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

ISTHMIA. 214 JANUA.

each of whom enjoyed in succession the regal
power and its badges for five days; and if no
king was appointed at the expiration of fifty
days, the rotation began anew. The period
during which they exercised their power wat
called an Interregnum. These ten interreges
were the Decern Primi, or ten leading sena-
tors, of whom the first was chief of the whole
senate. The interreges agreed among them-
selves who should be proposed as king, and
if the senate approved of their choice, they
summoned the assembly of the curiae, and
proposed the person whom they had previ-
ously agreed upon ; the power of the curiae
was confined to accepting or rejecting him.
Interreges were appointed under the republic
for holding the comitia for the election of the
consuls, when the consuls, through civil com-
motions or other causes, had been unable to
do so in their year of office. Each held the
office for only five days, as under the kings.
The comitia were hardly ever held by the
first interrex ; more usually by the second or
third ; but in one instance we read of an
eleventh, and in another of a fourteenth in-
terrex. The interreges under the republic,
at least from b. c. 482, were elected by the
senate from the whole body, and were not
confined to the decern primi or ten chief se-
nators, as under the kings. Plebeians, how-
ever, were not admissible to this office ; and
consequently, when plebeians were admitted
into the senate, the patrician senators met
without the plebeian members to elect an in-
terrex. For this reason, as well as on ac-
count of the influence which the interrex
exerted in the election of the magistrates, we
find that the tribunes of the plebs were
strongly opposed to the appointment of an
interrex. The interrex had jurisdictio. In-
terreges continued to be appointed occasion-
ally till the time of the second Punic war,
but after that time we read of no interrex,
till the senate, by command of Sulla, created
an interrex to hold the comitia for his elec-
tion as dictator, b. c. 82. In b. c. 55 ano-
ther interrex was appointed, to hold the
comitia in which Pompcy and Crassus were
elected consuls ; and we also read of inter-
reges in b. c. 53 and 52, in the latter of
which years an interrex held the comitia in
which Pompey was appointed sole consul.

ISTHMIA (ia-0|iua), the Isthmian games,
one of the four great national festivals of the
Greeks. This festival derived its name from
the Corinthian isthmus, where it was held.
Subsequent to the age of Theseus the Isthmia
were celebrated in honour of Poseidon ; and
this innovation is ascribed to Theseus him-
self. The celebration of the Isthmia was
conducted by the Corinthians, but Theseus

had reserved for his Athenians some honour
able distinctions : those Athenians who at
tended the Isthmia sailed across the Saronic
gulf in a sacred vessel (Secopis), and an ho-
norary place (npoe&pia), as large as the sail
of their vessel, was assigned to them during
the celebration of the games. In times of
war between the two states a sacred truce
was concluded, and the Athenians were in-
vited to attend at the solemnities. These
games were celebrated regularly every other
year, in the first and third years of eaen
Olympiad. After the fall of Corinth, in 146
n. c., the Sicyonians were honoured with the
privilege of conducting the Isthmian games ;
but when the town of Corinth was rebuilt by
Julius Caesar, the right of conducting the so-
lemnities was restored to the Corinthians. The
season of the Isthmian solemnities was, like
that of all the great national festivals, dis-
tinguished by general rejoicings and feasting.
The contests and games of the Isthmia were
the same as those at Olympia, and embraced
all the varieties of athletic performances,
such as wrestling, the pancratium, together
with horse and chariot racing. Musical and
poetical contests were likewise carried on,
and in the latter women were also allowed
to take part. The prize of a victor in the
Isthmian games consisted at first of a garland
of pine-leaves, and afterwards of a wreath of
ivy. Simple as such a reward was, a victor
in these games gained the greatest distinc-
tion and honour among his countrymen ; and
a victory not only rendered the individual
who obtained it a subject of admiration, but
shed lustre over his family, and the whole
town or community to which he belonged.
Hence Solon established by a law, that every
Athenian who gained the victory at the
Isthmian games should receive from the
public treasury a reward of one hundred
drachmae. His victory was generally cele-
brated in lofty odes, called Epinikia, or tri-
umphal odes, of which we still possess some
beautiful specimens among the poems of
Pindar.

JAC1

JANUA {6vpa), a door. Besides being
applicable to the doors of apartments in the
interior of a house, which were properly
called ostia, this term more especially denoted
the first entrance into the house, i. e. the
front or street door, which was also called
anticum, and in Greek Ovpa avAeios, aiiAei'a,
auAios, or auAia. The houses of the Eomans
commonly had a back door, called posticum,
postica, or posticuhi, and in Greek va.p6.6vpa.,