firm hold over the Roman mind, and her popularity lasted till the end of paganism. Special games were held in her honour in the circus, and generals erected statues of her after a successful campaign. She came to be regarded as the protecting goddess of the senate, and her statue (originally brought from Tarentum and set up by Augustus in memory of the battle of Actium) in the Curia Julia (Dio Cassius li. 22; Suetonius, Aug. 100) was the cause of the final combat between Christianity and paganism towards the end of the 4th century. Victoria had altars in camp, a special set of worshippers and colleges, a festival on the 1st of November, temples at Rome and throughout the empire. The Sabine goddess Vicuna and Vica Pota, one of the dii indigetes (both of them goddesses of victory), are earlier varieties of Victoria (Livy xxix. 14). Representations of Nikē-Victoria in Greek and Graeco-Roman art are very numerous. The statue of Nikē at Olympia by Paeonius has been in great part recovered.
See A. Baudrillart, Les Divinités de la victoire en Grèce et en Italie (1894), whose view that in the 5th century Nikē became detached from Athena, although Athena Nikē still continued to exist, is supported by Miss J. E. Harrison (Classical Review, April 1895) and L. R. Farnell (Cults of the Greek States, i., 1896), but opposed by E. Sikes (C.R., June 1895), who holds that “while Nikē was a late conception, Athena Nikē was still later, and that the goddess of victory cannot have originated, either at Athens or elsewhere, from an aspect of Athena”; F. Studniczka, Die Siegesgöttin (Leipzig, 1898); Preller-Robert, Griechische Mythologie (1894); O. Benndorf, Über das Cultusbild der Athena Nike (Vienna, 1879); G. Boissier, La fin du paganisme (1891); Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. 28.
In the article Greek Art, fig. 32 represents Nikē pouring water over a sacrificial ox; fig. 36 the floating Nikē of Paeonius; figs. 61, 62 (Pl. iii.), the winged Nikē of Samothrace; the running or flying figure (fig. 19) is also possibly a Nikē.
NIKISCH, ARTHUR (1855–), Hungarian conductor,
became known as a musical prodigy at an early age, making a
public performance as a pianist at eight years old. He studied
at the Vienna Conservatoire from 1866 to 1873, and while there
he composed a symphony and other works. For a time he was
engaged as a violinist, but in 1877 he began as assistant conductor
at the Leipzig opera and two years later became chief conductor.
His success there, and his reputation as the producer of the
more modern types of music as well as of classical masterpieces
led to his being appointed conductor of the symphony orchestra
at Boston, U.S.A., from 1889 to 1893; and subsequently, after
having been director at the Budapest opera, he was made
conductor at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. His fame was now, widespread,
and he made successful visits to London, Paris and other
capitals, his ability as a pianoforte accompanist being recognized
as no less marked than his brilliance as director of an
orchestra.
NIKITIN, ATHANASIUS, of Tver (fl. 1468–1474), Russian
merchant, traveller and writer, the earliest known Russian visitor
to India. He started in 1468 on his “wanderings beyond the
Three Seas” (Caspian, Euxine and Indian Ocean), and descended
the Volga, passing by Uglich, Kostroma, Nizhniy Novgorod,
Kazan, Sarai and Astrakhan. Near the latter he was attacked
and robbed by Tatars; but he succeeded in reaching Derbent,
where he joined Vasili Papin, the envoy of Ivan III. of Moscow
to the shah of Shirvan; from Nizhniy Novgorod he had travelled
with Hasan Bey, the Shirvan shah’s ambassador, returning to his
master with a present of falcons from Ivan. At Derbent Nikitin
vainly endeavoured to get means of returning to Russia; failing
in this, he went on to Batu, where he notices the “eternal fires,”
and thence over the Caspian to Bokhara. Here he stayed six
months, after which he made his way southward, with several
prolonged stoppages, to the Persian Gulf, through Mazandaran
province and the towns of Amul, Demavend, Ray (near Tehran),
Kashan, Nain, Yezd, Sirjan, Tarun, Lar and Bandar, opposite
New (or insular) Hormuz. From Hormuz he sailed by Muscat to
Gujarat, Cambay and Chaul in western India. Landing at Chaul,
he seems to have travelled to Umrut in Aurangabad province,
south-east of Surat, and thence to Beder, the modern Ahmedabad.
Here, and in adjacent regions, Nikitin spent nearly four years;
from the little he tells us, he appears to have made his living by
horse-dealing. From Beder he visited the Hindu sanctuary
(“their Jerusalem”) of Perwattum. He returned to Russia by
way of Calicut, Dabul, Muscat, Hormuz, Lar, Shiraz, Yezd,
Isfahan, Kashan, Sultanieh, Tabriz, Trebizond and Kaffa
(Theodosia) in the Crimea. He has left us descriptions of
western Indian manners, customs, religion, court-ceremonies,
festivals, warfare and trade, of some value; but the text is
corrupt, and the narrative at its best is confused and meagre.
His remarks on the trade of Hormuz, Cambay, Calicut, Dabul,
Ceylon, Pegu and China; on royal progresses and other functions,
both ecclesiastical and civil, at Beder; and on the wonders of
the great fair at Perwattum—as well as his comparisons of things
Russian and Indian—deserve special notice.
Two MSS. are known: (1) in the library of the cathedral of St Sophia in Novgorod; (2) in the library of the Troïtsa Monastery (Troitsko-Sergievskaya Lavra) near Moscow. See also the edition by Pavel Mikhailovich Stroev in Sofiiskii Vremennik (A.D. 862–1534), pt. ii. pp. 145-164 (Moscow, 1820–1821); and the English version in India in the 15th Century, pp. lxxiv.-lxxx.; 1-32 (separately paged, Nikitin’s being the third narrative in the volume, translated and edited by Count Wielhorski; London, Hakluyt Society, 1857). (C. R. B.)
NIKKO, one of the chief religious centres of Japan. The
name belongs properly to the district, but is as Commonly
applied to the principal village, Hachi-ishi, which is 91 m. N.
of Tokyo by rail. The district is high-lying, mountainous and
beautiful, and is in favour for summer residence. The chief
mountain range is known as Nikko-Zan (Mountains of the Sun’s
Brightness). A Shinto temple seems to have existed at Nikko
from time immemorial, and in 767 its first Buddhist temple was
founded by Shodo Sho-nin (the subject of many strange legendary
adventures); but the main celebrity of the place is due to the
sepulchres and sanctuaries of Iyeyasu and Iyemitsu, the first
and third shoguns of the Tokugawa dynasty. Iyeyasu was
buried with amazing pomp in 1617, and Iyemitsu, his grandson,
was slain in 1650 while visiting his tomb. From 1644 to 1868
the “abbots” of Nikko were always princes of the imperial
blood; thirteen of them are buried within the sacred grounds.
Though the magnificent abbots’ residence was destroyed by fire
in 1871, and the temples have lost most of their ritual and much
of their material splendour, enough remains to astonish by
excellence and bewilder by variety of decorative detail. Of the
numerous structures which cluster round the shrine of Iyeyasu,
it is sufficient to mention the cylindrical copper column (1643),
a guardian against evil influences, 42 ft. high, adorned at the
top with a series of lotus flowers, from the petals of which hang
small bells; a five-storied pagoda (1659), 104 ft. high, with the
signs of the zodiac carved round the base; the gate of the Two
Kings, with its figures of unicorns, lions, tigers, elephants,
mythical animals and tree-peonies; the vermilion-coloured
timber enclosure to which this gate gives entrance, with three
great storehouses, a sumptuous stable for the sacred horses, and
a finely fashioned granite cistern (1618) for holy water; and the
Yo-mei-mon gate, which with the contiguous cloister is covered
with the most elaborate carving, and gives access by way of
another gate (Kara-Mon) to the court in the midst of which stands
the last and most sacred enclosure. This, known as the Tamagaki,
is a quadrangle of gilt trellis-work 50 yds. square; within it
stands the “chapel” or oratory (or rather a series of chambers),
in the decoration of which gilding and black lacquer have been
lavishly employed. The tomb of Iyeyasu lies apart about two
hundred steps higher up the hills, in the shadow of tall cryptomerias—a
single light-coloured bronze urn or casket standing on
a circular base of three steps with a stone table in front on which
rest a censer, a lotus-cluster and a stork with a candlestick in its
mouth, the whole enclosed by a high stone wall. Somewhat similar
are the tomb of Iyemitsu and its surroundings; and though the
art displayed is of an inferior character, the profusion of buildings
and embellishments is even more remarkable. Hotoké Iwa, the
hill on which the tomb stands, is completely covered to the summit
with trees of various tints. There are numerous temples and
shrines of minor interest in the locality.
NIKOLAYEV, a town, seaport and chief naval station of Russia on the Black Sea, in the government of Kherson, 40 m. N.W. of the city of Kherson. Pop. (1881) 35,000; (1891) 77,210; (1897) 92,060. Nikolayev stands a little above the
