on the mountains at its source would be most likely to the twenty-four courses, an eminent distinction. By occasion such an inundation. Travellers have given his mother's side he traced his genealogy up to the Asdifferent accounts of this celebrated stream. Maun- monean princes. He grew up with a high reputation for drell assigns it a breadth of 20 yards; but represents early intelligence and memory. At fourteen years old it as deep, and so rapid that a man could not swim (he is his own biographer) he was so fond of letters, that against the current. Volney calls it from 60 to 80 the chief priests used to meet at his father's house to put feet between the two principal lakes, and 10 or 12 to him difficult questions of the law. At sixteen he feet deep; but makes it 60 paces at its embouchure; determined to acquaint himself with the three prevailChateaubriand, about the same point, 50 paces, and ing sects, those of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essix or seven feet deep close to the shore. Dr. Shaw senes For though he had led for some time a hardy, computed its breadth at 30 yards, and its depth at nine diligent, and studious life, he did not consider himself feet; and that it daily discharges 6,090,000 tons of yet sufficiently acquainted with the character of each water into the Dead Sea. Burckhardt, who crossed sect to decide which he should follow. Having heard it higher up, calls it 80 paces broad, and three feet that a certain Essene named Banus was leading in the deep; but this was in the middle of summer. Mr. desert the life of a hermit, making his raiment from Buckingham, who visited it in the month of January, the trees and his food from the fruits of the earth, 1816, states it to be little more at the part where he practising cold ablutions at all seasons, and, in short, crossed it, which was a short distance above the par- using every means of mortification to increase his alle! of Jericho, than 25 yards in breadth, and so shal- sanctity, Josephus, ambitious of emulating the fame low as to be easily forded by the horses. At another of such an example of holy seclusion, joined him in point, higher up in its course, he describes it as 120 his cell. But three years of this ascetic life tamed feet broad. From a mean of these and other accounts, his zealous ambition; he grew weary of the desert, its average width may be computed at 30 yards. It abandoned his great example of painful devotion, and rolls so powerful a volume of water into the Dead Sea, returned to the city at the age of nineteen. There that the strongest and most expert swimmer would be he joined the sect of the Pharisees. In his twentyfoiled in any attempt to swim across it at its point of sixth year he undertook a voyage to Rome, in order entrance he must inevitably be hurried down by the to make interest in favour of certain priests, who had stream into the lake. The banks of the Jordan are in been sent there to answer some unimportant charge many places covered with bushes, reeds, tamarisks, by Felix. On his voyage he was shipwrecked and in willows, oleanders, &c., which form an asylum for vari- great danger. His ship foundered in the Adriatic, six ous wild animals, who here concealed themselves till the hundred of the crew and passengers were cast into swelling of the river drove them from their coverts. the sea, eighty contrived to swim, and were taken up To this Jeremiah alludes (49, 19). Previously to the by a ship from Cyrene. They arrived at Puteoli, the destruction of the four cities of the plain, it is probable usual landing-place, and Josephus, making acquaintthat the Jordan flowed to the Red Sea, through the ance with one Aliturus, an actor, a Jew by birth, and valley of Ghor or Arabia. --The etymology of its from his profession in high credit with the Empress name has been variously assigned. It is thought by Poppaa, he obtained the release of the prisoners, as some to come from the Hebrew jarden, a descent, well as valuable presents from Poppaa, and returned from its rapid descent through that country. Another home. During all this time he had studied diligently class of etymologists deduce its name from the He- and made himself master of the Greek language, which brew and Syriac, importing the caldron of judgment. few of his countrymen could write, still fewer speak Others make it come from Jor, a spring, and Dan, a with a correct pronunciation. On his return home he small town near its source; and a third class deduce found the Jews on the point of revolting against the it from Jor and Dan, two rivulets. It most probably power of Rome. After vainly endeavouring to oppose derives its name from Yar-Dan, "the river of Dan," this rash determination, he at last joined their cause, near which city it takes its rise. The Arabs call it and held various commands in the Jewish army. At Arden or Harden, the Persians Aerdun, and the Ara- Jotapata, in Galilee, he signalized his military abilities bian geographer Edrisi, Zacchar, or swelling. (Mans-in supporting a siege of forty-seven days against Vesford's Scripture Gazetteer, p. 251.) pasian and Titus, in a small town of Judea. During JORNANDES or (as he is called in the Analecta of the siege and capture, 40,000 men fell on the side of Mabillon) JORDANES, a Goth by birth, secretary to the Jews; none were spared but women and children; one of the kings of the Alans, and, as some believe, af- and the number of captives amounted only to 1200, terward bishop of Ravenna. In the year 552 of our so faithfully had the Roman soldiery executed their era he wrote a history of the Goths (Re Rebus Ge- orders of destruction. Josephus saved his life by flyticis). This is merely an abridgment of the history of ing into a cave, where forty of his countrymen had Cassiodorus, and is written without judgment and also taken refuge. He dissuaded them from comwith great partiality. He composed also a work enti-mitting suicide, and, when they had all drawn lots to tled De regnorum et temporum successione, or a Roman history from Romulus to Augustus. It is only a copy of the history of Florus, but with such alterations and additions, however, as to enable us sometimes to correct by means of it the text of the Roman historian. (Schöll, Hist. Lit. Lat., vol. 3, p. 177.) Ios, an island in the Egean Sea, to the north of Thera. Here, according to some accounts, Homer was interred. (Strab., 484.-Plin., 4, 12.) It was also said, that the poet's mother was a native of this island. (Steph. Byz., s. v. "Ioç.) The modern name is Nio, for which Bondelmonti assigns a totally false derivation, since it merely comes from a Romaic corruption. (Bondelm., Ins. Archipel., p. 99, ed. De Sinner.) JOSEPHUS, FLAVIUS, a celebrated Jew, son of Mathias, a priest, born in Jerusalem. The date of his birth is A.D. 37. He was a man of illustrious race, lineally descended from a priestly family, the first of kill one another, Josephus, with one other, remained the last, and surrendered themselves to Vespasian. He gained the conqueror's esteem by foretelling that he would become one day the master of the Roman empire. (Joseph. Vit., § 75.-Milman's History of the Jews., vol. 2, p. 253, seqq.)-Vossius Hist. Gr., 2, 8) thinks that Josephus, who, like all the rest of his nation, expected at this period the coming of the Messiah, applied to Vespasian the prophecies which announced the advent of our Saviour. He remarks that Josephus might have been the more sincere in so doing, as Jerusalem was not besieged. His prophecy having been accomplished two years afterward, be obtained his freedom and took the prænomen of Flavius, to indicate that he regarded himself as the freedman of the emperor. Josephus was present during the whole siege of Jerusalem, endeavouring to persuade his countrymen to capitulate. Whether he se riously considered resistance impossible, or, as he calculated to conciliate the esteem of the masters of the world. Notwithstanding all this, however, the Antiquities of Josephus are extremely interesting, as affording us a faithful picture of Jewish manners in the time of the historian, and as filling up a void in ancient history of four centuries between the last books of the Old Testament and those of the New. With a view similar to that which dictated the work just mentioned, Josephus wrote an answer to Apion, a celebrated grammarian of Egypt (vid. Apion, No. II.), who had given currency to many of the ancient fictions of Egyptian tradition concerning the Jews. He likewise published his own life, in answer to the statements of his old antagonist, Justus of Tiberias, who had sent forth a history of the war, written in Greek with considerable elegance. At what time he died is uncerfifty-seventh year. A work entitled Eiç Maxкabaiovs λóyoç, ǹ πepì avtokpútopos λoyioμov, has been erroneously ascribed to Josephus. In some editions of the Scriptures it appears under the appellation of the Fourth Book of Maccabees. A fragment also, on the Cause of the Universe (πEpì тоυ πаνтós), preserved by John Philoponus, a Christian writer of the seventh century, has been incorrectly attributed to Josephus. pretends, recognising the hand of God and the accomplishment of the prophecies in the ruin of his country, he esteemed it impious as well as vain; whether he was actuated by the baser motive of self-interest, or the more generous desire of being of service to his miserable countrymen, he was by no means held in the same estimation by the Roman army as by Titus. They thought a traitor to his country might be a traitor to them; and they were apt to lay all their losses to his charge, as if he kept up secret intelligence with the besieged. On the capture of the city, Titus offered him any boon he would request. He chose the sacred books, and the lives of his brother and fifty friends. He was afterward permitted to select 190 of his friends and relatives from the multitude who were shut up in the Temple to be sold for slaves. The estate of Josephus lying within the Roman en-tain; history loses sight of him in his fifty-sixth or campment, Titus assigned him other lands in lieu of 't. Vespasian also conferred on him a considerable property in land. Josephus lived afterward at Rome, in high favour with Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian. The latter punished certain Jews and a eunuch, the tutor of his son, who had falsely accused him; exempted his estate from tribute, and advanced him to high honour. He was a great favourite with the Empress Domitia. The time of his death is uncer--Before leaving the biography of this writer, we must tain; he was certainly alive at the end of the first cen- say a few words relative to a famous passage in the tury, and probably at the beginning of the second. Jewish Antiquities concerning our Saviour. It occurs After his surrender he had married a captive in Casa- in the third chapter of the eighteenth book (Jos., Op., rea, but, in obedience, it may be presumed, to the law ed. Hav., vol. 1, p. 161), and is as follows: "At this which prohibited such marriages to a man of priestly time there exists Jesus, a wise man, if it be allowed ine, he discarded her, and married again in Alexan- us to call him a man; for he performed wonderful area. By his Alexandrean wife Josephus had three works, and instructed those who receive the truth with sons; one only, Hyrcanus, lived to maturity. Dissat- joy. He thus drew to him many Jews and many of isfied with this wife's conduct, he divorced her also, the Greeks. He was the Christ. Pilate having punand married a Cretan woman, from a Jewish family, ished him with crucifixion on the accusation of our of the first rank and opulence in the island, and of leading men, those who had loved him before still admirable virtue.-At Rome Josephus first wrote the remained faithful to him. For on the third day he History of the Jewish War ('lovdaikn lσropía repi appeared unto them, living anew, just as the prophets dhwows), in the Syro-Chaldaic tongue, for the use of God had announced, who had predicted of him ten of his own countrymen in the East, particularly those thousand other miraculous things. The nation of beyond the Euphrates. He afterward translated the Christians, named after him, continues even to the work into Greek, for the benefit of the Western Jews present day." This passage, placed in the middle of and the Romans. Both King Agrippa and Titus bore a work written by a zealous Jew, has all the appeartestimony to its accuracy. The latter ordered it to ance of a marginal gloss which has found its way into be placed in the public library, and signed it with his the text: it is too long and too short to have formed own hands as an authentic memorial of the times. a part of the original text. It is too long to have This work was translated into Latin in the fifth cen- come from the pen of an infidel, and it is too short to tury by Rufinus of Aquileia, or rather by Cassiodorus. have been written by a Christian. St. Justin, Tertul(Muratori, Antiq. Ital., vol. 3, p. 920.) Many years lian, and St. Chrysostom have made no use of it in afterward, about A.D. 93, Josephus published his great their disputes with the Jews; and neither Origen nor work on the Antiquities of the Jews ('lovdaikn 'Ap- Photius make any mention of it. Eusebius, who Xaiohoyía), in twenty books. It forms a history of the lived before some of the writers just named, is the chosen people from the creation to the reign of the first who adduces it. These circumstances have sufEmperor Nero. Josephus did not write this work for ficed to attach suspicion to it in the eyes of some the use of his countrymen, nor even for the Hellenistic critics, and especially of Richard Simon (under the Jews: his object was to make his nation better known name of Sainjore, in the Bibliothèque ou Recueil de to the Greeks and Romans, and to remove the con- diverses pièces critiques, Amst., 1708, 8vo, vol. 2, tempt in which it was accustomed to be held. The ch. 2) and the historian Gibbon. On the other hand, books of the Old Testament, and,, where these failed, Henri de Valois (ad Euseb., p. 16, 20), Huet, bishop traditions and other historical monuments, were the of Avranches (Demonstr. Evang., p. 27), Isaac Vossources whence he drew the materials for his work; sius (De LXX. Interpr., p. 161), and others, have debut, in making use of these, he allowed himself an fended its authenticity. Lambecius (Biblioth. Vinunpardonable license, in removing from his narrative dob., vol. 8, p. 5), who advocates the same side, has all that the religion of the Jews regarded as most pretended that the words of Josephus ought to be conworthy of veneration, in order not to shock the preju- sidered as expressing contempt for our Saviour, aldices of the nations to whom he wrote. He not only though, in order not to offend either party, the histotreats the books of the Old Testament as if they were rian has concealed his real meaning in equivocal terms. mere human compositions, in explaining, enlarging, However paradoxical this last opinion may seem, it and commenting upon them, and thus destroying the has assumed an air of considerable probability, in connative and noble simplicity and pathos which renders sequence of a slight correction in the text and puncthe perusal of the sacred volume so full of attraction; tuation which has been proposed by Knittel, a German but he allows himself the liberty of often adding to scholar. (Neue kritiken über das wellberuhmie Zeugthe recital of an event circumstances which change niss des alten Juden Flavius Josephus von Jesu Chrisits entire nature. In every part of the work in ques-to, Braunschw., 1799, 4to.) A celebrated Protestant tion, he represents his countrymen in a point of view divine, Godfrey Less, after having carefully and crit | nasius, who visited him at Antioch. Having been ically examined both sides of the question, has pro- | ously suffered from the Arians, and especially to Atnanounced the passage to be supposititious, and adds, that the silence of the historian respecting our Saviour and the miracles which he wrought, affords a far more eloquent testimony in favour of the truth of our Redeemer's mission than the most laboured statement could have yielded, especially when we consider that the father of Josephus, one of the priests of Jerusalem, could not but have known our Saviour, and since Josephus himself lived in the midst of the apostles. Had the latter been able, he would have refuted the whole history of our Saviour's mission and works. His silence is conclusive in their favour. The efforts of deistical writers, therefore, to invalidate the authenticity of this remarkable passage, have literally recoiled upon themselves, and Christianity has achieved a triumph with the very arms of infidelity. (Disputatio super Josephi de Christo Testimon., Gött., 1781, 4to. -Compare Olshausen, Historia Eccles. Vet. præcip. monumenta, Berol., 1820, 8vo, and Paulus, in the Heidelb. Jahrb., 1820, p. 733, as also Bohmert, Ueber des Flav. Joseph. Zeugniss von Christo, Leipz., 1823, 8vo.) The best editions of the works of Josephus are Hudson's, 2 vols. fol., Oxon., 1720, and Havercamp's, 2 vols. fol., Amst., 1726. A new edition, however, is much wanted. Oberthür commenced one, of which three volumes appeared, embracing the text of Havercamp with the Latin version, in the 8vo form. The editor had promised a commentary, in which was to be contained the result of his own researches, and of those of others made at his request in the principal libraries of Europe. The edition was to be accompanied also by a Lexicon of Josephus, in which the language of this writer would be compared with that of Philo, of the Alexandrean school, and of the writers of the New Testament. His death prevented the completing of his design, and the edition still remains imperfect. In 1825-1827, a 12mo edition, in 6 vols., appeared from the Leipsic press, under the editorial care of Richter. The text, however, is merely a reprint of that of Hudson and Havercamp. (Hoffmann, Lex. Bibliogr., vol. 2. p. 588.-Schöll, Gesch. der Griech. Lit., vol. 2, p. 383, seqq.) JOVIANUS, FLAVIUS CLAUDIUS, born A.D. 331, was the son of Veronianus, of an illustrious family of Mosia, who had filled important offices under Constantine. Jovianus served in the army of Julian, in his unlucky expedition against the Persians; and when that emperor was killed, A.D. 363, the soldiers proclaimed him his successor. His first task was to save the army, which was surrounded by the Persians, and in great distress for provisions. After repelling repeated attacks of the enemy, he willingly listened to proposals for peace, which were, that the Romans should give up the conquests of former emperors westward of the Tigris, and as far as the city of Nisibis, which was still in their hands, but was included in the territory to be given up to Persia, and that, moreover, they should render no assistance to the king of Armenia, then at war with the Persians. These conditions, however offensive to Roman pride, Jovian was obliged to submit to, as his soldiers were in the utmost destitution. It is a remarkable instance of the Roman notions of political honesty, that Eutropius reproaches Jovian, not so much with having given up the territory of the empire, as with having observed so humiliating a treaty after he had come out of his dangerous position, instead of renewing the war, as the Romans had constantly done on former occasions. Jovian delivered Nisibis to the Persians, the inhabitants withdrawing to Amida, which became, after this, the chief Roman town in Mesopotamia. On his arrival at Antioch, Jovian, who was of the Christian faith, revoked the edicts of Julian against the Christians. He also supported the orthodox or Nicene creed against the Arians, and he showed his favour to the bishops who had previ JovĪNUS, born of an illustrious family of Gaul, assumed the imperial title under the weak reign of Ho norius, and, placing himself at the head of a mixed ar my of Burgundians, Alemanni, Alani, &c., took pos session of part of Gaul, A.D. 411. Ataulphus, king of the Visigoths, offered to join Jovinus, and share Gaul between them; but the latter having declined his alliance, Ataulphus made peace with Honorius, attacked and defeated Jovinus, and, having taken him prisoner, delivered him to Dardanus, prefect of Gaul, who had him put to death at Narbo (Narbonne), A.D. 412. (Jornand., de Reb. Get., c. 32, seqq.-Olym piod.-Idac. fast. Chron.-Greg. Tur., 2, 9.—Tillem., Honor., art. 48.) IPHICLES, a son of Amphitryon and Alcmena, born at the same birth with Hercules. The children were but eight months old, when Juno sent two huge serpents into the chamber to devour them. Iphicles alarmed the house by his cries, but Hercules raised himself up on his feet, caught the two monsters by the throat, and strangled them. (Pind., Nem., 1, 49, seq. |--Theocr., Idyll., 24.-Apollod, 2, 4.) Iphicles, on attaining to manhood, was slain in battle during the expedition against the sons of Hippocoon, who had beaten to death Eonus, the son of Licymnius. (Pausan., 3, 15, 4) IPHĬCLUS, a king of Phylace in Phthiotis, whose name is connected with one of the legends relative to Melampus. (Vid. Melampus.) IPHICRATES, an Athenian general, of low origin, but distinguished abilities. He was most remarkable for a happy innovation upon the ancient routine of Greek tactics, which he introduced in the course of that general war which was ended B.C. 387, by the peace of Antalcidas. This, like most improvements upon the earlier mode of warfare, consisted in looking, for each individual soldier, rather to the means of offence than protection. Iphicrates laid aside the very weighty panoply which the regular infantry, composed of Greek citizens, had always worn, and substituted a light target for the large buckler, and a quilted jacket for the coat of mail; at the same time he doubled the length of the sword, usually worn thick and short, and increased in the same, or, by some accounts, in a greater proportion, the length of the spear. It appears that the troops whom he thus armed and disciplined (not Athenian citizens, who would hardly have submitted to the necessary discipline, but mercenaries following his standard, like the Free Companions of the middle ages) also carried missile javelins; and that their favourite mode of attack was to venture within throw of the heavy column, the weight of whose charge they could not have resisted, trusting in their individual agility to baffle pursuit. When once the close order of the column was broken, its individual soldiers were overmatched by the longer weapons and unencum. established the Olympic games 470 years after their first institution, or B.C. 884. It was not, however, until 108 years after this (B.C. 776) that the custom was introduced of inscribing in the gymnasium at Olympia the names of those who had borne off the prize in the stadium. The first whose name was thus inscribed was Corcbus. (L'Art de vérifier les Dates, vol. 3, p. 167.-Picot, Tabl. Chronol., vol. 1, p. 322.) IPSUs, a city of Phrygia, near Synnada, in the plains adjacent to which was fought the great battle between Antigonus and his son Demetrius on the one side, and the combined forces of Cassander, Lysimachus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus, on the other. We have no detailed account of this decisive conflict, in which Antigonus lost all his conquests and his life. The reader may consult Plutarch in his life of Pyrrhus, Appian in his history of Syria, and the mutilated narrative of Diodorus, as the best authorities to be procured. Little, however, is to be gained from them respecting the position of Ipsus. Hierocles (p. 677) and the Acts of Councils afford evidence of its having been the see of a Christian bishop in the seventh and nell, "is unknown. It is said to have been near Synnada, and there are certainly the remains of several ancient towns and cities on the great road leading from Synnada towards the Bosporus, and one of them within a few miles of Synnada, to the N.W.; but it may be doubted whether Ipsus lay on that side of Synnada. The contending armies approached each other along the great road that led from Syria and Cilicia, through the centre of Asia Minor, towards Synnada; but whether they met to the north or south of that Selcukter (probably from its ancient name of Seleucia), is situated on the continuation of the great road, at about 25 miles from Synnada, to the southward, and precisely at the point of separation of the roads leading to Ephesus and to Byzantium, in coming from Syria. If Seleucus founded any city on occasion of his victory, one might suspect that the field of battle was near, or at, Sakli, from the above circumstance. No point was more likely for the opposing army from the west to have taken post at, than at the meeting of these roads, by which they commanded the passage through a plentiful valley, shut up by ridges of hills on both sides; the line of communication as well in modern as in ancient times." (Geography of Western Asia, vol. 2, p. 145, seqq.) bered movements of the lighter infantry. In this way Iphicrates and his targeteers (peltasta), as they were called, gained so many successes, that the Peloponnesian infantry dared not encounter them, except the Lacedæmonians, who said, in scoff, that their allies feared the targeteers as children fear hobgoblins. They were themselves, however, taught the value of this new force, B.C. 392, when Iphicrates waylaid and cut off nearly the whole of a Lacedæmonian battalion. The loss in men was of no great amount; but that heavy-armed Lacedæmonians should be defeated by light-armed mercenaries was a marvel to Greece, and a severe blow to the national reputation and vanity of Sparta. Accordingly, this action raised the credit of Iphicrates extremely high. He commanded afterward in the Hellespont, B.C. 389; in Egypt, at the request of the Persians, B.C. 374; relieved Corcyra in 373, and served with reputation on other less important occasions. We have a life of this commander by Cornelius Nepos. (Xen., Hist. Gr., 4, 5, 13.—Id. ib., 4, 8, 34, seqq.-Id. ib., 6, 2, 13.-Diod. Sic., 15, 41.Id., 15, 44.—Id., 16, 85.-Corn. Nep., Vit. Iphicr.) IPHIGENIA, a daughter of Agamemnon and Clytem-eighth centuries.-"The site of Ipsus," observes Rennestra. The Grecian fleet against Troy had assembled at Aulis; but Agamemnon, having killed a deer in the chase, boasted that he was superior in skill to Diana, and the offended goddess sent adverse winds to detain the fleet. According to another account, the stag itself had been a favourite one of Diana's. Calchas thereupon announced, that the wrath of the goddess could only be appeased by the sacrifice of Iphigenia, the daughter of the offender, and the father, though most reluctant, was compelled to obey. The maiden was accordingly obtained from her mother Cly-city is not known. A town named Sakli, and also temnestra, under the pretence of being wanted for a union with Achilles; and, having reached the Grecian camp, was on the point of being sacrificed, when Diana, moved with pity, snatched her away, leaving a hind in her place. The goddess carried her to Tauris, where she became a priestess in her temple. It was the custom at Tauris to sacrifice all strangers to Diana; and many had been thus immolated under the ministration of Iphigenia, when Orestes and his friend Pylades chanced to come thither, in obedience to the oracle at Delphi, which had enjoined upon the son of Agamemnon to convey to Argos the statue of the Tauric Diana. When Orestes and Pylades were brought as victims to the altar, Iphigenia, perceiving | them to be Greeks, offered to spare the life of one of them, provided he would convey a letter for her to IRA, I. a city of Messenia, in the north, towards the Greece. This occasioned a contest between them, confines of Elis, and near the river Cyparissus, comwhich should sacrifice himself for the other, and it was monly supposed by some to have been one of the ended in Pylades' yielding to Orestes, and agreeing to cities promised by Agamemnon to Achilles, if the latbe the bearer of the letter: a discovery was the con- ter would become reconciled to him. This is incorsequence; and Iphigenia accordingly contrived to carry rect, as Homer names the place to which Agamemnon off the statue of Diana, and to accompany her brother alludes 'Ipŋ, and not Elpa. Agamemnon promised and Pylades into Greece.-The story of Iphigenia has Achilles seven cities of Messenia, of which Ire (not been made by Euripides the subject of two plays, in Ira) was one, and the poet describes all seven as lying which, of course, several variations from the common near the sea, whereas Ira was inland. (Hom., Iĺ., 9, legend are introduced. The name and story of Iphi-150.) This place is famous in history as having supgenia are unnoticed by Homer. Iphigenia is probably a mere epithet of Diana. She is the same with the Diana-Orthia of Sparta, at whose altars the boys were Scourged. It was probably this rite that caused Iphigenia to be identified with the "Virgin," to whom human victims were offered by the Tauri. (Herod., 4, 103.) The story of Iphigenia would seem to have been then invented to account for the similarity. Müller thinks that Lemnos was the original mythic Tauris, whence the name was transferred to the Euxine. (Dorians, vol. 1, p. 397, seqq.) The Homeric name of Iphigenia is Iphianassa. (Hom., Il., 9, 144, seq.Heyne, ad loc.-Compare Lucretius, 1, 86.) IPHITUS, I. a son of Eurytus, king of Echalia. (Vid. Hercules, p. 598, col. 2.)—II. Å king of Elis, son of Praxonides, in the age of Lycurgus. He re ported a siege of eleven years against the Lacedæmonians. Its capture, B.C. 671, put an end to the second Messenian war. (Strab., 360.-Steph. Byz., s. v. 'Ipn.) We are informed by Sir W. Gell, that "there are some ruins near a village called Kakoletri, on the left bank of the Neda, which some think those of Ira, the capital of Messenia, in the time of Aristomenes." (Itin, p. 84.)-II. A city of Messenia, on the eastern shore of the Messenian Gulf, supposed to be the same with Abia. (Vid. Abia.) IRENEUS, a native of Greece, disciple of Polycarp, and bishop of Lyons, in France. The time of his birth, and the precise place of his nativity, cannot be satisfactorily ascertained. Dodwell refers his birth to the reign of Nerva, A.D. 97, and thinks that he did not outlive the year 190. Grabe dates his birth about Ptolemy allows N. 20° E. and 64 miles in distance. Dr. Howell allows northeast-by-north in his map; D'Anville north exactly.” The same writer has the following ingenious conjecture respecting the origin of its ancient name. "M. D'Anville says that, its name is Jekil-Ermak, or the Green River. Tournefort tells us that the Carmili River (the same with the Lycus, the larger branch) was of a deep red colour, from that of the soil. May it not be, that, if the river was red at some seasons, and green (or fancied to be so) at others, this may have occasioned the name of Iris, from the Greeks?" (Geography of Western Asia, vol. 1, p. 356.) the year 108. Dupin says that he was born a little | ward of north, from Amasea to the Sinus Amisenus. before the year 140, and died a martyr in 202. On the martyrdom of Photinus, his predecessor in the see of Lyons, Irenæus, who had been a distinguished member of the church in that quarter, was appointed his successor in the diocese, A.D. 174, and presided in that capacity at two councils held at Lyons, in one of which the Gnostic heresy was condemned, and in another the Quartodecimani. He also went to Rome, and disputed there publicly with Valentinus, Florinus, and Blastus, against whose opinions he afterward wrote with much zeal and ability. He wrote on different subjects; but, as what remains is in Latin, some supposed he composed in that language, and not in Greek. Fragments of his works in Greek are, however, preserved, which prove that his style was simple, though clear and often animated. His opinions concerning the soul are curious. He suffered martyrdom about A.D. 202. From the silence of Tertullian, Eusebius, and others, concerning the manner of his death, Cave, Basnage, and Dodwell have inferred that he did not die by martyrdom, but in the ordinary course of nature. With these Lardner coincides. The best edition of his works is that of Grabe, Oxon., fol., 1702. Dodwell published a series of six essays on the writings of this father of the church, which he illustrates by many historical references and remarks. IRESUS, a beautiful country in Libya, not far from Cyrene. When Battus, in obedience to the oracle, was seeking a place for a settlement, the Libyans, who were his guides, managed so as to lead hun through it by night. Milton calls the name Irassa, for which he has the authority of Pindar. (Pind, Pyth., 9, 185.Herod., 4, 158, seqq.) IRUS, a beggar of Ithaca, remarkable for his large stature and his excessive gluttony. His original name was Arnæus, but he received that of Irus, as being the messenger of the suiters of Penelope. ('Ipoç, KaTÀ TÒV ποιητὴν, παρὰ τὸ εἴρω, τὸ λέγω καὶ ἀπαγγέλλω. Eustath. ad Od., 18, 6.) Irus attempted to obstruct the entrance of Ulysses into the palace, under the mean disguise assumed by the latter on his return home, and in presence of the whole court challenged him to fight. Ulysses immediately brought him to the ground with a single blow. (Od., 18, 1, seqq.) Is, a city about eight days' journey from Babylon. according to Herodotus, near which flows a river of the same name, which empties into the Euphrates. With the current of this river, adds the historian, particles of bitumen descended towards Babylon, by means of which its walls were constructed. There are some curious fountains, says Rennell, near Hit, a town on the Euphrates, about 128 miles above Hillah, reckoning the distance along the banks of the Euphrates. This distance answers to eight ordinary journeys of a caravan of 16 miles direct. There can be no doubt that this Hit is the Is of Herodotus, which should have been written It. (Rennell, Geography of Herodotus, vol. 1, p. 461, ed. 1830.) ISADAS, a young Spartan, who, when Epaminondas and the Thebans had attacked Lacedæmon, and the city was in danger of falling into their hands, rushed forth from his dwelling in a state of nudity, and newly anointed with oil, having nothing but a spear in one hand and a sword in the other, and in this condition contended valiantly against the foe. The Ephori honoured him with a chaplet for his gallant achievement, but, at the same time, fined him 1000 drachmas for having dared to appear without his armour. (Plut., Vit. Ages.) This story is introduced by Bludgell, in his paper upon "The mixture of virtue and vice in the human character." (Spectator, No. 564.) IRIS, I. the goddess of the rainbow. Homer gives not the slightest hint of who her parents were; Hesiod, however, makes her the daughter of Thaumas (Wonder), by the ocean-nymph Electra (Brightness), no unapt parentage for the brilliant and wonder-exciting bow of the skies. (Theog., 265.) The office of Iris in the Iliad is to act as the messenger of the king and queen of Olympus; a duty which Mercury performs in the Odyssey, in which poem there is not any mention made of Iris. There is little mention, also, of the goddess in the subsequent Greek poets; but, whenever she is spoken of, she appears quite distinct from the celestial phenomenon of the same name. In Callimachus (H. in Del., 216, seq.) and the Latin poets, Iris is appropriated to the service of Juno; and by these last she is invariably (and we may even say clunisily) confounded with the rainbow. According to the lyric poet Alcæus, who is followed by Nonnus, Iris was by Zephyrus the mother of Love. (Alcæus, IsÆUS, an orator of Chalcis, in Euboea, who came ap. Plut., Amator., 20.-Nonnus, 31, 110, seq.) Ho- to Athens, and became there the pupil of Lysias, and mer styles Iris "gold-winged" (Il., 8, 398.—Ib., 9, soon after the master of Demosthenes. (Clinton, Fasti 185), the only line in the poet which makes against Hellenici, 2d ed., p. 117.) Dionysius of Halicarnassus Voss's theory, that none of Homer's gods were winged. could not ascertain the time of his birth or death. So (Mytholog. Briefe, vol. 1, Br. 12, seqq.) The name much as this, however, appears certain, that the vigIris (Ipic) is usually derived from elpw, pw, "to say," our of his talent belonged to the period after the Peloan etymology which suits the office of the goddess, ponnesian war, and that he lived to see the time of and which accords with the view taken of the rainbow King Philip. His style bears a great resemblance to in the Book of Genesis. Hermann, however, renders that of Lysias. He is clegant and vigorous; but DioIris by the Latin term Sertia, from ɛipo, "to unite," nysius of Halicarnassus does not find in him the simthe rainbow being formed of seven united or blended plicity of the other. He understands better than Lyscolours: "Ipis, Sertia, quod ex septem coloribus con- ias the art of arranging the several parts of a discourse, (Opusc., vol. 2, p. 179.- Keightley's but he is less natural. When we read the exposition Mythology, p. 200.)-II. A river of Pontus, rising on of a speech of Lysias, nothing appears artificial therein; the confines of Armenia Minor, and flowing into the on the contrary, everything is studied in the orations sea southeast of Amisus. It receives many tributa- of Isæus. "One would believe Lysias," adds Dionysries, and near the end of its course passes through the ius, "though he were stating what was false; one district of Phanarea. The Turks call it the Tokattu, cannot, without some feeling of distrust, assent to Isaand near its mouth it is more usually styled Jekil-Er- us, even when he speaks the truth." Again: "Lysias mak, or the Green River. "It has been a prevalent seems to aim at truth, but Isæus to follow art: the opinion among geographers, both ancient and modern," one strives to please, the other to produce effect." observes Rennell (Geography of Western Asia, vol. Dionysius farther remarks, that, in his opinion, with 1, p. 269), "that the Iris made a course to the east-Isæus originated that vigour and energy of style (det. • serta est." |