Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

AETAS.

ACER PUBLICUS.

Cyme and Chalcedon, it was the title borne
by the regular magistrates.
AETAS. [Imfans; Impubes.]
AETOLICUM FOEDUS (koiv'ov mv Aitw-
Koov), the Aetolian league, appears as a power-
ful political body soon after the death of
Alexander the Great, viz. during the Lamian
war against Antipater. The characteristic
difference between the Aetolian and Achaean
leagues was that the former originally con-
sisted of a confederacy of nations or tribes,
while the latter was a confederacy of towns.
The sovereign power of the confederacy was
vested in the general assemblies of all the
confederates (koivov tiZv AitiuAojj/, concilium
AetolorumJ, and this assembly had the right
to discuss all questions respecting peace and
war, and to elect the great civil or military
officers of the league. The ordinary place of
meeting was Thermon, but on extraordinary
occasions assemblies were also held in other
towns belonging to the league, though they
were not situated in the country of Aetolia
Proper. The questions which were to be
brought before the assembly were sometimes
discussed previously by a committee, selected
from the great mass, and called Apocleti
(a7roKAT;Toi). The general assembly usually
met in the autumn, when the officers of the
league were elected. The highest among
them, as among those of the Achaean league,
bore the title of Strategua (trrpaTTjyos), whose
office lasted only for one year. The stra-
tegus had the right to convoke the assembly;
he presided in it, introduced the subjects for
deliberation, and levied the troops. The
officers next in rank to the strategus were
the hipparchus and the public scribe. The
political existence of the league was destroyed
in b.c. 189 by the treaty with Rome, and the
treachery of the Roman party among the
Aetolians themselves caused in b.c. 167 five
hundred and fifty of the leading patriots to
be put to death, and those who survived the
massacre were carried to Rome as prisoners.
AETOMA (ae'ra^a). [Fastigium.]
AFFIXES, AFFINITAS, or ADFINES,
ADFINITAS. Affines are the cognati [Cog-
nati] of husband and wife, the cognati of
the husband becoming the affines of the wife,
and the cognati of the wife the affines of the
husband. The father of a husband is the
socer of the husband's wife, and the father of
a wife is the socer of the wife's husband.
The term socrus expresses the same affinity
with respect to the husband's and wife's
mothers. A son's wife is minis, or daughter-
in-law to the son's parents ; a wife's husband
is genet; or son-in-law to the wife's parents.
Thus the avus, aria—pater, mater— of the
wife became by the marriage respectively the

socer magnus, prosocrus, or socrus magna—
socer, socrus—of the husband, who becomes
with respect to them severally progener and
gener. In like manner the corresponding
ancestors of the husband respectively assume
the same names with respect to the son's
wife, who becomes with respect to them pro-
nurus and nurus. The son and daughter of a
husband or wife born of a prior marriage are
called prirignus and privigna, with respect to
their step-father or step-mother; and with
respect to such children, the step-father and
step-mother are severally called vitricus and
noverca. The husband's brother becomes
levir with respect to the wife, and his sister
becomes glos (the Greek yciAws). Marriage
was unlawful among persons who had become
such affines as above mentioned.

AGALMA (aya\)ia) is a general name for a
statue or image to represent a god.

AGASO, a groom, whose business it was to
take care of the horses. The word is also
used for a driver of beasts of burden, and is
sometimes applied to a slave who had to
perform the lowest menial duties.

AGATIIOERGI (iyafloepyoi.'). In time of
war the kings of Sparta had a body-guard of
three hundred of the noblest of the Spartan
youths (i^eZs), of whom the five eldest re-
tired every year, and were employed for one
year under the name of Agathoergi, in mis-
sions to foreign states.

AGELA (ayeArj), an assembly of young
men in Crete, who lived together from their
eighteenth year till the time of their mar-
riage. An agcla always consisted of the sons
of the most noble citizens, and the members
of it were obliged to marry at the same time.

AGEMA (ayrfixa from ay«0, the name of a
chosen body of troops in the Macedonian
army, usually consisting of horsemen.

AGER PUBLICUS, the public land, was
the land belonging to the Roman state. It
was a recognised principle among the Italian
nations that the territor)' of a conquered
people belonged to the conquerors. Accord-
ingly, the Romans were constantly acquiring
fresh territory by the conquest of the sur-
rounding people. The land thus acquired
was usually disposed of in the following way.
1. The land which was under cultivation was
either distributed among colonists, who were
sent to occupy it, or it was sold, or it was let
out to farm. 2. The land which was then
out of cultivation, and which, owing to war,
was by far the greater part, might be occu-
pied by any of the Roman citizens on the
payment of a portion of the yearly produce ;
a tenth of the produce of arable land, and a
fifth of the produce of the land planted with
the vine, the olive, and other valuable trees.