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

ALARII.

1

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ALLOCUTIO.

finally received their name. Thus Theocritus
speaks of golden alabastra. These vessels
were ot a tapering shape, and very often had
a long narrow neck, which was sealed; so
that when Mary, the sister of Lazarus, is
said by St. Mark to break the alabaster box
of ointment for the purpose of anointing our
Saviour, it appears probable that she only
broke the extremity of the neck, which was
thus closed.

ALARII. [Ala.]

ALAUDA, a Gaulish word, the prototype
of the modern French Alouette, denoting a
small crested bird of the lark kind. The
name alauda was bestowed by Julius Caesar
on a legion of picked men, which he raised at
his own expense among the inhabitants of
Transalpine Gaul, about the year B.C. 55,
which he equipped and disciplined after the
Roman fashion, and on which he at a subse-
quent period bestowed the freedom of the
state. The designation was, in all proba-
bility, applied from a plume upon the helmet,
resembling the " apex" of the bird in ques-
tion, or from the general shape and appear-
ance of the head-piece.

ALBOGALERUS. [Apex.]

ALBUM, a tablet of any material on which
the praetor's edicts, and the rules relating to
actions and interdicts, were written. The
tablet was put up in a public place, in order
that all the world might have notice of its
contents. According to some authorities, the
album was so called because it was either a
white material or a material whitened, and
of course the writing would be of a different
colour. According to other authorities, it
was so called because the writing was in
white letters. Probably the word album
originally meant any tablet containing any-
thing of a public nature. We know that it
was, in course of time, used to signify a list
of any public body; thus we find album ju-
dicum, or the body out of which judices were
to be chosen [Judex], and album senatorium,
or list of senators.

ALEA, gaming, or playing at a game of
chance of any kind : hence aleo, aleator, a
gamester, a gambler. Playing with tali, or
tesserae, was generally understood, because
this was by far the most common game of
chance among the Romans. Gaming was
forbidden by the Roman laws, both during
the times of the republic and under the em-
perors, but was tolerated in the month of
December at the Saturnalia, which was a
period of general relaxation ; and old men
were allowed to amuse themselves in this
manner at all times.

ALICULA (aAAij or aAArjf), an upper dress,
in all probability identical with the chlamys.

ALIMENTARII PUERI ET PUELLAE.
In the Roman republic the poorer citizens
were assisted by public distributions of corn,
oil, and money, which were called congiaria.
[Congiaeium.] The Emperor Nerva "was the
first who extended them to children, and Tra-
jan appointed them to be made every month,
both to orphans and to the children of poor
parents. The children who received them were
called pueri et puellae alimentarii, and also
(froni_the emperor) pueri puellaeque Ulpiani.

ALIPILUS, a slave, who attended on
bathers to remove the superfluous hair from
their bodies.

ALIPTAE (dAeiVrai), among the Greeks,
were persons who anointed the bodies of the
athletae preparatory to their entering the
palaestra. The chief object of this anointing
was to close the pores of the body, in order
to prevent much perspiration, and the weak-
ness consequent thereon. The athleta was
again anointed after the contest, in order to
restore the tone of the strained muscles. He
then bathed, and had the dust, sweat, and
oil scraped off his body, by means of an in-
strument similar to the strigil of the Romans,
and called stlengis (orAeyj/i's), and afterwards
xystra (|u'arpa). The aliptae took advantage
of the knowledge they necessarily acquired
of the state of the muscles of the athletae,
and their general strength or weakness of
body, to advise them as to their exercises
and mode of life. They were thus a kind of
medical trainers. Among the Romans the
aliptae were slaves who scrubbed and anointed
their masters in the baths. They, too, like,
the Greek aliptae, appear to have attended to
their masters' constitution and mode of life.
They were also called unctores. They used
in their operations a kind of scraper called
strigil, towels (lintea), a cruise of oil (ffittttts),
which was usually of horn, a bottle [ampulla,,
and a small vessel called lenticula.

ALLOCUTIO, an harangue made by a
Roman inrperator to his soldiers, to eh-