or Courfew,** a signal given in cities taken in war, &c. to the inhabitants to go to bed. Pafquin says, it was so called, as being intended to advertise the people to secure themselves from the robberies and debaucheries of the night.

The most eminent curfew in England was that established by William the Conqueror, who appointed, under severe penalties, that, at the ringing of a bell at eight o'clock in the evening, every one should put out their lights and fires and go to bed: whence, to this day, a bell rung about that time is called a curfew-bell.

**CURIA,** in Roman antiquity, was used for the senate-house. There were several curiae in Rome; as the curia calabra, said to be built by Romulus; the curia bofiliæ, by Tullus Hostilius; and the curia pompeia, by Pompey the Great.

Curia also denoted the places where the curiae used to assemble. Each of the 30 curiae of old Rome had a temple or chapel assigned to them for the common performance of their sacrifices, and other offices of their religion; so that they were not unlike our parishes. Some remains of these little temples seem to have subsisted many ages after on the Palatine-hill, where Romulus first built the city, and always resided.

Curia, among the Romans, also denoted a portion or division of a tribe. In the time of Romulus, a tribe consisted of ten curiae, or a thousand men; each curia being one hundred. That legislator made the first division of his people into thirty curiae. Afterwards, curia, or *domus curialis*, became used for the place where each curia held its assemblies. Hence also curia passed to the senate-house; and it is from hence... the moderns come to use the word curia, "court," for a place of justice, and for the judges, &c. there assembled.

Varro derives the word from cura, "care;" q.d., an assembly of people charged with the care of public affairs. Others deduce it from the Greeks; maintaining, that at Athens they called κυρία the place where the magistrate held his assizes, and the people used to assemble; κυρία, again, may come from κυρίας, authority, power; because it was here the laws were made.