an ancient term among the Latins, used in a general sense to signify a verse, but more particularly to signify a spell, charm, form of expiation or exorcism, couched in a few words placed in a mystic order, on which its efficacy depended. Pezron derives the word *carmen* from the Celtic *carm*, the shout of joy, or the verses which the ancient bards sung to encourage the soldiers before the combat.

CARMEN was anciently a denomination given also to precepts, laws, prayers, imprecatives, and all solemn formulas, couched in a few words placed in a certain order, though written in prose; in which sense it was that the elder Cato wrote a *carmen de moribus*, which was not in verse, but in prose.