SEC 



SEC 



dream, to dig in the ground in a place near the Campus 

 Martius, Called Terentiim, he there found an altar infcribed 

 to Dis, or Pluto and Proferpine ; upon which, as had been 

 foretold hii.i in his dream, three of his children, born blind, 

 obtained their fight ; and he, in gratitude, performed facri- 

 fices on the fame altar, for three days and three nights fuc- 

 celliTely. ' Or, finally, by reafon here was an altar of Pluto 

 buried deep under ground, becaufe the water of the Tyber, 

 terram tereret, eat into the ground in this place. 



The fecular games lafted three days, and as many nights ; 

 during which time facrifices were performed, theatrical fhows 

 exhibited, with combats, fports, &c. in the Circus. 



Their origin and inftitution are delivered at length by 

 Val. Maximus ; the occafion of which, according to this 

 ■writer, was to ftop the progrefs of a plague. The firlt 

 who had them celebrated at Rome, was Valerius Publicola, 

 the firlt conful created after the expulfion of the kings, in 

 the year of Rome 245. The ceremonies to be obferved in 

 them were found prefcribed in one of the books of the 

 Sibyls ; in which was contained a prophecy to this effedl ; 

 tiiz. that if the Romans at the beginning of every age fhould 

 hold folemn games in the Campus Martius to the honour of 

 Pluto, Proferpine, Juno, Apollo, Diana, Ceres, and the 

 Parcx, their city (hould ever flourifh, and all nations be 

 fubjefted to their dominions. Accordingly, they were very 

 ready to obey the oracle, and in all the ceremonies ufed on 

 this occafion conformed to its diredions. 



At the time of the celebration of the fecular games, he- 

 ralds were fent to invke all the world to a folemnity which 

 nobody had ever yet feen, nor was ever to fee again. 



They were introduced with extraordinary preparation, 

 under the diredlion of the quindecemviri ; who dillributed 

 to the people flambeaux and fulphur, and wheat and other 

 grain, for an offering. On the firft day after they had 

 offered facrifices to the above named deities at the Capitol, 

 they returned to the Campus Martius, where they had 

 aflembled, and held fports to the honour of Apollo and 

 Diana. On the fecond day, at the hour appointed by the 

 oracle, the noble matrons went to the Capitol to fing hymns 

 to Jupiter ; and on the third day of the fealt, twenty-feven 

 boys, and as many girls, fung in the temple of Palatine 

 Apollo hymns and verfes in Greek and Latin, to recom- 

 mend the city to the proteAion of thofe deities, whom they 

 particularly honoured by their facrifices. 



Authors are not agreed as to the number of years in 

 which thefe games returned ; partly becaufe the quality of 

 an age or feculum, among the ancients, is not known ; and 

 partly on other accounts ; fome will have it, that they were 

 held once every hundred years ; and that i\\i: feculum, or age, 

 was our century. Tliis Varro and Livy fecm to exprefs in 

 very plain terms ; yet others will have it, that feculum com- 

 prehended a hundred and ten years ; and that the fecular 

 games only retnrm-d in that period, that is, at the beginning 

 of every iiith year; which opinion is countenanced by 

 Horace, in his Secular Poem, ver. 21. 



Be this as it will, it is certain they fometimes did not ftay 

 for the nith, nor even for the 1 00th year, for the cele- 

 bration of thefe games. The firft were held A. U. C. 245, 

 or 298 ; the fecond, A. 305, or 408 ; the third, A. 518 ; 

 the fourth, either A. 605, or 608, or 628. Auguftus held 

 them in the year of Rome 736, and Claudius again in the 

 year of Rome 800, and of Chrift 38, r;s. lixty-four years 

 after the former ; and Domitian, again, in ftill lefs time ; 

 •viz. in the year of Rome 841, or of Clirill 79, at which 

 Tacitus afiiHed in quality of quindccimvir, as he himfelf tells 

 us, Annal. lib. xi. cap. 11. and tliis was the feventh time 

 4hat Rome had feen them from their firlt inftitution. The 



Vol. XXXII. 



emperor Severus exhibited them the eighth time, that is, a 

 hundred and ten years after thofe of Domitian. Zofimus 

 fays, thefe were the laft ; but he is miftaken, for in the 

 year of Rome 1000, that is, fifty years after thofe of Se- 

 verus, the emperor Philip had them celebrated with greater 

 magnificence than had ever been known. Thofe that were 

 celebrated by permillion of the emperor Honorius, after 

 Iiaviiig received the news of the viftory of Stilicon over 

 Alaric, were the laft recorded in hiftory. Zofimus afcribes 

 the decline of the empire to the negleft of thefe games 

 among the Romans. We find them reprefcnted on many 

 medals. 



Secular Poem. See Seculare carmen. 



Secular Tear, the fame with jubilee. 



SECULARE Carmen, Secular poem, a poem fung, or 

 rehearfed, at the fecular games. 



Of this kind we have a very fine piece among the works 

 of Horace ; it is a fapphic ode, wliich ufually conies at the 

 end of his epodes. In fome editions, the twenty-firft ode of 

 the firft book is alfo called " Carmen Seculare." 



SECULARIZATION, the adion of fecularizing, or 

 of converting a regular perfon, place, or benefice, into a 

 fecular one. 



Almoft all the cathedral churches were anciently regular, 

 /. e. the canons were to be religious, but they have been fince 

 fecularized. 



For the fecularization of a regular church there is re- 

 quired the authority of the pope, that of the prince, the 

 bifhop of the place, the patron, and even the confent of 

 the people. And in France all this mull be confirmed by 

 parliament. 



Religious that Want to be releafed from their vows, obtain 

 briefs of fecularization from the pope. 



SECULUM, in Antiquity. See Age and Secular 

 Games, 



SECUNDA Aqua, among Chemifls, Sec. See Aqua 

 Secunda. 



SECVKTtA/uper onerat'ioiie pajlurie. See Surcharge. 



SECUNDANl, in ^Indent Geography, a people of Gaul, 

 who inhabited the town of Araufio, fituated in the interior 

 of the country. 



SECUNDANS, in Mathematics, an infinite feries of 

 numbers, beginning from nothing, and proceeding as the 

 fquares of numbers in arithmetical progreflion, as o, I, 4, 

 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, &c. 



SECUNDARAH, in Geography, a town of Hindoo- 

 ftan, in the fubah of Dcliii ; 28 nules S.E. of Delhi. N. lat. 

 28° 22'. E. long. 78° 7'. 



SECUNDARY, or Secondary. See Secondary. 



SECUNDERPOUR, in Geography, a town of Hin- 

 dooftan, in Benares, on the Dewah ; 35 miles E.N.E. of 

 Gazypour. — Alfo, a town of Hindooftan, in the circar of 

 Jyenagur; 15 miles S.E. of Parafaoli. 



SECUNDI Generls, in Anatowy, a diftinftion among 

 the lafteal vcftels. There are two kinds of laifteals ; "u/'s. 

 primary, or thofe of the firft kind, ^n'mi generis; and _/r- 

 cundi generis, fecondary, or of the lecoud kind. 



The firft carry the chyle from the iutellincs into glandt 

 difperfed in great numbers throughout the mefentery. 



The fecond carry it from thefe glands, after its being di- 

 luted there with lympha, into the common receptacle. See 

 Lacteals. 



Secundi internodii poUicis extenfor. See E.xtensor. 



SECUNDIANS, in Ec cleft ajlical Hijhry, a fed of Va- 

 Icntinians in the fecond century, whofc chief, Sccundus, one 

 of the principal followers of Valentine, maintained tiie doc- 

 trine of two eternal principles, aiia. light and darknefs, from 



Y whence 



