AMPLĬĀTĬO, an adjournment of a trial, which took place when the judices after hearing the evidence of the advocates were unable to come to a satisfactory conclusion. This they expressed by giving in the tablets, on which were the letters N. L. (_non liquet_), and the praetor, by pronouncing the word _amplius_, thereupon adjourned the trial to any day he chose. The defendant and the cause were then said _ampliari_. [Illustration: Ampulla. (Sketched by G. Scharf from a relief at Athens, discovered in 1840.)] AMPULLA (λήκυθος, βομβύλιος), a bottle, usually made among the Romans either of glass or earthenware, rarely of more valuable materials. Ampullae were more or less globular. From their round and swollen shape, the word was used by Horace to indicate grand and turgid but empty language. (“Projicit ampullas et sesquipedalia verba,” _Ar. Poet._ 97.) Ampullae are frequently mentioned in connection with the bath, since every Roman took with him to the bath a bottle of oil for anointing the body after bathing. The dealer in bottles was called _ampullarius_. [Illustration: Ampulla. (From a tomb at Myra in Lycia.)] AMPYX (ἄμπυξ, ἀμπυκτήρ, Lat. _frontale_), a frontal, a broad band or plate of metal, which ladies of rank wore above the forehead as part of the head-dress. The frontal of a horse was called by the same name. The annexed cut exhibits the frontal on the head of Pegasus, in contrast with the corresponding ornament as shown on the heads of two females. [Illustration: Ampyces, Frontlets. (From Paintings on Vases.)] ĂMŬLĒTUM (περίαπτον, περίαμμα, φυλακτήριον), an amulet. This word in Arabic (hamalet) means _that which is suspended_. It was probably brought into Europe by Arabian merchants, together with the articles to which it was applied. An amulet was any object,--a stone, a plant, an artificial production, or a piece of writing,--which was suspended from the neck, or tied to any part of the body, for the purpose of warding off calamities and securing advantages of any kind. Faith in the virtues of amulets was almost universal in the ancient world, so that the art of medicine consisted in a very considerable degree of directions for their application. ĂMUSSIS or ĂMUSSĬUM, a carpenter’s and mason’s instrument, the use of which was to obtain a true plane surface. ĂNĂCEIA (ἀνάκεια, or ἀνάκειον), a festival of the Dioscuri or Anactes (Ἄνακτες), as they were called at Athens. These heroes, however, received the most distinguished honours in the Dorian and Achaean states, where it may be supposed that every town celebrated a festival in their honour, though not under the name of Anaceia.