according to Tacitus, the mother of the gods, Hertha, and the symbol of her worship was a wild boar Now, as this animal was sacred to Freya, the Scandinavian Venus, and as Freya is often confounded with Frigga, the mother of the gods in the Scandinavian mythology, Tacitus evidently fell into a similar error, and misunderstood his informers. (Tacit., M. G., 45.-Pinkerton, Diss. on Scythians, &c., p. 168.)

ATHER (A10), a personified idea of the mythical cosmogonies. (Vid. Supplement.)

ETHICES, a Thessalian tribe of uncertain but ancient origin, since they are mentioned by Homer (Il., 2, 744), who states that the Centaurs, expelled by Pirithous from Mount Pelion, withdrew to the Ethices. Strabo (327 and 434) says, that they inhabited the Thessalian side of Pindus, near the sources of the Peneus, but that their possession of the latter was disputed by the Tymphæi, who were contiguous to them on the Epirotic side of the mountain. Marsyas, a writer cited by Stephanus Byzantinus (s. v. Allikía), described the Ethices as a most daring race of barbarians, whose sole object was robbery and plunder. Lycophron (r. 802) calls Polysperchon Albíkov рóμoc. Scarcely any trace of this people remained in the time of Strabo.

ETHICUS. Vid. Supplement.

ESULA, a town of Latium, the site of which remains undiscovered. Horace (Od., 3, 29, 6) speaks of it the same line with Tibur, whence it is naturally supposed to have stood in the vicinity of that place. Pliny (3,5) enumerates Esula among the Latin towns, which no longer existed in his time. Velleius Paterculus (1, 14) calls the place Æsulum, and reckons it among the colonies of Rome. (Cramer's Ane. Italy, 2, 66.) ESVETES, a Trojan prince, supposed by some to have been the parent of Antenor and Ucalegon, while ETHIOPIA, an extensive country of Africa, to the others make him to have been descended from a more south of Egypt, lying along the Sinus Arabicus and ancient calegon, who had married Ilios, the daughter Mare Erythræum, and extending also far inland. An of Laomedon. Homer (Il., 13, 427) mentions Alcath- idea of its actual limits will best be formed from a view ous as the son of Esyetes, and the son-in-law of An- of the gradual progress of Grecian discovery in relation chises, who had given him his eldest daughter Hippo- to this region. Ethiops (Al0io) was the expression dania in marriage. (Heyne, ad I, 2, 793.) The used by the Greeks for everything which had contracttomb of Esyetes is alluded to by Homer (Il., 2, 793), ed a dark or swarthy colour from exposure to the heat and is said by Strabo (599) to have been five stadia dis- of the sun (ai0w, "to burn," and &,"the visage"). tant from Troy, and on the road leading to Alexandrea The term was applied also to men of a dark complexion, Troas. It afforded a very convenient post of observa- and the early Greeks named all of such a colour Ethition in the Trojan war. Dr. Clarke gives the follow- opes, and their country Ethiopia, wherever situated. ing account of it (Travels, &c., vol. 3, p. 92, seqq., It is more than probable that the Greeks obtained their Eng. ed.): "Coming opposite to the bay, which has knowledge of the existence of such a race of men from been considered as the naval station used by the Greeks the Phanicians and Egyptians, and that this knowledge, during the Trojan war, and which is situate on the founded originally on mere report, was subsequently eastern side of the embouchure of the Mender, the eye confirmed by actual inspection, when the Greek coloof the spectator is attracted by an object predomina- nists along the shores of Asia Minor, in their commerting over every other, and admirably adapted, by the cial intercourse with Sidon and Egypt, beheld there singularity of its form, as well as by the peculiarity the caravans which had come in frem Southern Africa. of its situation, to overlook that station, together Homer makes express mention of the Æthiopians in with the whole of the low coast near the mouth of the many parts of his poems, and speaks of two divisions river. This object is a conical mound, rising from a of them, the Eastern and Western. The explanation Line of elevated territory behind the bay and the mouth given by Eustathius and other Greek writers respectof the river. It has, therefore, been pointed out as the ing these two classes of men, as described by the poet, tomb of Esyetes, and is now called Udjek Tépe. If cannot be the true one. They make the Nile to have we had never heard or read a single syllable concern- been the dividing line (Eustath., p. 1386, ad Hem., Od., ing the war of Troy, or the works of Homer, it would 1, 23); but this is too refined for Homer's geographihave been impossible not to notice the remarkable ap- cal acquaintance with the interior of Africa. By the pearance presented by this tumulus, so peculiarly Eastern Ethiopians he means merely the imbrowned placed as a post of observation commanding all ap- natives of Southern Arabia, who brought their wares proach to the harbour and river." In another part (p. to Sidon, and who were believed to dwell in the imme198), the same intelligent traveller observes: "The diate vic nity of the rising sun. The Egyptians were ac tumulus of Esyetes is, of all others, the spot most re- quainted with another dark-coloured nation, the Libymarkably adapted for viewing the Plain of Troy, and ans. These, although the poet carefully distinguishes it is visible in almost all parts of Troas. From its top their country from that of the Ethiopians (Od., 4, 84), may be traced the course of the Scamander; the whole still become, in opposition to the Eastern, the poet's chain of Ida, stretching towards Lectum; the snowy Western Ethiopians, the more especially as it remainheights of Gargarus, and all the shores of the Helles-ed unknown how far the latter extended to the west and pont near the mouth of the river, with Sigæum, and the other tumuli upon the coast." Bryant endeavours to show, that what the Greeks regarded as the tombs of princes and warriors, were not so in reality, but were, for the most part, connected with old religious rites and customs, and used for religious purposes. (Mythology, vol. 2, p. 167, seqq.) Lechevalier, however, successfully refutes this.

ESYMNETES. Vid. Supplement.
THALIA. Vid. Ilva.

south. This idea, originating thus in early antiquity, respecting the existence of two distinct classes of dark coloured men, gained new strength at a later pericd, In the immense army of Xerxes were to be seen men of a swarthy complexion from the Persian provit ces in the vicinity of India, and others again, of similar visage, from the countries lying to the south of Egypt. With the exception of colour, they had nothing in commcn with each other. Their language, manners, physical make, armour, &c., were entirely different. NotwithTHALIDES, a son of Mercury, and herald of the Ar- standing this, however, they were both regarded as gonauts, who obtained from his father the privilege of Ethiopians. (Compare Herodotus, 7, 69, seqq., and 3, being among the dead and the living at stated times. 94, seqq.) The Ethiopians of the farther east disapHence he was called érɛpýμepos kúpuš, from his spend-peared gradually from remembrance, while a more ining one day in Hades, and the next upon earth, alter-timate intercourse with Egypt brought the Ethiopiars nately. It is said also that his soul underwent various of Africa more frequently into view, and it is to these, transmigrations, and that he appeared successively as Euphorbus, son of Panthús, Pyrus the Cretan, an Elean whose name is not known, and Pythagoras. (Schol.,

ad loc.)

therefore, that we now turn our attention-Ethiopia, according to Herodotus, includes the countries above Egypt, the present Nubia and Abyssinia. Immediately above Syene and Elephantine, remarks this writer

12, 29), the Ethiopian race begins. As far as the town whom, and of the state and city of Meroë, the student and island of Tachompso, seventy or eighty miles above is referred to these articles respectively. Under the Syene, these are mixed with Egyptians, and higher up latter of these heads some remarks will also be offered well Ethiopians alone. The Ethiopians he distin- respecting the trade of Ethiopia.-The early and cuguishes into the inhabitants of Meroe and the Macrobii, rious belief respecting the Ethiopian race, that they In Strabo (800) and Pliny (6, 29) we find other tribes and stood highest in the favour of the gods, and that the towns referred to, but the most careful division is that deities of Olympus, at stated seasons, enjoyed among by Agatharchides, whose work on the Red Sea is unfor- them the festive hospitality of the banquet, would seem tinately lost, with the exception of some fragments. to have arisen from the peculiar relation in which MeAgatharchides divides them according to their way of roe stood to the adjacent countries as the parent city 1.fe. Some carried on agriculture, cultivating the mil- of civilization and religion. Piety and rectitude were let; others were herdsmen; while some lived by the the first virtues with a nation whose dominion was chase and on vegetables, and others, again, along the founded on religion and commerce, not on oppression. sea-shore, on fish and marine animals. The rude tribes The active imagination, however, of the early Greeks, who lived on the coast and fed on fish are called by gave a different turn to this feature in the Ethiopian Agatharchides the Ichthyophagi. Along both banks of character, and, losing sight of the true cause, or, perthe Astaboras dwelt another nation, who lived on the haps, never having been acquainted with it, they suproots of reeds growing in the neighbouring swamps: posed that a race of men, who could endure such inthese roots they cut to pieces with stones, formed them tense heat as they were thought to encounter, must be a into a tenacious mass, and dried them in the sun. Close nobler order of beings than the human family in gento these dwelt the Hylophagi, who lived on the fruits eral; and that they who dwelt so near the rising and of trees, vegetables growing in the valleys, &c. To setting of the orb of day, could not but be in closer the west of these were the hunting nations, who fed union than the rest of their species with the inhabitants on wild beasts, which they killed with the arrow. There of the skies. (Compare Mannert, 10, 103.)—The Ethiwere also other tribes, who lived on the flesh of the cle- opians were intimately connected with the Egyptians phant and the ostrich, the Elephantophăgi and Struth-in the early ages of their monarchy, and Ethiopian ophagi. Besides these, he mentions another and less princes, and whole dynasties, occupied the throne of populous tribe, who fed on locusts, which came in the Pharaohs at various times, even to a late period swarms from the southern and unknown districts. before the Persian conquest. The Ethiopians had (Agatharch., de Rubr. Mar.-Geograph. Gr. Min., ed. the same religion, the same sacerdotal order, the Hudson, vol. 1, p. 37, seqq.) The accuracy with which same hieroglyphic writing, the same rites of sepulAgatharchides has pointed out the situation of these ture and ceremonies as the Egyptians. Religious tribes, does not occasion much difficulty in assimilating pomps and processions were celebrated in common them to the modern inhabitants of Ethiopia. Accord- between the two nations. The images of the gods ing to him, they dwelt along the banks of the Astabo- were at certain times conveyed up the Nile, from their ras, which separated them from Meroë; this river is Egyptian temples to others in Ethiopia; and, after the the Atbar, or, as it is also called, the Tacazze; they conclusion of a festival, were brought back again into must, consequently, have dwelt in the present Shan- Egypt. (Diod. Sic., 1, 33.-Eustath. ad Il., 1, 423.) galla. The mode of life with these people has not in The ruins of temples found of late in the countries the least varied for 2000 years; although cultivated above Egypt (vid. Meroë), and which are quite in the nations are situate around them, they have made no Egyptian style, confirm these accounts; they were, progress in improvement themselves. Their land be- doubtless, the temples of the ancient Ethiopians. It ing unfavourable both to agriculture and the rearing of is nowhere asserted that the Ethiopians and Egyptians eattle, they are compelled to remain mere hunters. used the same language, but this seems to be implied, Most of the different tribes mentioned by Agatharchi- and is extremely probable. We learn from Diodorus, des subsist in a similar manner. The Dobenahs, the that the Ethiopians claimed the first invention of the most powerful tribe among the Shangallas, still live arts and philosophy of Egypt, and even pretended to on the elephant and the rhinoceros. The Baasa, in have planted the first colonies of Egypt, soon after that the plains of Sire, yet eat the flesh of the lion, the country had emerged from the waters of the Nile, or wild hog, and even serpents and farther to the west rather of the Mediterranean, by which it was traditiondwells a tribe, who subsist in the summer on the locust, ally reported to have been covered. The Ethiopians, and at other seasons on the crocodile, hippopotamus, and in later times, had political relations with the Ptolefish. Diodorus Siculus (3, 28) remarks, that almost all mies, and Diodorus saw ambassadors of this nation these people die of verminous diseases produced by this in Egypt in the time of Cæsar, or Augustus. An food; and Bruce (Travels, 3d ed., vol. 5, p. 83) makes Ethiopian queen, named Candace, made a treaty with the same observation with respect to the Waito, on the Augustus, and a princess of the same name is menLake Dambea, who live on crocodiles and other Nile tioned by St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles. How animals. Besides these inhabitants of the plains, Ethi- far the dominion of the Ethiopian princes extended opia was peopled by a more powerful, and somewhat is unknown, but they probably had at one period posmore civilized, shepherd-nation, who dwelt in the caves sessions on the coast of the Red Sea, and relations of the neighbouring mountains, namely, the Troglo- with Arabia. After this we find no farther mention of dyta. A chain of high mountains runs along the Afri- the ancient Ethiopian empire. Other names occur in can shore of the Arabian Gulf, which in Egypt are com- the countries intervening between Egypt and Abysposed of granite, marble, and alabaster, but farther south sinia; and when the term Ethiopian is again met with of a softer kind of stone. At the foot of the gulf these in a later age, it is found to have been transferred to mountains turn inward, and bound the southern portion the princes and people of Habesh. Such is the hisof Abyssinia. This chain was, in the most ancient tory of Ethiopia among the profane writers. By the times, inhabited by these Troglodytæ, in the holes and Hebrews the same people are mentioned frequently grottoes formed by nature but enlarged by human la- under the name of Cush, which by the Septuagint bour. These people were not hunters; they were translators is always rendered Aifftones, or Æthiopians. herdsmen, and had their chiefs or princes of the race. The Hebrew term is, however, applied sometimes to Remains of the Troglodyte still exist in the Shipo, nations dwelling on the eastern shore of the Red Sea, Hazorta, &c., mentioned by Bruce (vol. 4, p. 266). and hence a degree of ambiguity respecting its meanA still more celebrated Ethiopian nation, and one ing in some instances. This subject has been amply which has been particularly described to us by Herod- discussed by Bochart and Michaëlis. Among the Heotus (3, 17, seqq.), was the Macrobii, for an account of brews of later times, the term Cush clearly belongs to

:

white," was a proverbial expression applied to a hopeless attempt. It may be thought that the term Æthiopian was perhaps used vaguely, to signify all or many Af rican nations of dark colour, and that the genuine Æthiopians may not have been quite so black as others But it must be observed, that though other black nations may be called by that name when taken in a wider sense, this can only have happened in consequence of their resemblance to those from whom the term originated. It is improbable that the Ethiopians were destitute of a particular character, the possession. of which was the very reason why other nations participated in their name, and came to be confounded with them. And the most accurate writers, as Strabo, for example, apply the term Æthiopian in the same way. Strabo, in the 15th book (686), cites the opinion of Theodectes, who attributed to the vicinity of the sun the black colour and woolly hair of the Ethiopians. Herodotus expressly affirms (7, 70), that the Æthiopi ans of the west, that is, of Africa, have the most woolly hair of all nations in this respect, he says, they differed from the Indians and Eastern Ethiopians, who were likewise black, but had straight hair. Moreover, the Hebrews, who, in consequence of their intercourse with Egypt under the Pharaohs, could not fail to know the proper application of the national term Cush, seem to have had a proverbial expression similar to that of the Greeks, “Can the Cush change his colour, or the leopard his spots?" (Jeremiah, 13, 23.) This is sufficient to prove, that the Ethiopian was the darkest race of people known to the Greeks, and, in earlier times, to the Hebrews. The only way of avoiding the inference, that the Æthiopians were genuine negroes, must be by the supposition, that the ancients, among whom the foregoing expressions were current, were not acquainted with any people exactly resembling the people of Guinea, and therefore applied the terms woolly-haired, flat-nosed, &c., to nations who had these characters in a much less degree than those people whom we now term negroes. It seems possible, that the people termed Ethiopians by the Greeks, and Cush by the Hebrew writers, may either of them have been of the race of the Shangalla, Shiiluk, or other negro tribes, who now inhabit the countries bordering on the Nile, to the southward of Sennaar; or they may have been the ancestors of the present Nouba or Barabra, or of people resembling them in description. The chief obstacle to our adopting the supposition that these Ethiopians were of the Shangalla race or of any stock resembling them, is the circumstance that so near a connexion appears to have subsisted between the former and the Egyptians; and we know that the Egyptians were not genuine negroes. Perhaps, after all, however, we would be more correct in considering the Bedjas, and their descendants the Abadbé and Bisharein, as the posterity of the ancient Æthiopians. Both the Abadbé and Bisharein belong to the class of red, or copper-coloured people. The former are described by Belzoni (Travels, p. 310), and the latter by Burckhardt (Travels in Nubia). ETHLIUS. Vid. Supplement.

the Ethiopians. The Ethiopians, who were con- | people known in the world. "To wash the Ethiopian nected with the Egyptians by affinity and intimate political relations, are by the later Hebrew historians termed Cush. Thus Tizhakah, the Cushite invader of Judah, is evidently Tearchon the Ethiopian leader mentioned by Strabo, and the same who is termed Tarakos, and is set down by Manetho, in the wellknown tables of dynasties, as an Æthiopian king of Egypt. In the earlier ages the term Cush belonged apparently to the same nation or race; though it would appear that the Cush or Ethiopians of those times occupied both sides of the Red Sea. The Cush mentioned by Moses are pointed out by him to be a nation of kindred origin with the Egyptians. In the Toldoth Beni Noach, or Archives of the sons of Noah, which Michaelis (Spicileg. Geogr. Hebr. Ext.) has proved to contain a digest of the historical and geographical knowledge of the ancient world, it is said, that the Cush and the Misraim were brothers, which means, as it is generally allowed, nations nearly allied by kindred. It is very probable that the first people who settled in Arabia were Cushite nations, who were afterward expelled or succeeded by the Beni Yoktan or true Arabs. In the enumeration of the descendants of Cush in the Toldoth Beni Noach, several tribes or settlements are mentioned in Arabia, as Saba and Havila. When the author afterward proceeds to the descendants of Yoktan, the very same places are enumerated among their settlements. That the Cush had in remote times possessions in Asia, is evident from the history of Nimrod, a Cushite chieftain, who is said to have possessed several cities of the Assyrians, among which was Babel, or Babylon, in Shinar. Long after their departure the name of the Cush remained behind them on the coast of the Red Sea. It is probable that the name of Cush continued to be given to tribes which had succeeded the genuine Cushites in the possession of their ancient territories in Arabia, after the whole of that people had passed into Africa, just as the English are termed Britons, and the Dutch race of modern times Belgians. In this way it happened, that people, remote in race from the family of Ham, are yet named Cush, as the Midianites, who were descended from Abraham. The daughter of Jethro, the Midianite, is termed a Cushite woman. Even in this instance, the correspondence of Cush and Ethiopia has been preserved. We find the word rendered Ethiopissa by the Septuagint translators, and in the verses of Ezekiel, the Jewish Hellenistic poet, Jethro is placed in Africa, and his people are termed Ethiopians. On the whole, it may be considered as clearly established, that the Cush are the genuine Ethiopian race, and that the country of the Cush is generally in Scripture that part of Africa which lies above Egypt. In support of these positions may be cited, not only the authority of the Septuagint, and the writers already mentioned, but the concurring testimony of the Vulgate, and all other ancient versions, with that of Philo, Josephus, Eupolemus, and all the Jewish commentators and Christian fathers. There is only one writer of antiquity on the other side, and he was probably misled by the facts which we have already considered. This single dissentient is the writer of Jonathan's Targum, and on this authority the learned Bochart, supported by some doubtful passages, maintains that the land of Cush was situated on the eastern side of the Arabian Gulf. It has been satisfactorily shown, however, by the authors of the Universal History, and by Michaelis, that many of these passages require a different version, and prove that the land of Cush was Æthiopia. (Prichard's Physical History of Man, 2d ed., vol. 1, p. 289, seqq.) As regards the physical character of the ancient Ethiopians, it may be remarked that the Greeks commonly used the term Ethiopian nearly as we use that of negro: they constantly spoke of the Ethiopians, as we speak of the negroes, as if they were the blackest

ETHRA, daughter of Pittheus, king of Trazene, and mother of Theseus by Egeus. (Vid. Egeus.) She was betrothed, in the first instance, to Bellerophon; but this individual being compelled to fly, in consequence of having accidentally killed his brother, Æthra remained under her father's roof. When Ægeus came to consult Pittheus respecting an obscure oracle which the former had received from the Delphic shrine, Pittheus managed to intoxicate him, and give him the company of his daughter. From this intercourse sprang Theseus. (Vid. Egeus.) Ethra was afterward taken captive by Castor and Pollux, when these two came in quest of Helen, whom Theseus had carried off, and made themselves masters of Athens. She accompa

out doubt, in cases of malignant fevers, they were ETNA, I. a celebrated volcano of Sicily, now Etna aware that the effluvia from the bodies of those afflict- or Monte Gibello (shortened into Mongibello), the lated with them contaminated the surrounding atmo-ter of these modern appellations being adopted from sphere, and that the fevers were propagated in this the Arabic Gibel, "a mountain," given to Ætna on manner. Hence Galen, Cælius Aurelianus, Rhazes, account of its vast size, and recalling the remembrance and Avicenna, rank the plague among those complaints of the Arabian conquests in Sicily. (Compare the which pass from one person to another; and Isidorus Map of Southern Italy and Sicily, accompanying the defines the plague thus: "Pestilentia est contagium, "Histoire des Conquêtes des Normands," by D'Arc, quod, dum unum apprehenderit, celeriter ad plures where the Arabic names are given.) This volcano, so transit." At the same time, as they did not ascribe immense in size, that Vesuvius, in comparison, seems the origin and propagation of these disorders to a pe- merely a hill, rises on the eastern side of Sicily. It culiar virus, they did not think it necessary to treat of is 180 miles in circumference at the base, and attains contagion as a distinct cause of fever, because, in this by a gradual ascent to the height of 10,954 feet above view of the matter, it is clearly referrible to some one the level of the sea. From Catania (the ancient Ca of the general causes enumerated above. Thus, the tana), which stands at the foot, to the summit, is 30 atmosphere of the ill-ventilated apartment of a patient miles, and the traveller passes through three distinct in fever becoming vitiated, and being inhaled by a per- zones, called the cultivated, the woody, and the desert. son in health, might occasion fever, either by produ- The lowest, or cultivated zone, extends through an cing constriction of the pores of the skin, or putrefac- interval of ascent of 16 miles, and it contains numertion of the fluids, and accordingly would be referred ous small mountains of a conical form, about 300 or either to the 3d or the 4th class of general causes. In 400 feet high, each having a crater at the top, from a word, the opinions of the ancients upon this subject which the lava flows over the surrounding country. seem to have corresponded very much with those of The fertility of this region is wonderful, and its fruits the more reasonable Macleanites of the present day, are the finest in the island. The woody region forms who, although they deny that fever, strictly speaking, a zone of the brightest green all around the mountain, is contagious, admit that it is contaminative.-Aetius and reaches up the side about eight miles. In the is the first medical author who has given a distinct ac- desert region vegetation entirely disappears, and the count of the Dracunculus, or Vermis Medinensis, now surface presents a dreary expanse of snow and ice. commonly known by the name of Guinea-worm. He The summit of the mountain consists of a conical hill, treats of this disease so fully, that Rhazes and Avicen- containing a crater above two miles in circumference. na have supplied but little additional information, nor -The silence of Homer respecting the fires of Ætna have the moderns, in any considerable degree, im- has given rise to the opinion, that the mountain in his proved upon the knowledge of the ancients. The time was in the same state of repose as Vesuvius in method of treating Aneurism at the elbow-joint is de- the days of Strabo. The earliest writers who make serving of attention, as being a near approximation to mention of Etna, and its eruptions, are the author of the improved method of operating introduced by John the Orphic poems (Argonaut., v. 12), and more parHunter and Abernethy. He directs the operator to ticularly Pindar (Pyth., 1, 21, seqq., ed. Boeckh. make a longitudinal incision along the inner side of the Compare Aulus Gellius, 17, 10), whose description, arm, three or four fingers' breadth below the armpit, in its fearful sublimity, bears with it all the marks and having laid bare the artery, and dissected it from of truth, and points evidently to some accurate acthe surrounding parts, to raise it up with a blind hook, counts of the volcano, as received by the bard, perand, introducing two threads, to tie them separately haps from King Hiero. Thucydides (3, 116) is next and divide the artery in the middle. Had he stopped in order. He speaks of the stream of lava, which, in here, his method would have been a complete antici- his time (Ol. 88, 3, B.C. 426), desolated the territory pation of the plan of proceeding now practised; but, of Catana; he asserts, that, fifty years before, a similar unfortunately, not having sufficient confidence in the flow of lava had taken place, and, without any farther absorbing powers of the system, he gives directions to chronological reference, makes mention also of a third. open the tumour and evacuate its contents. Many These were the only three eruptions with which the nice operations upon the eye and surrounding parts Greeks had become acquainted since their settlement are accurately described by him.-On the obstetrical in Sicily. That Etna, however, had, at a much eardepartment of surgery he is fuller than any other an- lier period, given proof of its volcanic character, is cient writer. He has also given an account of many evident from the narrative of Diodorus Siculus (5, 6), pharmaceutical operations which are not noticed elsewhere we are informed, that the Sicani were compellwhere. The work of Aetius, divided by the copyists ed to retire to the western parts of the island, by reainto four Tetrabibli, and each Tetrabiblus into four son of the devastation and terror which the fiery erupdiscourses, consisted originally of sixteen books. The tions from the mountain had occasioned. The acfirst eight only were printed in Greek at Venice, by count which Strabo gives (274) of the state of thing the heirs of Aldus Manutius, fol., 1534. The others on the summit of Ætna, accords pretty accurately with have remained in MS., in the libraries of Vienna and the narratives of modern travellers. The geographer Paris. Various editions have been published of the informs us, that those who had lately ascended the Latin translation of the entire work by Janus Corna-mountain found on the top a crater, or, as he teens it, rius, under the title of Contractæ ex veteribus Medi- a level plain (πεdíov óμaλóv), about twenty stadia in cine tetrabiblis, at Venice, 1543, in 8vo; at Basle, circumference, enclosed by a bank of cinders having 1542, 1549, in fol.; another at Basle, 1535, fol., of the height of a wall. In the middle of the plain was which the first seven and the last three books were trans- a hill of an ashy colour, like the surface of the plain. lated by Montanus; two at Lyons, 1549, fol., and 1560, Over the hill a column of smoke hung suspended, ex4 vols. 12mo, with notes of but little value, by Hugo de tending about two hundred feet in height. Two of Soleriis; and one at Paris, 1567, fol., among the Med-the party from whom Strabo received his information ice Artis Principes.-IV. Sicanus, or Siculus, a phy- undertook to descend the banks and enter upon the sician, and native of Sicily, as is commonly supposed, plain, but the hot and deep sand soon compelled them to whom is ascribed a treatise on Melancholy. The to retrace their steps. The geographer, after this truth is, however, that the treatise in question is no- statement, then proceeds to contradict the common thing more than a selection from the second discourse story respecting the fate of Empedocles, the party asof the second Tetrabiblus of Aëtius of Amida; so suring him that the crater, or opening into the bowels that Aëtius the Sicilian becomes a mere nonentity. of the mountain, could neither be seen nor approached. (Schöll, Hist. Lit. Gr., 7, p. 253.) -The whole number of eruptions on record, in the