N I c 
45 
NIC 
the Greek towns of the Gauls, when the Romans under¬ 
took the conqueft of Provence, about 158 years B. C. 
The ancient Marfilians gave it the name of Ni/ieh, which 
fignified Victory, in commemoration of the advantages 
which they had gained in this place over the Ligurians. 
-■From Strabo we learn, that long before his time Nice had 
a number of veffels, an arfenal, and many warlike ma¬ 
chines, of which the Romans availed themfelves in the 
conqueft of Provence. In the time of this geographer, 
the Marfilians were ftill mafters of it; but they did not 
poflefs it long after the reign of Tiberius. Many ancient 
infcriptions prove that it was under the dominion of the 
Romans. But, although it flourilhed in the time of the 
ancient Marfilians, it loft much of its fplendour under the 
Roman emperors; fo that by the authors of the lower em¬ 
pire it is merely defcribed as the Port of Nice, or the Caftle 
af Nice. Its fplendourand its commerce vaniftied together. 
NIC-fiE'A, a town of Bithynia, upon the Lake Afca- 
nius, according to Strabo, who gave it the title of “Pri- 
maria Bithinias Urbs.” In his time it was of a fquare 
figure, and about fixteen ftadia in circumference. It was 
encompafied with a very fertile plain. It was called An- 
tigonea by Antigonus, fon of Philip ; but Lyfimachus af¬ 
terwards called it Nicesa, in compliment to his wife, the 
daughter of Antipater. According to Stephanus, it was 
originally a colony of the Bottiazi, a people of Thrace, 
and called Ancore. Now Nice in Afia the Lefs, and fa¬ 
mous for the firft general council. 
NICvE'A, a town of India, on this fide the Ganges, 
an the left bank of the Hydafpes, over-againft Bucephala, 
founded by Alexander after the victory obtained by him 
over Porus, upon the banks of the faid river.—A town 
of the ifland of Corfica, founded by the Etrurians after 
they had gained the empire of thefea, and taken po'fleftion 
of the ifles adjacent to Etruria.—A town of Locris, near 
Thermopylae ; one of the keys of that pafs. It flood on 
the Sinus Maliacus. 
NICAG'ORAS, a fophift of Athens, in the reign of 
the emperor Philip. He wrote the lives of illuftrious 
men, and was reckoned one of the greateft and molt 
learned men of his age. 
NI'CAISE (Claude), a man of letters, was born of a 
good family at Dijon in 1623. He embraced the eccle- 
fiaftical profeflion ; and, after a preliminary education in 
his own province, came to Paris, where he entered into 
the univerfity, and ftudied theology in the college of Na¬ 
varre. In 1655 he paid a vifit to Rome, where he took 
prieft’s orders, and formed connexions with all the emi¬ 
nent literati and artifts of that capital. After a refidence 
in Italy of leveral years, during which he vifited Naples 
and other interefting parts of the country, he returned to 
France, where he devoted himfelf entirely to literary pur- 
fuits, and efpecially to correfpondences with the learned 
of different nations. No man in Europe of his time feems 
to have had fo much occupation of that kind ; and he was 
Regarded as the general intelligencer for all matters of let¬ 
tered curiofity upon the continent. His friendly and 
obliging difpofition, and the correffnefs of his morals, 
preferved him in general efteem, till his death in 1701, at 
the age of feventy-eight. He had collected a numerous 
and well-chofen library. The time occupied in his lite¬ 
rary commerce prevented him from giving to the world 
more than a few difiertations on fubje&s of antiquity, and 
fome letters. Gen . Biog. 
NICA'MA, or Nigama, in ancient geography, a town 
to which Ptolemy gave the title of metropolis, fituated 
near the fouthern mouth of the river Chaberis, on the 
coaft of the peninfula of India, on this fide of the Ganges, 
north of the Promontorium Calligicum. 
NIC AN'DER, an ancient Greek phyfician, grammarian, 
and poet, flourished in the time of Attalus king of Per- 
gamus, and was a native of Colophon. He is faid to have 
been a prieft of the Clarian Apollo. He was the author 
of a variety of works, hiftorical, poetical, and medical, of 
which were, Accounts of the Affairs of the ^Ftolians 
Vo*. XVII. No. 1160. 
(among whom he long refided, fo that he has been called 
the JEtolian), the Boeotians, and the Colophonians ; Geor¬ 
gies; Metamorphofes; and leveral works relative to me¬ 
dicine. Two of the latter are the only remains of this 
learned author. Thefe are poems in Greek, entitled Tht- 
riaca , and Alexipharmaca. The firft deferibes ferpents 
and other venemous animals, with the remedies for their 
bites ; the fecond deferibes poifons of all kinds and their 
fuppofed antidotes. Thefcientific value of thefe pieces is 
very fmall, as they are full of idle and unauthenticated no¬ 
tions, and void of method and reafoning; but they con¬ 
vey lome curious information of the opinions of the an¬ 
cients, and ferve to identify the Greek names of plants 
and animals. They have been very frequently publilhed 
in the originals and in tranflations. They are contained 
in the Corpus Poet. Graze. Genev. 1606 ; and Bandini 
publilhed an edition at Florence in 1769 in Greek, Latin, 
and Italian, with various notes and commentaries. An 
excellent edition of the Alexipharmaca was given by J. 
Gotti. Schnieder, Halle, 1792, 8vo. Several references to 
Nicander’s loft Georgies are to be met with in Athenasus. 
Voffii Hijl. Poet. Grccc. 
NICAN'DRA, /’. [fo named from the fubjeff of the 
preceding article.] In botany, a genus of the clafs decan- 
dria, order monogynia. Generic chara&ers—Calyx : pe- 
rianthium one-leafed, turbinate, thick, coloured, four- 
parted ; fegments wide, concave, blunt; the two oppolite 
outer ones larger, and the two internal ones lefs. Co¬ 
rolla : one-petalled ; tube very Ihort; border deeply ten- 
cleft ; fegments oblong, imbricate, curved inwards at top, 
rigid. Nedtary, a Ihort membranaceous ring, furrounding 
the bafe of the germ. Stamina : filaments ten, very Ihort, 
connefted with the neftary, inferted into the receptacle ; 
antherse linear, four-cornered, acute,eredf,approximating. 
Piftillum : germen ovate ; ftyle Ihort; lligma peltate, or¬ 
bicular, fix-rayed. Pericarpium: berry roundilh, fix- 
grooved, three-celled. Seeds : very many, very fmall, 
angular.— EJfential Character. Calyx turbinate, coloured, 
four-parted ; corolla one-petalled, ten-cleft; germen en¬ 
circled with a membranaceous ring ; ftigma peltate, or¬ 
bicular, fix-rayed; berry roundifh, fix-grooved, three- 
celled, many-feeded. 
Nicandra amara, the only known fpecies. Stem fimple, 
ftraight, hard, woody, knotty, the thicknefs of a finger. 
Leaves fimple, entire, fmooth, narrow at the bafe, wide 
above, rounded, and pointed at the end, a foot and a half 
long, and five inches wide, with a protuberant midrib un¬ 
derneath. Flowers terminating, on one, two, or three, 
peduncles, the bafe enveloped in a {heath. Each pedun¬ 
cle bears two or three little parcels of three, four, or five, 
oppolite flowers, having alfo a little {heath at their bafe; 
each flower has its pedicel, with two feales at its origin : 
the calyx is of a golden colour; corolla white. The fruit 
is yellow', flelhy, the fize of a cherry. Native of Guiana, 
in the extenfive forefts ; flowering in July and Auguft, 
and fruiting in Odiober. All parts of the plant are bit¬ 
ter : the leaves and tender twdgs are ufed in venereal cafes, 
and where there is fufpicion of poifon : in a large dole it 
is highly emetic. Aublet's Guiana, t. 151. 
NICA'NOR, a general of Antioclius, king of Syria. 
He made war againft the Jews, and Ihowed himfelf un¬ 
commonly cruel. Macc. 
NICARACOO'L, a town of Hindooftan, in Golconaa : 
fifty-five miles eaft-fouth-eaft of Hydrabad. 
NICARAGUA, a province of Mexico, bounded on 
the north by Honduras, on the Eaft by the North Sea, or 
the fouth by Cofta Rica and the Pacific Ocean, and on 
the weft by Guatimala and the Pacific Ocean. The win¬ 
ter in this province is rainy and tempeftuous; the lummer 
exceflively hot, but healthy. It is reckoned the molt 
woody part of New Spain. It produces good flax and 
hemp, together with the wood ufed by the dyers in Eu¬ 
rope, called Nicaragua wood ; but little wheat. It 
abounds with black cattle and hogs; but iheep are fcarce. 
Balm, cotton, fugar, American pepper, liquid amber, apt! 
N turpentine. 
