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

HAKMAMAXA.

199

HASTA.

in somewhat the same manner as our dumb-
bells.

Halteres. (Tassie, ' Catalogue,' pi. 46.)

HAKMAMAXA (app.ap.afa), a carriage for
persons, covered overhead and inclosed with
curtains. It was in general large, often
drawn by four horses, and attired with
splendid ornaments. It occupied among the
Persians the same place which the carpentum
did among the Romans, being used, espe-
cially upon state occasions, for the convey-
ance of women and children, of eunuchs, and
of the sons of the king with their tutors.

HARMOSTAE (appuxmu, from app.6fu>, to
fit or join together), the name of the governors
whom the Lacedaemonians, after the Pelo-
ponnesian war, sent into their subject or
conquered towns, partly to keep them in sub-
mission, and partly to abolish the denio-
cratical form of government, and establish in
its stead one similar to their own. Although
in many cases they were ostensibly sent for
the purpose of abolishing the tyrannical
government of a town, and to restore the
people to freedom, yet they themselves acted
like kings or tyrants.

HARPAGO (apn-ayrj: Avkos : Kpedypa.), a
grappling-iron, a drag, a flesh-hook. In
war the grappling-iron, thrown at an enemy's
ship, seized the rigging, and was then used
to drag the ship within reach, so that it
might be easily boarded or destroyed. These
instruments appear to have been much the

Flesh-hook. (British Milium.)

same as the mantis fcrrcac. The flesh-hook
(/cped-ypa) was an instrument used in cookery,
resembling a hand with the fingers bent in-
wards, used to take boiled meat out of the
caldron.

IIARPASTUM. [Pila.]

IIARUSPICES, or ARUSPICES Opoo--
/coiroi), soothsayers or diviners, who inter-
preted the will of the gods. They originally
came to Rome from Ktruria, whence harus-
pices were often sent for by the Romans or.
important occasions. The art of the harus-
piees resembled in many respects that of the
augurs; but they never acquired that po-
litical importance which the latter possessed,
and were regarded rather as means for
ascertaining the w ill of the gods than as pos-
sessing any religious authority. They did
not in fact form any part of the ecclesiastical
polity of the Roman state during the republic ;
they are never called sacerdotes, they did
not form a collegium, and had no magistcr
at their head. The art of the haruspices,
which was called haruspicina, consisted in
explaining and interpreting the will of the
gods from the appearance of the entrails
(cxta) of animals offered in sacrifice, whence
they are sometimes called exttspices, and their
art extispicium; and also from lightning,
earthquakes, and all extraordinary pheno-
mena in nature, to which the general name
of portenta was given. Their art is said to
have been invented by the Etruscan Tagcs,
and was contained in certain books called
libri haruspicini, fulgurates, and tonitrtiales.
This art was considered by the Romans so
important at one time, that the senate de-
creed that a certain number of young Etrus-
cans, belonging to the principal families in
the state, should always be instructed in it.
In later times, however, their art fell into
disrepute among well-educated Romans ; and
Cicero relates a saying of Cato, that he won-
dered that one haruspex did not laugh when
he saw another. The name of haruspex is
sometimes applied to any kind of soothsayer
or prophet.

IIASTA (eyxoi), a spear. The spear is
defined by Homer, Sopv xa^KVPe^, " a pole
fitted with bronze," and Sopv xoAxofJapes, " a
pole heavy with bronze." The bronze, for
which iron was afterwards substituted, was
indispensable to form the point (aixp-i;, axwitTj,
Homer; A.oyx'), Xcnophon; acies, cuspis,
spiculum) of the spear. Each of these two
essential parts is often put for the whole, so
that a spear is called Sopv and Sopdnov,
a'Xf"), and Aoyxi. Even the more especial
term p-eAi'a, meaning an ash-tree, is used in
the same manner, because the pole of the
spear was often the stem of a young ash,