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FACTION

Volume 17 · 158 words · 1810 Edition

cabal or party formed in a state, city, or company.

antiquity, a name given to the different companies of combatants in the circus. They were four, viz. the white, the red, the green, and the blue; to which Domitian added another of purple colour. They were so denominated from the colour of the liveries they wore; and were dedicated, according to M. Aur. Cassiodorus, to the four seasons of the year; the green being consecrated to spring, the blue to winter, the red to summer, and the white to autumn. It appears from ancient inscriptions, that each faction had its procurators and physician; and from history, that party rage ran so high among them, that in a difference between two factions, in the time of Julianus, almost 40,000 men lost their lives in the quarrel.

Factitious, any thing made by art, in opposition to what is the produce of nature. Thus, factitious cinnabar is opposed to native cinnabar.