CITRON
367
CITY
his dependents ; he had a ydce in the assemblies of the people, and in the election of magistrates ; and his testament had full authority after his death. See Smith's Diet, of Clou, AfUiq. s. v. Civitas ; Sigon. De cauiquojwre civ, Roman, (Par. 1572 ; Hal. 1715 ; also in Gnevii The$a»r. i); Spanheim, Oirbit Rom. (London, 1703 ; Hal. 1728); CeUarii Dissertatt. p. 715 sq. ; also Battner, De ch. Rom, virgidemiU exempt, (Jen. 1672) ; Lange, De immumtate civ, Roman, (Hafti. 1710). See Frekmak.
Cntron (r/rpcov, the tree is Kirpta or Kirpia, but was long without a special name among the Greeks, although they were well acquainted with it ; see Smith, Diet. 1^ Close. Antiq. B, y, Citrusi), In his account of Alexander Jannnus, Josephus tells ns, " His own peo- ple were seditious against bim ; for at a festival which was then celebrated, when he stood upon the altar and was going to sacrifice, the nation rose upon him, and pelted him with citrons, for the law of the Jews re- quired that at the festival of tabernacles every one should have branches of the palm-tree and citron-tree"
Citron Flower and Fruit
(^AfU. xiH, la, 6). The late Lady Callcott, in her Scripture Herbal, mentions that, as the modem Jews still use citrons at the feast of tabernacles, *^ in Lon- don considerable sums of money are expended in im- porting them of the best kind for the purpose. They must be without blemish, and the stalk must still ad- here to them. After the feast is over, the citrons are openly sold, and the money produced by the sale is placed in the common treasury, aspart of the provision for the poor of the congregation." Their anxiety to obtain them with the stalk still adhering is no doubt a faint effort to secure the ** thick" branches and ''boughs of goodly trees" required for that festival (Lev. xxxiii, 40). But the chief importance of this fruit is its supposed identity with the tisi&tn, Uy^pu'- ack, or "apple" of the Bible, a conclusion, however, wliich has been ably disputed. See Applb. The dtron, or Citrus medica—%o called because it was from Media that the Romans first received it — belongs to the natural order of Aurontiaceas, a delightful group, including the orange, the lime, the lemon, and the shaddock (see the Penay Cydopcedia, s. v. Citrus). With its dark, glossy, laurel-looking leaves, its ever- green branches, often bearing simultaneously ripe fruits and newly-opened flowers, and thus vouchsafing to the pilgrim who rests in its deep shadow the two- fold refreshment of a delicious banquet and a fra- gtant breeze, the citron may well claim pre-eminence (( among the trees of the wood' ' (Can. ii, 8). Abounding
Citron-Tree.
in malic and citric acid, the juice of the orange and its congeners is one of the most agreeable antidotes which the Creator's bounty has provided against the exhaust- ing thurst and incipient fever of sultry climes. A set- tler in the torrid swamps of the Amazon will devour a dozen oranges before his morning meal {Voyage up (he Amazon, in the ** Home and Colonial Library"), and in tropical regions such acidulous fruits are invaluable on account of their anti-febrile virtues. These were doubtless well known to the Hebrews, and, in common with all antiquity, they greatly prized the pleasant pungent odor emitted by the rind. Macrobius speaks of "citrosa vestis," showing that it was usual to keep citrons in wardrobes for the sake of their perfume ; and, like the modem Oriental ladies, whose favorite vinaigrette is a citron, in England two or three cen- turies ago an orange was so commonly used as a scent- bottle that it may often be seen in old pictures of their queens and peeresses. It was also believed to have a disinfecting potency ; and during the plague of Lon- don, people walked the streets smelling at oranges. Understood as belonging to this beautiful family, there is a peculiar felicity in the comparison, '* A word fitly spoken is like citrons of gold in salvers (or baskets) of silver" (Prov. xxv, 11). The famous golden apples which grew in the gardens of the Hesperides were un- questionably either citrons or oranges. — Fairbalm, s. V. Apple. See Botany.
City. The Heb. term most fluently thus ren- dered is ^*^9 (ir, literally something raised up, i. e. having walls reared; or from ^!)9, to keep guard [Ge- senius, Thes. Eeb, p. 1004] ; Sept. and N. T. iroXic), a word of very extensive signification, embn^cing not only the Jdea of an encampment, as a nomade hamlet (Gen. iv, 17), but also that of small fortifications, as watch-posts or watch-towers (comp. Numb, xiii, 19 ; 2 Kings xvii, 9; Isa. i, 8), and thence extended to regular towns. Nearly equivalent to this Is TX^'^p (jaryak''), which, with a few exceptions (Deut ii, 26 ; 1 Kings i, 41, 46), is found only in the poetic style ; and analo- gous (in sense, as probably also- in derivation) to this
CITY
358
CITY
Ust is H'Jl? Qce'retX), found only in Job xxix, 7 ; ProT. yiii^ 8 ; iz, 8» 14 ; xi, 11. The word rendered "city" in Ruth iii, 11, is "ly© (sha'ar), properly gate (as it is elsewhere rendered), and there means those assembled in ihe forum or place of public business at the town gates. The second of these terms (perhaps from tV^'Qj to cysproach as an enemy, or rather [G»- senins, Tkes. ffeb. p. 1236] to fortify), is often "prefix- ed to the names of towns on both sides of the Jordan existing before the conquest, as Kiijath-Arba, proba- bly the most ancient name for city, but seldom used in prose as a general name for town (Stanley, Pctkst. App. § 80). The classification of the human race into dwellers in towns and nomade wanderers (Gen. iv, 20, 22) seems to be intimated by the etymological sense of both words, Ar, or /r, and Kiijatk, as places of se- curity agaibst an enemy, distinguished from the un- walled village or hamlet, whose resistance is more eas- ily overcome by the marauding tribes of the desert. See Ib^ ; Kibjath. This distinction is found actual- ly existing in countries, as Persia and Arabia, in which tiie tent-dwellers are found, lilse the Rechabites, al- most side by side with the dwellers in cities, some- times even sojourning within them, but not amalga- mated with the inhabitants, and in general making the desert their home, and, unlike the Rechabites, rob- bery their undissembled occupation (Judg. v, 7 ; Jer. XXXV, 9, 11 ; see Fraser, Persia^ p. 866, 880 ; Malcokn, Sketches of Persia, p. 147-156; Burckhardt, Notes on Bedouins, i, 167; Wellsted, Trtwels in AraHci, i, 886; Porter, Damascus, ii, 96, 181, 188 ; Yaux, Nineveh and PersepoHs, c. ii, note A; Layard, Nineveh, ii, 272 ; Nin, and Bab. p. 141).*'— Smith, s. v. See Village.