of mountains. (Lyell's Geology, vol. 4, p. 308, Lond. 1 (Od., 1, 52.) In the Theogony of Hesiod (517, segg.) ed.) If Geology can furnish us with such facts as he is said to support the heaven on his head and hands these, it may surely be pardonable in us to linger in the extreme West, a task assigned him by Jupiter, with something of fond belief around the legend of in punishment, the later writers say, for his share in Atlantis; a legend that could hardly be the mere off the Titan war. (Hygin., fab., 150.) Atlas was the spring of a poetic imagination, but must have had some father of the fair nymph Calypso, who so long detainfoundation in truth. Nor will it appear surprising if ed Ulysses in her island in the distant West. Pleione, some of the learned, in the ardour of theorizing, have an ocean-nymph, bore him seven daughters named actually constructed maps of the position of this isl- Pleiades. (Hes., Op. et D., 383.-Schol. ad II., 18, and. Among the number of these we may mention 486.) He was also said to be the father of the HyDe Lisle and Dureau de la Malle, but more particu-ades. (Timaus, ap. Schol. ad Il., 1. c.)-It is hardly larly Bory de St. Vincent, in his Essai sur les Isles necessary to state, that the Atlas of Homer and Hesiod Fort, et l'antique Atlantide (Paris, an xi., 4to). Carli is not the personification of a mountain. In process also, in the second volume of his work, already refer- of time, however, when the meaning of the earlier lered to, gives maps representing what he terms flats and gend had become obscured or lost, Atlas, the keeper shallows (seches et bas fonds) between America and of the pillars that support the heaven, became a Africa, in the vicinity of the equator, and also in the mountain of Libya. It is remarkable, however, that, neighbourhood of the Cape de Verd Islands. (Com- in all the forms which the fable assumes, it is the god pare his remarks on this subject, vol. 2, p. 225, seqq.) or man Atlas who is turned into or gives name to the -It has been thought by some, but very erroneously, mountain. Thus, according to one mythologist (Ovid, that the account given in Diodorus Siculus may have Met., 4, 631), Atlas was a king of the remotest West, reference to some island, now submerged, of the lost rich in flocks and herds, and master of the trees that Atlantic group. This writer speaks of an island sit-bore the golden apples. An ancient prophecy, delivuate at a distance in the Atlantic Ocean, and remark-ered by Themis, had announced to him, that his preable for its beauty, to which the Carthaginians had re- cious trees would be plundered by a son of Jupiter. solved to transfer the seat of their republic in case of When, therefore, Perseus, on his return from slaying any irreparable disaster at home. Aristotle had already, the Gorgon, arrived in the realms of Atlas, and, seekbefore Diodorus, made mention of a similar island, the ing hospitality, announced himself to be a son of the charms of which had attracted many of the Carthaginians king of the gods, the western monarch, calling to mind to it, until the senate at home forbade any person from the prophecy, attempted to repel him from his doors. going to it under pain of death. (Arist., de Mirab., c. 85, Perseus, inferior in strength, displayed the head of Meed. Beckman.) The reference here, however, is prob- dusa, and the inhospitable prince was turned into the ably to one of the Canaries.-Before quitting this mountain which still bears his name. (Ovid, l. c.subject, it may not be amiss to give the description of Serv. ad En., 4, 246.) According to another acAtlantis, as handed down to us by the ancient writers. count, Atlas was a man of Libya, devoted to astronoThough a mere picture of the imagination, it will my, who, having ascended a lofty mountain to make nevertheless serve to show the opinion entertained on his observations, fell from it into the sea, and both this subject by the poetic minds of antiquity. Ac-sea and mountain were named after him. (Tzetz. ad cording to this account, the isle of Atlantis was one of the finest and most productive countries in the universe. It produced abundance of wine, grain, and the most exquisite fruits. Here were seen wide-spread forests, extensive pasture-grounds, mines of various metals, hot and mineral springs; in a word, whatever could contribute to the necessities or comforts of life. Here commerce flourished under a most excellent system of government. The island, divided into ten kingdoms, was governed by as many kings, all descendants of Neptune, and who lived in perfect harmony with each other, though severally independent. Atlantis had numerous and splendid cities, together with a large number of rich and populous villages. Its harbours beheld the produce of almost every country wafted to them: and they were strengthened with fortifications, and supplied with arsenals containing everything calculated for the construction and equipment of navies. Neptune was not only the progenitor and legislator, but also the principal divinity of the people of Atlantis. He had a temple in this island, a stadium in length, and ornamented with gold, silver, orichalchum, and ivory. Among various statues with which it was adorned, was seen that of the god himself, which was of gold, and so high that it touched the ceiling. He was represented as standing in a chariot, and holding the reins of his winged steed. Such were some of the bright visions of former days respecting the lost island of Atlantis. (Plato, Critias, p. 114, seqq. sed. Bip., vol. 10, p. 51, seqq.) Lycophr., v. 879.) His supporting the heavens was usually explained by making him an astronomer and the inventor of the sphere. (Diod. Sic., 3, 60.-Id., 4, 27.-Serv. ad Virg., En., 1, 741.)-There is also another curious legend relating to Atlas, which forms part of the fables connected with the adventures of Hercules. When this hero, in quest of the apples of the Hesperides, had come to the spot where Prometheus lay chained, moved by his entreaties, he shot the eagle that preyed upon his liver. Prometheus, out of gratitude, warned him not to go himself to take the golden apples, but to send Atlas for them, and, in the mean time, to support the heaven in his stead. The hero did as desired, and Atlas, at his request, went and obtained three apples from the Hesperides; but he said he would take them himself to Eurystheus, and that Hercules might continue to support the sky. At the suggestion of Prometheus the hero feigned consent, but begged him to take hold of the heavens till he had made a pad (par) to put on his head. Atlas threw down the apples and resumed his burden, and Hercules then picked them up and went his way. (Pherecyd., ap. Schol. ad Apoll. Rhod., 4, 1396.) Various elucidations of the legend of Atlas have been given by modern expounders of mythology. The best is that of Völcker. This writer, taking into consideration the meaning of his name, in connexion with the position assigned him by Homer and Hesiod, and the being the father of two of the constellations, regards species of knowledge ascribed to him, and also his Atlas as a personification of navigation, the conquest of the sea by human skill, trade, and mercantile profit. (Völcker, Myth. der Iap., p. 51.) With this view Müller agrees. (Proleg. zu einer wissensch. My thol.-Keightley's Mythology, p. 287, seqq.)-II. A celebrated range of mountains in Africa. It is divi ded into two leading chains: the Greater Atlas runs through the kingdom of Marocco, as far south as the desert of Sahara; the Lesser Atlas extends from Ma- | and open towards the sea in the form of an amphithe rocco towards the northeast to the northern coast. atre. Half way from the mountain a great valley exThe great height of Mount Atlas is proved by the tends, which is remarkably fertile, and adorned with perpetual snows which cover its summits in the cast richly-laden fruit-trees. The eye plunges into this part of Marocco, under the latitude of 32°. Accord-valley as into a deep well, but the precipice is too ing to Humboldt's principles, these summits must be steep for any person to venture to descend, and the 12,000 feet above the level of the sea. Leo Afri- descent is prohibited by feelings of religious awe. canus, who travelled here in the month of October, The most wonderful thing is to see the waves of the narrowly escaped being buried in an ayalanche of ocean at high water overspreading the adjacent plains, snow. In the state of Algiers, the snow disappears on but stopping short before Mount Atlas, and standing the tops of Jurjura and of Felizia in the month of up like a wall, without penetrating into the hollow of May, and covers them again before the end of Sep- the valley, though not restrained by any earthly bartember. The Wanashisze, situated in 30° 55', and rier. Nothing but the air and the sacred thicket preforming an intermediate chain between the maritime vent the water from reaching the mountain. Such is one and that of the interior, is covered with a mantle the temple and the god of the Libyans; such is the of snow nearly the whole of the year. The fertility object of their worship and the witness of their oaths." of the region of Atlas is celebrated by Strabo and In the physical delineations contained in this account, Pliny. The latter (15, 18) extols its figs, olives, we perceive some features of resemblance to the coast corn, and valuable woods. (Id., 17, 12.-Id., 18, 7. between Cape Tefelnch and Cape Geer, which re-Id., 13, 15.) He observes, that the wines had a sembles an amphitheatre crowned with a series of decertain sharpness, which was corrected by adding to tached rocks. In the moral description we find traces them a little plaster (Id., 14, 9), and says that the of fetichism; rocks remarkable for their shape being vineyards had a northern and western exposure. (Id, still worshipped by some negro tribes. (Malte-Brun, 17, 2.) Strabo informs us (369), that the vine-trunks Geogr., vol. 4, p. 155, seqq.)-Before closing this arwere sometimes so thick that two men could scarce-ticle it may not be amiss to remark, that, according ly clasp them round, and that the clusters were a cu-to Pliny, the ancient Mauritanians called Atlas Dyris! bit in length. A horrible government and a total ab- The chain of Atlas, at the present day, bears among sence of civilization have not succeeded in annihila- the Arabs the name of Darah or Daran, the close apting these bounties of nature. Barbary and Marocco proximation of which to the ancient appellation is eastill export large quantities of grain. The olive-tree sily perceived. Horn, on the contrary, however, recis superior here to that of Provence; and the Moors, ognises the term Dyris in Aya-Dyrma, the Guanche notwithstanding the hostility to Bacchus, which marks name for the Peak of Teneriffe. (Hornius de Origintheir religion, cultivate seven varieties of the vine.ibus Americanorum, p. 185.—Humboldt, Tabl. de Nat., The soil of the plains in many places resembles that vol. 1, p. 151.) of the rest of Africa, being light and sandy, and containing numerous rocks: but the valleys of Mount Atlas, and those of the rivulets which descend from it to the Mediterranean, are covered with a compact, fertile, and well-watered soil. Extensive forests cover the sides of the fertile mountains in the northern parts of these countries. All the valleys that have a moderate elevation form in April and May so many little Elysiums. The shade, the coolness, the bright verdure, the diversity of the flowers, and the mixture of agreeable odours, combine to charm the senses of the botanist, who, amid such scenes, might forget his native country, were he not shocked and alarmed by the barbarity of the inhabitants.-A question has arisen in modern times, whether the chain of mountains here described was really the Atlas of the ancients? This is denied by Ideler, who maintains that the Atlas of Homer and Hesiod is the Peak of Teneriffe. The Atlas of the Greek and Roman geographers he allows, on the other hand, to be the modern Mount Atlas. His arguments are given by Humboldt (Tableaux de la Nature, vol. 1, p. 144, seqq.), but are more ingenious than satisfactory. The Atlas of Herodotus might be a promontory of the southern chain, rising from the plains of the desert, such as Mount Saluban, in Biledulgerid, appears to be. It agrees with the distances assigned by this historian. It is, besides, possible, that all the contradictions mentioned by Ideler may owe their origin to that optical illusion by which a chain of mountains, seen in profile, has the appearance of a narrow peak. "When at sea," says Humboldt, "I have often mistaken long chains for isolated mountains." This explanation might be still farther simplified, if it were admitted that the name of Atlas belonged originally to a promontory remarkable for ATRAMYTTIUM. Vid. Adramyttium. form and its peculiar isolated situation, such as most ATRAX, I. a son of Etolus, or, according to others, of those on the coast of Marocco. A curious passage of the river Peneus. He was king of Thessaly, and in Maximus Tyrius seems to countenance this hypoth-built a town which he called Atrax. Hence the epiesis: "The Æthiopian Hesperians," says he (Diss., thet Atracius is sometimes employed with the same 38. p. 457, seqq., ed. Oxon.), "worship Mount At- meaning as Thessalus or "Thessalian." (Propert., las, who is both their temple and their idol. The 1, 8, 25.) Atrax was father to Hippodamia, who Atlas is a mountain of moderate elevation, concave, married Pirithous, and whom we must not confound ATOSSA, a daughter of Cyrus the Great. She married her own brother Cambyses, the first instance of the kind that occurred among the Persians, according to Herodotus (3, 31). After the death of Cambyses she became the wife of the false Smerdis, and subsequently of Darius Hystaspis. (Herod., 3, 88.) She possessed great influence over the last of these, in consequence of her royal birth, and her son Xerxes succeeded him on the throne. She was cured of a cancer in the breast by the Greek physician Democedes; and this individual, through a desire of returning_to his native land, induced Atossa, it is said, to urge Darius to a war with Greece. (Herod., 3, 133, segg.)According to Creuzer, the name Atossa is in Persian Atesh. There was also a city called Atusia in Assyria, on the river Caprus, whose coins displayed a female head, crowned with turrets, and also the inscription ATOYZIEON. (Creuzer, ad Herod., 3, 68. -Götting. Anzeig., 1811, nr. 78.) ATRICES, the people of Atrax, an ancient colony of the Perrhobi in Thessaly, ten miles from Larissa, higher up the Peneus, and on the right bank of that river. It was successfully defended by the Macedonians against T. Flamininus. (Liv., 32, 15.—Strabo, 438 and 441.) Dr. Clarke was led to imagine, that this city stood at Ampelakia, from the circumstance of the green marble, known to the ancients by the name of Atracium Marmor, being found there; but this supposition is erroneous, since it is evident from Livy that Atrax was to the west of Larissa, and only ten miles from that city; whereas Ampelakia is close to Tempe, and distant more than fifteen miles from Larissa. (Cramer's Ancient Greece, vol. 1, p. 386, seqq.) ATREBATES, a people of Belgic Gaul, southeast of the Morini. They were a powerful community, and promised 15,000 men as their quota for the Nervian war against Julius Cæsar. (B. G., 2, 4.) After their reduction by the Roman commander, Commius, one of their own nation, and friendly to Cæsar, was placed over them as king. Their capital was Nemetacum, afterward Atrebates, and now Arras, or, as the Flemings call it, Atrecht. Strabo writes the name of this | people 'Arpébarot, and Ptolemy 'Arpεbúτio. (Plin., 4, 17.-Ptol., 2, 9.) with the wife of Pelops, who bore the same name. | Minerva, met her in the dark, and forcibly embraced (Stat., Theb., 1, 106.-Ovid, Met., 12, 209.)-II. An her, without knowing who she was. In the struggle ancient city of Thessaly. (Vid. Atraces.)-III. A she drew his sword from the sheath, and, taking it back river of Etolia, running through the country of the with her, concealed it in Minerva's temple. Meantime Locri Ozolæ, and falling into the Sinus Corinthiacus, famine and plague had come to punish the crime of to the west of Naupactus. (Plin., 4, 2.) Atreus; and the oracle had declared that, to remove it, Atreus should bring back his brother. He went to Thesprotia in search of him, saw Pelopia by the way, and, supposing her to be the daughter of the King of Sicyon, demanded her in marriage. He obtained her hand. She, however, was already pregnant by her father, and, shortly after her marriage, brought forth a son, whom Atreus caused to be exposed; but the herdsman, taking pity on him, reared him on the dugs of a shegoat (ais, alyós), whence he derived his name, Ægisthus. Atreus, hearing he was alive, had him sought for, and brought him up as his own son. Atreus afterward sent Agamemnon and Menelaus in search of Thyestes. They went to Delphi, where they met him, he having also come to consult the god on the nature of the vengeance which he should seek to take on his brother. They seized and brought him to Atrens, who cast him into prison. Atreus then called ATREBATII, a people of Britain, situate on both banks of the Tamesis or Thames, and occupying the larger part of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, a part of Middlesex, and the southern part of Berkshire. Their chief city was Caleva, now Silchester. (Mannert, Geegr., vol. 2, pt. 2, p. 193.) gisthus, and directed him to put the captive to death. Egisthus went to the prison, bearing the sword which his mother had given him; and the moment Thyestes beheld it, he knew it to be the one which he had lost, and asked the youth how he had come by it. He replied that it was the gift of his mother. At the desire of Thyestes, Pelopia came, and the whole deed of darkness was brought to light. The unfortunate daughter of Thyestes, under pretence of examining the sword, plunged it into her bosom. Ægisthus drew it forth reeking with blood, and brought it to Atreus as a proof of having obeyed his commands. Rejoiced at the death, as he thought, of his brother, Atreus offered a sacrifice of thanksgiving on the seashore; but, while he was engaged in it, he was attacked and slain by Thyestes and Ægisthus. (Hygin., l. c.)-This is the most horrible legend in the Grecian mythology. It is evidently post-Homeric, since it is utterly irreconcila ble with the account of the Pelopide, as given in the Homeric poems. Of Agamemnon's sceptre it is there said, that Vulcan made it and gave it to Jupiter, who gave it to Mercury, by whom it was presented to ATREUS, son of Pelops and Hippodamia, and king of Mycena. Having, with his brother Thyestes, killed out of jealousy his half-brother Chrysippus, they were both banished by their father, who at the same time pronounced a curse on them, that they and their posterity should perish by means of one another. They retired to Midea, whence, on the death of Pelops, Atreus came with an army and took possession of his father's throne. (Hellanicus, ap. Schol. ad II., 2, 105.) Thyestes, it is said, afterward seduced Aërope, the wife of Atreus, who, for this offence, drove him from his kingdom; and Thyestes, out of revenge, sent Atreus'son Plisthenes, whom he had brought up as his own, to murder his father. Atreus, taking the youth to be the son of Thyestes, put him to death, and the curse of Pelops began thus to be accomplished. (Hygin., fab., 86.) Others, however, make Plisthenes to have died a natural death, and on friendly terms with his father, and Atreus to have married his widow Aërope. (Vid. Aërope.)—Another legend thus accounts for the enmity between the brothers. Mercury, in order to avenge his son Myrtilus, whom Pelops had murdered, put a gold-fleeced lamb into the flocks of Atreus, be- horse-lashing" Pelops, who gave it to Atreus, the tween whom and Thyestes, according to this version of shepherd of the people, who, when dying, left it to the story, the kingdom was disputed. Atreus, in order "lamb-abounding" Thyestes, who left it to Agamemto prove that the kingdom by right was his, said he non. (Hom., Il., 2, 101, seqq.) Here we have a famwould produce a gold-fleeced lamb. Thyestes, how-ily of princes legitimately transmitting the sceptre from. ever, having corrupted Atreus's wife Aërope, had got one to another, a state of things totally at variance the lamb; and, when Atreus could not exhibit it with the atrocities that have been related. It was as he promised, the people, thinking he had deceived probably at the time when the Greeks had become fathem, deprived him of his kingdom. Some time after, miliar with Asia and the barbarous regions round the however, Atreus returned, and said that, to prove his Euxine, that the nameless deeds of the line of Pelops right, he would let them see the sun and Pleiades mo- were invented. The author of the Alcmeonis, whoving from west to east. This miracle Jove performed ever he was, is said to have related the story of the in his favour, and he thus obtained the kingdom, and gold-fleeced lamb. (Schol. ad Eurip., Orest., 995.) drove Thyestes into exile. (Schol. ad Eurip., Orest., We know not who first told of the horrid banquet, but 802, 995.-Compare the somewhat different account we find it frequently alluded to by Eschylus (Agam., of Eudocia, Villois., Anecd. Græc., vol. 1, p. 77.)— 1104, 1228, seqq.; 1594, seqq.; Choëph., 1065), Another legend continues the tale in a more horrible though he does not appear to have made the deeds of and tragic form. Atreus, it is said, invited his brother Atreus and Thyestes the subject of a drama. Sophoto return, promising to bury all enmity in oblivion.cles wrote two Thyestes, and Euripides one; and we Thyestes accepted the proffered reconciliation; a feast was made to celebrate it; but the revengeful Atreus killed the two sons of Thyestes, and served the flesh up to their father; and, while Thyestes was eating, he caused the heads and hands of his children to be brought in and shown to him. The sun, it is said, at the sight of this horrible deed, checked his chariot in the midst of his course. (Schol. ad Eurip., Orest., 802.-Hygin., fab., 88, et 258.-Senec., Thyest.) | Thyestes fled to Thesprotia, whence he went to Sicyon, where his daughter Pelopia dwelt. He arrived on the very night in which she was to offer a sacrifice to have probably their contents in the legends transmitted to us by Hyginus. (Keightley's Mythology, p. 447, seqq.) ATRIDE, a patronymic given by Homer to Agamemnon and Menelaus, who were brought up by their grandfather Atreus, as if they had been his own sons, the term Atridæ meaning "sons of Atreus." (Consult remarks at the commencement of the article Agamemnon.) ATROPATIA OF ATROPATĒNĒ, a name given to the northwestern part of Media, between Mount Taurus and the Caspian Sea. It received this name from Atropates, a satrap of this province, who, after the death of Alexander, rendered himself independent, and took the title of king, which his successors enjoyed for many ages. It was a cold, barren, and inhospitable country, and on that account allotted by Shalmanezar for the residence of many captive Israelites, after the conquest of their kingdom. It is now called Aderbigian, from the Persian term Ader, signifying fire; according to the tradition that Zerdust or Zoroaster lighted a pyre, or temple of fire, in a city named Urmiah, of this his native country. Its metropolis was Gaza, now Tebriz, or, as it is more commonly pronounced, Tauris. (Strab., 360.-Plin., 6, 13.) ATROPOS, one of the Parca, daughter of Nox and Erebus. According to the derivation of her name (α, priv., and τρέπω, "to turn" or "change"), she is inexorable and inflexible, and her duty among the three sisters is to cut the thread of life without any regard to sex, age, or condition. (Vid. Parca.) kingdom; and the Romans appeared little disposed to aid him. Prusias in fact gained some advantages over him, but Attalus eventually, by his valour and skill, freed himself from his foes. The friendship of the Romans, subsequently conciliated by him, placed him in security for the time to come, and he devoted the period of repose thus afforded him to the building of cities, and the munificent patronage of learning. He died at the age of 82, after a reign of 21 years, having been poisoned by his nephew, the son of Eumenes II. Attalus was surnamed Philade/phus, from the fraternal love he displayed towards his brother Eumenes during the lifetime of the latter. (Liv., 35, 23.—Id., 37, 43.— Id., 38, 12.-Justin, 25, 1.)-III. The third of the name was son of Eumenes II., and succeeded to the throne after poisoning his uncle Attalus II. He made himself extremely odious by the destruction of many of his relations and friends. Repenting soon after of his cruelties, he assumed all the habiliments of sorrow; and subsequently, giving up the cares of government to others, he turned his attention to gardening. In full accordance, however, with his natural disposition, he bestowed particular attention upon the cultivation of noxious and poisonous plants, which he intermingled with the fruits and flowers that he sent as presents to his friends. He afterward turned his attention to the melting and working of metals. Attalus died after a reign of five years, from a stroke of the sun, while superintending the erection of a tomb for his mother, his affection for whom had procured him the surname of Philometor. He died without issue, and his will is said to have contained the following words: "Populus Romanus bonorum meorum hæres esto." The Romans regarded this as conveying to them the entire kingdom, and accordingly made it a province of their empire. Considering all the circumstances of the case, and especially the character ATTALEA, I. a city of Pamphylia, southwest of of the testator, the construction which the Romans Perga, built by King Attalus II. The site of this put upon the words in question was fair enough. city is called Palaia Attalia, while the modern city Mithradates, however, in his letter to Arsaces (Sall., of Attalia, or, as it is commonly called, Satalia, an- Hist. fragm., p. 409, ed. Burnouf), regards it as a swers to the ancient Olbia. (Cramer's Asia Minor, forced and fraudulent interpretation. (Justin, 36, 4. vol. 2, p. 275.)-II. A city of Lydia, on the river-Vell. Paterc., 2, 4-Liv., Ep. et Suppl., 58.) Hermus, and northeast of Sardis. Its earlier name was Agroira or Alloira. (Steph. Byz., s. v.) The ecclesiastical notices have recorded some of its bishThe site is occupied by a village called Adala. (Keppel's Travels, vol. 2, p. 335.-Cramer's Asia Minor, vol. 1, p. 435.) ATTA, Titus Quintius, a Roman comic writer, who died A.U.C. 633, B.C. 121. His productions appear to have been extremely popular in the time of Horace, though, as would seem from the language of the latter, not very deserving of it. (Hor., Ep., 2, 1, 79.) He received the surname of Atta from a lameness in his feet, which gave him the appearance of a person walking on tiptoe. Thus Festus remarks: "Attæ appellantur, qui, propter vitium crurum aut pedum, plantis insistunt et attingunt magis terram quam ambulant." It is to this personal deformity that Horace (1. c.) pleasantly alludes, when he supposes the plays of Atta to limp over the stage like their lame author. Bothe's assertion, that Atta also composed tragedies, is contradicted by Schmid. (Ad Hor., 1. c. -Compare Crinit., Poet. Lat., c. 23.-Bähr, Gesch. Rom. Lat., vol. 1, p. 111, seqq.) ops. ATTALICUS. Vid. Attalus II. ATTHIS, a daughter of Cranaus the successor of Cecrops. She was fabled to have given name to the country of Attica. (Apollod., 3, 14, 5.) ATTICA, a country of Greece, without the Peloponnesus, forming a kind of triangular peninsula, and bounded on the north by Boeotia and the Euripus; on the west by Megaris; on the south by the Sinus SaATTALUS, I. king of Pergamus, succeeded Eume- ronicus; and on the east by part of the Ægean Sea; nes I. This prince was first proclaimed king of extending from northwest to southeast about eighty Pergamus after a signal victory obtained by him over miles, with decreasing breadth, but at an average of the Gallo-Græci, or Galatæ, and, for his talents and about forty miles. According to the popular account, the soundness of his policy, deserves a distinguished it received its name from Atthis, the daughter of Craplace among the sovereigns of antiquity. He formed, naus. The more correct etymology, however, is from at an early period, an alliance with the Romans, whom aкTý (acte), the Greek term for "shore," the country he vigorously assisted in their two wars against Philip being of a peninsular shape, or, in other words, two of Macedon. In conjunction with the Athenians, he sides of it being shore. The original name, thereinvaded Macedonia, and recalled Philip from his en-fore, would seem to have been Acta, which was afterprise undertaken against Athens; on which account the Athenians gave his name to one of their tribes. His wealth was so great as to become proverbial. (Hor., Od., 1, 12.) He had married Apollonias, a lady of Cyzicus, of obscure birth, but great merit and virtue: by her he had four sons, Eumenes, Attalus, Philetrus, and Athenæus. He died at an advanced age, after a prosperous reign of 43 or 44 years, and was succeeded by Eumenes. (Polyb., 18, 24.-Liv., 33, 21.-Strab., 624.)-II. The 2d of the name succeeded his brother Eumenes II., B.C. 159. Before ascending the throne he had been twice sent to Rome, to solicit aid against Antiochus the Great and against the Greeks. When he commenced his reign, he found two adversaries in Prusias of Bithynia and Demetrius Soter, who meditated the conquest of his terward changed to the more euphonious Attica. cicade of gold, which she braided in the twinings of the centre of the civilized world of antiquity, so was | generations, till at last it hid itself, like one of her own Attica the centre of Greece; and as the climate and brooks, in the recesses of her own soil. This belief temperature of Hellas was considered to be more fa- that her people was indigenous, she expressed in difvourable than that of any other country of Europe or ferent ways. She intimated it in the figure which Asia, for the healthy and vigorous development of the she assigned to Cecrops, the heroic prince and prophysical and intellectual faculties of man, so did ev-genitor of her primeval inhabitants. She represented ery Hellenic province yield in these respects to the him as combining in his person a double character; superior claims of the Athenian territory. Again: it while the higher parts of his body were those of a man was not merely aided by these natural advantages, and a king, the serpentine folds in which it was termiwhich arose from its form, its position, and its cli-nated declared his extraction from the earth. The mate; the very defects also under which this country laboured, the very difficulties with which it was compelled to struggle, supplied to Attica the inducements, and afforded it the means, for availing itself in the most effectual manner of those benefits and privileges with which nature had so liberally endowed it. One of these apparent deficiencies was the barrenness of its soil. The geological formation of Attica is primitive limestone on its northern frontier a long ridge of mountains, consisting of such a stratification, stretches from east to west: a range of similar character bounds it on the west, and in the interior of the country it is intersected with hills from north to south, which belong to the same class. Thus it will appear that the geographical dimensions of Attica, limited as they are, must be reduced by us within a still narrower range, when we consider it as far as it is available for the purposes of cultivation. In this respect, its superficial extent cannot be rated at more than one half the value which has been assigned to the whole country. The mountains of which we have spoken are either bare or rugged, or thinly clad with scanty vegetation and low shrubs. The mountain pine is found on the slopes of Laurium; the steeps of Parnes and Pentelicus are sprinkled over with the dwarf oak, the lentisk, the arbutus, and the bay. But the hills of this country can boast few timber trees; they serve to afford pasture to numerous flocks of sheep and goats, which browse upon their meager herbage and climb among their steep rocks, and to furnish fuel to the inhabitants of the plain. While such is the character of the mountainous districts of the province, its plains and lowlands cannot lay a much better claim to the merit of fertility. In many parts of them, as in the city of Athens itself, the calcareous rock projects ATTICUS, I. Titus Pomponius, a Roman knight, above the surface, or is scarcely concealed, beneath a who, in the most agitated times, preserved the esteem light covering of soil in no instance do they pos- of all parties. The Pomponian family, from which he sess any considerable deposite of alluvial earth. The originated, was one of the most distinguished of those plains of this country are irrigated by few streams, of equestrian rank, and pretended to derive its origin which are rather to be called torrents than rivers, and from Numa Pompilius. Atticus lived in the latter peon none of them can it depend for a perennial supply riod of the republic, and acquired great celebrity from of water. There is no lake within its limits. It is the splendour of his private character. He inherited unnecessary to suggest the reason, where such was from his father, and from his uncle Q. Cæcilius, great the nature of the soil, that the olive was the most wealth. When he attained maturity, the republic common, and also the most valuable, production of was disturbed by the factions of Cinna and Sylla. Attica. Such then were some of the physical defects His brother Sulpicius, the tribune of the commons, of the land. But these disadvantages were abundant- being killed, he thought himself not safe in Rome; ly compensated by the beneficial effects which they for which reason he removed with his fortune to Athproduced. The sterility of Attica drove its inhabi-ens, where he devoted himself to science. His benetants from their own country. It carried them abroad. It filled them with a spirit of activity, which loved to grapple with danger and difficulty: it told them, that, if they would maintain themselves in the dignity which became them, they must regard the resources of their own land as nothing, and those of other countries as their own. It arose also from the barrenness of her soil, that Attica had always been exempt from the revolutions which in early times agitated the other countries of Greece; and hence Attica, secure in her sterility, boasted that her land had never been inundated by tides of immigration. The race of her inhabitants had been always the same; nor could she tell whence they had sprung; no foreign land had sent them; they had not forced their way within her confines by a violent irruption. She traced the stream of her population in a backward course, through many fits to the city were so great, that he gained the affections of the people in the highest degree. He acquired so thorough a knowledge of Greek, that he could not be distinguished from a native Athenian, and hence the surname of Atticus bestowed upon him. When Rome had acquired some degree of quiet, he returned, and inherited from his uncle ten millions of sesterces. His sister married the brother of Cicero. With this orator, as well as with Hortensius, he lived on terms of intimate friendship. It was his principle never to mix in politics, and he lived undisturbed amid all the successive factions which reigned in Rome. Cæsar treated him with the greatest regard, though he was known as a friend of Pompey's. After the death of Cæsar he lived in friendship with Brutus, without, however, offending Antony. When Brutus was obliged to flee from Italy, he sent him a million |