M. Attius, served as consul during the first Punic war. He reduced Brundusium, and in his second consulship he took sixty-four and sunk thirty 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 two hundred places of consequence on the coast. The Carthaginians sued for peace, but the conqueror refused to grant it; but soon afterwards he was defeated by Xanthippus, when thirty thousand of his men were left on the field of battle, and fifteen thousand taken prisoners. Regulus was amongst 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 proved unsuccessful, he was bound by the most solemn oaths to return to Carthage without delay. When he arrived at 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 returned to Carthage agreeably to his engagements. The Carthaginians were told that their offers of peace had been rejected at Rome by means of Regulus; and for this reason they prepared to punish him with the greatest severity. His eye-brows were cut, and he was exposed for some days to the excessive heat of the meridian sun, and afterwards confined in a barrel, the sides of which were everywhere filled with large iron pikes, 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 presses 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.

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

in Chemistry, the metallic matter which falls Rehearsal 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.