In ancient Roman religion, the Quinquatria or Quinquatrus was a festival sacred to the Goddess Minerva, celebrated from the 19–23 of March. The older festivals were of Etruscan origin and were to celebrate the Spring equinox, the spring rebirth rites of women. According to Varro, it was so called because it was held on the fifth (quinqu-) day after the Ides, in the same way as the Tusculans called a festival on the sixth day after the Ides Sexatrus or one on the seventh Septimatrus. Both Varro and Festus state that the Quinquatrus was celebrated for only one day, but Ovid says that it was celebrated for five days, hence the name: on the first day no blood was shed, but that on the last four there were contests of gladiators. The first day was the festival proper, and that the following four were an expansion made perhaps in the time of Caesar to gratify the people. The ancient Roman religious calendars assign only one day to the festival.
The dram is a unit of mass in the avoirdupois system, and both a unit of mass and a unit of volume in the apothecaries' system. It was originally both a coin and a weight in ancient Greece. The unit of volume is more correctly called a fluid dram, fluid drachm, fluidram or fluidrachm.
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities is an English language encyclopedia first published in 1842. The second, improved and enlarged, edition appeared in 1848, and there were many revised editions up to 1890. The encyclopedia covered law, architecture, warfare, daily life, and similar subjects primarily from the standpoint of a classicist. It was one of a series of reference works on classical antiquity by William Smith, the others cover persons and places. It runs to well over a million words in any edition, and all editions are now in the public domain.
Of Ancient Roman containers, a congiarium, or congiary, was a vessel containing one congius, a measure of volume equal to six sextarii.
Ancient Greek units of measurement varied according to location and epoch. Systems of ancient weights and measures evolved as needs changed; Solon and other lawgivers also reformed them en bloc. Some units of measurement were found to be convenient for trade within the Mediterranean region and these units became increasingly common to different city states. The calibration and use of measuring devices became more sophisticated. By about 500 BC, Athens had a central depository of official weights and measures, the Tholos, where merchants were required to test their measuring devices against official standards.
The ancient Roman units of measurement were primarily founded on the Hellenic system, which in turn was influenced by the Egyptian and the Mesopotamian systems. The Roman units were comparatively consistent and well documented.
A buccina or bucina, anglicized buccin or bucine, is a brass instrument that was used in the ancient Roman army, similar to the cornu. An aeneator who blew a buccina was called a "buccinator" or "bucinator".
The duumviri, originally duoviri and also known in English as the duumvirs, were any of various joint magistrates of ancient Rome. Such pairs of magistrates were appointed at various periods of Roman history both in Rome itself and in the colonies and municipia.
The Amphidromia, in ancient Greece, was a ceremonial feast celebrated on the fifth or seventh day after the birth of a child.
Ascolia, in Ancient Greece, was a yearly feast that the peasants of Attica celebrated in honor of Dionysus. The rites included sacrificing a goat, chosen because goats were prone to eating and destroying grapevines, and using its skin to make a football, which was filled with wine and smeared in oil. Festival participants then competed against each other by trying to leap onto it in a game that gave the festival its name ; the one who remained standing at the end of the contest won the wineskin as a prize. Participants also painted their faces with wine dregs, sang hymns, and recited satirical poetry.
Madran Mountain is a mountain in Aydın Province, Turkey.
In ancient dining, an acetabulum was a vinegar-cup, which, from the fondness of the Greeks and Romans for vinegar, was probably always placed on the table at meals to dip the food in before eating it. The vessel was wide and open above; and the name was also given to all cups resembling it in size and form, to whatever use they might be applied. The cups used by jugglers in their performances were also called by this name. They were commonly of earthenware, but sometimes of glass, silver, bronze, or gold. In anatomy, because of its shape, the acetabulum is the place of pelvis that meets with the head of the femur, forming the hip joint.
In Ancient Roman measurement, the acetabulum was a measure of volume equivalent to the Greek ὀξύβαφον (oxybaphon). It was one-fourth of the hemina and therefore one-eighth of the sextarius. It contained the weight in water of fifteen Attic drachmae.
In Ancient Roman measurement, congius was a liquid measure that was about 3.48 litres. It was equal to the larger chous of the Ancient Greeks. The congius contained six sextarii.
Nazianzus or Nazianzos, also known as Nandianulus, was a small town of ancient Cappadocia, and in the late Roman province of Cappadocia Tertia, located 24 Roman miles to the southeast of Archelais. In the Jerusalem Itinerary it is miswritten as Nathiangus.
In classical antiquity, a crotalum was a kind of clapper or castanet used in religious dances by groups in ancient Greece and elsewhere, including the Korybantes.
The Delia were festivals and games celebrated in classical antiquity at the great celebratory gathering (panegyris) on the island of Delos.
Argyrocopeum, also transliterated as Argyrocopeion or Argyrokopeion was the place where money was coined in ancient Greece, especially minting with silver. In Athens it appears to have been in or adjoining the chapel (heroön) of a hero named Stephanephorus, in which were kept the standard weights for the coins. In similar fashion, standard weights were kept in the Temple of Juno Moneta in the Roman Forum.
Acharaca was a village of ancient Lydia, Anatolia on the road from Tralles to Nysa on the Maeander, with a Ploutonion or a temple of Pluto, and a cave, named Charonium, where the sick were healed under the direction of the priests. There is some indication that it once bore the name Charax (Χάραξ), but that name may have belonged to Tralles. Its location is now the site of the modern town of Salavatlı. Recoveries from archaeological excavations are housed at the Aydın Archaeological Museum.
Damalis was a coastal town of ancient Bithynia located on the Bosphorus near Chrysopolis. Polybius calls the town Bus or Bous.
