ancient, handsome, rich, and very considerable town of France; capital of Burgundy, and of the Digonais; with a parliament, bishop's see, a mint, an university, academy of sciences, an abbey, and a citadel: most part of the churches and public structures are very beautiful, and in one of the squares there is an equestrian statue of Louis XIV. It is seated in a very pleasant plain between two small rivers, which produces excellent wine. E. Long., 5. 7. N. Lat. 47° 19'.

Digression, in oratory, is defined by Quintilian, agreeably to the etymology of the word, to be, a going off from the subject we are upon to some different thing, which, however, may be of service to it. See Oratory, no. 37.

Digynia, (from δις twice, and γυνα woman), the name of an order or secondary division in each of the first 13 classes, except the 9th, in Linnaeus's sexual method; consisting of plants, which to the classic character, whatever it is, add the circumstance of having two styles or female organs.

Dii, the divinities of the ancient inhabitants of the earth, were very numerous. Every object which caused terror, inspired gratitude, or bestowed affluence, received the tribute of veneration. Man saw a superior agent in the stars, the elements, or the trees, and supposed that the waters which communicated fertility to his fields and possessions, were under the influence and direction of some invisible power inclined to favour and to benefit mankind. Thus arose a train of divinities which imagination arrayed in different forms, and armed with different powers. They were endowed with understanding, and were actuated by the same passions which daily afflict the human race, and those children of superstition were appeased or provoked as the imperfect being which gave them birth. Their wrath was mitigated by sacrifices and incense, and sometimes human victims bled to expiate a crime, which superstition alone supposed to exist. The sun, from his powerful influence and animating nature, first attracted the notice and claimed the adoration of the uncivilized inhabitants of the earth. The moon also was honoured with sacrifices and addressed in prayers, and after immortality had been liberally bestowed on all the heavenly bodies, mankind clasped among their deities the brute creation, and the cat and the sow shared equally with Jupiter himself, the father of gods and men, the devout veneration of their votaries. This immense number of deities have been divided into different classes according to the will and pleasure of the mythologists. The Romans, generally speaking, reckoned two classes of the gods, the dii majorum gentium, or dii consilientes, and the dii minorum gentium. The former were 12 in number, six males and six females. [Vid. Consentes.] In the class of the latter were ranked all the gods which were worshipped in different parts of the earth. Besides these there were some called dii selecti, sometimes clasped with the 12 greater gods; these were Janus, Saturn, the Genius, the Moon, Pluto, and Bacchus. There were also some called demi-gods, that is, who deserved immortality by the greatness of their exploits, and for their uncommon services to mankind. Among these were Priapus, Vertumnus, Hercules, and those whose parents were some of the immortal gods. Besides these, all the passions and the moral virtues were reckoned as powerful deities, and temples were raised to a goddess of concord, peace, &c. According to the authority of Hesiod, there were no less than 30,000 gods that inhabited the earth, and were guardians of men, all subservient to the power of Jupiter. To these, succeeding ages have added an almost equal number; and indeed they were so numerous, and their functions so various, that we find temples erected, and sacrifices offered, to unknown gods. It is observable, that all the gods of the ancients have lived upon earth as mere mortals; and even Jupiter, who was the ruler of heaven, is represented by the mythologists as a helpless child; and we are acquainted with all the particulars that attended the birth and education of Juno. In process of time, not only good and virtuous men, who had been the patrons of learning, and the supporters of liberty, but also thieves and pirates, were admitted among the gods, and the Roman senate courteously granted immortality to the most cruel and abandoned of their emperors.

Diambus, in poetry, the foot of a Latin verse of four syllables; it is compounded of two iambics, as féérétés.