Regulus
Regulus names 4 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
Regulus a celebrated Roman general
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a celebrated Roman general. He died about 250 B. C. He commanded the Roman forces in the First Punic War. In 256 he defeated the Carthaginian fleet, invaded Africa, and besieged Carthage. In the following year his army was defeated by the Carthaginians and he was taken prisoner. According to tradition, resting entirely on Roman authority, he was released on parole and sent to Rome to treat for peace, with the understanding that, if he induced his countrymen to accept liberty, he should be released; if not, he should return to Carthage. Instead of persuading the Roman Senate to accept the terms of the Carthaginians, he is said to have encouraged them to prosecute the war. On going back to Carthage he was put to death barbarously. His fate was avenged by his family, who inflicted similar tortures on two noble Carthaginians in their power. It has been suggested that the Carthaginians met their fate as described, and that the story of Regulus was invented by his family to justify Roman cruelty to Carthaginian prisoners. See Punic War; Scipio ; Carthage
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
MARCUS ATTILIUS, a Roman general, celebrated for his patriotism and devotion in the service of his country. Made consul a second time about 256 B. C., with his colleague, Manlius Vulso, he commanded in the first war against Carthage. Taken prisoner by the Carthaginians, he was sent to Rome with an embassy, that peace might be procured, and bound himself, by an oath, to return if the terms were rejected. He considered it his duty to advise the continuance of the war; which, being determined on, no entreaties could prevent him from fulfilling his solemn engagement; and the Carthaginians, on his return, put him to a cruel death.
Regulus or RULE, ST.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
or RULE, ST., according to legend, a monk of Constantinople or Bishop of Patras, who in A. D. 347, came to Muckross or Kilrimont (afterward St. Andrews), bringing relics of St. Andrew to Scotland from the East.
Regulus a term in metallurgy
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a term in metallurgy, now used in a generic sense for metals in different stages of purity, but which still retain, to a greater or less extent, the impurities they contained in the state of ore.
Regulus the star Alpha Leonis
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the star Alpha Leonis, the brightest in the constellation of the Lion.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The Roman general's story stands much as Aiton's told it in 1910 — and Aiton's caution that the tale "rests entirely on Roman authority" is close to the modern consensus, which treats the torture and the heroic return as later annalistic embroidery on a captivity that probably ended in ordinary imprisonment. The star has changed most. Where Collier's in 1921 could say only that Alpha Leonis was "the brightest in the constellation of the Lion," it is now measured at about 79 light years away and known to spin so fast — roughly once every 16 hours — that it is visibly flattened at the poles, with a faint white-dwarf companion detected spectroscopically in 2008. "Regulus" as a metallurgical term has largely dropped out of use, replaced by words like matte for impure smelted metal; the legend of St Rule survives chiefly in the square 11th-century St Rule's Tower still standing at St Andrews.
Written for this edition, 2026.