M. Attillus, a consul during the first Punic war. He reduced Brundisium, and in his second consulship he took 64 and sunk 39 galleys of the Carthaginian fleet, on the coasts of Sicily. Afterwards he landed in Africa; and so rapid was his success, that in a short time he made himself master of about 200 places of consequence on the coast. The Carthaginians sued for peace, but the conqueror refused to grant it; and soon after he was defeated in a battle by Xanthippus, and 30,000 of his men were left on the field of battle, and 15,000 taken prisoners. Regulus was in the number of the captives, and he was carried in triumph to Carthage. He was sent by the enemy to Rome, to propose an accommodation and an exchange of prisoners; and if his commission was unsuccessful, he was bound by the most solemn oaths to return to Carthage without delay. When he came to Rome, Regulus dissuaded his countrymen from accepting the terms which the enemy proposed; and when his opinion had had due influence on the senate, Regulus retired to Carthage agreeable to his engagements. The Carthaginians were told that their offers of peace had been rejected at Rome by the means of Regulus; and therefore they prepared to punish him with the greatest severity. His eyebrows were cut, and he was exposed for some days to the excessive heat of the meridian sun, and afterwards confined in a barrel, whose sides were everywhere filled with large iron spikes, till he died in the greatest agonies. His sufferings were heard of at Rome; and the senate permitted his widow to inflict whatever punishment she pleased on some of the most illustrious captives of Carthage which were in their hands. She confined them also in prisons filled with sharp iron points; and was so exquisite in her cruelty, that the senate interfered, and stopped the barbarity of her punishment. Regulus died about 251 years before Christ.—Memmius, a Roman, made governor of Greece by Caligula. While Regulus was in his province, the emperor wished to bring the celebrated statue of Jupiter Olympius by Phidias to Rome, but this was supernaturally prevented; and according to ancient authors, the ship which was to convey it was destroyed by lightning, and the workmen who attempted to remove the statue were terrified away by sudden noises.—A man who held the consulship but for one day, in the reign of Vitellius.

in Astronomy, a star of the first magnitude, in the constellation Leo; called also, from its situation, Cor Leonis, or the Lion's Heart; by the Arabs, Alhabar; and by the Chaldeans, Kalbeleced, or Karbeleceid; from an opinion of its influencing the affairs of the heavens.

in Chemistry, the metallic matter that falls to the bottom of the crucible, in the melting of ores or impure metallic substances. It is the finest or purest part of the metal; and, according to the alchemists, is denominated regulus, or little king, as being the first-born of the royal metallic blood. According to them, it is really a son, but not a perfect man; i.e. not yet a perfect metal, for want of time and proper nourishment; Rehearsal To procure the regulus of metals, &c., flux powders are commonly used; as nitre, tartar, &c., which purge the sulphurous part adhering to the metal, by attracting and absorbing it to themselves.