy in his family. By his first Greece, and afterwards even at Rome, although
wife, the daughter of Catulus, he had one son (see Greek astronomy and mystic philosophy greatly
below, No. 8). It was after the death of Lutatia modified the original idea of Horus. He was cornthat the curious transaction took place by which pared with the Greek Apollo, and identified with
he bought or borrowed Marcia, the wife of Cato. Harpocrates, the last-born and weakly son of
[CATO, No. 9, p. 648.] He is acquitted of sensual Osiris. (Plut. de Is. et Os. 19.) Both were reprofligacy by Plutarch. (Cat. Ml1i. 25); though he presented as youths, and with the same attributes
wrote love-songs not of the most decent description. and symbols. (Artemid. Oneir. ii. 36; Macrob.
(Ov. Trist. ii. 441; Gell. xix. 9.) Sat. i. 23; Porphyr. ap. Etseb. Praep. Evang. v
8. Q. HORTENSIUS HORTALUS, Q. F. L. N., 10; Iamblich. de Myster. vii. 2.) He was believed
son of the great orator, by Lutatia. His education to have been born with his finger on his mouth, as
was probably little cared for, for Cicero attributes indicative of secrecy and mystery; and the idea of
his profligacy to the corrupting influence of one something mysterious in general was connected with
Salvius, a freedman (ad Att. x. 18). On his re- the Worship of Horus-Harpocrates; the mystic
turn from his province, in B. C. 50, Cicero found philosophers of later times therefore found in him
him at Laodicea, living with gladiators and other a most welcome subject to speculate upon. In the
low company (ad Att. vi. 3). From the expres- earlier period of his worship at Rome he seems to
sions in the same place, it appears that his father have been particularly regarded as the god of quiet
had cast him off; and we learn from other authority life and silence (Varr. de L. L. iv. p. 17, Bip.;
that he purposed to make his nephew, Messalla, Ov. Met. ix. 691; Auson. Epist. ad Paul. xxv.
his heir, to the exclusion of this son. (Val. Max. 27), and at one time the senate forbade his worship
v. 9. ~ 2.) However, he came in for part, at least, at Rome, probably on account of excesses committed
of his father's property; for we find Cicero in- at the mysterious festivals; but the suppression
quiring what he was likely to offer for sale to was not permanent. His identification with
satisfy his creditors (ad Att. vii. 3). However, in Apollo is as old as the time of Herodotus (ii. 144,
49, the civil war broke out, and Hortensius seized 156; comp. the detailed mythuses in Diod. i. 25,
on the opportunity to repair his ruined fortunes. &c.; Plut. de Is. et Os. 12, &c.) The god acts a
He joined Caesar in Cisalpine Gaul, and was sent prominent part also in the mystic works attributed
on by him to occupy Ariminum; he therefore was to Hermes Trismegistus; but we cannot enter here
the man who first'actually crossed the Rubicon. into an examination of the nature of this Egyptian
(Plut. Caes. 32; Suet. Jul. 31.) Soon after he cornm- divinity, and refer the reader to Jablonsky, Panth.
manded a cruising squadron on the coast of Italy,and Aegypt. i. p. 244, &c.; Bunsen, Aegyptens Stelle in
received a letter from Curio, Caesar's lieutenant in der Wellgescak. vol. i. p. 505, &c.,and other works on
Sicily, desiring him to favour the escape of Cicero. Egyptian mythology. [L. S.]
He visited Terentia, Cicero's wife, at their Cuman HORUS (*~pos or r'npos), according to Suidas,
villa, and Cicero himself at his Pompeian, to assure an Alexandrian grammarian, who taught at Conthem of his good offices (Cic. ad Alt. x. 12, 16, stantinople, and wrote a great many works on
17); but he did not, or perhaps could not, keep grammatical subjects, which are now lost. It has
his word. (Ib. 18). His squadron joined the fleet been supposed that he is the same as the gramof Dolabella a little before the battle of Pharsalia. marian Horapollo, but the works which Suidas
[DOLABELLA, NO. 8.] attributes to Horus are different from those of HoIn B.C. 44 he held the province of Macedonia, rapollo. Macrobius (Sat. i. 7) mentions a Cynic
and Brutus was to succeed him. After Caesar's philosopher of the name of Horus. [L. S.]