274 



NULLITY NUMISMATOLOGY. 



tanks of a river to keep the channel free through 

 their lands. Tumults anil annoying sounds are 

 another species of common nuisance ; and a common 

 scold, by perpetually disturbing the public, becomes 

 liable to indictment and punishment therefor. Poi- 

 soning streams is an offence of this description ; and 

 so also is the occasioning noisome smells, to the 

 public inconvenience. Common nuisances are pun- 

 ishable at the suit of the public, by indictment. 

 Private nuisances are similar in kind, but are annoy- 

 ances to only a few, and the persons who suffer may 

 have an action on the case against the person who 

 occasions them. Another remedy, both against com- 

 mon and private nuisances, is the right that every 

 person incommoded by them has to abate or remove 

 them. Thus if one wishes to pass along a street 

 which another has encumbered by some nuisance, he 

 is not obliged to wait to indict the party offending 

 before he can pass, but he has a right to remove it, 

 provided he does so without making any riot or 

 tumult. And so if a person unlawfully builds a dam 

 across a stream, whereby the water is made to flow 

 back upon his neighbour's land, the proprietor of the 

 land overflowed may go upon another person's land, 

 without tumult, force, or riot, and remove the ob- 

 struction ; but he roust be certain that the dam is 

 a nuisance, before hi ventures upon such a step. 

 Erecting a smelting-house near to one's land, where- 

 by the grass and herbage are destroyed, has been 

 held to be a nuisance. So is turning water towards 

 one's house, so that it runs into his cellar. So is 

 erecting a bridge, or setting up a ferry, very near to 

 another bridge or ferry, so as to take away tolls. 

 So a sesspool, tallow-furnace, place for keeping 

 swine, lime-kiln, brew-house, tannery, and glass- 

 house, have been held to be nuisances, in particular 

 instances, where they were placed too near dwelling- 

 houses. In one instance, in England, a blacksmith's 

 shop, of which a neighbour complained, as keeping 

 him awake during the night by the hammering, was 

 held to be a private nuisance, though the blacksmith 

 alleged in defence, that he did not work at unseason- 

 able hours. A pigeon-house, or dove-cote, is not a 

 nuisance. In case of complaint by a lawyer against 

 a school kept near to his office, as disturbing him in 

 his studies, the school was held to be no nuisance. 



NULLITY, in law; is the entire invalidity of a legal 

 proceeding, or legal instrument. It is distinguished 

 from mere incorrectness, which may be remedied, while 

 this defeats the whole process. The declaration of 

 nullity is most frequent in the French civil and criminal 

 law ; and the court of cassation is appropriated ex- 

 clusively to the trial of cases relating to this point. 

 The corresponding process in England is called a 

 urit of error. In Germany, it was provided, in 1654, 

 that the complaint of nullity should be brought only 

 in case of incurable defects, and within thirty years. 

 NUMANTIA, a town in that part of Spain called 

 by the Romans Hispania Tarraconensis , is celebrated 

 for its de?perate resistance to the Roman power. 

 The natives of Spain had continued the struggle 

 even after the fall of Carthage, and Viriathus had 

 endeavoured to organize a general insurrection of the 

 Spanish tribes. The plan failed ; and, while the 

 greatest part of the Celtiberians returned to submis- 

 sion, the Numantians, who belonged to the Celtibe- 

 , rian tribe Arevaci, determined to hold out. The 

 position of Numantia on a steep height on the Douro 

 (Duero), at the confluence of the Punto. allowed an 

 attack only on one side, which was strengthened by 

 art. The first attempt of the Roman forces under 

 the command of the preetor Pompeius Aulus (A. U. 

 616), was unsuccessful, and attended with great loss. 

 Yet more disgraceful was the failure of the consul 

 Hostilius Mancinus (617), who was compelled to 



capitulate on terms which the senate refused to 

 ratify. The commanders who succeeded avoided 

 coming to an engagement with the brave Numiin- 

 tians, who amounted to 8000 men capable of bearing 

 arms. Scipio Africanus the younger, the destroyer 

 of Carthage, was finally sent ngainst them, with a 

 force of 60,000 men. He determined to reduce the 

 place by famine, and, having cut them off from all 

 supplies, compelled the remnant to yield. Many of 

 them, however, killed their wives and children and 

 themselves, or threw themselves into the flames. 

 Thus fell Numantia, which had resisted the anus of 

 Rome for fourteen years, after a siege of fourteen 

 months (621 A. U., 133 B. C.). The town was de- 

 stroyed by the conqueror. Soria (6000 inhabitants) 

 is supposed to be on the site of the ancient Numantia. 



NUMA POMPILIUS, the second king of Rome, 

 reigned from 714 to 672 B. C. (or from the thirty- 

 ninth to the eighty-first year after the building of the 

 city). He was the fourth son of Pompilius Pompo, 

 a distinguished Sabine, and the husband of Tatia, the 

 daughter of the Tatius who, for a long period, shared 

 the kingdom with Romulus. After he had lived with 

 her as a private individual in his native place for 

 thirteen years, he retired, upon her death, to the 

 country, where he led a secluded life, till he was 

 called by the Romans from his retirement to the 

 throne. Numa was not, like Romulus, a warrior, 

 but possessed all the qualities of a lawgiver, and a 

 just and wise ruler. He greatly strengthened the 

 civil institutions of Rome, by uniting them with 

 religious ceremonies. Numa rose far above his con- 

 temporaries, by the conception that no mortal can 

 bring himself into communion with God, otherwise 

 than in thought (as Plutarch has related, in his life of 

 Numa). He was the founder of the Roman wor- 

 ship. The establishment of the colleges of pontifices, 

 flamines, and vestals, the improvement of the calen- 

 dar, the fixing of the dies fasti and nefasti, the vene- 

 ration for termini, or boundary-stones, intended for 

 the security of property, the founding of corporations, 

 and the abolishing of human sacrifices, are all attri- 

 buted to him. The temple of Janus was closed for 

 the first time during his reign. Tradition relates that 

 the nymph Egeria, in the grove of Aricia, was the 

 friend and counsellor of Numa. Some have endea- 

 voured to make him the pupil of Pythagoras ; but 

 they lived at least two centuries apart. He left an 

 only daughter, Pompilia, who married Numa Mar- 

 tius, and became the mother of Ancus Martins, the 

 fourth king of Rome. 



NUMBER. See Noun. 



NUMBERS. See Notation. 



NUMERATOR OF A FRACTION ; that num- 

 ber which stands above the line, and shows how 

 many parts the fraction consists of, as the denomina- 

 tor represents the number of parts into which the unit 

 is supposed to be divided. 



NUMISMATOLOGY, or NUMISMATICS, is 

 the name of the science which has for its object the 

 study of coins and medals, principally those struck 

 by the ancient Greeks and Romans. The word is 

 derived from the Greek tmpi/rpa, or the Latin numus, 

 signifying coin, or medal. The name of coins is 

 given to the pieces of metal on which the public 

 authority has impressed different marks to indicate 

 their weight and value, to make them a convenient 

 medium of exchange. By the word medals, when 

 used in reference to modern times, is understood 

 pieces of metal similar to coins, but not intended as 

 means of exchange, but struck and distributed in 

 memory of some important event. The name of 

 medals, however, is also given to all the pieces of 

 money which have remained from ancient times. 

 The parts of a coin or medal are the two sides 5 i. 



