DUBRIS, in Ancient Geography, a town of Britain; now Dover, from Dovoria of the lower age, and a port-town in Kent, opposite to Calais.
DU CAL, in general, something belonging to a duke. See DUKE.
The letters patent granted by the senate of Venice were called ducal; and so also were the letters written in the name of the senate to foreign princes. The denomination of ducal is derived from the circumstance that, at the beginning of such patents, the name of the duke or doge was written in capitals. The date of ducals is usually in Latin, but the body is in Italian. In 1716 a courier was dispatched with a ducal to the emperor, returning him thanks for renewing the treaty of alliance with the republic of Venice, against the Turks.
DU CAS, a learned Greek, who wrote a history of what VOL. VIII.
passed under the last emperors of Constantinople, until the capture of that city, and the fall of the eastern empire. This work, which is esteemed, was printed at the Louvre in 1649, with the Latin translation and notes of Boillaud.
DU CAT, a foreign coin, either of gold or silver, struck in the dominions of a duke. The origin of ducats is referred to one Longinus, governor of Italy, who, revolting against the emperor Justin the Younger, made himself duke of Ravenna, and called himself Exarcha, that is, without lord or ruler; and, in order to show his independence, struck pieces of money of very pure gold in his own name, and with his own stamp, which, as Procopius relates, were called ducati, ducats. After him, the first who struck ducats were the Venetians, who called them zeccini, or sequins, from Zecca, the place where they were first struck. This was about the year 1280, and in the time of John Dandolo. But we have pretty good evidence that Roger king of Sicily had coined ducats as early as 1240; and Du Cange scruples not to affirm that the first ducats were struck in the duchy of Apulia in Calabria. See MONEY.
DU CATOON, a silver coin, struck chiefly in Italy, particularly at Milan, Venice, Florence, Genoa, Lucca, Mantua, and Parma, though there are also Dutch and Flemish ducatoons. See MONEY.
DU CENARIUS, in Antiquity, an officer in the Roman army, who had the command of two thousand men. The emperors had also ducenarii among their procurators or intendants, called procuratores ducenarii. Some say that Ducenarii were those whose salary was two hundred sesterces; as in the games of the circus, horses hired for two hundred sesterces were called ducenarii. Others hold that ducenarii were those who levied the two hundredth penny, or the officers appointed to inspect the raising of that tribute. In the inscriptions at Palmyra, the word ducenarius, in Greek δουκνάρης, occurs very frequently.
DU CENTESIMA, in Antiquity, a tax of the two hundredth penny, exacted by the Romans.
DU CHAL, JAMES, D.D. a pious and learned dissenting minister, was born in Ireland, and finished his studies at the university of Glasgow, which afterwards, from a regard to his merit, conferred on him the degree of doctor of divinity. He resided ten or eleven years at Cambridge as the pastor of a small congregation, and there enjoyed his beloved retirement, with the advantage of books and of learned conversation, which he improved with the greatest diligence. On Mr Abernethy's removal from Antrim he succeeded him there, and on that gentleman's death he again succeeded him as a minister of a dissenting meeting-house in Wood Street, Dublin. In this situation he continued till his death, which happened on the 4th of May 1761, when he had completed his sixty-fourth year. He published a volume of excellent discourses on the presumptive arguments in favour of the Christian religion, together with many occasional tracts; and after his death a number of his sermons were published, in three volumes 8vo.
DU CHENPARAH, a town of Cashmere, the capital of a district of the same name, situated at the foot of a ridge of high mountains which bound Cashmere on the side of Great Thibet. Long. 74. 58. E. Lat. 34. 51. N. The district is situated between the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth degrees of north latitude.
DU CHOWTSCHINA, a circle in the Russian government of Smolensko, north-east from the city, well watered and cultivated. The capital, of the same name, is situated on two rivers, the Ehwistitza and the Zarrewitza, which here join. The inhabitants amount to 950 only.
DU CHY, in Geography, an appellation given to the dominions of a duke.
Duchy
Court
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Duclos.