FACTION

(Lat.) In Ancient History, an appellation given to the different troops or companies of combatants in the games of the circus. Of these tactions there were four, — the green, blue, red, and white; to which two others were said to have been added by the emperor Domilian, — the purple and the yellow. In the time of Just in i an 40,000 persons were killed in a contest between two of these factions; so that they were at last suppre ed by universal consent. The term faction is applied, also, to a more general sense, to any party in a state which attempt* without adequate motives to disturb the public repose, or to a ail the measures of government with uncompromising opposition. In the ancient Greek republics, faction carried to an extent unparalleled in modern time*, •• We may always observe," says Hume (.E*$ajf», vol. i. 423.), "where one party (faction) prevailed, whether the nobles or people (for I can see no difference in this respect), that they immediately butchered all of the opposite party that fell into their hands, and banished such as had been so fortunate as to escape their fury. No form of proce , no law, no trial, no pardon." The middle ages were distinguished chiefly by two factions, the Guelfs and Guibelins, who long kept Italy in a state of alarm. In the present day, in England, the term/ocfion is bandied about between the three great parties ol the country, the Whigs, Tories, and Radicals, being applied indiscriminately by the adherents of one party to those of another. See Pahtv. [s. 451]