ADYTUM

(Sr. aSvrov, a rece .) In Architecture, the secret dark chamber in a temple, to which none but the priests had acce . It was from this part that the or a says, cles'were delivered. Seneca, in his tragedy of Thyestes, " Ilinc nrnntibua b itaniurcei-la. dum ingenti so no Laxuulur Ailyto fat a." Among the Egyptians, the Secoa was the same thing of which Strabo has given a description. The only well preserved adytum of the ancients is in the little temple at templePompeii,itself,"it and is raised is without some light.steps above the level of the JEDES (Lat.) In Architecture. A small temple consecrated to a rod which was not afterwards dedicated by the augurs, Irom which circumstance, according to Varro, different from thetfmplum. This distinction among ' mans in the early ages was afterwards lost, and the iscriminately. jEDICULA (Lat.) A diminutive of the preceding. jEDILE. The title of certain Roman magistrates, so sailed from their care of buildings (cedes). They wyere llvided into two cla es, distinguished by the epithets jlebeian and curule. The two plebeian tediles were, as Iheir name imports, elected from the commonalty Iplebs), and were subordinate to the tribunes of the commons, having jurisdiction over le er causes, submitted to them by those magistrates. The two curule tediles. so called from their privilege of giving judgment en ivory seats (sella} curules), were originally elected from the p»" '"-tons but afterwards » bcrt plebeians and pair, [s. 30]