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the Ethiopians. The Ethiopians, who were con- people known in the world. "To wash the Ethiopian nected with the Egyptians by affinity and intimate po-white," was a proverbial expression applied to a hope litical relations, are by the later Hebrew historians less attempt. It may be thought that the term Æthiopi termed Cush. Thus Tizhakah, the Cushite invader of an was perhaps used vaguely, to signify all or many AfJudah, is evidently Tearchon the Ethiopian leader rican nations of dark colour, and that the genuine Æthi mentioned by Strabo, and the same who is termed opians may not have been quite so black as others. Tarakos, and is set down by Manetho, in the well- But it must be observed, that though other black na, known tables of dynasties, as an Ethiopian king of tions may be called by that name when taken in a Egypt. In the earlier ages the term Cush belonged wider sense, this can only have happened in conse apparently to the same nation or race; though it would quence of their resemblance to those from whom the appear that the Cush or Ethiopians of those times oc- term originated. It is improbable that the Ethiopians cupied both sides of the Red Sea. The Cush men- were destitute of a particular character, the possession tioned by Moses are pointed out by him to be a nation of which was the very reason why other nations partiof kindred origin with the Egyptians. In the Toldoth cipated in their name, and came to be confounded with Beni Noach, or Archives of the sons of Noah, which them. And the most accurate writers, as Strabo, for Michaelis (Spicileg. Geogr. Hebr. Ext.) has proved to example, apply the term Ethiopian in the same way. contain a digest of the historical and geographical Strabo, in the 15th book (686), cites the opinion of knowledge of the ancient world, it is said, that the Cush Theodectes, who attributed to the vicinity of the sun and the Misraim were brothers, which means, as it is the black colour and woolly hair of the Ethiopians. generally allowed, nations nearly allied by kindred. Herodotus expressly affirms (7, 70), that the Ethiopi It is very probable, that the first people who settled in ans of the west, that is, of Africa, have the most woolly Arabia were Cushite nations, who were afterward ex- hair of all nations: in this respect, he says, they dif pelled or succeeded by the Beni Yoktan or true Arabs. fered from the Indians and Eastern Ethiopians, who In the enumeration of the descendants of Cush in the were likewise black, but had straight hair. Moreover, Toldoth Beni Noach, several tribes or settlements are the Hebrews, who, in consequence of their intercourse mentioned in Arabia, as Saba and Havila. When the with Egypt under the Pharaohs, could not fail to know author afterward proceeds to the descendants of Yok- the proper application of the national term Cush, seem tan, the very same places are enumerated among their to have had a proverbial expression similar to that of settlements. That the Cush had in remote times the Greeks, "Can the Cush change his colour, or the possessions in Asia, is evident from the history of Nim- leopard his spots?" (Jeremiah, 13, 23.) This is rod, a Cushite chieftain, who is said to have possessed sufficient to prove, that the Ethiopian was the darkest several cities of the Assyrians, among which was Ba- race of people known to the Greeks, and, in earlier bel, or Babylon, in Shinar. Long after their departure times, to the Hebrews. The only way of avoiding the name of the Cush remained behind them on the the inference, that the Ethiopians were genuine necoast of the Red Sea. It is probable that the name groes, must be by the supposition, that the ancients, of Cush continued to be given to tribes which had suc- among whom the foregoing expressions were current, ceeded the genuine Cushites in the possession of their were not acquainted with any people exactly resem ancient territories in Arabia, after the whole of that bling the people of Guinea, and therefore applied the people had passed into Africa, just as the English are terms woolly-haired, flat-nosed, &c., to nations who termed Britons, and the Dutch race of modern times had these characters in a much less degree than those Belgians. In this way it happened, that people, re- people whom we now term negroes. It seems possi mote in race from the family of Ham, are yet named ble, that the people termed Ethiopians by the Greeks, Cush, as the Midianites, who were descended from and Cush by the Hebrew writers, may either of them Abraham. The daughter of Jethro, the Midianite, is have been of the race of the Shangalla, Shilluk, or termed a Cushite woman. Even in this instance, the other negro tribes, who now inhabit the countries correspondence of Cush and Ethiopia has been pre- bordering on the Nile, to the southward of Sennaar: or served. We find the word rendered Ethiopissa by they may have been the ancestors of the present Nouba the Septuagint translators, and in the verses of Eze- or Barabra, or of people resembling them in descripkiel, the Jewish Hellenistic poet, Jethro is placed in tion. The chief obstacle to our adopting the supposiAfrica, and his people are termed Ethiopians. On the tion that these Æthiopians were of the Shangalla race, whole, it may be considered as clearly established, or of any stock resembling them, is the circumstance, that the Cush are the genuine Ethiopian race, and that so near a connexion appears to have subsisted bethat the country of the Cush is generally in Scripture tween the former and the Egyptians; and we know that part of Africa which lies above Egypt. In support that the Egyptians were not genuine negroes. Perof these positions may be cited, not only the authority haps, after all, however, we would be more correct in of the Septuagint, and the writers already mentioned, considering the Bedjas, and their descendants the but the concurring testimony of the Vulgate, and all Abadbé and Bisharein, as the posterity of the ancient other ancient versions, with that of Philo, Josephus, Ethiopians. Both the Ababdé and Bisharein belong Eupolemus, and all the Jewish commentators and to the class of red, or copper-coloured people. The Christian fathers. There is only one writer of anti- former are described by Belzoni (Travels, p. 310), quity on the other side, and he was probably misled and the latter by Burckhardt (Travels in Nubia, p. by the facts which we have already considered. This 372). single dissentient is the writer of Jonathan's Targum, and on this authority the learned Bochart, supported by some doubtful passages, maintains that the land of Cush was situated on the eastern side of the Arabian Gulf. It has been satisfactorily shown, however, by the authors of the Universal History, and by Michaëlis, that many of these passages require a different version, and prove that the land of Cush was Ethiopia. (Prichard's Physical History of Man, 2d ed., vol. 1, p. 289, seqq.)-As regards the physical character of the ancient Ethiopians, it may be remarked, that the Greeks commonly used the term Æthiopian nearly as we use that of negro: they constantly spoke of the Ethiopians, as we speak of the negroes, as if they were the blackest

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

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

the Huns. John, however, was conquered, and Aëtius immediately submitted to Valentinian, who reigned in the west under the guardianship of his mother Placidia. Eagerly desirous of the imperial favours, and jealAETION, I. a famous painter, who lived in the time ous of the credit of Count Boniface, Aetius formed a of Alexander the Great. He executed a painting of treacherous scheme against him, the result of which the nuptials of Alexander and Roxana; and the picce was the revolt of Boniface, who invited Genseric and was so much admired at the Olympic Games, whither the Vandals into Africa. A subsequent explanation the artist had carried it for exhibition, that the presi-between Boniface and Placidia came too late to save dent of the games gave him his daughter in marriage. Africa, but it served to expose the intrigues of Aëtius, Such is Lucian's account (Her., 5), who saw this who at this time was crushing the Franks and Burpainting in Italy. In another passage, likewise, he gundians in Gaul. Placidia did not dare to punish refers to this production of Aëtion's, and bestows the him, but she bestowed new honours upon Boniface. highest praises on the lips of Roxana. (Imag., 7.) Rendered furious by this, Aëtius flew back to Italy Raphael is said to have traced, from Lucian's descrip- with a few troops, encountered and gave battle to his tion of this work of art, one of his most brilliant com- rival, was conquered, but with his own hand wounded positions. II. A sculptor, who flourished about the Boniface, who died shortly after, A.D. 432. Placidia middle of the third century before the Christian era, was desirous of avenging his death, but Aëtius retired and who is known from Theocritus (Epigr., 7.) At among the Huns, and reappeared subsequently at the the request of Nicias, then a celebrated physician at head of sixty thousand barbarians to demand his parMiletus, he made a statue of Esculapius out of don. Placidia restored to him his charges and honcedar. (As regards the reading 'Aeriwvi, for the com- ours, and Aëtius returned to Gaul to serve the empire, mon 'Heriwvi, consult Kiessling, ad loc.)-III. An which he defended with great valour as long as his engraver on precious stones, whose age is uncertain. own ambitious views permitted this to be done. His (Bracci, 18.-Sillig, Dict. Art., s. v.) most brilliant feat in this quarter was the overthrow AETIUS, 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. Aëtius 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 jewern Chálons. The contest was bloody but decisive, eller. Being forced to abandon this latter calling, for and three hundred thousand men fell on both sides. having substituted a bracelet of gilt-copper for one of Notwithstanding, however, this brilliant achievement, gold, he followed the trade of an empiric, or charlatan, Aëtius, in his turn, became the victim of court inwith some success, but was at last driven from Anti-trigue, and being sent for by Valentinian, and having och, and went to study logic at Alexandrea. As he approached him without distrust, was on a sudden never attained any great skill in this latter science, and stabbed to the heart by that suspicious and cowardly was, at the same time, but little versed in the sacred emperor. His death happened A.D. 454. (Procop., writings, he easily fell into the new religious errors of de Reb. Goth., 5.-Jornandes, de Regn. Success., c. the day, to which he added many others of his own. | 19.-Paul Diacon., Hist. Miscell., 19, 16.—BiograEpiphanius has preserved forty-seven erroneous prop-phie Universelle, vol. 1, p. 267.)-III. A physician ositions, selected from his works, which contained of Amida, in Mesopotamia, who flourished at the close 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 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, it 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 Etna, aware that the effluvia from the bodies of those afflict-or Monte Gibello (shortened into Mongibello), the lated with them contaminated the surrounding atmo- ter of these modern appellations being adopted from sphere, and that the fevers were propagated in this the Arabic Gibel, "a mountain," given to 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, so transit." At the same time, as they did not ascribe immense in size, that Vesuvius, in comparison, seems the origin and propagation of these disorders to a pe- merely a hill, rises on the eastern side of Sicily. It culiar virus, they did not think it necessary to treat of is 180 miles in circumference at the base, and attains contagion as a distinct cause of fever, because, in this by a gradual ascent to the height of 10,954 feet above view of the matter, it is clearly referrible to some one the level of the sea. From Catania (the ancient Caof the general causes enumerated above. Thus, the tana), which stands at the fot, 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 eing 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 Aneurism at the elbow-joint is de- the days of Strabo. The earliest writers who make serving of attention, as being a near approximation to mention of Etna, and its eruptions, are the author of the improved method of operating introduced by John the Orphic poems (Argonaut., v. 12), and more parHunter and Abernethy. He directs the operator to ticularly Pindar (Pyth., 1, 21, seqq., ed. Boeckh. make a longitudinal incision along the inner side of the Compare Aulus Gellius, 17, 10), whose description, arm, three or four fingers' breadth below the armpit, in its fearful sublimity, bears with it all the marks and having laid bare the artery, and dissected it from of truth, and points evidently to some accurate acthe surrounding parts, to raise it up with a blind hook, counts of the volcano, as received by the bard, perand, introducing two threads, to tie them separately haps from King Hiero. Thucydides (3, 116) is next and divide the artery in the middle. Had he stopped in order. He speaks of the stream of lava, which, in here, his method would have been a complete antici- his time (Ol. 88, 3, B.C. 426), desolated the territory pation of the plan of proceeding now practised; but, of Catana; he asserts, that, fifty years before, a similar unfortunately, not having sufficient confidence in the flow of lava had taken place, and, without any farther absorbing powers of the system, he gives directions to chronological reference, makes mention also of a third. open the tumour and evacuate its contents. Many These were the only three eruptions with which the nice operations upon the eye and surrounding parts Greeks had become acquainted since their settlement are accurately described by him.-On the obstetrical in Sicily. That Etna, however, had, at a much eardepartment of surgery he is fuller than any other an- lier period, given proof of its volcanic character, is cient writer. He has also given an account of many evident from the narrative of Diodorus Siculus (5, 6), pharmaceutical preparations which are not noticed elsewhere we are informed, that the Sicani were compellwhere. The work of Aëtius, divided by the copyists ed to retire to the western parts of the island, by reainto four Tetrabibli, and each Tetrabiblus into four son of the devastation and terror which the fiery erupdiscourses, consisted originally of sixteen books. The tions from the mountain had occasioned. The acfirst eight only were printed in Greek at Venice, by count which Strabo gives (274) of the state of things the heirs of Aldus Manutius, fol., 1534. The others on the summit of Etna, accords pretty accurately with have remained in MS., in the libraries of Vienna and the narratives of modern travellers. The geographer Paris. Various editions have been published of the informs us, that those who had lately ascended the Latin translation of the entire work by Janus Corna- mountain found on the top a crater, or, as he terms it, rius, under the title of Contractæ ex veteribus Medi- a level plain (redíov duaλóv), about twenty stadia in eina tetrabiblis, at Venice, 1543, in 8vo; at Basle, circumference, enclosed by a bank of cinders having 1542, 1549, in fol.; another at Basle, 1535, fol., of the height of a wall. In the middle of the plain was which the first seven and the last three books were trans- a hill of an ashy colour, like the surface of the plain. lated by Montanus; two at Lyons, 1549, fol., and 1560, Over the hill a column of smoke hung suspended, ex4 vols. 12mo, with notes of but little value, by Hugo de tending about two hundred feet in height. Two of Soleriis; and one at Paris, 1567, fol., among the Med-the party from whom Strabo received his information ica Artis Principes.-IV. Sicanus, or Siculus, a phy-undertook to descend the banks and enter upon the sician, and native of Sicily, as is commonly supposed, plain, but the hot and deep sand soon compelled them to whom is ascribed a treatise on Melancholy. The to retrace their steps. The geographer, after this truth is, however, that the treatise in question is no-statement, then proceeds to contradict the common thing more than a selection from the second discourse of the second Tetrabiblus of Aetius of Amida; so that Aetius the Sicilian becomes a mere nonentity. Schöll, Hist. Lit. Gr., 7, p. 253.)

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 Etna, is said to be eighty-one, of which the
following may be regarded as an accurate enumeration.
Those mentioned by Thucydides amount to three.
In 122 B.C. there was one. In 44 A.D. one. In
252 A.D. one. During the 12th century, two hap-
pened. During the 13th, one. During the 14th, two.
During the 15th, four. During the 16th, four. Du-
ring the 17th, twenty-two. During the 18th, thirty-
two. Since the commencement of the 19th, nine.
(Malte-Brun, Geogr., vol. 4, p. 293, Brussels ed.)
That the Greeks did not suffer this mountain to re-
main unemployed in their mythological legends may
easily be imagined, and hence the fable that Etna
lay on part of the giant form of Typhon, enemy of the
gods. (Pindar, Pyth.l. c.-Compare Eschylus,
Prom. Vinct., v. 365.-Hyginus, c. 152.-Apollod.,
1, 6, 3, and Heyne, ad loc., where the different tradi-
tions 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 annanians. On the death of Philip and the accession of
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 trans-
lated, 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 Vul-who, with a powerful army, invaded their country, which
can'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 Thucyd-
ides (6, 94) speaks of the inhabitants under the ap-
pellation of Inessæi ('Ivnooaíoi). The form of the
name, therefore, as given by Strabo (268), namely, In-
nesa ("Ivvnoa), as well as that found in Diodorus Sic-
ulus (14, 14), Ennesia ('Evvnoía), are clearly errone-
The name of the place was changed to Etna
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 pe-
riod (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 Greece, after the example of Macedonia, was train-
ern parts of the island. The ancient site is now
marked by ruins, and the place bears the name of Cas-
tro. (Mannert, 10, pt. 2. p. 291, seqq.)

were especially distinguished for the uncouthness of
their language and the ferocity of their habits. (Thu-
cyd., 3, 94.) In this historian's time they had as yet
made no figure among the leading republics of Greece,
and are seldom mentioned in the course of the war
which he undertook to narrate. From him we learn
that the Etolians favoured the interests of the Lace-
dæmonians, probably more from jealousy of the Athe-
nians, whom they wished to dislodge from Naupactus,
than from any friendship they bore to the former. The
possession of that important place held out induce-
ments to the Athenians, in the sixth year of the war,
to attempt the occupation, if not the ultimate conquest,
of all Etolia: the expedition, however, though ably
planned, and conducted by Demosthenes himself, pro-
ved signally disastrous. We scarcely find any subse-
quent mention of the Etolians during the more im-
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 Acar-
Alexander, the Etolians exhibited symptoms of bos-
tile feelings towards the young monarch (Diod. Sic.,
17, 3), which, together with the assistance they afford-
ed to the confederate Greeks in the Lamiac war, drew
upon them the vengeance of Antipater and Craterus,
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 to-
lians for her deliverance from a formidable irruption of
the Gauls, who had penetrated into Phocis and Æto-
lia. On being at length compelled to retreat, these
barbarians were so vigorously pursued by the Eto-
lians, 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 north-

ous.

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 Etolus, 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 Etolia. (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. (Il., 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

ing 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 met in a common assembly, called Panened on the side of Greece by the secret treaty con- atolium, 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 Etolia 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 Etolus 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.) Etolia 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 fertilhad made themselves masters of the country of the ity; such as, 1. The large Ætolian field. (Altwhāv Enianes, a large portion of Phthiotis, with the can-edíov péya.-Dionys., Perieg., v. 432.) 2. Parachtons of the Melians and Trachinians. On the coast eloïtis, 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, Crissæan Gulf, including Naupactus. In short, they and drained, or, according to the legend, torn by Herwanted 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 Ætolians, 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

ETOLUS, Son of Endymion (the founder of Elis), and of Neïs, or, according to others, Iphianassa. Having 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 (als). It is said by some to have given the appellation of "Egean" (Aiyaïov) to the sea in which it stood. (Plin., 4, 11.)-II. The goat that suckled Jupiter, changed into a constellation.

AFER, I. Cn. Domitius, an orator during the reigna 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, and Quintilius Varus, the son, of Agrippina. 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.—Id. ibid., 14, 19.—Quintil., 5, 7.)—II. The surname of the

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