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

NOMOPHYLACES

271

NOMOTHETAE.

a third or fourth name was possessed by the
person. Every Roman citizen, besides be-
longing to a gens, was also frequently a
member of a familia, contained in a gens,
and accordingly might have a third name or
cognomen. Such cognomina were derived by
the Romans from a variety of mental or
bodily peculiarities, or from some remarkable
event in the life of the person who was the
founder of the familia. Such cognomina are,
Asper, Imperiosus, Magnus, Maximus, Pub-
licola, Brutus, Capito, Cato, Naso, Labeo,
Caecus, Cicero, Scipio, Sulla, Torquatus, &c.
These names were in most cases hereditary,
and descended to the latest members of a
familia; in some cases the}7 ceased with the
death of the person to whom they were given
for special reasons. Many Romans had a
second cognomen [cognomen secundum or ag-
nomen), which was given to them as an ho-
norary distinction, and in commemoration of
some memorable deed or event of their life,
e. g. Africanus, Asiaticus, Hispallus, Creten-
sis, Macedonicus, Allobrogicus, &e. Such
agnomina were sometimes given by one ge-
neral to another, sometimes by the army and
confirmed by the chief-general, sometimes by
the people in the comitia, and sometimes they
were assumed by the person himself, as in
the case of L. Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus.
The regular order in which these names fol-
lowed one another was:—1. praenonien ;
2. nomen gentilicium; 3. cognomen pri-
mum; 4. cognomen secundum or agnomen.
Sometimes the name of the tribe to which a
person belonged, was added to his name, in
the ablative case, as Q. Yerres Romilia, C.
Claudius Palatina. If a person by adoption
passed from one gens into another, he as-
sumed the praenomcn, nomen, and cognomen
of his adoptive father, and added to these the
name of his former gens, with the termina-
tion anus. Thus C. Octavius, after being
adopted by his uncle C. Julius Caesar, was
called C. Julius Caesar Oetavianus, and the
son of L. Aemilius Paullus, when adopted by
P. Cornelius Scipio, was called P. Cornelius
Scipio Aemilianus. [Adoptio.] Slaves had
only one name, and usually retained that
which they had borne before they came into
slavery. If a slave was restored to freedom,
he received the praenomen and nomen gen-
tilicium of his former master, and to these
was added the name which he had had as a
slave. Instances of such freedmen are, T.
Ampins Menandcr, a freedman of T. Ampius
Balbus, L. Cornelius Chrysogonus, a freedman
of L. Cornelius Sulla, and M. Tullius Tiro,
freedman of M. Tullius Cicero.

NOMOPHYLACES (i/o/xo(/>u'AaK€s), certain
magistrates or official persons of high autho-

rity, who exercised a control over other ma-
gistrates, and indeed over the whole body of
the people, it being their duty to see that the
laws were duly administered and obeyed.
Mention is made of such officers at Sparta
and elsewhere, but no such body existed at
Athens, for they must have had a power too
great for the existence of a democracy. The
Senate of 500, or the Areopagitic council,
performed in some measure the office of law-
guardians ; but the only persons designated
by this name appear to have been inferior
functionaries (a sort of police), whose busi-
ness it was to prevent irregularities and dis-
turbances in the public assemblies.

NOMOS (Vd/u.09). This word comprehends
the notion not only of established or statute
law, but likewise of all customs and opinions
to which long prescription or natural feeling
gives the force of law. Before any written
codes appeared, law was promulgated by the
poets or wise men, who sang the great deeds
of their ancestors, and delivered their moral
and political lessons in verse. As civilisation
advanced, laws were reduced to writing, in
the shape either of regular codes or distinct
ordinances, and afterwards publicly exhibited,
engraved on tablets, or hewn on columns.
The first written laws we hear of are those
of Zaleucus. The first at Athens were those
of Draco, called #£07101, and by that name
distinguished from the vopot. of Solon. The
laws of Lyeurgus were not written. He en-
joined that they should never be inscribed on
any other tablet than the hearts of his coun-
trymen. Those of Solon were inscribed on
wooden tablets, arranged in pyramidal blocks,
turning on an axis, called afore; and /cvp^ei?.
They were first hung in the Acropolis, but
afterwards brought down to the Prytaneum.

NOMOTHETAE Oofio^Tcu), movers or
proposers of laws, the name of a legislative
committee at Athens, which, by an institution
of Solon, was appointed to amend and revise
the laws. At the first KvpCa c/ckAtjo-iii in every
year, any person was at liberty to point out
defects in the existing code or propose altera-
tions. If his motion was deemed worthy of
attention, the third assembly might refer the
matter to the Nomothetae. They were se-
lected by lot from the Heliastic body; it
being the intention of Solon to limit the
power of the popular assembly by means of a
superior board emanating from itself, com-
posed of citizens of mature age, bound by a
stricter oath, and accustomed to weigh legal
principles by the exercise of their judicial
functions. The number of the committee so
appointed varied according to the exigency
of the occasion. The people appointed five
I advocates (ovvSlkoi.) to attend before the