$7, 1683.In Oct. 1684, he was admitted fellow of Merton College. In 1688 he took the degree of M, A. and about the same time being admitted into orders, he became chaplain to Ralph earl of Montague, and was in Sept. 1791, made rector of Selfey, near Chichester, in Suffex. He was admit. ted B. D. July 2, 1692; and D. D. Nov. 29, 1695. Though his time was wholly devoted to piety and ftudy, and though he published in Latin and in English, no fewer than 19 works in defence of Christianity, and of the church of England, his merits were totally overlooked by the profeffed patrons of orthodoxy. He died in 1712. Of his numerous publications. those which are moft generally known are, A Conference with a Theift, an excellent work, in five parts, and A Comment on the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments, &c. A volume of Letters in Latin between him and Joblonski, Oftervald, and Wetftein, &c. was prefented, Oct. 28, 1712, by his widow to the Abp. of Canterbury; and are preferved among the valuable MSS. at Lambeth, N° 676. (1.) NICIAS, a celebrated Athenian general, cotemporary with Alcibiades, who was his rival. (See ATTICA, § 13.) Being fent against Sicily, and not properly fupported with fupplies, he was obliged to furrender to the Sicilians, who put him to death; A. A. C. 413. (2.) NICIAS, a celebrated painter of Athens, who flourished about A. A. C. 322, and was univerfally extolled for the great variety and noble choice of his fubjects, the force and relievo of his figures, his skill in the diftribution of the lights and fhades, and his dexterity in reprefenting all forts of four-footed animals, beyond any mafter of his time. His most celebrated piece was that of Tartarus or Hell, as described by Homer, for which king Ptolemy I. offered him 60 talents, or 11,250l. which he refused, and generously prefented it to his own country. He was much efteemed likewife by all his cotemporaries for his excellent talent in fculpture. * NICK. n.f. [nicke, Teutonick, the twinkling of an eye,] 1. Exact point of time at which there is neceffity or convenience.-That great inftrument of ftate fuffered the fatal thread to be spun out to that length for some politic respects, and then to cut it off in the very nick. Howel. So to the height and nick we up be wound, No matter by what hand or trick. Suckling. That trick, Had it come in the nick. Of all his glories a dog trick. Denham. Hudibras. And fome with fymbols, figns, and tricks, Engraved in planetary nicks. Hudibras. -This nick of time is the critical occafion for the gaining of a point. L'Eftrange. 3. A notch cut in any thing, [corrupted from nock or notch.] 3. a fcore; à reckoning: from rekonings kept anciently upon tallies or notched sticks.-Launce his man told me, he lov'd her art of all nick. Shak: 4. A winning throw. [niche, F. a ludicrous' trick.] Come, feven's the main, Cries Ganymede; the ufual trick Prior. *To NICK. v. a. [from the noun.] 1. To hit; to touch luckily; to perform by fome flight artifice used at the lucky moment. Is not the winding up of witnefs A nicking more than half the bus'nefs? Hudib. The juft season of doing things must be nicked, and all accidents improved. L'Eftrange.-Take away paffion while it is predominant and afloat, and juft in the critical height of it, nick it with fome lucky or unlucky word. South. 2. To cut in nicks or notches. My mafter preaches patience, and the while His man with fciffars nicks him like a fool. Shak. Breaks watchmen's heads, and chairmen's glaffes, Prior. And thence proceeds to nicking fafhes. 3. To fuit, as tallies cut in nicks.-Words nicking and refembling one another, are applicable to different fignifications. Camden's Remarks. 4. To defeat or cozen, as at dice; to disappoint by fome trick or unexpected turn. The itch of his affection fhould not then Have nick'd his captainship. Shak. NICKAGACK, a town of Georgia, on the Tenneffee. Lon. 85. 57. W. Lat. 33. 50. N. NICKAR TREE. See Guilandina. NICKEL. n. f. in chemistry, metallurgy, and mineralogy, a metal formerly claffed among the femimetals. Several eminent chemifts were long of opinion that it was a compound; and even Bergman himself conjectured that it was a modification of iron; but it is now univerfally ranked as a diftinct metal. See CHEMISTRY, Index; METALLURGY, Part I. Sect. I; and MINERALOGY, Part II, Chap. VII. Clafs IV, Order IX, Ge nus I-III; and Part. III, Chap. IV. and V." It had its name (fays Sir T. Bergman), from this circumftance, that though it has the appearance of containing copper, not the smallest particle of that metal can be extracted from it, even by fire." It was first mentioned by N. Hiema, în 1694, in a book written in the Swedish language, concerning the difcovery of ores and other mineral fubftances. It was fuppofed by Henckel to be a species of cobalt, or arfenic alloyed with copper. ́ Cramer claffed it with the arsenical or cupreous ores; though both they and all other chemists confefs that they were never able to extract one particle of copper from it. Mr Cronstedt, in 1751 and 1754, fhowed by many accurate experiments that it contained a new femimetal. The folutions of nickel in all the acids are green. Lemon juice seems not to act at all upon nickel. All the acids are deeply tinged by diffolving nickel. Volatile alkali diffolves it, and the folution is of a blue colour; the fixed alkali diffolves it very sparingly, and forms a yellow folution. Nickel becomes the more difficult of fufion, in proportion to its purity, fo that at laft it requires nearly as great a heat for this purpose as malleable iron. It is easily melted with other metals, but its great scarcity has prevented this matter from being thoroughly investigated. When well freed from cobalt, it eafily unites in equal proportions with filver, without any remarkable diminution of the whitenefs or ductility of the latter. This mixture, fufed with borax, tinges it of an hyacinthine colour. Copper unites more flowly with depurated nickel, yielding a red and ductile metallic mafs, which tinges borax of a reddish hyacinthine colour. It produces only a brittle mafs with tin; in which refpect it differs from cobalt. It could not be amalgamated with mercury by trituration. Nickel is constantly attracted by the magnet, and that not at all in proportion to the quantity of iron it contains; for the more it is purified from this metal, the more magnetical it becomes; and even acquires what iron does not, viz. the properties of a true loadftone. NICKENICK, a town of France, in the dep. of the Sarre, and ci-devant archbishopric of Treves; 12 miles W. of Coblentz. NICKING OF HORSES. See FARRIERY, Part VI. Sect. V... NICKLOBING, a town of Denmark, in N. Jutland, with a good harbour. Lon. 8. 52. E. Lat, 56. 54. N. NICKNAME. n. f. [nom de nique, French] A name given in fcoff or contempt; a term of derifion; an opprobrious or contemptuous appellation. He is upbraidingly called a poet, as if it were a contemptible nickname. Ben Jonfon. My mortal enemy hath not only falfely furmifed me to be a feigned perfon, giving me nicknames, but allo hath offered large fums of money to corrupt the princes with whom I baye been retained. Bacon. So long as her tongue was at liberty, there was not a word got from her, but the fame nick name in derifion. L'Eftrange. To NICKNAME. v. a. To call by an opprobrious appellation. You nickname virtue vice. Shak. Lefs feem thefe facts which treasons nickname force, Than fuch a fear'd ability for more. Denham. NICKOWSE, or Benkowfe, a town of Algiers, with a garrifon, rampart, and 3 pieces of cannon, It is feated near the ruins of a large city, which had walls, columns, cifterns, aqueducts, &c.; 60 miles SW. of Conftantina. NICOBAR ISLANDS, feveral iflands in Afia, lying at the entrance of the gulph of Bengal. The largeft is about 40 miles long and 15 broad, and the inhabitants are faid to be a harmless fort of people, ready to fupply the fhips that ftop there with provifions. The S. end of the Great Nicobar is by Captain Ritchie placed in 94° 23′ 30′′. Lon. E. and Mr. Rannel fays that it is within 12 Lat. N. Of thefe iflands very little is known in Europe. Of the northernmost called Carnicobar, we have indeed, in the Afiatic Researches, Vol. II. fome interefting information refpecting both the produce and natural hiftory of the country, and the manners of its inhabitants. The author, Mr G. Hamilton, in his account of the island, fays," It is low, of a round figure, about 40, miles in circumference, and appears at a diftance as if entirely covered with trees: though there are feveral well-cleared and delightful fpots upon it. The foil is a black kind of clay, and marthy. It produces in great abundance, and with little care, pine-apples, plantains, papayas, cocoa-nuts, and areca-nuts; excellent yams, and a root called cacha. The only quadrupeds are, hogs, " dogs, large rats, and an animal of the lizard kind but large, called by the natives tolonqui; these frequently carry off fowls and chickens. The only kind of poultry are hens. There are snakes of many different kinds, whofe bites are mortal. The timber is of many forts, in great plenty, and fome of it remarkably large, affording excellent materials for building or repairing fhips. The natives are low in ftature, but well made, active and frong; they are copper-coloured, and their features have a caft of the Malay; quite the reverfe of elegant. The women are extremely ugly. The men cut their hair fhort, and the women have their heads shaved quite bare, and wear no covering but a thort petticoat, made of a fort of rufh or dry grafs, which reaches half way down the thigh. This grafs is not interwoven, but hangs round the perfon fomething like the thatch ing of a house. Such of them as have received prefents of cloth petticoats from the fhips, commonly tie them round immediately' under the arms. The men wear nothing but a narrow ftrip of cloth about the middle, in which they wrap up their privities very tight. The ears of both fexes, are pierced when young; and by squeezing into the holes large plugs of wood, or hanging heavy weights of shells, they render them wide, and difagreeable to look at. They are naturally good humoured, and fond of fitting at table with Europeans, where they eat every thing that is fet before them, most enormously. They do not care for wine, but will drink bumpers of arak as long as they can fee. A great part of their time is fpent in feafting and dancing. When a feast is held at any village, every one that chooses goes uninvited. At thofe feasts they eat immenfe quantities of pork, which is their favourite food, Their hogs are remarkably fat, being fed upon the cocoa-nut kernel and fea-water, as indeed all their domeftic animals, fowls, dogs, &c. are. They have likewife plenty of fmall fea-fish which they strike very dexterously with lances, wading into the fea about knee-deep. They are fure of killing a very small fish at ro or 12 yards diftance. They eat the pork almoft raw, giving it only a hafty grilling over a quick fire. They roaft a fowl, by running a piece of wood through it, by way of fpit, and holding it over a brisk fire until the feathers are burnt off, when it is ready for eating, in their tafte. They never drink water; only cocoa-nut milk, and a liquor called foura, which oozes from the cocoa-nut tree after cutting off the young fprouts or flowers. This they fuffer to ferment before it is ufed, and then it is intoxicating; to which quality they add much by their method of drinking it, by fucking it flowly through a small ftraw. After eating, the young men and women, who are fancifully dreffed with leaves, go to dancing, and the old people furround them fmoking tobacco and drinking foura. The dancers, while performing, fing fome of their tunes, which are far from wanting harmony, and to which they keep exact time. Of mufical inftruments they have only one kind, viz. a hollow bamboo, about 24 feet long and 3 inches in diameter, along the outfide of which is ftretched from end to end a fingle ftring made of the threads of a split cane, and the place under the string is hollowed which split they put a piece of cocoa-nut, a wifp of tobacco, and the leaf of a certain plant: either as a peace-offering to the devil, or a fcarecrow to frighten him away. When a man dies, all his live ftock, cloth, hatchets, fifhing-lances, and every moveable he poffeffed, is buried with him, and his death is mourned by the whole village. In one view this is an excellent cuftom, as it prevents all difputes about the property of the deceafed. His wife muft conform to cuftom by having a joint cut off from one of her fingers; and if the refuses this, the muft have a deep notch cut in one of the pillars of her house. "I was once prefent, (fays Mr Hamilton,) at the funeral of an old woman. When we went into the house which had belonged to the deceased, we found it full of her female relations; fome of them were employed in wrapping up the corpfe in leaves and cloth, and others tearing to pieces all the cloth which had belonged to her. In another house hard by, the men of the village, with many others from the neighbouring towns, were fitting drinking foura and fmoking tobacco. In the mean time two ftout young fellows were bufy digging a grave in the fand near the houfe. When the women had done with the corpfe, they fet up a moft hideous howl, upon which the people began to affemble round the grave, and 4 men went up into the house to bring down the body; in doing this they were much interrupted by a young man, fon to the deceased, who endeavoured with all his might to prevent them, but finding it in vain, he clung round the body, and was carried to the grave along with it: there, after a violent ftruggle, he was turned away and conducted back to the houfe. The corpfe being now put into the grave, and the lafhings which bound the legs and arms cut, all the live-ftock which had been the property of the deceased, confifting of about 6 hogs, and 6 fowls, were killed, and flung in above it: a man then approached with a bunch of leaves fuck upon the end of a pole, which he swept two or three times gently along the corpfe, and then the grave was filled up. During the ceremony, the women continued to make the most horrible vocal concert imaginable: the men faid nothing. A few days afterwards, a kind of monument was erected over the grave, with a pole upon it, to which long stripes of cloth of different colours were hung. Polygamy is not known among them: and their punishment of adultery is not lefs fevere than effectual. They cut, from the man's offending member, a piece of the forefkin proportioned to the frequent commiffion or enormity of the crime. There feems to fubfift among them a perfect equality. A few perfons, from their age, have a little more respect paid to them; but there is no appearance of authority one over another. Their fociety feems bound rather by mutual obligations continually conferred and received; the fimpleft and best of all ties." hollowed a little to prevent it from touching. This inftrument is played upon in the fame manner as a guitar. It is capable of producing few notes; but the performer makes it speak harmoniously, and generally accompanies it with the voice. Their houses are generally built upon the beach, in villages of 15 or 20 houfes each: each house contains a family of about zo perfons. They are raised upon wooden pillars about 10 feet from the ground; they are round, and, having no win dows, are like bee-hives, covered with thatch. The entry is through a trap-door below, where the family mount by a ladder, which is drawn up at night. This manner of building is intended to fecure the houfes from fnakes and rats; and for that purpofe the pillars are bound round with a fmooth kind of deaf, which prevents animals from mounting; and each pillar has a broad round flat piece of wood near the top of it, the project ing of which prevents the further progrefs of fuch vermin as have paffed the leaf. The flooring is made with thin ftrips of bamboos, laid at fuch diftances as to leave free admiffion for light and air; and the infide is neatly finished and decorated with fishing lances, nets, &c. The art of making cloth is unknown to the inhabitants; but from the fhips that come to trade in cocoa-nuts, they purchase a much larger quantity of cloth than is confumed upon their own ifland. This is intended for the Choury market. Choury is a fmall ifland S. of theirs, to which a large fleet of their boats fails every year about November, to exchange cloth for canoes; for they cannot make thefe themselves. This voyage they perform by the help of the fun and ftars. They have two remarkable qualities. One is their entire neglect of compliment and ceremony; and the other, their averfion to difhonefty. A Carnicobarian travelling to a diftant village, upon bufinefs or amufement, paffes through many towns in his way without fpeaking to any one; if he is hungry or tired, he goes into the nearest house, and helps himself to what he wants, and fits till he is refted, without taking the malleft notice of any of the family, unless he has business or news to communicate. Theft or robery is fo very rare amongst them, that a man going out of his house never takes away his ladder or fhuts his door, but leaves it open for any body to enter that pleafes, with out the leaft apprehenfion of having any thing ftolen. Their intercourfe with ftrangers is fo frequent, that they have acquired in general the barbarous Portuguese so common over India; their own language has a found quite different from moft others, their words being pronounced with a kind of ftop, or catch in the throat, at every fyllable. It is faid by Mr Hamilton, that they have no notion of a God, but they believe firmly in the devil, and worship him from fear. In every village there is a high pole erected with long frings of ground rattans hanging from it, which, it is faid, has the virtue to keep him at a distance. When they fee any figns of an approaching ftorm, they imagine that the devil intends them a vifit, upon which many fuperftitious ceremonies are performed. The people of every village march round their own boundaries, and fix up at different distances small sticks split at the top, into NICODEMUS, a difciple of Jefus Chrift, a Jew by nation, a member of the Sanhedrim, and by fect a Pharifee. The fcripture calls him a ruler of the Jews, and our Saviour gives him the title of a mafter of Ifrael. His private vifit to our Lord by night; his interefting converfation with him upon regeneration; his judicious re mar (1.) NICOLE, Claude, a French advocate and poet, of a very confpicuous family, born in 1611. He became king's counsellor, and died in 1685. He published a collection of poems, in 2 vols 4to, 1660. (2.) NICOLE, John, another French advocate, was coufin to the preceding, born in 1600, whofe fpeeches were remarkable for quotations from poets and romantic writers. He died at Chartres, in 1678. mark to the Jewish Sanhedrim, that the law condemns no man unheard; and his boldness at laft in openly avowing himself a difciple of Jefus, when almost all the reft had forfaken him, and joining with Jofeph of Arimathea in paying the laft duties of refpect to his body, are recorded in John iii. 1-21; viii. 50; and xix. 39, 40. It is faid that Nicodemus received baptifm from the difciples of Chrift; and that the Jews, hearing of this, depofed him from his dignity of fenator, excommunicated him, and banished him from Jerufalem: but that Gamaliel who was his coufingerman, took him to his country houfe, and maintained him till his death, when he had him buried honourably near St Stephen. There is extant an apocryphal gospel under the name of Nicodemus, which in fome MSS. bears the title of the Alts of Pilate. NICOLAITANS, in church hiftory, Chriftian heretics who are faid to have affumed this name from NICOLAS of Antioch; whofe zeal and de. votion recommended him to the church of Jerufalem, to be chofen one of the firft deacons. Their infamous practices were exprefsly condemned by the Spirit of God himself, Rev. ii. 6. Their opinions and actions were highly extravagant and criminal. They allowed a community of wives, and made no diftinction between ordinary meats and thofe offered to idols. According to Eufebius, they fubfifted but a fhort time; but Tertullian'fays, that they only changed their name, and that their herefies paffed into the fect of the CAINITES. (1.) NICOLAS, one of the first 7 deacons in the Chriftian church, a native of Antioch, a profelyte to the Jewish religion, and a convert to Chriftianity. He is generally fuppofed to have been the founder of the heretical fect of the Nicolaitans; but many of the primitive writers are of opinion, that he was rather, by fome imprudence, the occafion, than the author of that immoral herefy. Some even fay, that the founder of that fect was quite a different perfon. (2-6.) NICOLAS, the name of 5 popes of Rome. Of these NICOLAS IV. was general of the Friars Minor, and was elected pope in 1288, on the death of Honorius IV. He attempted to excite a new croifade, but failed. He wrote fome commentaries on the Scriptures, and on the fentences of Peter the Lombard. NICOLAS V. Card. Bp. of Bologna, was chofen pope after Eugene IV. He restored peace to the church and to Europe; on which account he celebrated a grand jubilee at Rome in 1450. But the misfortunes of the Chriftians in the Eaft affected him so much, that he died of a broken heart in 1455. NICOLAU, a town of Silefia, in Ratibor. (3.) NICOLE, Peter, fon of John (No 2.) was one of the finest writers in Europe, and was born at Chartres in 1625. He adhered to the Janfenifts; and joined in the compofition of several works with Mr Arnauld, whofe faithful companion he was during the 10 or 12 years of his retirement. He gave a Latin translation of Pascal's Provinciales, and added a commentary to them. One of his fineft works is his Effais de Morale. He wrote very fubtilely against the Proteftants. His treatife on the unity of the church is esteemed a mafterly piece. He died at Paris in 1695, a few days after the publication of his treatise concerning the Quietifts. He was well skilled in polite lite rature. To him is afcribed a collection of Latin epigrams, and of Greek, Spanish, and Italian fentences, which has a learned preface, and has gone through feveral editions. (4.) NICOLE, Francis, a celebrated French mathematician, born at Paris, 23d Dec. 1683. Showing early figns of a genius for mathematics, M. Montmort undertook to educate him, and foon inftructed him in the higher geometry. He first attracted the public attention, by detecting the falfehood of a boafted quadrature of the circle. One M. Mathulon thought himself so certain that he had discovered the quadrature, that he depofited, in the hand of a notary public at Lyons, 3000 livres, to be paid to any man, who should prove the falfity of his folution;-the question to be decided by the academy of sciences. Nicole accepted the challenge, expofed the paralogifm, and the academy decided, that Nicole had clearly proved that the rectilineal figure, which Mathulon had given as equal to the circle, was not only unequal to it, but that it was even greater than the polygon of 32 fides circumfcribed about the circle. Nicole gave the 3000 livres to the public hofpital at Lyon's. The academy appointed him eleve mechanician 12th March, 1707; adjunct in 1716; affociate in 1718, and penfioner in 1724, which he enjoyed till he died, on the 18th Jan. 1758, in his 75th year. He was author of 26 valuable papers, inferted in the memoirs of the academy, between 1707 and 1747; which are particularly enumerated in Dr Hutton's Mathematical Dictionary. NICOLO, ST, an island of Maritime Auftria, the most confiderable, strongeft, and beft peopled of the ifles of Tremeti, in the gulf of Venice, E. of St Domino, and S. of Caparata. It has a harbour defended by feveral towers; and a fortrefs, in which is an abbey, with a handsome church. Lon. 15. 37. E. Lat. 42. 7. N. NICOLSBURG, a town of Moravia, in Brunn, often taken during the wars of Bohemia; 118 miles SE. of Prague. NICOLSON, I NICOLSON, William, D. D. a learned English prelate, born at Orton in Cumberland, in 1655, and educated at Oxford. He became fellow in 1679; archdeacon of Carlisle in.1681, D. D. in 1702, and bishop of Londonderry in 1717. In 1727 he was appointed Abp. of Cafhell, but died at Derry before he could take poffeflion of this dignity. He was a learned antiquary, and published feveral works; particularly the English Hiftorical Library in 1714, fol. NICOLSTADT, a town of Silefia in Lignitz, 9 miles SE. of Lignitz. (1.) NICOMEDES, a geometrician, famous on account of the invention of the curve called conchaid. See CONCHOID. It appears that he lived foon after Eratofthenes, for he rallied that philofopher on the mechanifm of his mefolable. Geminus, who lived in the ad century before Jefus Chrift, has written on the conchoid, though Nico. medes was always efteemed the inventor. Thofe who place him four or five centuries after Jefus Chrift must be ignorant of these facts, by which we are enabled to ascertain pretty nearly the time in which he lived. (2-5.) NICOMEDES, the name of four kings of ancient Bithynia. See BITHYNIA. NICOMEDES I. had no fooner taken poffeffion of his father's throne, A. A. C. 270, than he eaufed two of his brothers to be put to death. The youngest, ZIBOEAS, having faved himfelf by timely flight, feized on the coaft of Bithynia, then known by the names of Thracia, Thyniccia, and Thracia Afiatica, and there maintained a long war with his brother. Nicomedes being informed that Antiochus Soter, king of Syria, was preparing to attack him at the fame time, called in the Gauls to his affiftance; and on this occafion that people first paffed into Afia-Nicomedes, having with their affiftance repulfed Antiochus, overcome his brother, and acquired the poffeffion of all his father's dominions, bestowed upon them that part of Afia Minor which from them was called GALLO-GRECIA, and GALATIA. He enlarged and adorned the city of Aftacus, which he called Nicomedia. He had two wives, and by one of them was perfuaded to leave his kingdom to her fon, in preference to his elder brothers. NICOMEDES II. the grandfon of the former, began his reign like him, by facrificing his brothers to his jealousy, after having waded to the throne in the blood of Prufias his father. He af fumed the name of Epiphanes or the Illuftrious, though he performed nothing worthy of this title, or even of notice, during the whole time of his long reign. He was fucceeded by his fon, NICOMEDES III. furnamed by antiphrafis Phi lopater, because he had murdered his father to get poffeffion of his crown. Having entered into alliance with Mithridates the Great, king of Pontus, he invaded Paphlagonia; and having feized on that country, he tried likewife to make himself mafter of Cappadocia. This country, however, was then fubject to his powerful ally; who thereupon marching into Bithynia at the head of an army, drove Nicomedes from the throne, and raised his brother Socrates to it. The ethroned prince had recourse to the Romans, who expelled the ufurper, and restored him to his hereditary domi nions. For this favour they preffed him, and at length prevailed upon him, contrary to bis own inclination and the opinion of his friends, to make inroads into the territories of Mithridates, with whom Rome wanted a fubject of difpute. The king of Pontus bore for fome time the devaftations committed by Nicomedes with great patience, that he might not feem to be the aggreflor; but at laft he routed his army on the banks of the Amnius, drove him a fecond time from his domi. nions, and obliged him to feek for fhelter in Paphlagonia, where he led a private life till the time of Sylla, who replaced him on the throne. He was fuccceded by his fon, NICOMEDES IV. who performed nothing worth tranfmitting to pofterity. As he died without iffue male, he left his kingdom by his laft will to the Romans. Salluft tells us, that Nicomedes left a fon named Mufa or Mufa; and introduces Mithridates as complaining of the Romans to Arces king of Parthia, for feizing the kingdom of Bithynia, and excluding the fon of a prince who had always fhown himself a steady friend to their republic. But this Mufa was the daughter and not the fon of Nicomedes, as we are told by Suetonius, Velleius Paterculus, and Appian. Upon the death of her father the claimed the kingdom of Bithynia for her fon, as the next male heir to the crown; but without fuccefs; no motives of juftice being of fuch weight with the ambitious Romans as to make them part with a kingdom. NICOMEDIA, in ancient geography, the me tropolis of Bithynia, built by Nicomedes I. Situated on a point of the Sinus Aftacenus, (Pliny); furnamed the Beautifuls ( Athenæus); the largest city of Bithynia, (Paujanius), formerly called Afla cus. But Pliny diftinguishes Aft acum and Nicomedia as different cities. Nicomedia was very famous, not only under its own kings, but under the Romans: it was the royal refidence of Dioclefian, and of Constantine while Conftantinople was building. It is now called Ifchmitch, or Schmit. See SCHMIT. Lon. 29. 30. E. Lat. 40. 30. N. NICON, a native of Ruffia, born in 1613, in a village of the government of Nifhnei Novogorod, of obfcure parents. He was appointed to the office of patriarch in 1652, and unjuftly depofed in 1666. He died in 1681, aged 66. NICOP, a town of European Turkey, in Bulgaria, 32 miles WNW. of Ternova. (1.) NICOPOLI, or GLANISH, a town of Armenia, built by Pompey the Great; 15 miles S. of Erzerum, according to Mr Cruttwell, but no lefs than 265 according to Dr Brookes and J. Walker. Lon. 37. 55. E. Lat. 38. 13. N. (2.) NICOPOLI, a town of European Turkey, in Bulgaria, famous for being the place where the first battle was fought between the Turks under Bajazet I. and the Chriftians under the emperor Sigifmund, in 1396; when the latter were defeated with the lofs of 20,000 men. It is feated on the Danube, 130 miles NW. of Adrianople. Lon. 25. 33. E. Lat. 43. 46. N. (1.) NICOSIA, the capital of the inland of CyPRUS, where a Turkish bathaw refides. It is delightfully fituated between the mountains of Olympus and a chain of others; and was for merly |