Ontario and New Brunswick, being everywhere regarded with favour. Though wanting most of the bright hues of its congener, the indigo-bird has yet much beauty, the adult cock being nearly all over of a deep blue, changing, according to the light, to green. The hen is brown above and ochreous-white beneath. The “pintailed nonpareil” of aviculture (Erythrura prasina) is a somewhat similarly coloured but really very different bird; the male has a long sharp tail, and the species belongs to the Ploceidae (see Weaver-bird).
NONPAREIL (Fr. non, and pareil, like, Lat. par), having no equal, unrivalled. Apart from its uses as a descriptive name for particularly fine kinds of fruit, &c., and of certain birds, moths and butterflies, the chief application of the word in English is, in printing, to a size of type between “emerald” and “ruby,” in the United States of America between “minion” and “agate” (see Typography).
NONSUIT (Fr. non suit, he does not pursue), in law the name given to a judgment whereby an issue is determined against the plaintiff. It was a term peculiar to the English common-law courts before the Judicature Acts, and was simply the expression of the opinion of the court that, apart from the merits, the plaintiff's case was incomplete. It did not in any way act as a bar to his bringing another action for the same cause. It might be entered either at the wish of the plaintiff himself (to whom it was of course much more beneficial than judgment for the defendant) or by direction of the court against the will of the plaintiff. Although judgment of nonsuit still exists, it has, since the Judicature Acts, the same effect as a judgment on the merits, unless the court otherwise directs. This effect of a nonsuit was specially provided for by the rules of the Supreme Court of 1875.
NOODT, GERHARD (1647—1725), Dutch jurist, was born at Nijmwegen in 1647. Educated at Leiden, Utrecht and Franeker, he became a professor of law at Leiden. As a writer on jurisprudence he acquired a wide reputation. His Latin style was modelled after the best writers, and his numerous works soon rose to the rank of standard authorities. Two of his political treatises were translated into French by Jean Barbeyrac, and appeared at Amsterdam in 1707 and 1714, under the respective titles of Pouvoir des souverains and Liberté de conscience.
The first edition of his collected works was published at Leiden in 1724 and the last in 1767. That of 1735 and those subsequent contain a life of the author by Barbeyrac.
NOON, midday, twelve o’clock. The O. Eng. nón, Nor. non, Dutch noen, are all from Lat. nona sc. hora, the ninth hour, i.e. according to the Roman system, three o’clock p.m. (see Day). The early uses of noon till the 13th and 14th centuries are either as translating the Latin, especially with reference to the Crucifixion, or as equivalent to the canonical hour of “nones” (see Breviary). The ordinary word for twelve o’clock was middæg, midday, also the equivalent of the canonical hour “sext.” Both the office and the meal taken about that time were shifted to an earlier hour, and by the 14th century the ordinary use of “noon” is that current to-day.
For “nones” (i.e. nonae, sc. dies) in the Roman calendar, see Calendar.
NORA, an ancient town of Sardinia, 22 m. by road S.S.W. of Carales. It was founded, according to Pausanias (x. 17. 5), by the Iberians under Norax, son of Hermes, and was the most ancient town in the island. The discoveries made on the site have, however, shown that it was certainly of Phoenician origin. In Roman times too, we find the milestones on the road from Nora to Bitia and even on that from Nora to Carales reckoned from Nora (Corp. inscr. Lat. x. 831; Ephemeris epigraphica, viii. 180); but the authors and the sepulchral inscriptions found here give us no information as to its juridical condition. The town occupies a characteristically Phoenician site, a small peninsula joined to the mainland by an isthmus, low, narrow and sandy. Excavations have led to the discovery of a few Phoenician buildings, the foundations of a temple of Tanit, of a road, of quay walls at the water’s edge and of a watch-tower, on the extremity of the peninsula, which rises to some 150 ft. above the sea. Two cemeteries were found, one of the 7th-6th century B.C., consisting of tombs cut in the rock for inhumation, while in the other, going down to the 4th century B.C., cremation is the rule; there are ossuaries placed in holes in the sand, with a sculptured stele over each. A quantity of small objects, gems, ivories, glass, vases, terra-cottas, &c., were found; in some of them Egyptian, in others Greek, influence and importation are apparent. To the Roman period belong an aqueduct, bringing the water from the neighbouring hills—one pier of it rests upon a destroyed nuraghe—scanty remains of an amphitheatre, a theatre, considerable ruins of concrete foundations (perhaps of villas by the sea) and a watch-tower on the promontory close to the Phoenician tower. A full description of the site and the excavations is given by G. Patroni in Monumenti dei Lincei, xiv. (1905), 111. On the isthmus is the curious small old church of S Efisio, with a nave and two aisles divided by heavy square pillars. At the festival of the saint (May 1-4), his body is brought in procession from the cathedral at Cagliari; the festival is much frequented by people from all parts of Sardinia. (T. As.)
NORBA, an ancient town of Latium (Adjectum), Italy. It is situated 1 m. N.W. of the modern Norma, 1575 ft. above sea-level, on the west edge of the Volscian Mountains or Monti Lepini, above a precipitous cliff, with a splendid view over the Pomptine Marshes. It was a member of the Latin League of 499 B.C., and became a Latin colony in 492 B.C., as an important fortress guarding the Pomptine Marshes. It served in 199 as a place of detention for the Carthaginian hostages, and was captured and destroyed by Sulla’s troops during the civil wars at the end of 82 B.C. Some revival in prosperity took place later. From excavations begun in 1901 it seems clear that the remains now visible on the site are entirely Roman. The well-preserved walls are in the polygonal style, 112 m. in circuit, and are entirely embankment walls, not standing free above the internal ground level. Remains of a massive tower, and of several gateways (notably the Porta Grande, defended by a tower) exist. Within the remains of several buildings, including the substructions of two temples, one dedicated to Juno Lucina, have been examined. At the foot of the cliff are the picturesque ruins of the medieval town of Nainfa (12th-13th centuries) abandoned owing to the malaria. The remains of a primitive settlement, on the other hand, have been discovered on the mountain-side to the S.E., above the 13th-century abbey of Valvisciolo, where there is a succession of terraces supported by walls of polygonal work, and approached by a road similarly supported. Here a quantity of primitive Latin pottery has been found. The necropolis of this settlement was probably the extensive one situated at Caracupa (8th-6th century B.C.), near the railway station of Sermoneta, which belongs also to the 8th-6th century B.C., terminating thus at the precise date at which the Roman city of Norba began to exist.
See L., Savignioni and R. Mengarelli in Notizie degli scavi (1901), 514; (1903) 299, 289; (1904) 407; and Atti del Congresso Storico (Rome, 1903), vol. v. (Archaeologia) 255. (T. As.)
NORBANUS, GAIUS, surnamed Bulbus (or Balbus), Roman politician, was a seditious and turbulent democrat. In 103 B.C., when tribune of the people, he accused Q. Servilius Caepio of having brought about the defeat of his army by the Cimbri through rashness, and also of having plundered the temple of Tolosa. Caepio was condemned and went into exile. About ten years later Norbanus himself was accused of treason on account of the disturbances that had taken place at the trial of Caepio, but the eloquence of M. Antonius, grandfather of the triumvir, procured his acquittal. In 89 Norbanus as praetor successfully defended Sicily against the Italian socii. During the civil war between Marius and Sulla he sided with the former, but was defeated by Sulla at mount Tifata near Capua, and again by Metellus at Faventia in Cisalpine Gaul (82). He fled to Rhodes, where he committed suicide, while the Rhodians were debating whether to hand him over to Sulla.
See Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, bk. iv. ch. v.; Greenidge, Hist. of Rome.
NORCIA (anc. Nursia), a town and episcopal see of the province of Perugia, Italy, 29 m. E.N.E. of Spoleto by road, and 40 m. W.
