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CAMILLUS

Volume 5 · 251 words · 1823 Edition

Marcus Furius, was the first who rendered the family of Furius illustrious. He triumphed four times, was five times dictator, and was honoured with the title of the second founder of Rome. In a word, he acquired all the glory a man can gain in his own country. Lucius Apuleius, one of the tribunes, prosecuted him to make him give an account of the spoils taken at Veii. Camillus anticipated judgment, and banished himself voluntarily. During his banishment, instead of rejoicing at the devastation of Rome by the Gauls, he exerted all his wisdom and bravery to drive away the enemy; and yet kept with the utmost strictness the sacred law of Rome, in refusing to accept the command, which several private persons offered him. The Romans who were besieged in the capitol, created him dictator in the year 363; in which office he acted with so much bravery and conduct, that he entirely drove the army of the Gauls out of the territories of the commonwealth. He died in the 81st year of his age, 365 years before the Christian era.

CAMILLI and CAMILLE, in antiquity, boys and girls of ingenuous birth, who ministered in the sacrifices of the gods; and especially those who attended the flamen diolis, or priest of Jupiter. The word seems borrowed Camilli borrowed from the language of the ancient Hetrurians, where it signified minister, and was changed from camillus. The Tuscan also gave the appellation Camillus to Mercury, in quality of minister of the gods.