REV 



REV 



With us, bifhops are right reverend ; and archbifhops mojl 

 reverend. In France, their bidiops, archbilhops, andabbets, 

 are all alike reverendijjimes, mo/} reverend. 



REVERIE, a term purely French, frequently ufed of 

 late in Englifh, to fignify a delirium, raving, or diflraftion. 

 It is an ill fign in fevers when the patient falls into a re- 

 verie. 



Hence alfo reverie comes to be ufed for any ridiculous, 

 extravagant imagination, aftion, or propofition, a chimera 

 or vifion. Thus we fay, authors obtrude abundance of 

 their reveries upon us for folid truths. 



But the moil ordinary ufe of the word reverie, among 

 Englifh writers, is for a deep, diforderly mufing or medi- 

 tation, equivalent to what we popularly call a brown Jludy. 

 Thus, a little diflraftion I would allow ; but for that con- 

 tinued feries of reveries fome people are guilty of who are 

 ever abfent from the place where you fee them, and are never 

 prefent any where, it is inexcufable. 



REVERO, in Geography, a town of Italy, in the de- 

 partment of the Mincio, on the S. fide of the Po, oppoiite 

 to Oftiglio. 



REVERS, Battery de. See Battery. 



REVERSAL, in Laic. See Reverse. 



REVERSATA Arma. See Arma. 



REVERSE, in the Military Art, lignifies on the back, 

 or behind. Thus we fay, a reverfe view, a rcverfe com- 

 manding ground, a reverfe battery, &c. 



REVERSE, formed of re, again, and ver/us, turned, in 

 Latv, &c. To reverfe, iignilies to undo, repeal, or make 

 void. 



A judgment may be reverfed or voided for matters fo- 

 reign to or dehors the record, that is, not apparent upon the 

 face of it, by writ of error, and by aft of parliament. 

 The effeft of falfifying or reverling an outlawry is, that the 

 party (hall be in the fame plight as if he had appeared upon 

 the capias ; and if it be before plea pleaded, he ihall be put 

 to plead to the indictment ; if after conviftion, he (hall re- 

 ceive the fentence of the law ; for all the other proceedings, 

 except only the procefs of outlawry for his non-appearance, 

 remain good and effeftual as before. But when judgment, 

 pronounced upon conviftion, is fallified or reverfed, all 

 former proceedings are abfolutely fet afide, and the party 

 Hands as if he had never been at all accufed ; reltored in his 

 credit, his capacity, Tiis blood, and his ellates. But he flill 

 remains .liable to another profecution for the fame offence. 

 See Attainder, Judgment, and Outlawry. 



Reverse of a medal, coin, &c. denotes the fecond, or 

 back fide ; in oppofition to the head or principal figure, 

 called the face, or obverfe. 



F. Chamillart, a Jefuit, has an cxprefs difl'ertation on 

 this point, whether or no the reverfes of medals have always 

 a regard to the emperors or empreffes whofe heads are repre- 

 fented on the front fide of the medal J He fays, that till of 

 late the antiquaries have made no doubt of it ; but that there 

 are now feveral authors of another opinion. 



The knowledge of the reverfes of medals confl itutes adiitin- 

 guifhing part of this fcience. In the early Greek coins, the 

 reverfe feldom affords much fancy of fymbol ; and in the im- 

 perial Greek coins it is chiefly impreffed with temples of their 

 deities. To Greek artiitswe are indebted for the beauty of the 

 Roman imperial coins; and thefe are fd highly finifhed, that 

 on fome reverfes, as that of Nero's di-curlion, the " Adven- 

 tus" and " Progrefiio" of various emperors, the " Fun- 

 dator pacis" of Seveni6, the features of the emperor riding, 

 or walking, are as exact as on the obverfe. No Roman or 

 Etrufcan coins have been found of the globular form, or in- 

 dented on the reverfe, like the early Greek. The full 



Greek are fmall pieces of filver, while the Roman are large 

 mafles of copper : the former are itruck, the latter are- cafl 

 in moulds. The reverfes of Roman coins are very uniform, 

 the prow of a fhip, a car, or the like, till about ioo years 

 before our era, when various reverfes appear on their con- 

 fular coins in all metals. See Medal. 



With refpeft to the confular medals, it is obferved, that 

 the fame reverfe is common to many of them ; as Caflor and 

 Pollux on horfeback, firfl ufed ; then a viftory, or one of 

 the gods ; or the perfon to whofe honour the medal was 

 flruck, driving a chariot with two or four horfes ; whence 

 the denomination of the denarius bigatus, and quadrigatus. 

 The ratis or fhip, or prow of a fhip, as an emblem of naval 

 power, was no uncommon reverfe on the confular coins ; 

 which were, on this account, called ratiti. Some of the 

 confular medals, that bore on the face the imprefs of their 

 ancient kings, preferved on the reverfe the record of fome 

 worthy action which they had performed, as the famous 

 aqueduct on the reverfe of Ancus, in honour of his having 

 begun it. Medals, flruck on occafion of founding colonies, 

 have fometimes on the reverfe a priefl following a yoke of 

 oxen, with a plough ; defigned to denote the manner in 

 which the boundaries of colonies were marked out, or that 

 they were planted by the common people ; and thofe trophies 

 that are fometimes feen on medals of this kind, fignify that 

 they were planted by the veteran foldiers. 



The reverfes of imperial medals are very various ; but the 

 chief of them may be reduced to three claffes, viz. figures 

 or perfonages ; public monuments or buildings ; and in- 

 fcriptions. The figures are fometimes thofe of princes in 

 miniature, whofe portraits are exhibited more at large on the 

 face ; as on the reverfes of the emperors of the family of 

 Conllantine, we often fee the emperor Handing with a la- 

 barum in his right hand, and a globe, furmounted with a 

 viftory, in his left. Sometimes the emperor is difguifed 

 under the figure of fome god ; as on the reverfe of a Dio- 

 clefian, who had affumed the name Jovius, he appears in the 

 figure of Jupiter, fitting in a chair, with a globe in his 

 hand, furmounted with a Viftorv ; the legend being iovi. 

 II. u. C. c. i. e. Hoc voluerunt confides. The Greek coins of 

 cities prefent us with exquifite heads of deities, apparently 

 copied from ftatues or paintings. The majefly of Jupiter, 

 the modefly of Diana, the beauty of Venus, the ferocity 

 of Mars, and other ideal characters, appear in the Grecian 

 civic coins with a perfection not to be furpaffed by human 

 art. Sometimes the figure on the reverfe is fome relation of 

 that on the face ; as Auguflus on the reverfe of Julius, and 

 Claudius on the reverfe of his mother Antonia. Such 

 medals are highly efteemed by antiquarians, not only be- 

 caufe it is a rule with them that every coin flamped with 

 portraits on either fide is very valuable, but becaufe they 

 identify the perfonage on the reverfe to have been the wife, 

 the fon, or fehe daughter of fuch a particular prince, and 

 thus help in the adjullment of a feries. The figure of fome 

 deity is fometimes feen on the reverfe ; as Minerva on the re- 

 verfe of a Domitian ; and the goddefs Salus, with a patera 

 in her hand, facrificing to Efculapius, on the reverfe of a 

 Marcus Aurelius. (See Medal.) The virtues for which 

 the emperors were, or wiflied to be, celebrated, are alfo fre. 

 quently expreffed by the figures on the reverfes; and thus 

 the fine perfonifications and fymbols to be found on the re- 

 verfes of the Roman coins render them entertaining, as well 

 as imlruftive, to a perfon of poetical imagination. Virtue 

 or Courage is reprefented by a bold armed woman with a 

 fpear in her right hand, and a parazonium in her left, on the 

 reverfe of a Domitian ; Liberty, carrying in her right hand 

 the cap of liberty, and in her left the wand called rudis or 



2 vindifta, 



