DOMINO DONATISTS. 



709 



harlequin with the greatest applause, till Ms death, 

 in 1688. The French comedians wished to prevent 

 the Italians from bringing French pieces, on their 

 stage, and Louis XIV. gave both parties an audience. 

 Baron and Dominique were ordered to appear as 

 their deputies. The former having spoken, in the name 

 of the French, it was Dominique's turn to plead his 

 cause ; and he asked the king how he should speak. 

 " Speak as you please," answered the king. " That 

 is all I want," rejoined the harlequin ; " I have won." 

 The king received this sally with a laugh, and from 

 that time the Italian theatre represented French 

 pieces without opposition. 



DOMINO ; formerly a dress worn by priests, in 

 the winter, which, reaching no lower than the 

 shoulders, served to protect the face and head from 

 the weather. At present, it is a masquerade dress, 

 worn by gentlemen and ladies, consisting of a long 

 silk mantle, with a cap and wide sleeves. 



DOMITIAN, TITUS FLAVIUS SABINUS, son of Ves- 

 pasian, and brother of Titus, was born A.D. fifty-one, 

 and made himself odious, even in youth, by his indol- 

 ence and voluptuousness, and his cruel, malignant, and 

 suspicious temper. Rome trembled when, on his 

 brother's death, he obtained the diadem (A. D. 81). 

 At first, indeed, he deceived the people by acts of 

 kindness, good laws, and a show of justice, so that 

 their fears vanished ; but he soon returned to his 

 former excesses and cruelty. He first caused his 

 kinsman, Flavius Sabinus, to be put to death, though 

 entirely innocent. No less vain than cruel, while his 

 general, Agricola, was victorious over the Caledo- 

 nians, in Britain, he made a ridiculous expedition 

 against the Catti, returned speedily to Rome, with- 

 out having effected anything, and carried a multi- 

 tude of slaves, dressed like Germans, in triumph to 

 the city. Agricola's victories exciting his jealousy, 

 he recalled that general to Rome, and kept him in 

 total inactivity. At the same time, he spread terror 

 through Rome by the execution of a great number of 

 the first citizens. He gave himself up to every ex- 

 cess, and to the meanest avarice. He at last con- 

 ceived the mad idea of arrogating divine honours to 

 himself, assumed the titles of Lord and God, and 

 claimed to be a son of Minerva. His principal amuse- 

 ment consisted in the shows of the circus. In the 

 year eighty-six, the bloody war with the Dacians 

 began, which was carried on with various success, 

 and terminated (A. D. 90) by a peace bought by the 

 promise of paying a certain tribute. Notwithstand- 

 ing this, Domitian celebrated a grand triumph on the 

 occasion. The misery of the people was, meanwhile, 

 continually increasing ; and, after the revival of the 

 law against high treason, no one was secure of his 

 property or his life. The tyrant once made a feast, 

 on purpose to terrify the senators and knights. They 

 were assembled in a dark hall, in which were coffins, 

 with the names of the individuals invited inscribed 

 upon them ; suddenly the doors opened, and a troop 

 of naked men, painted black, with drawn swords and 

 blazing torches, rushed in, and danced about the 

 guests, until the emperor had sufficiently enjoyed their 

 terror, when he dismissed the supposed executioners. 

 The fears of the tyrant increased his cruelty. A 

 paper fell into the hands of his wife, the infamous 

 Domitia, in which she found her own name, and 

 those of the two commanders of the pretorian 

 guards, noted down by the emperor, with many 

 others, to be sacrificed. This discovery induced her 

 to conspire against him, and to murder him in his 

 chamber, A. D. 96. He had reigned fifteen years, 

 and was forty-five years old. Domitian built the 

 most magnificent temple in Rome. 



DOMREMY LA PUCELLE; the birth-place of 

 Juan of Are (q. v.) ; a sirall village in the depart- 



ment of the Vosges, in France, not far from Vaucon- 

 leurs, in the department of the Meuse, in a fruitful 

 region. The house is still shown here in which the 

 heroine was born. In the neighbourhood is the mo- 

 nument erected to her memory by the prefect of the 

 department of the Vosges, with her marble bust, 

 which was solemnly consecrated, September 10, 1820. 

 A free school is established there, for the instruction 

 of girls. See the description, in the Hist, abregee de 

 la Pie et des Exploits de Jeanne d'drc, par Jollois 

 (with engravings, 1821, folio). 



DON, the Tanais of the ancients, a river of Euro- 

 pean Russia, rising in the small lake of Ivan Ozero, 

 in the government of Toula, has a course of about 880 

 miles, generally from north to south, passes Azoph, 

 and falls into the sea, two leagues below this place. 

 Many large rivers empty themselves into the Don, and 

 its valley is one of the most extensive in Europe. A 

 canal, dug by Peter the Great, in 1707, connects the 

 Volga and the Don, by the help of intermediate rivers. 

 It is intended to dig another canal between the Don 

 and Volga, which, in the forty-ninth parallel of lati- 

 tude, are distant from each other thirty-three leagues 

 only ; and thus a communication would be easy be- 

 tween the sea of Azoph and the Caspian. For infor- 

 mation respecting the Cossacks of the Don, see the 

 article Cossacks. 



DON, a small river of Yorkshire, which joins the 

 Aire, near Snaith. 



DON, a river of Aberdeenshire, the main branch 

 of which rises from the hills that divide the county 

 from Strath Deveron, in Banffshire, and, after being 

 joined by the Ury at Inverury, falls into the sea at 

 Old Aberdeen. Its course is mostly through fertile 

 plains, and in cases of floods, such as that of August, 

 1829, it commits extensive havoc. Counting its wind- 

 ings, its length is above sixty miles, though, taken in 

 a straight line, it is little above forty miles. It is 

 smaller in size than the Dee, and its salmon fisheries 

 are less productive. 



DON (Spanish, from the Latin dominus). In Na- 

 ples, the Spanish fashion of giving every gentleman 

 the title of don became common during the time 

 when that country was under the government of 

 Spain. In the north of Italy, it is given only to ec- 

 clesiastics. 



DONAGHADEE; a considerable town in the 

 county of Down, Ireland, situated on the coast of 

 the Irish channel, opposite Port Patrick, from which 

 it is distant twenty miles. Being the nearest Irish 

 port to Scotland, steam-packets are established here, 

 for the conveyance of the mails between the two 

 countries. Cottons are manufactured here chiefly 

 for Glasgow houses, and a species of goods, called 

 worked muslins. The chief importance of this place 

 is derived from its quay or harbour, constructed 

 from a design by John Rennie, and composed of 

 a durable wninstone. It encloses an area of 100 

 fathoms square, and admits vessels of fifteen feet 

 draft at low water. There was an extensive quay 

 erected here some years ago at the expense of the 

 Lord Montgomery. Donaghadee is 94 miles from 

 Dublin, and 15 from Belfast. 



DONATISTS ; the followers of Donatus, a Nu- 

 midian bishop, who, with his friends, refusing, in 

 311, in a contested election of a bishop, to recognise 

 the Traditors (i. e. the ecclesiastics who had given up 

 the sacred books to the heathen magistrates, during 

 the periods of persecution) as eligible to office in the 

 church, quitted the Roman church, with his friends, 

 and founded a peculiar sect, which refused to receive 

 Christians of other sects, without a second baptism. 

 These schismatics prevailed in the Christian provinces 

 of northern Africa, and, in 330, numbered 172 bishops 

 of their persuasion. Their strictness was increased 



