nied Helen to Troy when the latter was abducted by Paris, and, on the fall of Troy, she was restored to her home by Acamas and Demophoon, her grandsons, and the sons of Thescus. (Apollod., 3, 15, 4.-Id., 3, 10, 7-Heyne, ad Apollod., l. c.)

AETION, I. a famous painter, who lived in the time of Alexander the Great. He executed a painting of the nuptials of Alexander and Roxana; and the piece was so much admired at the Olympic Games, whither the artist had carried it for exhibition, that the president of the games gave him his daughter in marriage. Such is Lucian's account (Her., 5), who saw this painting in Italy. In another passage, likewise, he refers to this production of Aëtion's, and bestows the highest praises on the lips of Roxana. (Imag., 7.) Raphael is said to have traced, from Lucian's description of this work of art, one of his most brilliant compositions. II. A sculptor, who flourished about the middle of the third century before the Christian era, and who is known from Theocritus (Epigr., 7.) At the request of Nicias, then a celebrated physician at Miletus, he made a statue of Esculapius out of cedar. (As regards the reading 'Aɛriovi, for the common 'Hɛriwvi, consult Kiessling, ad loc.)-III. An engraver on precious stones, whose age is uncertain. (Bracci, 18.-Sillig, Dict. Art., s. v.)

and three hundred thousand men fell on both sides. Notwithstanding, however, this brilliant achievement, Aëtius, in his turn, became the victim of court intrigue, and being sent for by Valentinian, and having approached him without distrust, was on a sudden stabbed to the heart by that suspicious and cowardly emperor. His death happened A.D. 454. (Procop., de Reb. Goth., 5.-Jornandes, de Regn. Success, c. 19.-Paul Diacon., Hist. Miscell., 19, 16.-Biogra

Aetius undertook to procure for him the assistance of the Huns. John, however, was conquered, and Aetius immediately submitted to Valentinian, who reigned in the west under the guardianship of his mother Placidia. Eagerly desirous of the imperial favours, and jealous of the credit of Count Boniface, Aetius formed a treacherous scheme against him, the result of which was the revolt of Boniface, who invited Genseric and the Vandals into Africa. A subsequent explanation between Boniface and Placidia came too late to save Africa, but it served to expose the intrigues of Aëtius, who at this time was crushing the Franks and Burgundians in Gaul. Placidia did not dare to punish him, but she bestowed new honours upon Boniface. Rendered furious by this, Aetius flew back to Italy with a few troops, encountered and gave battle to his rival, was conquered, but with his own hand wounded Boniface, who died shortly after, A.D. 432. Placidia was desirous of avenging his death, but Aëtius retired among the Huns, and reappeared subsequently at the head of sixty thousand barbarians to demand his pardon. Placidia restored to him his charges and honours, and Aetius returned to Gaul to serve the empire, which he defended with great valour as long as his own ambitious views permitted this to be done. His most brilliant feat in this quarter was the overthrow ARTIUS, I. an heresiarch of the fourth century, sur- of Attila, who had crossed the Rhine and Seine with named by his adversaries the Atheist. He was the his Huns, and laid siege to Orleans. Aetius marched son of a common soldier, and born at Antioch. His against him with a powerful army, and met his adverpoverty compelling him to live by the labour of his sary, who had raised the siege of Orleans and recrosshands, he commenced by being a vine-dresser, and ed the Seine, in the Catalaunian plains, near the modwas afterward, in succession, a coppersmith and jew-ern Châlons. The contest was bloody but decisive, eller. Being forced to abandon this latter calling, for having substituted a bracelet of gilt-copper for one of gold, he followed the trade of an empiric, or charlatan, with some success, but was at last driven from Antioch, and went to study logic at Alexandrea. As he never attained any great skill in this latter science, and was, at the same time, but little versed in the sacred writings, he easily fell into the new religious errors of the day, to which he added many others of his own. Epiphanius has preserved forty-seven erroneous prop-phie Universelle, vol. 1, p. 267.)-III. A physician ositions, selected from his works, which contained more than three hundred. The principal ones consisted in teaching, that the Son of God was not like the Father; in pretending to know God by himself; in regarding the most culpable actions as the wants of nature; in rejecting the authority of the prophets and apostles; in rebaptizing in the name of the uncreated God, and of the Holy Spirit procreated by the created Son; in asserting that faith is sufficient without works, &c. His other errors were nothing more than mere sophisms founded on verbal equivocations. He was ordained deacon by Leontius, an Arian bishop, who was soon compelled to forbid him the exercise of his ministerial functions. After a succession of stormy conflicts, he was exiled by Constantius to Cilicia. Julian recalled him, and assigned him lands near Mytilene, in the island of Lesbos. He was even ordained bishop; and, having escaped punishment, which he was afterward on the point of undergoing for his attachment to the cause of the Emperor Valens, he died at Constantinople A.D. 366, and was honoured with a splendid funeral. (S. Athanas., de Synod.-Socrat., Hist. Eccles., 1, 28.-August. Hær.-Baron., Annal. Ann., 356.)-II. A celebrated Roman general, born at Dorostolus, in Moesia. His father Gaudentius, a Scythian, attained to the highest military employments, and was killed in Gaul during a mutiny of the soldiers. Aëtius, brought up among the imperial body-guards, and given at an early period as a hostage to the formidable Alaric, learned the art of war under this conqueror, and profited by his stay among the barbarians to secure the attachment of a people whom he was destined to have alternately as enemies and allies. In A.D. 424, the usurper John wishing to seize the sceptre of the west,

of Amida, in Mesopotamia, who flourished at the close of the fifth century and the beginning of the sixth. The works of Aëtius are a valuable collection of medical facts and opinions, being deficient only in arrangement; since on several subjects their merit is transcendent. For example, the principles of the Materia Medica are delivered with admirable precision in the beginning of the first book. Of all the ancient treatises on fever, that contained in the fifth book of Aëtius may be instanced as being the most complete; and it would not be easy perhaps, at the present day, to point out a work so full on all points, and so correct in practice. Of contagion, as an exciting cause of fever, he makes no mention; and as his silence, and that of the other medical authors of antiquity, has often been thought unaccountable, may be proper to say a few words in explanation. Palladius, who has given a most comprehensive abstract of the doctrines of Galen and his successors on the subject of fever, enumerates the following exciting causes of fevers: 1st. The application of a suitable material; as when things of a caleficient nature, such as pepper, mustard, and the like, are taken immoderately by a person of a hot temperament: 2d. Motion; which may be either mental or corporeal: 3d. Constriction of the pores of the skin, occasioned either by the thickness of the humours, or the coldness and dryness of the surrounding atmosphere. (This, by-the-by, accords with Dr. Cullen's Theory of spasm of the extreme vessels): 4th. Putrefaction of the fluids: 5th. The application of heat, such as by exposure of the head to the sun.Epidemical fevers the ancients considered as being occasioned by a depraved state of the atmosphere, arising from putrid miasmata, or similar causes. With

out doubt, in cases of malignant fevers, they were ETNA, I. a celebrated volcano of Sicily, now Lina, 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 Etna 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, se 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 Caof 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.-Aëtius 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 Aneurisin 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 preparations which are not noticed elsewhere we are informed, that the Sicani were compellwhere. The work of Aetius, divided by the copyists into four Tetrabibli, and each Tetrabiblus into four discourses, consisted originally of sixteen books. The first eight only were printed in Greek at Venice, by the heirs of Aldus Manutius, fol., 1534. The others have remained in MS., in the libraries of Vienna and Paris. Various editions have been published of the Latin translation of the entire work by Janus Cornarius, under the title of Contractæ ex veteribus Medicinæ tetrabiblis, at Venice, 1543, in 8vo; at Basle, 1542, 1549, in fol.; another at Basle, 1535, fol., of which the first seven and the last three books were translated by Montanus; two at Lyons, 1549, fol., and 1560, 4 vols. 12mo, with notes of but little value, by Hugo de Soleriis; and one at Paris, 1567, fol., among the Medica Artis Principes.-IV. Sicanus, or Siculus, a physician, and native of Sicily, as is commonly supposed, to whom is ascribed a treatise on Melancholy. The truth is, however, that the treatise in question is nothing more than a selection from the second discourse of the second Tetrabiblus of Aëtius of Amida; so that Aetius the Sicilian becomes a mere nonentity. (Schöll, Hist. Lit. Gr., 7, p. 253.)

ed to retire to the western parts of the island, by reason of the devastation and terror which the fiery eruptions from the mountain had occasioned. The account which Strabo gives (274) of the state of things on the summit of Etna, accords pretty accurately with the narratives of modern travellers. The geographer informs us, that those who had lately ascended the mountain found on the top a crater, or, as he terms it, a level plain (ɛdíov óμadóv), about twenty stadia in circumference, enclosed by a bank of cinders having the height of a wall. In the middle of the plain was a hill of an ashy colour, like the surface of the plain. Over the hill a column of smoke hung suspended, extending about two hundred feet in height. Two of the party from whom Strabo received his information undertook to descend the banks and enter upon the plain, but the hot and deep sand soon compelled them to retrace their steps. The geographer, after this statement, then proceeds to contradict the common story respecting the fate of Empedocles, the party assuring him that the crater, or opening into the bowels of the mountain, could neither be seen nor approached. -The whole number of eruptions on record, in the

case of Ætna, is said to be eighty-one, of which the were especially distinguished for the uncouthness of following may be regarded as an accurate enumeration. their language and the ferocity of their habits. (ThuThose mentioned by Thucydides amount to three. cyd., 3, 94) In this historian's time they had as yet In 122 B.C. there was one. In 44 A.D. one. In made no figure among the leading republics of Greece, 252 A.D. one. During the 12th century, two hap- and are seldom mentioned in the course of the war pened. During the 13th, one. During the 14th, two. which he undertook to narrate. From him we learn During the 15th, four. During the 16th, four. Du- that the Etolians favoured the interests of the Lacering the 17th, twenty-two. During the 18th, thirty- dæmonians, probably more from jealousy of the Athetwo. Since the commencement of the 19th, nine. nians, whom they wished to dislodge from Naupactus, (Malte-Brun, Geogr., vol. 4, p. 293, Brussels ed.) than from any friendship they bore to the former. The That the Greeks did not suffer this mountain to re- possession of that important place held out induceImain unemployed in their mythological legends may ments to the Athenians, in the sixth year of the war easily be imagined, and hence the fable that Etna to attempt the occupation, if not the ultimate conquest, lay on part of the giant form of Typhon, enemy of the of all Ætolia: the expedition, however, though ably gods. (Pindar, Pyth., . c.-Compare Aschylus, planned, and conducted by Demosthenes himself, proProm. Vinct., v. 365.-Hyginus, c. 152. Apollod., ved signally disastrous. We scarcely find any subse 1, 6, 3, and Heyne, ad loc., where the different tradi-quent mention of the Etolians during the more imtions respecting Typhon are collected.) According to Virgil (En., 3, 578), Enceladus lay beneath this mountain. Another class of mythographers placed the Cyclopes of Homeric fable on Etna, though the poet never dreamed of assigning the island Thrinakia as an abode for his giant creations. (Mannert, vol. 3, p. 9, seqq.) When the Cyclopes were regarded as the aids of Vulcan in the labours of the forge, they were translated, by the wand of fable, from the surface to the bowels of the mountain, though the Lipari islands were more commonly regarded as the scene of Vulcan's art. (Mannert, 9, pt. 2, p. 297.)-II. A small city on the southern declivity of Etna. The first name of the place was Inessa, or Inessos, and Thucydides (6, 94) speaks of the inhabitants under the appellation of Inessæi ('Ivnooaío). The form of the name, therefore, as given by Strabo (268), namely, Innesa ("Ivvnoa), as well as that found in Diodorus Siculus (14, 14), Ennesia ('Evvncía), are clearly erroneous. The name of the place was changed to Ætna by the remains of the colony which Hiero had settled at Catana, and which the Siculi had driven out from that place. Hiero had called Catana by the name of Etna, and the new-comers applied it to the city which now furnished them with an abode. This migration to Inessa happened Ol. 79, 4. At a subsequent period (Ol. 94, 2) we find the elder Dionysius master of the place, a possession of much importance to him, since it commanded the road from Catana to the western parts of the island. The ancient site is now marked by ruins, and the place bears the name of Castro. (Mannert, 10, pt. 2, p. 291, seqq.)

ETOLIA, a country of Greece, situate to the east of Acarnania. The most ancient accounts which can be traced respecting this region, represent it as formerly possessed by the Curetes, and from them it first received the name of Curetis. (Strab., 465.) A change was subsequently effected by tolus, the son of Endymion, who arrived from Elis in the Peloponnesus, at the head of a band of followers, and, having defeated the Curetes in several actions, forced them to abandon their country (vid. Acarnania), and gave the territories which they had left the name of Ætolia. (Ephor., ap. Strab., 463.-Pausan., 5, 1.) Homer represents the Etolians as a hardy and warlike race, engaged in frequent conflicts with the Curetes. He informs us, also, that they took part in the siege of Troy, under the command of Thoas their chief, and often alludes to their prowess in the field. (I., 9, 527.-2, 638, &c.) Mythology has conferred a degree of celebrity and interest on this portion of Greece, from the story of the Calydonian boar, and the exploits of Meleager and Tydeus, with those of other Etolian warriors of the heroic age; but, whatever may have contributed to give renown to this province, Thucydides (1, 5) assures us, that the Etolians, in general, like most of the northwestern clans of the Grecian continent, long preserved the wild and uncivilized habits of a barbarous age. The more remote tribes

portant transactions which, for upward of a century, occupied the different states of Greece. We may collect, however, that they were at that time engaged in perpetual hostilities with their neighbours the Acarnanians. On the death of Philip and the accession of Alexander, the Etolians exhibited symptoms of hostile feelings towards the young monarch (Diod. Sic, 17, 3), which, together with the assistance they afforded to the confederate Greeks in the Lamiac war, drew upon them the vengeance of Antipater and Craterus, who, with a powerful army, invaded their country, which they laid waste with fire and sword. The Etolians, on this occasion, retired to their mountain-fastnesses, where they intrenched themselves until the ambitious designs of Perdiccas forced the Macedonian generals to evacuate their territory. (Diod. Sic., 18, 25.) If the accounts Pausanias has followed are correct, Greece was afterward mainly indebted to the tolians for her deliverance from a formidable irruption of the Gauls, who had penetrated into Phocis and Etolia. On being at length compelled to retreat, these barbarians were so vigorously pursued by the Etolians, that scarcely any of them escaped. (Pausan., 10, 23.-Polyb., 9, 30.) From this time we find Etolia acquiring a degree of importance among the other states of Greece, to which it had never aspired during the brilliant days of Sparta and Athens; but these republics were now on the decline, while northern Greece, after the example of Macedonia, was training up a numerous and hardy population to the practice of war. It is rarely, however, that history has to record achievements or acts of policy honourable to the Etolians: unjust, rapacious, and without faith or religion, they attached themselves to whatever side the hope of gain and plunder allured them, which they again forsook in favour of a richer prize whenever the temptation presented itself. (Polyb., 2, 45 and 46.Id., 4, 67.) We thus find them leagued with Alexander of Epirus, the son of Pyrrhus, for the purpose of dismembering Acarnania, and seizing upon its cities and territory. (Polyb, 2, 45.-Id., 9, 34.) Again with Cleomenes, in the hope of overthrowing the Achæan confederacy. (Polyb., 2, 45.) Frustrated, however, in these designs by the able counsels of Aratus, and the judicious and liberal policy of Antigonus Doson, they renewed their attempts on the death of that prince, and carried their arms into the Peloponnesus; which gave rise to the social war, so ably described by Polybius. This seems to have consisted rather in predatory incursions and sudden attacks on both sides, than in a regular and systematic plan of operations. The Etolians suffered severely; for Philip, the Macedonian king, whose youth they had despised, advanced into the heart of Etolia at the head of a considerable force, and avenged, by sacking and plundering Thermus, their chief city, the sacrilegious attack made by them on Dodona, and also the capture of Dium in Macedonia. (Polyb., 5, 7, seqq.) When the Romans, already hard pressed by the second Pu

nic war, then raging in Italy, found themselves threat- several states me! in a common assembly, called Panened on the side of Greece by the secret treaty con-ætolium, and formed one republic under the adminis eluded by the King of Macedon with Hannibal, they tration of a prætor. This officer was chosen annually; saw the advantage of an alliance with the Etolians in and upon him devolved more especially the direction order to avert the storm; and, though it might reflect of military affairs, subject, however, to the authority but little credit on their policy, in a moral point of of the national assembly. Besides this, there was view, to form a league with a people of such question- also a more select council called Apocleti. In addiable character, the soundness of judgment which dic- tion to the chief magistrate, we hear of other officers, tated the measure cannot be doubted; since they were such as a general of cavalry and a public secretary. thus enabled, with a small fleet and an army under the (Liv., 31, 29.-Polyb., 4, 5.—Id., frag., 22, 15.command of M. Valerius Lævinus, to keep in check Tittmann, Griechisch. Staatsverfass., p. 386, seqq.) the whole of the Macedonian force, and effectually to The following are the limits of Etolia, according to preclude Philip from affording aid to the Carthagin- Strabo (450). To the west it was separated from Acarians in Italy. (Livy, 26, 24.) The Etolians also nania by the Achelous; to the north it bordered on the proved very useful allies to the Romans in the Mace- mountain districts occupied by the Athamanes, Dolodonian war, during which they displayed much zeal pes, and Enianes; to the east it was contiguous to and activity, particularly in the battle of Cynoscepha- the country of the Locri Ozola, and, more to the læ, where their cavalry greatly distinguished itself, and north, to that of the Dorians; on the south it was contributed essentially to that decisive victory. (Liv., washed by the Corinthian Gulf. The same geogra33, 7.) On the conclusion of peace, the Etolians flat-pher informs us, that it was usual to divide the country tered themselves that their exertions in favour of the within these boundaries into Ætolia Antiqua and Romans would be rewarded with a share of the prov- Epictetus. The former extended along the coast from inces taken from the enemy. But the crafty Romans the Achelous to Calydon; and included also a conconsidered Ætolia already sufficiently powerful to ren- siderable tract of rich champaign country along the der any considerable addition to its territory impolitic, Achelous as far as Stratus. This appears to have and even dangerous. The Etolians were, at this been the situation chosen by tolus for his first settime, no longer confined within the narrow limits tlement. The latter, as its name implies, was a terwhich the early history of Greece assigns to them, but ritory subsequently acquired, and comprehended the had extended their dominions on the west and north- most mountainous and least fertile parts of the provwest as far as Epirus, where they were in possession ince, stretching towards the Athamanes on the north of Ambracia, leaving to Acarnania a few towns only side, and the Locri Ozola on the eastern. (Cramer's on the coast towards the north, they occupied the dis- Ancient Greece, vol. 2, p. 60, seqq.) Ætolia was, in tricts of Amphilochia and Aperantia, a great portion of general, a rough and mountainous country. (Compare Dolopia, and, from their connexion with Athamantia, Hobhouse, Journey, &c., Letter 16, vol. 1, p. 189, their influence in that direction was felt even to the Am. ed.-Pouqueville, Voyage, &c., vol. 3, p. 231.) borders of Macedonia. On the side of Thessaly they Some parts, however, were remarkable for their fertil had made themselves masters of the country of the ity; such as, 1. The large Etolian field. (Altwhā Enianes, a large portion of Phthiotis, with the can- Tedíov péya.-Dionys., Perieg., v. 432) 2. Parach tons of the Melians and Trachinians. On the coast eloitis, or the fruitful region at the mouth of the Achethey had gained the whole of the Locrian shore to the lous, formed from the mud brought down by the river, Crissaan Gulf, including Naupactus. In short, they and drained, or, according to the legend, torn by Her wanted but little to give them the dominion over the cules from the river god. (Vid. Achelous). 3. The Lewhole of Northern Greece. The Romans, therefore, lantian field, at the mouth of the Evenus. (Kruse, satisfied with having humbled and weakened the Ma- Hellas, vol. 2, pt. 2, p. 189, seqq.) cedonian prince, still left him power enough to check and curb the arrogant and ambitious projects of this people. The Etolians appear to have keenly felt the disappointment of their expectations. (Liv., 33, 13 and 31.) They now saw all the consequences of the fault they had committed, in opening for the Romans a way to Greece; but, too weak of themselves to eject these formidable intruders, they turned their thoughts towards Antiochus, king of Syria, whom they induced to come over into that country, this monarch having been already urged to the same course by Hannibal. (Liv., 35, 33.) With the assistance of this new ally, they made a bold attempt to seize at once the three important towns of Demetrias, Lacedæmon, and Chalcis, in which they partly succeeded; and, had Antiochus prosecuted the war as vigorously as it was commenced, Greece, in all probability, would have been saved, and Italy might again have seen Hannibal in her territories at the head of a victorious army; but a single defeat at Thermopyla crushed the hopes of the coalition, and drove the feeble Antiochus back into Asia. (Liv., 36, 19.) The Etolians, deserted by their ally, remained alone exposed to the vengeance of the foe. Heraclea, Naupactus, and Ambracia were in turn besieged and taken; and no other resource being left, they were forced to sue for peace. This was granted A.U.C. 563; but on conditions that for ever humbled their pride, crippled their strength, and left them but the semblance of a republic. (Liv., 38, 11. -Polyb., frag., 22, 13)-The Etolian polity appears to have consisted of a federal government, somewhat similar to the Achæan league. Deputies from the

ÆTOLUS, son of Endymion (the founder of Elis), and of Neïs, or, according to others, Iphianassa. Hav. ing accidentally killed Apis, son of Phoroneus, he fled with a band of followers into the country of the Curetes, which received from him the name of Etolia. (Apollod, 1, 7, 5.-Vid. Ætolia.)

Ex, I. a rocky island between Tenos and Chios, deriving its name from its resemblance to a goat (ais). It is said by some to have given the appellation of " Egean" (Alyaiov) to the sea in which it 'stood. (Plin., 4, 11.)-II. The goat that suckled Jupiter, changed into a constellation.

ATER, Cn. Domitius, an orator during the reigns of Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. He was born at Nemausus (Nismes), B.C. 15 or 16, of obscure parents, and not, as some maintain (Faydit, Remarques sur Virgile), of the Domitian line. After receiving a good education in his native city, he removed, at an early age, to Rome, where he subsequently distinguished himself by his talents at the bar, and rose to high honours under Tiberius. His services as an informer, however, most of all endeared him to the reigning prince, and in this infamous trade he numbered among his victims Claudia Pulchra, the cousin of Agrippina, and Q Varus, son of the former. A skilful flatterer, he managed to preserve all his favour under the three emperors who came after Tiberius, and finally died of intemperance under the last of the three, Nero, A.D. 59. He was the preceptor of Quintilian, who has left a very favourable account of his oratorical abilities. (Tacitus, Ann., 4, 52.—12. ibid., 14, 19.—Quintil., 5, 7.)

AFRANIA. Vid. Supplement.

few long or easily-navigated rivers.-The Greeks AFRANIA GENS. Vid. Supplement. would seem to have been acquainted, from a very earAFRANIUS, I. a Latin comic poet, who flourished ly period, with the Mediterranean coast of this counabout 100 B.C. Cicero (Brut., 45) says, that he imita cry, since every brisk north wind would carry their ted C. Titius, and praises him for acuteness of percep- vessels to its shores. Hence we find Homer already tion, as well as for an easy style. ("Homo perargutus, evincing a knowledge of this portion of the continent. in fabulis quidem etiam, ut scitis, disertus." Horace (Od., 4, 84.) A tawny-coloured population roamed speaks of him as an imitator of Menander. (Epist., along this extensive region, to whom the name of Lib2, 1, 57-Compare Cic., de Fin., 1, 3.) Afraniusyans (Aibveç) was given by the Greeks, a corruption, himself admits, in his Compitales, that he derived probably, of some native term; while the country ocmany even of his plots from Menander and other cupied by them was denominated Libya (ʼn Aibún). Greek writers. In other instances, however, he made To this same coast belonged, in strictness, the lower the manners and customs of his own country the basis portion of Egypt; but the name of this latter region of his pieces. Quintilian (10, 1, 100) praises the tal- had reached the Grecks as early as, if not earlier than, ents of Afranius, but censures him, at the same time, that of Libya, and the two therefore remained always for his frequent and disgusting obscenities. Of all his disunited. Egypt, in consequence, was regarded as a works, only some titles, and 266 verses remain, which separate country, until the now firmly-established idea are to be found in the Corpus Poëtarum of Ma ttaire, of three continents superinduced the necessity of atand have also been published by Bothe and Neukirch. taching it to one of the three. By some, therefore, it (Bähr, Gesch Röm. Lit., vol. 1, p. 111.-Schöll, Hist. was considered as a part of Asia, while others made Lit. Rom., vol. 1, p. 139.)-II. Nepos, a commander the Nile the dividing limit, and assigned part of Libya who had served under Pompey, and was named by him to Egypt, while the portion east of the Nile was made consul, A.U C. 694, a period when Pompey was be- to belong to the Asiatic continent. As regarded the ginning to dread the power and ambition of Cæsar. extent of Libya inland, but little was at that time known. Afranius, however, performed nothing remarkable at Popular belief made the African continent of small dithis particular time, having a distaste for public affairs. mensions, and supposed it to be washed on the south Fourteen years later, when Pompey and Cæsar had by the great river Oceanus, which encircled also the come to an open rupture, Afranius was in Spain, as the whole of what was then supposed to be the flat and lieutenant of the former, along with Petreius, who held circular disk of the earth. In this state, or very nearly a similar appointment. Cæsar entered the country at so, Herodotus found the geographical knowledge and this period, and the two lieutenants, uniting their for- opinions of his contemporaries. The historian oppoces, awaited his approach in an advantageous position ses many of the speculations of the day on this subject near Ilerda (the modern Lerida). Cæsar was defeat- (4, 36, seqq.); he rejects the earth-encompassing Oceed in the first action, and two days afterward saw anus, as well as the idea that the earth was round as himself blockaded, as it were, in his very camp, by the if made by a machine. He condemns also the division sudden rise of the two rivers between which it was into Europe, Asia, and Africa, on account of the grea: situate. His genius, however, triumphed over every disproportion of these regions. Compelled, however, obstacle, and he eventually compelled the two lieu- to acquiesce in the more prevalent opinions of the day, tenants of Pompey to subunit without a second encoun- he recognises Libya as distinct from Egypt, or, more ter. They disbanded their troops and returned to It- properly speaking, makes the Nile the dividing line, aly, after having promised never to bear arms against though, from his own private conviction, it is easy to Cæsar for the future. Afranius, however, either for- perceive that he himself takes for the eastern limit of getful of his word, or having in some way released Africa, what is regarded as such at the present day. himself from the obligation he had assumed, took part None of the later geographers, down to the time of with Pompey in the battle of Pharsalia, being intrust- Ptolemy, appear to have disturbed this arrangement. ed with the command of the right wing, although his Eratosthenes, Timosthenes, and Artemidorus, all adopt capitulation in Spain had laid him open to the charge it; Straho also does the same, though he considers of having betrayed the interests of his chief. After the the Arabian Gulf, with the isthmus to the north, as afbattle of Thapsus, Afranius and Faustus Sylla moved fording the far more natural boundary on the east. As along the coast of Africa, with a small body of troops, Alexandrea, however, was built to the west of the in the design of passing over to Spain, and joining the mouths of the Nile, the canal which led off to this city remains of Pompey's party in that quarter. They were was regarded as a part of the eastern boundary of the encountered, however. by Sittius, one of the partisans continent, and hence we find the city belonging on one of Cæsar, who defeated and made them prisoners. It side to Libya, and on the other to Asia. (Hierocles, was the intention of Sittius to have saved their lives, Bellum Alexandr., c. 14.) The Romans, as in most but they were both massacred by his soldiers. (Cas., of their other geographical views, followed here also Bell. Civ., 1, 38.-Cic.. ep. ad Att., 1, 18.-Plut., Vit. the usages of the Greeks, and hence Mela (1, 1) rePomp.-Sueton., Vit. Cæs., 34 -Florus, 4, 2)-III. | marks, Quod terrarum jacet a freto ad Nilum, AfPotitus, a plebeian, in the reign of Caligula, who, in a ricam vocamus.' As, however, in their subdivisions spirit of foolish flattery, bound himself by an oath, that of territory, the district of Marmarica was added to the he would depart from existence in case the emperor government of Africa, they began gradually to contract recovered from a dangerous malady under which he the limits of Libya, and to consider the Catabathmus was labouring Caligula was restored to health, and Magnus as the dividing point. Hence we find the Potitus compelled to fulfil his oath. (Dio Cass., 59, same Mela remarking (1, 8), “"Catabathmus, vallis 8.-Compare the remarks of Reimar, ad loc., on the devera in Ægyptum, finit Africam." In consequence belief prevalent throughout the ancient world, that the of this new arrangement, Egypt on both sides of the life of an individual could be prolonged, if another Nile began to be reckoned a part of the continent of would lay down his own in its stead.) Asia. (Egyptus Asia prima pars, inter Catabathmum et Arabas."-Mela, 1, 9.) Ptolemy laid aside, in his day, all these arbitrary points of separation, and, assuming the Arabian Gulf as the true and natural dividing line on the east, made Egypt a part of Africa, and added to the same continent the whole western coast of the same gulf, which had before been regarded as an appendage of Arabia. (Mannert, 10, pt. 2, p. 1, seqq.)-The name of Africa seems to have been

AFRICA, one of the main divisions of the ancient world, known to history for upward of three thousand years; yet, notwithstanding its ancient celebrity, and notwithstanding its vicinity to Europe, still in a great measure eluding the examination of science. Modern observation and discoveries make it to be a vast peninsula. 5000 miles in length, and almost 4600 in breadth, presenting in an area of nearly 13,430,000 square miles,