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GERSTEIN SCIENCE INFORMATION CENTRE
THE
ENGLISH CYCLOPAEDIA.
ilcfo JDictionaru of SSmbersal
CONDUCTED BY CHARLES KNIGFIT.
BIOGRAPHY. VOLUME I.
LONDON :
BRADBURY AND EVANS, 11, BOUVERIE STREET.
1856.
THE
ENGLISH CYCLOPEDIA.
BIOGRAPHY.
The names of thoie licing at the lime of the emtinuout fabrication of tht ' XnolM Cyclopadia of Biography,' are preceded ty an asterisk.
AARON.
ABATI.
AARON", the first high-priest of the Jews. He was the elder brother
of Moses, aud was, by the express appointment of Heaveii, asso-
ciated with that illustrious legislator in the enterprise of delivering
their countrymen from Egyptian bondage, and conducting them to
the promised land. Under the direction of his brother, Aaron, who
was a ready and eloquent speaker, announced the command of God
to I'liaraoh, and attested it by the series of miracles recorded in the
earlier chapters of the book of Exodus. During the sojourn in the
wilderness he was far from manifesting the steady confidence and
undaunted disregard of popular clamour which characterised the
conduct of Moses ; but, notwithstanding his timidity and weakness,
in yielding to the demand of the multitude that he would make them
a golden calf to worship, he was consecrated to the priesthood, of
which the highest office was made hereditary in his family. Having
ascended the summit of Mount Hor, in company with Moses and his
eldest son Eleazar, he died there, after Moses, as commanded by God,
had stripped him of his sacerdotal robes, and put them upon his son.
This event happened when Aaron was in the 123rd year of his age,
forty years after the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, and,
according to the commonly received chronology, in the year B.C. 1451,
or 2553 years from the creation of the world. The history of Aaron
is to be found in the book of Exodus, and the three following books
of the Pentateuch.
ABA'NO, PIE'TRO DI, or Petrvt Apdnui, was born in 1250 at
Abano, the Roman name of which was Aponus, a village which is
5.J miles from Padua. He studied first at Padua, then went to Con-
stantinople to learn Greek, and afterwards to Paris, where he devoted
himself to mathematics and medicine. He travelled in England and
Scotland, whence he was recalled to Padua, in 1303 or 1304, to take
the professorship of medicine, then vacant. His reputation was very
great, and his charges for attendance very high. Ho combined astrology
with astronomy, and perhaps made some pretence to magic. At all
events he was regarded as a magician, and in 1306 he was brought
before the tribunal of the Inquisition as a heretic and atheist ; but
defended himself so well a., to obtain an acquittal. In 1314 he
removed to Treviso, in compliance with the invitation of the inhabit-
ants. In 1315 another accusation was brought against him before the
Inquisition ; but he died before the inquiry was completed, in the
year 1316, at the age of 66. His judges however continued the inquiry
after his death, found him guilty, and ordered his body to be burnt.
Abano wrote several works on philosophy and medicine, and made
translations of ancient and Arabic medical writers. In his expositions
there is little of his own observation or of original thought ; but in
the knowledge acquired from the works of others he was not surpassed
by any physician of his time.
AIJA'TJ, or ABBA'TI, NICCOLO', was born at Modena in 1512.
He is more frequently called Dell' Abate, but erroneously according
to the showing of Tiraboschi, as his family name was AbatL Before
Tiraboschi, Niccolo's surname was supposed to be unknown, and the
n.ime of Dell' Abate was given to him from the circumstance of his
being less known for his own works than as the assistant of Prirna-
ticcio, who was called L' Abate by the Italians, after he was made
Abb<S of St. Martin near Troyes, by Francis L of France. Abati
executed in fresco the Adventures of Ulysses and other works from
the designs of Primaticcio, for the palace of Fontainebleau, the decora-
tion of which was entrusted to Primaticcio after the death of II Rosso.
Print* from the Adventures of Ulysses, by Van Thulden. were pub-
BIOO. civ. VOL. i.
lished in Paris in 1630 : the original works were destroyed with the
building in 1738, to make room for a new structure.
Abati's own works however, in Modena and Bologna, were produc-
tions of the greatest merit, according to the Carracci ; and in a sonnet
of Agostino, which is a sort of recipe for making a great painter, he is
mentioned in conclusion as combining in himself all the required
excellences. There are few of Abati's works remaining, and the.-; are
chiefly frescoes; he seems to have painted comparatively little in oil.
It is not known who his master was, or whether he had any other
master than bis father Giovanni Abati, who was an obscure painter
and modeller of Modena. From a similarity in hU works to the style
of Correggio, some have supposed that he was a pupil of Correggio ;
he is al-o said to have studied under the sculptor Begarelli : if so he
was probably well acquainted with Correggio, with whom Begarelli
was intimate.
His earliest essays upon his own account were in partnership with
another painter, Alberto Fontaua, a practice not unusual at that period
in Italy, when there was little or no distinction between artists and
artisans in the manner of employing them or estimating their works.
In 1537 he painted with Foutana, at Modena, some frescoes in the
butchers' market, by which he obtained some reputation; and he
acquired great distinction by some frescoes in the Scandiauo Palace,
from Ariosto and the ^Eneid of Virgil, which are still extant ; they
have been engraved by Gajani. These with some conversation-pieces
and concertos in the Institute of Bologna, a Nativity of Christ under
the portico of the Leoni Palace, and a large symbolical picture in
the Via di San Mamolo, in the same city, are the only frescoes now
extant by Abati ; and his oil-pictures are likewise very scarce.
Of the works in the Institute, Zanotti has written an account
'Delle Pitture di Pellegrino Tibaldi e Niccolo Abbati,' &c., in which
there are engravings of them : Malvasia also has given a laudatorv
description of them : they have been compared with the works o'f
Titian. The Nativity of the Leoni Palace, which has been engraved
by Gondolfi, is mentioned in the highest terms by Count Algarotti,
who discovered in it " the symmetry of Raphael, the nature of Titian,
and the grace of Parmegiano." Of his easel-pictures in oil the most
celebrated is the Martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul, a large picturo
on wood, which was painted for the Church of the Benedictines at
Modena in 1546. It is now in the Dresden Gallery, and has been
engraved by Folkema for tho 'Rccueil d'Eatampes aprfcs les plus
ccli'bres Tableaux de la Galerie de Dresde.'
From about 1546 until 1552, when he accompanied Primaticcio to
France, Abati lived in Bologna, and his Bolognese works were painted
during this interval: he died in Paris in 1571.
Abati's principal faculty was painting in fresco, in which he had
surprising facility. According to Vasari he never retouched his works
when dry, which cannot be said of many fresco-painters ; yet, says
Vasari, the paintings of an entire apartment were executed with such
uniformity that they appeared to be the work of a single day. Abati
excelled in landscape, for his period ; there is a Rape of Proserpine
in the Duke of Sutherland's collection, of which the background is
an extensive landscape ; it was formerly in the Orleans Gallery, and
was sold at the sale in this country for 160J.
Several of Abati's relations also distinguished themselves as painters :
bis brother Pietro Paolo was a clever horse and battlo painter ; his son
Giulio Camillo, bis gruml-on Ercole, and his great grandson Pietro
Paolo the younger, were all painters of ability, especially Ercole, who
ABAUZIT FIRMIN
ABBAS THE GREAT.
a* w u
.-.:.
JtoWBMs.MrfMlfcA.
V f**ri tti Jfittaat. TbrabosohL AalMt *V
A^I^IWllK! bar. 1T, di*d 1WT. aged .ST. Hfc> taUjr
i aa Arahiaa ahraWaa, who sattM at ToolooM to
H* was bora * Data, m Uaga.dnc. of protattaat
*jaa| *ir**a>*taa**. tad lost hi* nvther when b* was only
of
h* ristUd Oetmaay, Holland, France,
Him of many wolneot mea, among
Kiac William wished to retain him to
to Onera. Tb*r* h* took part to
which appeared to 1726. and
. far Us W2oa*. In 1727 the
oo him the righta of citiMnahip.
I* oa* *f th* ato* resasrksnl* iadaaoe* on record of a combina-
tW *f aairwaUHy tad depth of taming. Ery man who talked
with Ahaaatt *a hi* oa narUesOar atady, imagined that, whatever
be, hi* asMeial attention had been reserved
caaang. X*wtoa sd.li.sii.l him-lf to
;> d*id* between him and LeibniU.
, thought b* had pasted his life to the
* be had devoted himself to the study
at sacisat axMte. Ia" hi* temper h* WM siaguUrly mild and enduring
For a asaa of hi* attainments w* have not much remaining
Whh Ik* tutatina of some antiquarian papers, to Spon's
*> la TB* d* Ofa**** aad th* Journal Helrelique,' b*
"is war* published after
Urtih*
pt were burnt by his
from hit own, which were
king of the M*w Islands, became known to
of th* wreck of th* East India Company's
ind of Oroolong, on* of th* group of the
10th of August, 17SS. The unfortunate mariners were
by th* aatJw, and were *oon honoured with visit from
it h* had a*r*r awa a white man, nor any rtesd larger
hk> Mrpria* WM unbounded ; but it WM the effect of
s most attracted hit attention. It was not long before
h* laitaarf WOMa, th* captain of th* AnUlope, to grant him assistance
hit van with th* adghnnnrmg islander, in four several expeditions,
wtkft w*r* gaMntty nader Ik* command of Abba Thulle himself.
TW amrrl mod* of attack of th* stracucer. proved to effectire, that on
th* las* lllian* th* ptopl. of Artinrall, the island against which the
attack vat dtrittad. Mbmtttad without reeistance to the king of Pelew.
WhsM Ihi* WM going on, the rest of the Antelope't crew, and all at
other ttaita, wtr* *agag*d m bnilding a r**rl, then- own baring gone
ia which they hoped to b* abl* to tak* passage to China;
b work Abba Thnttt, who took a great interest to it, rendered
When th* TOSM! WM computed, h* declared
I hit second ton, Lee Boo, to hi* new friends,
mthk
that h* aaght atnti|iaiy tba aad tee th* wonders of Europe. On
th* ISU *f Xotambar. 1788. th* Oroolong (to called from the Island
*Wr b WM baft) proceeded on It* royage, to preaenc* of the king
aatl a lary* **awan* of Ik* pwpl* of I View, who took an affectionate
W. rftWfrtatKl*, and WU.I them with prs*tiu. Lee Boo. after
a taadwaartdtg with hto father, acoompanUd them; but a seaman,
MM* BlaiaWd. drfkjbtad with hb protMcta at th* ialaoda, totktad
a ratjalabMT btkfarf. B*fcr aailiag, Abba Thull* bad proclaimed
Engiithm*n'. Land.' and It WM formally taken pottet-
of King Oorg* III. Captain Wil-oii brought Lee
hwt h* afcrtuuMily died toon afterwards. In 1790
ly rwotvad to amd out an expedition to Pelew,
of Informing Abba Thulle of th* death of his
th* Compaoy's sou* of hit kindn*t* to th*
-Unf him with a quantity of live stock, and u-e-
Mm+mtlmjim** A.aw^h^ylh.'Paniw'Md^KTdMTour,'
!? Til!. ** a? 1 * . M<a "*. *! ** < th.ir officer.
*IBM Wldto aad W*4*^harMtt*4. who had bam with Captato Wilson,
f tn Bo* wHh
tf-WMl..*!,
UkbalhMB
t.ttre*oyl
wrte*
for a tim*. and then
" IPH'fTgood).
;.,, :,.-.
"--' .with th*
son, and
ited with
but it
the grwt oann of the
mrtignty WM rttioh>d,
WM iriren up to Abba Thulle without bloodshed. The expedition left
I'elew IB 1701, but returned to 1793. Abba Thulle had died ia the
meantime, about three mouth, after the expedition had left Pelew, or
la August, 1701. He WM luppoeed to be nearly seventy yean of age,
and WM *uoo**d*d by hii only surviving brother, who had been till
thro " clow am kooker," or, general of the troops. Abba Thulle IIM
been called the IVter the Qreat of Pelew, but it would be bard to nay
for what reason ; hli thought* ran upon war, and war only, and much
of hi* hospitality to Wilson and hia craw may be attributed to the
they gave him against hia enemies. (Keato, Account of the
ABDAS TH E < : UK AT, or, with liis full name, Shah Abbot Bahadur
ATA**, WM the fifth King of the SuS dynasty which ascended the
throne of Persia in the year 1501 of our era. During the latter part
of tbe reign of Shah Mohammed Khodabende, his father, ho ailed the
situation of governor in the province of Khorasan ; and on the death
of that prince in 1586 succeeded him in the government Kboraaan
bad just then been occupied by the Usbeki, and it WM the first object
of Shah AbbM to recover possession of it But his efforts proved for
a time ineffectual. Not being able to take Herat, the capital of Kho-
rasan, from the Unbeks, he wu obliged to content himself with leaving
a garrison at Meshhed, and even this town, considered M sacred by the
Sbiites on account of the tomb of a celebrated Mohammedan saint,
Imam Ali Ken, fell again into the bauds of the enotny. About the
same time the internal peace of Persia was interrupted by a revolt at
Itttkbar, which WM however soon repressed, and terminated with the
execution of the prime mover, Yakub Khan. The year 1590 WM
distinguished by victories in Qilun and Azerbijaii over the Turks, who
had collected a considerable force on tbe banks of the river Kur, and
threatened Persia with an invasion. The Turks lost, through this
campaign, their influence in Qilan, but retained for the present posse*'
sion of th* fortresses of Nuhavend, Tebriz, Tillic, and utmost the
whole of Aierbijan and Georgia. During this time, one of the generals
of AbbM conquered the province of Lar in the south, and the Bahrein
Islands to the Pertitn Gulf, important on account of thtir pearl
fithery.
Tbe Usbeks still remained masters of Khorasan, and, owing to their
desultory mode of carrying on their attacks, many attempts at bringing
them to a regular action had failed. At last however in the year
1597, t!iey were totally defeated by the Persian troops, near Herat, and
Khorasan WM for a long time release.) from their predatory incursions.
Two English knights, Sir Anthony, and his brother Sir Robert
Shirley, arrived about this time M private travellers in Persia. They
were honourably received by Shah AbbM, whose confidence they soon
gained to such a degree, that while Sir Robert Shirley remained to
Persia, his brother Sir Anthony was sent as envoy from the Persian
court to the Christian princes of Europe, to offer them the Shah's
friendship, chiefly with a view to tome future common undertaking
against the Turks, who were then the terror of Kurope. [SHIRLEY.]
Between Persia and Turkey hostilities were still carried on. Nuba
vend, Tebrix, and Baghdad were taken ; a Turkish army of 100,000 men
WM defeated by about half that number of Persians; Abbas recovered
Azerbijan, Shirwan, part of Georgia, and Armenia, and subsequently
also Kurdistan, Mosul, and Diarbekir; and the Turks were ever after
this victory kept in check. They formed a league with the Tartars of
Kaptchak, but the united forces of both were vanquished to a battle
fought between Sultanieh and Tebriz, 1618, the last memorable battle
that occurred during the reign of Shah Abbas. Negotiations were
then commenced between Abbas and the Sultan at Constantinople ;
but insurrections and conflict* in the frontier provinces, fomented and
secretly instigated by the Turkish government, still continued for
some time.
Shah AbbM encouraged the trade of Europeans with Persia : he
protects I the factories which the English, the French, and the Dutch
bad at Gombroon; but he looked with jealousy on the flourishing
establishment of the Portuguese on the small island of Ormuz, situated
near the entrance of the Persian Gulf, which bad been in their posaea-
sion ever since 1607, when Albuquerque occupied it, and had now
become the emporium of an extensive commerce with India, Persia,
Arabia, and Turkey. This settlement the Persians and the English
East India Company agreed to attack with joint forces. The English
furnished tbe naval, the Persians the military, forces ; and the island
WM taken on the 22nd April, 1622. For this service the English
received part of the plunder, and a grant of half the customs at the
port of Gombroon ; but their hopes of further advantages for their
commerce in these part* were frustrated, and the mission of Sir
Dodmoro Cotton from England to the Persian court, to 1627, likewise
failed in procuring them.
After a reign ofupwards of forty years, Shah AbbM died at Kaswto
to 1028. Like most of the monarch s of the Sufi dynasty, he was exces-
sively cruel, and haty in awarding capital punishment, often on very
slight grounds. All bis i ons fell victims to his suspicion and jen!
only one grandson survived him, who succeeded him on the throne as
Shah Sufi. AbbM WM a zealous Shiite, and used to make frequent
pilgrimage* to tbe tomb of Imam All Reza, at Meshhed ; but ho
abowrd great tolerance to those that profe*od other regions, and
nweUllj to Christians. His belief in astrology WM so firm that he
ren vacated the throne for a short period during which it had
ABBASIDES.
ABBASIDES.
been predicted that danger menaced the life of the Shah. He made
Isfahan the capital of the empire, and embellished that town by magni-
ficent gardens and palaces. He favoured commerce, and rendered
the communications in the interior easier by caravanserais and high-
ways.
(Malcolm, History of Pertia.)
ABBASIDES. The name of this family of sovereigns is derived
rom their ancestor, Abbas ben Abd-al-Motalleb, a paternal uncle of
the Arabian prophet Mohammed. On account of their descent from
so near a relation of the prophet, the Abbaaides had, ever since the
introduction of the Islam, been held in very high esteem among the
Arabs, and had at an early period begun to excite the jealousy of the
Ommaiade kalifs, who, after the defeat of Ali ben Abi-Taleb, the son-
in-law of Mohammed (A.D. 661), occupied the throne of the Arabian
empire. The Abbaaides had already for some time asserted their claims
to the kalifat, in preference to the reiguing family, when, hi 746, they
formed a strong party, and commenced open hostilities against the
government of the Ommaiades in the province of Khorasau. Three
years afterwards (749) the Abbaside Abul-Abbas Abdallah ben Moham-
med, surnatned Al-Saffah, or 'the bloodhedder,' was recognised as
kalif at Kufa. A battle on the banks of the river Zab, not far from
Mosul (in the same neighbourhood where, more than a thousand years
before, the battle of Gaugamela had made Alexander master of the
Persian empire), decided (Jan. 750) the ruin of the Ommaiades.
Merwan II., the last kalif of that lineage, fled before the advancing
forces of Al-Saffah from Mosul to Emesa, thence to Damascus, and
finally to Egypt, where he was overtaken and killed. So great was the
hatred of the victorious party against the vanquished royal family,
that not less than ninety Ommaiades were doomed to a cruel and igno-
minious death, while even the remains of those that were already dead
were t;iken out of their tombs, and publicly insulted. A survivor of
the fallen dynasty, Abd-alrahman, a grandson of the kalif Hesham,
escaped to Spain, the westernmost province of the Arabian empire.
There his name prqcured him a favourable reception ; he was saluted
as king, and an Ommaiade lineage continued to reign for nearly three
centuries (756-1031) over the eight Mohammedan provinces of Spain.
Al-Saffah died in 753, and was succeeded in the kalifat by his
brother Al-Mansur (753-774), who removed the seat of government
from Damascus to the new-built city of Baghdad. He was successful
in wars with the Turcomans, and with the Grecian empire in Asia
Minor ; but the internal tranquillity of hia reign was often disturbed
by insurrections in the distant provinces. In the reign of his son,
Mohdi (774-784), a Mohammedan army, under the command of the
youthful Harun-al-Rashid, penetrated the Grecian provinces of Lesser
Asia as far as the Hellespont. During the short reign of Mohdi's SOD,
Hadi (784-786), an attempt at an overthrow of the Abbaside dominion
was made at Medina by Hossein, a descendant of Ali ben Abi-Taleb.
Hadi was followed by the celebrated Hanm-al-Kashid, a grandson
of Al-Mansur, whose early military exploit* have already been alluded
to. When called to the throne, he soon displayed a love of justice and
peace, and a zeal for literature and the arts, which corresponded to his
valour as a military commander. He opened friendly communications
with Charlemagne ; the presents which he sent him (among others a
curious sort of clock, a description of which is given by Eginhard),
while they show the regard which he entertained for his great Euro-
pean contemporary, afford at the same time an illustration of the
progress which the mechanical arts must at that time have made
among the Arabs. In conducting the internal affairs of his empire,
Harun was chiefly guided by his two ministers, Yahya and Jafar, of
the ancient Persian family of the Barmekides, whose ancestors had
through many generations, previous to the introduction of the Islam,
held the hereditary office of priests at the fire-temple of Balkh. But
the high degree of popularity which the Bannckides enjoyed aroused
Harun's jealousy, and the rashness and cruelty with which he indulged
himself in his suspicion by putting to death not only the two ministers,
but almost all their relations, form an odious exception to the praise
of mildness and equity with which his memory is honoured by eastern
chronicle. The epoch of his reign has, in the remembrance of
Mohammedan nations, become the golden age of their dominion. The
wealth and the adopted luxury of the conquered nations had given to
social life that refinement, and to the court of Baghdad that splendour,
of which such lively pictures are exhibited in many of the tales of
the ' Arabian Nights." Flourishing towns sprung up in every part of
the empire; traffic by land and by sea increased with the luxury of
the wealthy classes; and Baghdad rivalled even Constantinople in
magnificence.
To wage war against the infidels was with the Arabs a matter of
religion and of faith ; as soon therefore as a conquered nation embraced
the Mohammedan belief, it was no longer regarded as siftject to the
victors, but was raised to an equality with them, and formed an
integral part of the same body. The different elements of the empire
were thus held together by the tie of a common religion, and the
laniruage of the Koran (which the Mahommedans have always deemed
it unlawful to profane by translations) became the medium of commu-
nication for the nations from the banks of the Indus to those of the
Tagus and the Ebro. The supreme pontificate and the secular sove-
reignty, the two elements whose conflict forms the prominent feature
in the history of the Christian world during the middle ages, were in
the Mohammedan empire united in the person of the kalif, who,
invested with the mantle, signet, and staff of the Prophet, and bearing
the title of Emir-al-Mumenin (that is, Commander of the Faithful),
wielded the supreme spiritual and temporal rule without any other
restriction or control besides the ordinances of the established religion.
The only formal recognition of the sovereignty of the kallfs (and sub-
sequently of all other independent Mohammedan princes) was the
prerogative of having the money of the state stamped with their name,
and of having their name also introduced into the public prayers at
the mosques. According to the ancient Persian plan, the several pro-
vinces of the empire were governed by delegates, with military and
administrative powers. But this system soon proved fatal to the
kalifat ; for the lieutenants in the distant parts of the empire would
often revolt, and aspire to independent authority. On an expedition
to Khorasan, undertaken against such a disloyal satrap, Haruu died
at Tus, in 808.
The throue was for some years contested between his two sons,
Amin and Mamun ; but in 813 Mamun came to the sole and undis-
puted possession of it. His reign (813-833) forms an important epoch
in the history of science and literature, the cultivation of which was
conspicuously patronised by that kalif. The Arabs were avowed bor-
rowers in science ; they were chiefly indebted to the Hindoos and the
Greeks; and even what they received from these nations seems often
to have exceeded their comprehension. Their claims to originality of
invention, and to the merit of having made real additions to the stock
of our knowledge, are not great ; but they are entitled to our gratitude
for having kept alive and diffused tho light of letters, and for having
preserved a sort of scientific tradition from classical antiquity, during
an age when science and literature in Europe lay buried under ignor-
ance and barbarism. Mamun founded colleges and libraries in the
principal towns of his dominions, such as Baghdad, Bassora, Kufa, and
Nishabur. Syrian physicians, and Hindoo mathematicians and astro-
nomers, lived at his court; and works on astronomy, mathematics,
metaphysics, natural philosophy, and medicine, were translated from
the Sanscrit and Greek into Arabic. Mamun took personally a parti-
cular interest in astronomy. He built observatories, had accurate
instruments constructed, improved by their means the astronomical
tables, and caused a degree of the meridian to be measured in the
sandy desert between Palmyra and Kacca oa the Euphrates. At his
command, Mohainmed-ben-Musa wrote an elementary treatise on
algebra, the earliest systematic work extant on that branch of mathe-
matics, for their knowledge of which, as well as for much of their
astronomy, the Arabs seem to be chiefly indebted to the Hindoos.
The investigation of the structure of their own language, and the
systematic development of the Mobammedaq theology and jurispru-
dence, both founded chiefly on the Koran, afforded an opportunity of
applying practically the principles of the Aristotelian philosophy.
The period of prosperity which the Arabian empire enjoyed under
Harun-al-Rasbid and Mamun was only of short duration. The chival-
rous enthusiasm with which Mohammed had inspired his nation became
soon extinguished under voluptuousness and love of enjoyment. Many
provinces in the west (Spain, Fez, and Tunis) had already shaken off
their allegiance to the kalifat, and the attachment of others in the East
was likewise doubtful. From the north the empire was threatened
by the Turks, some tribes of whom had been compelled to adopt the
Mohammedan religion. Turkish youths were soon brought as merce-
naries to Baghdad, and Motasem (833-842), the brother and successor
of Mamun, formed of them a body-guard, which, under the reign of
Vathek (842-846), Motawakkel (846-861), and Montaser (861, 862),
became to the kalifat what the pnetorian guards had been under
the Roman emperors. Mostai'n (862-866) was obliged to concede to
them the privilege of electing their own commander, and thus lost
much of his authority at home, while the provinces of his empire were
infested by invasions from the Greeks. Under his successor, Motaz
(866-868), a native of Sejestan, Yakub-al-Laith, surnamed Al-Soffar
(that is, the brazier), made himself master of Khorasan, Kerman, Persia
proper, and Khuzistan, and united these provinces into an independent
kingdom, with Nishabur for its capital, which continued in the posses-
sion of his family (the Soffarides) till 917.
The successors of Motaz were Mohtadi (868, 869), Motamed (869-
892), Motadhed (892-902), Moktafi (902-907), Moktader (907-932), and
Kahir (932-934). Under the reign of Radhi (934-940) the disorder of
the empire had reached such a height, that the kalif, in order to
restore public order and tranquillity, was obliged to call Mohammed-
ben-Rayek, the governor of Wasith, to Baghdad, and to confide to him,
with the title of Emir-al-Omara, or Commander of the Commanders,
an almost unlimited authority in the government. From this timo
the kalifat became a mere nominal dignity; all the efficient power was
in the hands of tho mighty Emirs-al-Omara. After the short reign of
Mottaki (940-943), Mostakfi (943, 944) came to the kalifat; but he was
soon dethroned by Moizzeddaula the Buide (properly Bawaihide),
who, in concert with his two brothers, had rendered himself master
of a great part of Persia and Irak. Moizzeddaula conferred the kalifat,
now limited to the mere pontifical dignity and to tho possession of tho
town of Baghdad, on Mothi Lilian (946-973), and reserved to himself
the powerful office of Emir-al-Omara, which continued hereditary in
his family during the kalifat of Tayi-lillah (973-991), and Kadir-billah
(991-1031), till the year 1056, when, in the kalifat of Kaim-b'iamr-illah
ABDALLATIF.
to UM
Natir(li7-122<!). during wboat
I^UM Tatars woWOat^KbaaiiavaJodP'nia. Dahir ooeoptod
t_ f- Ijfcj l fnjr . * tB.-M.ik. Illi innsma nr M
!* **> ^ 1 J ** *" BKJOMMfc OJi BWCTJBBBtOr, t
d PW ft ita*> A T^MfWM iwAaAsMMM to UM ftdTMot of IM
tt^ssasA t^B>4 k kal aarMt if s^slak^sMVJ* Wai a4a*B^ss^ntMi at^aft Bt iH^arl t>W tlftat
r Htjtaka. wbo took Baghdad, Md pot a> od to UM gmnuaont
ir. i.dtoKcypt.whrreSulUiiIl.l*,
him a* kabT But IM woo mat hit
ibUsk hi* right to UM throne of
tin till* of \' tu on ainHtm
ewduU, vndOT UM proUeUoo
afflhl
Emt till 1417. whs* UM Uaman Turin conquered Egypt Sultan
Bate took the bat Abbatide kalif. MotewakkeL to Constantinople,
where be kept Usa for aoaaa tiaM aa a priaonor. bl afterward, allowed
In* to ratam to Egypt, wbero he lived at Cairo till his death, to ISM.
ABBOT. CHABCBB, [Cobauern, Loan.)
ABBOT. CHARLK& (tnrrtwa, LOB&]
ABBOT. UEURQE. m EagUah prelate of UM 17th century. He
was bom to IMS. at Uuildfard, to Surrey, where hit father waa a
ker. From UM granunar-ecbool of Us native town he
lUol CoUege, Oxford, in 1578, and in 1S7 obtained his
r being elected Matter of fniversity College. After
ItaMa appointed Vica-ChaooaUor of the University.
; which he enjoyed has been attributed as much to
Uu.
Tb.
ssjMrior bitty or I
ht ad Laud that
and Anninianiam as to his
t Mk>^M|nameitM wl
BM& H ne OM / eijbl to wboa U
MM. *Hk UM nwptioB of UM EfieUtm,
w .niillil rfcihlej to UM Mtibliihn
rr 1 of theological sentiment, which,
Involving thrm eveBtoally In political hostility and In a oonteat of
ptrscsMl atabHinti, aaade them rivsla and eoemiea for life. The Master
of faiveralty Passage, bowerer, asnst have been to considerable tstssm
sr ha. sraiikassi aa well aa far hie orthodoxy, seeing that we And him
to I l an* UM |raana charged with the new translation of UM
UM whole of the New Taste-
i intrusted. In 1608 be
I of UM Earl of Dunbar,
at the. tisae UM kiag's ebief favourite. Boon after the earl w
4eapatobed I* Saaajand to order to tnmmsnci. that attempt to bring
i Hi i Mm alliintl ulniinss ulilili in jissUi
root bto of the line of Stuart. Abbot
I hiaa OB this mMoo. and gave himself to ite object with
> Ml as to secnre UM highest approbation and favour both
reh. He had in 160 obtained the deanery
, and to DeeaaUr of the earn* year he was made Bishop
In UM February-following ha was traoe-
and. in little mora than a month after
i rcnbiahop.it of Canterbury. Abbot,
his UMOMD wat of a afferent oompUxion from that of his
W LiekfcM rf Ca^nUr. l
*m4 to UM aaa of LOB&B,
BBB^^H. WBM BI'B^^J bk AB^B
ewnaea to IM
If aearetly lea inclmed to
were awl prerofaUrai of hi.
bia oondoot WM ae arUlnu-T
ea^ ne wW bad
ii|iriir to tba of bodi UM
I . >. :
UM oadeataaueal trOmal; and
wattle* to eet op iu authority a*
aod UM common kw. It U abw
MaB^awt.,t to Utoatteative^ortrtMariiisi towards
ir^er wwkteg clergy, la other reapers, he wat aotire and
i m the isrfcimtnai of UM duties of his hlffa
' B rii ft ^ =I * li ' <lo * fc - of
^BBBBI^W Vfa^HUtBBBBBI |BJ MMfT
*, ho.tiei. wben lliiiiiailiiiiiii placed him to
. o, oiai, wea enaaMtaoo* n<
^etio. to tb. rUac UiMo. of hi. oM adfman lU
*4of aa4 art jfa.riMlat M U polrtioe, M well M
M*4 a* fcr a* |ijili trooi thoee of tbat boadlot
The party to whom Abbot was opposed, employed every effort
tare thttacei&at to hit dindvantage, both with the public and
with the kin. ; and Jam**, although he very sensibly remarked that
"aa7ange4mV >* nitoarried in this sort," found it necessary to
anotot a oiinimUsini to consider the case of the archbishop, and to
pfcathsr he had not, by this act of chance medley, inca-
i| MT 'f aa Laud and bis partisans asserted, fur discharging
dntie* of his nmftt The adjudication of the commissioners was,
infer more than M irregularity had bora committed, but that
t wouldbe neosstary for the archbishop to receive the king's pardon,
dispensation before he could resume the exercise of his
Tbea* formt were accordingly gone through ; but the
fm+. nn great vexation and distress to Abbot, both from the scandal
o which H subjected him, and from the feelings with which ho natu-
rally contemplated the event of which he had been unintentionally
he oauaa. It i. said that, throughout the remainder of his life, ho
observed a monthly fast on the day of the week which had thus
rt^hv^ his band with blood ; and he also settled a pension of twenty
pounds for life on Hawkins's widow. After this he withdrew for somo
fane from bis attendance at the Council Board, and took no part in
public aftaira, Tbe following year, however, on hearing it reported
Jut the king intended to proclaim a toleration to the Papist*, he
wrote a letter to his majesty, dissuading him from that measure. He
aha, soon after this, strenuously opposed in parliament the projected
m .t*t. between the Prince of Wales and the Infanta of Spain. On
the 2nd of February, 1626, Abbot crowned Charles I. in Westminster
Abbey, Land officiating as Dean of Westminster. The new reign
confirmed the ascendancy of Laud and Buckingham, and left the
archbishop and his politics leas influence at court than ever. In these
circumstances he selected and steadily persevered in that Independent
th in which alone he was now to find either honour or safety. In
6S7, when Dr. Manwaring was brought to the bar of the House of
Lords, and sentenced to be fined, admonished, suspended, and im-
prisoned, for a sermon in which he asserted tbat " the king is not
sound to observe the laws of the realm concerning the subject's rights
and liberties, but that his royal will and command in imposing loans
and taxes, without common consent in parliament, doth oblige the
subjects' conscience upon pain of eternal damnation," Abbot, in
' landing the culprit, by order of the House, expressed in energetic
his abhorrence of so audacious a doctrine. He also refused to
another discourse of a similar description, which had been
preached at Northampton by Dr. Sibthorp, and for this he was sus-
pended from his archiepiaoopal functions, and ordered into confine-
nent in one of bis country houses. This most arbitrary and oppressive
treatment was mainly the work of bis vindictive enemy Laud, whoso
character, accordingly, the archbishop has delineated with a pen dipped
in gall, in a narrative of the affair which he drew up in his own
vindication, and which Rushworth has printed. It was found neces-
sary however, soon after, to restore him to favour, and ho received
ais summons as usual to the parliament, which assembled in March,
1628. During the rest of his life ho continued the same course of
opposition to the arbitrary and oppressive measures of the court.
He died at bis palace of Croydon, on Sunday, the 4th of August, 1 C33,
and was buried in Trinity Church, Ouildford, where a costly monu-
ment waa erected to his memory. He was the founder of a well-
endowed hospital, which still exists in that town ; and other instances
art recorded of his charity and munificence.
Archbishop Abbot U the author of several literary productions,
among which are an ' Exposition on the Prophet Jonah,' published
in 1600, and 'A Brief Description of the whole World," published
i. ;.
Tke
. !5*r'i M -* **% *. tonoW br an cos
"fat took a%Ml advantage. On the 24th of
JJy. ins, UM ar^hia. ., ^ J^sjeJ > nynsjnt In Lord Zonch't
; l V M *5'r if *> * ***"* from hu
-TUM pM^etcws. F*t, Hawktaa, to UM Bon.
left am, and n.iin* ii fine nWaoWfa lees than au
Hnlanmca ; Wood, Alhaue Oxoniciutt, by Bliss; Fuller,
Eoyiitk H'orUia; Bayla, Dictumaairt Critique; Rushworth, CW-
Ufiion ; Southey, Book o/ (Ac <7ArcA.)
ABUALLATIK, or, with hi. full name, Momtf&cddin Abu Mokam-
td AUattf bt )/ bt* Mokammtd ben AU ben Abi Said, a
distinguished Arabic writer, whose name has became familiar to us
chieBy through an excellent description of Egypt, of which ho is the
author. The Baron 8ilve.tr. da Sacy has appended to hU French
> of this tnatiac, a notice of the life of Abdallatif, taken
jrom UM bibliographical work of Ebn-Abi-Osaibia, who knew A
latif personally, and to a gnat extent quotes an account of his lifo
written by himself.
We laarn from this notice that Abdallatif was born at Baghdad in
7 (A.0. 1161). From his earliest years he received a lettered
oeation. Agreeably to the prevailing fashion of his age and country,
wniob considered a thorough familiarity with the copious and classical
Arabic Unman as the indispensable groundwork for every liberal
eownt, h waa Ud to commit to memory the Koran, the much-
Makamat, r novels of Hariri, and other compositions dis-
for tlie purity and elegance of their diction, besides Koverul
LS.i^EiL l T. Un i!L on i' ty i a l r * r inm r - NMt * the *
adiaa, be bad already bestowed some attention on
Mulman jurisprudence, when the arrival at Baghdad of Ebn-al-
i, a naturalist from the western provinces of the Arabian empire,
is curiosity towards natural philosophy and alchemy, of
the illusory nature of which Utter pur.uit he seems not till late, and
neb watte of time and labour, to have convinced hit.
ABD-EL-KADER.
ABD-EL-KADER.
10
Damascus, the residence of Saladin, had about this time, through
the liberality of that celebrated sultan, become a rallying point for
learned men from all parts of the Mohammedan dominions. It is
here that we find Abdallatif commencing his literary career by the
publication of several works, mostly on Arabic philology. But the
celebrity of several scholars then residing in Egypt, among others the
Rabbi Moses Maimonides, drew him to that country to seek their
personal acquaintance. A letter from Fadhel, the vizir of S-iladin,
introduced him at Cairo, and he was delivering lectures there while
Saladin was engaged with the crusaders at Acca (St. Jean d'Acre).
Soon, however, the news of Saladin's truce with the Franks (1192)
induced Abdallatif to return to Syria, and he obtained from Saladin
a lucrative appointment at the principal,mosque of Damascus. After
the death of Saladin, which took place in the next year, we find
Abdallatif going back to Cairo, where he lectured on medicine and
other sciences, supported for a time by Al-Aziz, the son and successor
of Saladin. It was during this residence at Cairo that Abdallatif
wrote his work on Egypt. But the troubles of which Egypt now
became the scene, induced Abdallatif to retire to Syria, and subse-
quently to Asia Minor, where he seems to have lived for a long time
quietly at the court of a petty prince, Alaeddin Daud, of Arzenjan.
Aftr the death of that prince (1227) he went to Aleppo, to lecture
there partly on Arabic grammar, and partly on medicine and on the
traditions, an important branch of Mohammedan theology and juris-
prudence. Four years after this, Abdallatif set out on a pilgrimage
to Mecca, and took Ms route through Baghdad, to present some of his
works to the then reigning kalif Mostanser, when he died there
in 1231.
Ebn-Abi-Osaibia has given a list of the works composed by Abdal-
latif, which, in the Arabic appendix to Baron do Sacy's translation,
fills three closely-printed quarto pages. The description of Egypt,
through which his name has become so familiar to all friends of
antiquarian research in Europe, and in which he displays an accuracy
of inquiry, and an unpretending simplicity of description almost
approaching to the character of Herodotus, is dedicated to the kalif
Nasir-ledin-illah. It is divided into two books : the first treats, in
six chapters, on Egypt generally, on its plants, its animal*, its ancient
monument)), peculiarities in the structure of Egyptian boats or vessels,
and on the kind of food used by the inhabitants ; the second book
gives an account of the Nile, the causes of its rise, &c., and concludes
with a history of Egypt during the dreadful famines of the years
1200 and 1201.
The only manuscript copy of this work, of the existence of which
we are aware, is preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. From
this manuscript the Arabic text was edited for the first time at Tubin-
gen, in 1787, by Paulus, and again, with a Latin translation, by Pro-
fessor White, at Oxford, 1800, 4to. The French translation published
by Biiron de Sacy, under the title 'Relation de 1'Egypte,' &c. (Paris,
1810, 4to), besides its greater fidelity, has through the copious notes
added to it become one of the most important works that the scholar
can consult on the geography, the history, or the antiquities of
Egypt.
ABD-EL-KADER (Sidi-d-Hadji-Ouled-Mahiddin), formerly Emir
and Bey of Mascara, and celebrated for his protracted resistance to
the French arms in Algiers, was born in the early part of 1807, in the
neighbourhood of Mascara, in what is now known as the province of
Oran. [AU;KIUE, L', in OEOGIIAPHICAL DIVISION of Exo. CYC. voL i.
col. 206.] He was the third son of a marabout, of the Arab tribe of
Hashem, named Sidi-el-Hadji-Mahiddin, who had acquired great influ-
ence on account of his sanctity as well as his rank. Over the early
days of Abd-el-Kader has been thrown something of the romantic
colouring which would seem of right to belong to an Oriental hero,
and one who has figured so conspicuously in the annals of France.
He had in infancy accompanied his father in a pilgrimage to the birth-
place of the prophet. From his boyhood he had been carefully
trained in both the secular and sacred learning of his race. By open-
ing manhood he had obtained the reputation of a scholar well instructed
in the history and the literature of Arabia ; and he had crowned his
study of the Koran and its commentators by a second pilgrimage, in
1828, to Mrcca, and received in consequence the title of Hadji, or
saint. At the same time, so far from neglecting equestrian and mili-
tary exercises, though of small stature and little physical strength, he
had rendered himself remarkable even in those arts in which all his
countrymen excel the management of the horse, the lance, and the
yataghan.
When the French began seriously to push their conquests into the
interior of Algiers, Abd-el-Kader was living in retirement with his
wife and two children, distinguished by the austerity of his manners
and his strict olnervance of all the precepts of the Koran. But when
the severe measures of the Duke of Rovigo caused a general rising of
the native tribes, he joined his countrymen in arms. The father of
Abd-el-Kader had for some time been exerting all his influence to
effect a union of the tribes ; urging them to make a great and com-
bined effort to drive the- French out of the country, as then, from the
humiliated condition to which the Turks had been reduced, the Arab
might again with little trouble become the ruler of the land. The
confederation of the tribes was formed, and the chiefs besought
Mahiddin to take the direct inn of it. He refused however, ploading
that his advanced age unfitted him to act as a military leader at such
a juncture ; but he directed them to his sou as one designated by
nature and education for the purpose : and he repeated to them
various omens which had marked his birth and childhood, and related
how during the pilgrimage to Mecca an aged fakir had solemnly
announced to him that he should become Sultan of the Arabs. The
tribes acquiesced, and Abd-el-Kader was proclaimed Emir at Mascara.
Accompanied by his father he at once begau to preach a Holy War,
and to call on the faithful to assist in the expulsion of the infidels.
By the spring of 1832 Abd-el-Kader found himself at the head of
10,000 warriors. His first blow was struck in May of that year
against Oran, or Warran. The assault was several times repeated with
great impetuosity during three successive days, but was each time
repelled with heavy loss to the Arabs. Abd-el-Kader though un-
successful as far as the capture of Oran was concerned, acquired great
reputation by his personal skill and daring, and the siege is said to
have done much towards accustoming the Arabs to face artillery,
from which they had previously shrunk. Before making another
determined effort to dislodge the invaders, he resolved to extend the
basis of his power, by persuading or compelling the tribes of the
interior to acknowledge his supremacy ; and after some opposition ho
appears to have succeeded with both Kabyles and Arab?. The French
on their part were chiefly anxious to secure the cities and strong-
holds along the coast, and left the Emir to take his own course in tho
interior. So strong indeed was the desire of the French governor of
Oran, General Desmichels, to obtain a respite from any further attack
while carrying out this purpose, that he entered into a treaty (Febru-
ary 26, 1834,) with Abd-el-Kndcr, by which he agreed, on his acknow-
ledging the French supremacy, to recognise him as Emir of Mascara,
including the sovereignty of Oran, except such portions of the coast
as were in the possession of the French. Along with the sovereignty
was also ceded to him the monopoly of the commerce with the interior.
This treaty was disapproved in Paris, but to Abd-el-Kader it was of
great advantage, from the vast accession of consequence he derived in
the eyes of the natives from this formal recognition of his sovereignty
by the French authorities. But it also aroused jealousy and fear
among the chiefs, and several of them refused to submit to his preten-
sions. By one of these, Mustapha-Ben-Ismail, chief of the Douaires,
he was surprised in a night attack, and his forces routed ; the Emir
himself only escaping with extreme difficulty. Other chiefs on
receiving news of this defeat also rose against him, but he quickly
collected a considerable body of troops, and General Desmichels having
supplied him with muskets and powder, he soon forced them to
succumb.
It has been disputed whether the French or Arab general first broke
the terms of the treaty. Probably each regarded it as nothing more
than a convenient armistice, to be kept only as long as suited his
purpose. Certain it is, that Abd-el-Kader having availed himself to
the utmost of the opportunity to secure his influence over the tribes,
and to put his army into an efficient state including the training for
the first time among Arabs of a regular infantry corps, and an artillery
service crossed the ShelUf and entered Medayah in triumph, announc-
ing that he was about to expel the French. General Tivzel who had
succeeded Desmichels, at once took the field agaiust him. The armies
met on the banks of the Sig. That of the Emir was much the more
numerous ; but the superior discipline of the French amply com-
pensated for the disparity of numbers, and Abd-el-Kader, after a
resistance which extorted the admiration of his enemies, was compelled
to fall back. Trezel was however in no condition to pursue his
success. He had lost 240 men ; and the army of the Emir though
defeated, was still much the larger and well kept together. Trczel
decided to retreat towards Arzew ; and the Emir followed him. At
the Pass of Makta, where Trczel, cumbered with wounded and
baggage, was at a manifest disadvantage, the Emir fell upon him in
force (June 28, 1835), and it was only by the most desperate exertions,
and with a loss of 500 men, that the French general was able to
extricrte a portion of his army. This, the first serious check which
the French had suffered in Africa, produced the greatest excitement
among the native population. In Paris, on the other hand, it caused
much irritation, and Marshal Claueel was despatched with imperative
orders to inflict a striking punishment on Abd-el-Kader. On arriving
in Algiers the Marshal appointed a Bey of Oran, with a view to weaken
the authority of the Emir by raising up a native rival. Clausel then
marched with a considerable force upon Mascara ; but the Emir
caused the inhabitants to quit the city, and when Clausel entered it,
December 6, 1835, he found little more than bare walls. Unable to
hold the city, Clausel completed the work of ruin by setting it on
fire. Abd-el-Kader now made Tremecen, or Tlemsen, on the borders
of Morocco, his head-quarters; but on the approach of Clausel he was
forced to evacuate it, and retreat still farther into the interior.
Clausel continued his pursuit, and the Emir was again compelled to
break up his camp. Soon after a large auxiliary force, including
several thousand horsemen, who had come from Marocco to unite with
the Emir in the Holy War, was surprised and defeated ; and Clausel
returned to Algiers, boasting in his bulletins that he had effectually
destroyed the power of the redoubtable Emir. But Abd-el-Kader had
continued to follow at a distance the movements of tlie French, and
he now showed that he was still formidable, by attacking and
ABD-EL-KADER.
/ is
Ml with
UM Imfe to <** ettker by treat* er by ferea.
.eiftc PrtoreV, beA they w-.^ieeded ; ad
advenary wee kvyiaf
Wprorid^a Ur,.
befer* kirn.
Ml* eeJ mul**. e*d M abM epfJy of
Ik* (MVMaa of TU*B**a, *! hi. convoy s
ad Abd-el KAder Hill
lie* far a. uwpae. of
eeMe.1 Ik* Kmir reeolved to
i. ike op*. Md; MM! Uwy.oe their pert, had found
- to the Be> of C~eta.Ua*, wham from
In order to
ceo**. General
to Abd-el Kader for
took place oo UM bank* of
u Ta^a.U.^arW^ilijr*. a treaty was drawngp with
II fnnTj. Md loly <*gd aod sealed. May 30, 1M7, by which
"- - feds* emed to ackBoejIedfe UM eovereJcety of France. UK) to
tnbate of certain qtMAtitv of corn and cettl*; and, on UM
Wd. U we* naimiJ in hi. UUe of Kmir. and received
OK .b.1. of Oi ead Tteerf. ad e iwrtn of Algi-ra, except
MI tew**. teeMme; Om. Musuganoim, Anew, and MOM other*
we. UM OHM, kkk were to raoain in UM bends of UM French.
Abdei liedr tnt ear*, oo Ufa* releaeed from UM neoeeiity of
milk MM UM irnnitimji of UM Knock ray, we to receive UM
*** W UM tribe* throughout UM country iMJpifcl to him.
OMMteJIy UMy raedUy ga their allegiance, but agaiaet torn. he
faud M urinary to reeort to svr. mamm-ii ; end on. tribe, that
of OeJed-Utoem. be WM akirmj by DM eesmiei with having mu-
VaUee, UM Fraevck governor-general. took umbrage
Ian; Md U ocW to oraraw* UM Emir, and to
' witk rmte., toblirfnd ounp of MOO
of Kh^mH IB OOOMOOMMM of UM ctnMur
i of UM rtfctl. wko i*iriil kirn with bracb of UM
^^Mt BM A^^Mll Ok I'ag-JB l*AAV*Bh -j n |, ^^ ^ ^k
W^H ^t wj i w owjnBB 1MB pnvJBw wo
! UM ^M, Md UMtted to kMoutt* modiAwtioD
r Pfliaial to tb Uwty.
t U Mii^H. *bd l-Kkr ddr<*Md himttlf to th.
i *f orpMMB ijlia of <lb>riHn lot kit torritory. H.
f bit flomnMrt, photaf ii oadw lulif ;
fate T dlTMkMM. iB Mob Of Whkk k*
. Md UMM diriMoo. IM tf^a brok* on
of whiob b pUoftl uixUr u> Hbir. witk
od; Uuw proTtding M far *
UM ctrawUi of kk ubjoU. UK!
OB. At UM MOM tiOM b* I. *ud
of igri-
two yM. TlM Fraaah lud
oftkBBirtoMrnttlM
W cwaia f fafteMM, Md to otawd kk
o dtr^Uy ^objoot to kkv WUk . TMW. m
r. !<! FNMk vny. witk UM Dk. of DrtoMM at iU
^k^kfCa^Mi tek> 1^1 lal^*^^ *u4 *-- ^Mt^^h*. i 1 ^_l.
*^ ^^ ^^ ! laiOTvr. MM UM pnao noHToa wita
i iwjiiiny UM bilrin f tBtiawj BMM. Tki* wu followi
d-oJlory
r Urg* ipcnditure of men and moooy, and lou.l
,. wr raiwd in France against the inrtlidrnt manner iu which
it wa r-nt-"*^ 1 Tne goTcrntneut annuunoed that it bad detarmined
M IOOMT to baar with Abd-al-Kader, and iu Dooamber 1840 it replaced
Uarabal Vallaa by Ooxral Bugeaud. From thii time the war wai
oarrkd on with th* nunort rljoiir. A Tery large body of troop, wat
ant from Fraaoa, and a half-indigwiou. oorpa, the Zouavea, waa rawed
witk a TMW to check the actiT. irragular Arab, by aoldiens poawaalng
all their pCT|lir Tiracity and rapidity of motion, but more amenlili-
cally traiood. Buf*aud made it hi. object in the campaign of 1841 to
agora la aawamion aa many a. poaaible of the atrongaolda of the
Kn.(, (0' detach from him by promiare and threat, the native tribea,
and wb*r*Tr any nfuacd their adhealon to France, to destroy their
crop, and ravage their village*. It waa a mercileaa, but it waa an
-fZ^..i OOUTM. By the end of the year the general had overrun a
eooaktorabU portion of the Kmir'. torritory, and wherever the French
arm* had penetrated, th* country had become an ally or a waato. In
th* ipaooh to the Chamber*, February 1842, it waa formally announced
tfr.t Algier* waa annexed to the French crown; and from this time
UM Emir wa. treated aa a rebel
Ilia condition aeoaad indeed to hare become utterly deaperate. Tho
French occupied all hi. ciUoa, moat of hi. fortreeaea, and four-nfth. of
meet UM French army in a regular encounter, he couatautly haraaaed
them by rapid deaoenta upon outpotta, drtachmenU, and convoy.,
and by dettrnctive inroad, upon the countries of the friendly tribes;
while the rapidity and unexpectodneei of hi. movement, baffled alike
precaution and punuit But the linea were being drawn atoadily
more and more cloaely about Him, Hia camp of reserve waa already
on the edge of th* desert; and the French had now an army of
100,000 man accumulated in the country, beaidea a large body of
auziliariea. The razzia, of the French continually destroyed his
nwource* ; rnora than once all hi* preaence of mind and daring, and
the devotion of hi* followers, had scarcely auffioed to prevent him from
falling into the hand, of his opponent*. On one occasion, in May
1843, the Duke of Orleans, at the head of a body of cavalry, ha<i
succeeded, by a brilliant imitation of the Emir', tactic., iu .urprUiug
his .mala, or camp, during the absence of the great body of hi. Arabs.
Abd-el-Kader, aa usual, escaped ; but with the loss of almost
thing. 11 is Arab* and Kabylea however quickly rallied around him, and
be contrived to inflict in oumeruu. de.ultory attack, heavy blows upon
the French, who indeed during this summer lost an unusual number
of offican. But be waa now unable to bring more thau a small force
into the field at any one time; and a defeat which ho .uifered at
Oued-tlalah, and in which his most-trusted lieutenant, Kalif bcu-
Allah, the One-Eyed, was killed, completed hi* ruin, though it did not
put an end to hi. effort*.
Forced to take refuge within the frontier of Morocco, he aet about
preaching than a new outbreak of hostilities against the infidela. The
emperor. If he did not directly sanction, did not oppose hu proceed-
ings ; aad several member, of the court entered with ardour into his
views. An army was soon raised; but th* French declared war
against Marocoo, bombarded several of it* coast town., defeated iU
army at Way, and before the cloae of 1844 had compelled the emperor
to agree to use hi. beat effort* to prevent Abd-l-Kader from again
annoying UM French in Algiers. Abd-el-Kader once uior* took to th*
open country. U* continued for above two yean longer to evade the
pursuit of the French ; but every effort to make head against hi. foe*
proved unavailing. The Emperor of Marocoo wa* at last compelled
by Uio French to put in motion an army against him, and seized hi.
kalif, ilou Uamedt, whom he bad sent to endeavour to obtain terms.
Abd-el-Kader in repriaal made a night attack (November 11, 1847)
upon the Itooriah camp, which by a daring stratagem he succeeded
in throwing into confuaion. Hut though be achieved a momentary
"****> the ma., of troop* waa too gnat for him to produce a perma-
nent impreatiao. A body of native* who attempted to prevent hi*
retreat be had little difficulty in defeating ; but when he found the
Freooh cavalry had got between him and the desert, he acknowledged
that, cloaely pressed a. be wa. on every other aide, it would be uselaei
to ofbr further resistance, and tent meaiengers to General Latnoriciere,
f> Frew* eommander, offering to urreuder on condition of being
sent to Alexandria or St. Jean-d' Acre. Lamoriciore acceded to the
torn*; and oo UM 23rd of December AUUl-Kader yielded himself
with hi* family into the hand* of th* general.
The Due d'Aumale, governor-general of Algiera, in the despatch
in which be announced to Uie French government the .urrender of
UM Kmir aad hi. arrival at Algier*, aaya, - I have ratified the promiae
given by Oeoeral Umoriciere, and 1 firmly tnut the government of
hi* aajeety will add it* aanction. I announced to the Emir that ho
moat embark UM next day forOran with hi* family: he submitted,
but Dei without emotion and repugnanoo-it i. th. last drop in the
lie.," Mot quit, the laat drop. The French government refused
to ratify UM engagement, and the Emir wa* transferred, with hi.
famUy.*, prUoner to Fort Lamalgue, at Toulon. After the revolution
148, Abd-cl-Kader presented a formal requUition to
UM republican government for the performance of the engagement
13
ABDU-L-MEJID.
ABDU-L-MEJID.
11
upon which he had surrendered. His request was not acceded to,
but he was removed to a healthier prison, first at Pau and then at
Amboise, and his confinement was rendered much less irksome.
When Louis Napoleon was elected president, Abd-el-Kader renewed
his claim, and though he was not immediately successful, he received
the most marked attention, and became a prisoner in little more than
name. Finally, in October 1852, Napoleon granted him his freedom,
on condition that he gave a solemn promise not to return to Algiers
or to conspire against the French power in Africa ; and Brussa in
Asia Minor was named as his future residence. For that place he
embarked in the beginning of 1853, and there he continued to reside
until June 1855, when, in consequence of the destruction of that city
by au earthquake, he received permission from the French govern-
ment to remove to Constantinople. In the autumn of 1855 he paid
a short visit to Paris to view the Exposition, and received from the
Emperor a distinguished reception. He is said to have resigned him-
self to his fate with true eastern calmness, but his health has been
permanently broken by his reverses and his imprisonment.
Abd-el-Kader is beyond question a man of remarkable ability and
force of character. He has displayed many of the evidences of great
military genius, self-reliance, activity, indomitable energy, marvellous
resources in defeat as well as in victory, power of wielding the wills
of others and of controlling his own ; and he seemed to possess much
of that administrative ability which men of superior military power
often exhibit But he had a rude and uncivilised people to govern
and to employ, and he had the first and most highly trained military
power in Europe to contend with ; and all her greatest commanders
were in succession sent against him, and all her resources called into
exercise, and he failed where success was hardly conceivable. But
for fifteen years he maintained this unequal struggle ; he has borne
his reverses manfully, and his old opponents are foremost in render-
ing homage to his great ability, and in testifying to his honourable
fulfilment of his share of the final engagement.
ABDL r -L-MEJID, reigning Sultan of Turkey, was born April 23,
1323, and was the eldest son of Mahmud II., whom he succeeded on
the 1st of July, 1839. As is customary with the sons of the sultan,
the early years of Abdu-1-Mejid were spent in the harem. Hia father
is said to have desired that he should receive a European education,
but the repugnance of the Mohammedan priests to such an innovation
compelled him to give way. The education of Abdu-1-Mejid has
therefore been necessarily very imperfect; but he has done what he
could to make up for his deficiencies by surrouuding himself with
men of attainments, and seeking to acquire the information which he
believes himself to need.
Abdu 1-Mejid ascended the throne at a time when the affairs of
Turkey were in a very threatening condition. The reforms of his
father had hardly become sufficiently consolidated to withstand the
strong tide of fanaticism which was setting in against them. The
battle of Nezib, June 24, 1839, which had resulted in the total defeat
of the Turkish army, by that of the Pasha of Egypt, had been
followed within a week by the death of the Sultan, whose determined
character and unflinching will had served hitherto to keep in awe the
opponents of the new order of things ; and these were now, it was
believed, prepared to make common causa with Mehemet Ali, whom
they, in common with the great bulk of the Mohammedan race,
remarried as the true representative and champion of the ancient faith.
The rood to Constantinople was open to the Egyptian army; the
inhabitants were in a disturbed state ; and the new Sultan, a lad of
sixteen, wan scarcely seated on his throne when the Turkish fleet, by
an unparalleled act of treachery on the part of its commander, was
placed in the hands of the enemy. Fortunately the Pasha refrained
from striking the blow which the weakness of the Sultan seemed to
invite ; and the leading European powers stepped in to offer their
mediation, which Abdu-1-Mejid at onco accepted. Mehemet Ali
refused the terms proffered, and a treaty was signed in London, July
15, 1840, in accordance with which an Anglo- Austrian fleet bom-
barded several of the fortified towns on the coast of Syria, and com-
pelled Mehemet Ali to submit. The ancient dynasty was saved, and
the arrangement then made between the Sultan and the Pasha has
not again been disturbed.
The dangers which threatened the young Sultan from domestic
treason, though fomented, as was thought, by Russian agents, were
as effectually averted. On his death-bed Mahmud had sent for his son,
and earnestly entreated him to pursue the course of reform which he
had commenced. The adherents of the old system, on the other
hand, reckoned confidently on being able, under Mahmud's feeble
successor, to uproot all which the late Sultan had so long laboured
to effect An end was soon put to nil suspense. A hatti-aheriff,
solemnly published at Gulhand on the 3rd of November 1839, gave
to the civil reforms of Mahmud a definite and formal shape, and added
somewhat to them. This measure guaranteed to all the subjects of
the Sultan, without regard to rank or religion, security for person and
property ; and promised to introduce a regular and impartial system
of taxation, public administration of justice, the right of free trans-
.11 of property, and the removal of many of the hardships of
tlie conncnption, as well as other improvements. Convinced that
there w.ia to be no recession from the path of reform, bat rather a
great advance, the more determined zealots organised a powerful con-
spiracy with the view to effect an entire revolution; and by the aid
of the priests set about exciting the populace by assurances that the
concessions to the unbelievers were an assault upon the true faith.
But the conspiracy was detected, several of the leaders were put to
death, and tranquillity was gradually restored. In two or three years
Abdu-1-Mejid had outlived the suspicion with which he had at first
been regarded, and become, as he has since remained, exceedingly
popular with all classes of his subjects. Partial revolts occurred in
1840 and subsequent years in ISyria, Bosnia, and Albania ; but they
were suppressed without much difficulty, and in their suppression it
was that Omar Pasha first displayed his remarkable military skill.
The tanzimat, as the system of reform is called, has been carried out
in little more than name beyond the immediate circle of the capital ;
but Abdu-1-Mejid has always evinced a strong desire to improve the
condition of hia subjects, though the general spread of rapacity and
corruption among the ruling classes, and the progress of decay
throughout the kingdom, have almost rendered it a hopeless task.
Among the objects on which the attention of the Sultan is said to
have been most fixed, is that of the extension of education in Turkey.
In 1846 he established a council of education, and he at that time,
or subsequently, founded a university, extended the system of primary
schools, and established military, medical, and agricultural colleges.
The privileges conceded to Christians by the tanzimat, the Sultan has
always firmly defended ; and when opportunity served he has shown
his readiness to extend them. The Earl of Shaftesbury, speaking in
the House of Lords, March 10, 1854, as the representative of several
of the leading Protestant religious societies, bore warm testimony to
the liberality with which Protestants have been, during the present
Sultan's reign, on all occasions treated by the Sublime Porte ; and in
the almost continual disputes between the Latin and Greek churches,
the Sultan appears to have endeavoured to act strictly as a mediator,
or arbitrator, aiming to satisfy the wishes of each party as far as was
compatible with the demands of the other. Since the commencement
of the war with Russia the Porte has directed that the evidence of
Christians shall be received in courts of justice, and issued other
orders, which altogether have gone as far as the prejudices of his
Moslem subjects would at present allow in the path of tolerance, and
much farther than many Christian states have advanced. The army
reforms and other changes, some of which, unquestionably, in the
present state of the country, have been of very doubtful advantage,
have ulso been steadily persevered in.
We have not dwelt on the great historic events which have occurred
during the reign of Abdu-1-Mejid, they having been already fully
noticed under TCBKEY, in the GEOGRAPHICAL Division of the
ENGLISH CYCLOPEDIA, voL iv., cols. 927-8. Here it may be enough
to mention, that after having continually advanced step by step
towards reducing Turkey to the position of a dependent state, the
Emperor Nicholas of Russia availed himself, in the early part of 1853,
of a difference respecting the guardianship of the 'Holy Places' to
claim the protectorate over the Greek Christians in Turkey; and
when this was refused by the Porte, though with every effort at con-
ciliation compatible with the retention of sovereignty, the Russian
troops were at once sent to occupy the principalities of Moldavia and
Wallachia as a ' material guarantee.' War was declared by the Porte
on the 5th of October, 1853, with the full accord of the governments
of England and France, whose assistance had been formally invoked.
In November following the Turkish fleet in the Black Sea waa attacked
off Sinope by au overwhelmingly superior Russian fleet and totally
destroyed. Before Silistria, however, at Giurgevo, and elsewhere, the
Russian army was on several occasions defeated by the Turks. In
March 1854, England and France, in order to "support the sovereign
rights of the Sultan," declared war against Russia, and soon after
despatched armies to the assistance of the Porte. On the 14th of
September, 1854, an Anglo-French army landed in the Crimea, and,
after winning the battle of the Alma on the 20th, proceeded to invest
Sebastopol on the 26th. The army, strengthened by very large rein-
forcemeLta from France and England, by a Turkish army, and by a
Sardinian contingent (that power having joined the alliance in the
early part of 1855), has continued the siege up to the end of 1855 ;
and during this time has defeated the Russians in every engagement
in the open field, and, in September 1855, succeeded in compelling
them to evacuate the southern side of Sebastopol, thereby inflicting
on them an enormous loss of men and property. The successes of the
Anglo-French fleets in the Black Sea, the Sea of Azof, and the Baltic
call only for a reference. In Asia, the Turkish army met, during the
early part of the campaign, with several serious reverses, and endured
much suffering, chiefly, as is believed, through the incompetency and
peculation of the Turkish officers. Subsequently, chiefly by the skill
and energy of an English officer, General Williams, the Turkish garri-
son of Kara, about 12,000 strong, notwithstanding the most terrible
privations, succeeded during several months in sustaining a close siege
by a Russian army of 35,000 men ; and repulsed, in the most brilliant
manner, a grand assault made by it, causing a loss to the Russians of
more than 6000 killed. Somewhat later, Omar Pasha defeated a strong
Russian force which opposed his progress towards the interior. But
the garrison of Kars were compelled by famine to surrender in Novem-
ber, 1855.
However great may be the effect of this war on the future destiny
ABEL, NIELS 1IKNK1K.
MlMbofiU<
r of ih. Sulun. Whoa ho appealed to
i and England, and they embarked in a war of
_ Jtende, to miimemert. M a necessary cons*-
Wtolnotr hand*; but it may b* hoped, that when it
i to a lletKnry ooooUston. an important result of
I U to OMBM to UM tells* what UM Wootern Power* declared
to hoabadms oh}*** of their tasstawoa-hb rlffate as a ""fen
wiUJn hb own tamwry; due security being token for th* eaUUUh-
msn* of UMM *Hal nfhts which hav* boen prombed to all classes of
.ft SBVlBBBBBBB^Sst.
AWel Mejid b dosoribod M somewhat above UM middle height;
lender early bun*, bat now Inclining to oorpuleooe ; slightly
b (aid to be oalm and mild, with
oly. Tho Earl of CarUaU (' Diary in
fit* and One* Waters.' n. *) peaking of an interview with him
. i IU1. *y, " Th l|ee<jn his aspect conveys is of a man gentle,
tins, ft i>iK onstmng. doomed ; no energy of purpose gleamed
MUMtMtoftoMe; DO augnry of victory sat on that still brow."
Bnt tUs nbfi&ty of bearing at an interview, is th* first leason in
lUsjaoMi whidh UM MMS; Twk ha. to lean, and through life he is
lwy osnfeJ to n ifililn it; to exhibition UMrafor* at UM formal
miBtin of ilbHnMbhed English nobleman, whan thora was
noUung to oat. peesion of enykind, b otrtainly no evidence of
eoeosof Mrpo**. U would appear however, from what U said
MM who have bad opportonitie. of fairly estimating his character,
UM ftsJtoa b of enhewteelly mOd dbpo^ticoTiind prone to leave
iMHiaalof oJUrs to hb minister, and the relative, who sur-
tf and deoisfen of psvpena. Tho refusal to surrender the Hun-
end Poobh rWbfMs. after th. Hongarian revolution of 1848, U
. 1 to havohoM UM fir, anal act of Abdu-l-Mejid ; and he
to UM imporioos demand* of Kuatia and
rL^PalsMntasvthonfaro^nminUter,
of UM Salun'. resolution by moving UM Bnglwh
, and thu. etttkd the dispute During the
I in thai nfamJ.
oontiBMsw* of UM nrssant war. to trying to the resources of his
Msyl m k UM SBndo> of UM SoJtan has bera invariably firm, frank,
*Jha.onTh>s ahto towards hb nabjoaU and UM alliec
ABEL, tho aoond aon of Adam. Hb bbtory b contained in the
pMtthonasferof OOMSM, whor* wo ar. informed, that, ho being a
U>f*r of tkftf, whfl* Cain was UUer of UM ground, the two
nthiH of r*d snorUea* tototbsr to UM Lord ; the fonaor bringing
n**t of UM oomd for that pmrnoos, and the latter of the dr*t-
hbtock. Tho o&rbic of Abtl aloo* was accepted
f Ik* frvit of UM
; and the
of UM sufleriog and glory of the
of UM World. Tbb nrisHbaos of faith pervaded his life,
OwhtoBMd Lord (lUiL. xti.l 15) rlubpstes him -righteous Abet
U wo are told (I John, tti IS) that Cain aUw hb brother * t
hb brother's righucus.-
own woras were evfl. and hb brother'
LBBL, CHARLES KSEDEWCK. a
natire of Germany, and _
ba*Ua Beetu WM neh dbUoguisbed as a eompW and
h UM mtddb and towards UM dose of the lastoentury.
of rated, at Dread*; hot hb teloots Uing very "inadequauiy
''I*'*. 1<tod Us* service in 174*. with only throTdonar. in
h*. nnslMt, and reacn*d Enclaad UM following year, whore he soon
M wah n , .,; tUdid not end in empty pnbe. When
UM OOMI of Oeolf* III. bed her estahlbhnMot fixed, Abel was
iMsfaHl ehombsr **Um on h, at salary of SOOt per annum;
Aortly after be unitej with 1. ChrisUao Bath In formmg a weekl/
continue.! to be highly
chief instrument was the
itrings, now fallen into
auditor, which scarcely
lowed instruments, and
y * kb dagio*. or slow movement*. " His com-
heartntb* concert, whioh for many years i
ill Mil 1 1 end hUrally soMwrtei. HU chi
*l da samU. a small vlolonoaUo with sis
Vssm VithU^heprodaeedaneftVotoohb
W MsWsW ssMM IMWA dKts* IA utkl**A nn W
^"f ^^*^ nwn^nw e^nwii Wfej t*9 BsUsTTV QQ D"
vwwveowe i UJUKIV eUUB. *U 1U
itwiitt.z'ttj' "S^w*" mot p*"' > Wned
tfcw. the rbheet harmony, and the most elegant and polished
iffil" 1 " 1 wilh _* >. taste, and science, that
pnrioctioa or Dtrformanoe with which iW then
TT^JlH! 1 ^* BMm l P rf ati n -" ('Hist of
f !?* ""^ kowOTer of the present day, who has
~* ** kmd by Haydn, Mosmrt, Beethoven Chi-
Dweev_ Cx&x^^f AJ* f i. t i. - n
^" *! irean in BUS memory, will not deny the
" btter productions. Abel-judging him by
-to Uun imagination ; more knowledge
anner of performance, than vigour of
Homey admits tCt "hi. later productions,
Us
of
compared with those of younger compoaen, appeared aomewh.it Ian*
guid and monotonoua," But we suspect the fact to be, that they wero
more accurately estimated when compared with the productions of a
more advanced age. Abel was intemperate in the use of fermented
liquor*, and brought his life to a hasty oloae in the year 17S7.
ABEL, NIELS HENltIK, was born August 5th, 1802, in Norway,
at Fiiidoe, in the diocese of ChrUtiansand, of which parish hU father
wai then minister. He wai sent in 1815 to the cathedral school of
Christiania, where be did not show any remarkable sign of progreu,
until 1818, when M. Holmboe, a newly-appointed professor of mathe-
matics, afterwards the writer of Abel's life, and editor of his works,
discovered his talent for mathematics, and aided him in pursuing
those sciences beyond the elements. In July, 1821, he went to tho
University of Christiana, whore, his father having died and left him
without the means of continuing hU studies, he was first maintained
by a subscription of the professors, and afterwards, for two years, by
a pension from the government. His earliest mathematical essay was
an attempt at the old question of the solution of the equation of tho
fifth degree, in which, after discovering his own failure, he determined
either to find a solution, or to show the impossibility of finding any;
and produced his celebrated paper on the last point, of which we shall
presently speak. In July, 1825, he obtained an increased pension
from the government to enable him to travel. lie first went to
Berlin, where he formed an acquaintance with Crelle, whioh became
an intimate friendship. The mathematical journal, now so well knwii,
which bears the name of the latter, was commenced in 1820, and
Abel was one of the earliest and principal contributors. Abel continued
bis travels through Germany, Italy, and Switzerland : ho arrived at
Paris in July, 1826, where he made acquaintance with the most distin-
guished French mathematicians. He returned home by way of Berlin,
in January, 1827, and continued his private studies (which his journey
had not interrupted) with an activity of whioh there is the most extra-
ordinary evidence. In December, 1828, he went to the iron-fouudriea
of Froland, near Arendal, where resided the family of a lady to whom
he was betrothed. He was there seized with illness, in January,
1829, and died of consumption on the Cth of April of the same year.
M. Holmboe gires the moat direct contradiction to the statement
which has several times been made, that Abel was neglected by the
Swedish government, and died in extreme poverty. He was, when he
died, pro tempore professor of mathematics, during the absence of
Haiwtetii in Siberia, and would have succeeded to the first vacant
chair. A few days after his death, a most honourable invitation
arrived from the Prussian government, to remove his residence to
Berlin. In the obituary published by Crelle, in hi. 'Journal,' he
states distinctly that the large number of important memoirs which
Abel had ready for publication was the immediate reason of tho
'Journal* being undertaken.
The Swedish government published the works of Abel in 1839, in
two volumes, 4to, and in the French language. The first volume
contain, all that he published himself (in ' Crelle's Journal ' and else-
where, moitly in German), translated, as just remarked. The second
volume contains all that he left in manuscript, finished or unfinished.
Nothing can be a severer trial to a mathematician's character than the
publication of his loose papers ; but, however crude the speculation,
Abel is never lowered. He had read comparatively so little, that all
which he has left bears the stamp of his own moat original power.
The great point to which Abel turned his attention was tho theory
of elliptic functions. Lcgendro, who had devoted a large port of hU
life to the development of these functions, and to the formation of
tables by which to use them, found himself, when his toil was just
finished, completely distanced by the young Norwegian, of whom MJ
one bad ever heard. The frankness of the acknowledgment made by
Legendre, and the spirited manner in which the old man et to work
to incorporate the new discoveries into his own books, will never be
forgotten by any biographer of AbeL It is unnecessary to specify the
particular methods of the latter ; all who study the subject of elliptic
functions are fully aware how much is due to him.
The number of different ways in which Abel turned aside from this
subject into questions of development, definite integration, &c., makes
the sum total of bis labours an astonishingly large quantity, if the age
at which he died be considered. He appears to have fully developed
in his own mind the subject of the separation of symbols of operation
and quantity, not indeed to the extent of founding its results upon an
algebraical theory, but to that of giving the theory a wider amount of
application. He was a daring generaliscr, and sometimes went too
far : had he lived/.he would have corrected some of his writings,
yet ho appears to have been deeply impressed with the notion that a
(Teat part of mathematical analysis is rendered unsound by the em-
ployment of divergent series.
The celebrated attempt at the proof of the impossibility of repre-
senting under one formula the five roots of on equation of the fifth
degree involves some rather obscure consideration*. It can hardly be
said to be generally admitted ; perhaps it has not been generally read ;
Tor proofs of negative propositions, when complicated, are not usually
of a high order of interest. Sir \V. Hamilton ('Trans. It. I. A.,'
vol. xviii.) has examined Abel's proof nt great length, and arrives at
.he same conclusion, though with some degree of departure from his
principle.
ABELARD.
ABENCERAGES.
18
ABELARD, or ABAILARD, PIERRE, waa born in 1079, at Palais,
in Brittany. His father waa a man Of some rank and property, and
spared no expense in the education of Abelard. He left Palais before
he was twenty years of age, and went to Paris, where he became a
pupil of Ouillaume de Champeaux, a teacher of logic and philosophy
of the highest reputation in those times. At first the favourite disciple,
by degrees Abelard became the rival, and finally the antagonist of
Champeaux. To escape the persecution of his former master, Abelard,
at the age of 22, removed to Melun, and established himself there as
a teacher, with great success. Thence he removed to Corbeil, where
his labours seem to have injured bis health ; and he sought repose and
restoration by retirement to his native place, Palais, where he remained
a few years, and then returned to Paris ; the controversy between the
two antagonists was then renewed, and the contests continued till
Champeaux's scholars deserted him ; and he retired to a monastery.
Abelard having paid a visit to his mother at Palais, found on his
return to Paris in 1113, that Champeaux had been made bishop of
Chalons-sur-Marne.
The dialectic conflicts having now ceased, Abelard commenced the
study of divinity, under Anselm, at I.aon. Here also the pupil became
the rival of his master, and Anselm at length had him expelled from
Laon, when he returned to Paris, and established a school of divinity,
which was still more numerously attended than his former schools
had been. Ouizot says, " In this celebrated school were trained one
pope (Celestine II.), nineteen cardinals, more than fifty bishops and
archbishops, French, English, and German ; and a much larger number
of those njen with whom popes, bishops, and cardinals, had often to
contend, guch as Arnold of Brescia, and many others. The number
of pupils who used at that time to assemble round Abelard has been
estimated at upwards of 5000."
Abelard was about thirty-five or thirty-six years of age, when he
formed an acquaintance with Heloise, the niece of Fulbert, a canon in
the cathedral of Pans. She was probably under twenty years of age.
Abelard fell in love with Heloise, and got himself introduced into the
house of Fulbert as the tutor of his niece. The result wag a criminal
intercourse between the two lovers, which was at length discovered by
Fulbert, and Heloise was removed by Abelard to the residence of his
sister in Brittany, where she gave birth to a boy.
Fulbert insisted that the wounded honour of his niece should be
repaired by a marriage, to which Abelard assented willingly ; but
Heloise with more reluctance, probably from a fear that his prospects
would be ruined, the highest dignities of the church in those days
being exclusively bestowed on unmarried ecclesiastics. The marriage
took place at Paris, and it was agreed to be kept secret ; but Fulbert
took pains to make it public, while Heloise, who resided with him,
denied it ; the consequence of which was that her uncle treated her
with great harshness, and Abelard took her away and placed her in
the convent of Argenteuil, near Paris. Fulbert, who seems to have
thought that he intended to make her a nun in order to get rid of
the incumbrance of a wife, vowed a cruel revenge, which he soon
found means to execute. The valet having been bribed, admitted
Fulbert and hig party into Abelard's bed-room by night, when they
performed a mutilation upon his person. The perpetrators fled, but
the valet and another were taken, and were punished by putting out
their eyes and the infliction of a similar mutilation. The canon
Fulbert was banished from Paris, and all his property was confiscated.
Abelard recovered from the wound ; but as the canon law rendered
him incapable of holding any ecclesiastical preferment, he entered
the abbey of St. Denis aa a monk, and Heloise became a nun in the
convent of Argenteuil.
The abbot and monks of St Denis were dissolute, and Abelar.l
reproved them in a course of lectures which he delivered in a cell
detached from the abbey ; the monks got up a charge of heresy against
a work which he wrote on the Trinity, and by a council held in 1121
at Soissons, in which he was not permitted to defend himself, the book
was condemned and ordered to be burnt. Abelard had also denied
that the abbey of St. Denis was founded by Uionysius of Athens, the
Areopagite, as the monks asserted. This enraged the monks and
abbots still more, and by a series of persecutions and threats Abelard
was compelled to fly from St. Denis and place himself under the pro-
tection of the Count of Champagne. In a solitary spot of the territory
of Troyes he erected a small oratory of wickerwork and thatch, and
commenced giving lectures, to which numerous scholars crowded from
far and near ; the wickerwork was then changed into a building of
stone and timber, and Abelard named it Paraclete, or the Comforter.
But persecution still attending him, he left the Paraclete to become
superior of the monks in the abbey of St. Gildaa of Ruys, near Vannes,
in Britanny.
Heloise too was not without her share of troubles. The convent
of Argenteuil, of which she had been made prioress, was claimed by
an abbot as belonging to his abbey, and Heloise and her nuns were
ordered to leave it. Abelard gave them the oratory of the Paraclete,
and there they were established, Abelard himself, after eleven years
of separation from Heloise, officiating in the ceremony of consecration.
U> rnard, abbot of Clairvaux, whose monastery was not far from
tin- I'arnolate, having objected to some of the forms of prayer used
by Helr>ifle and her nuns, Abelard defended them ; and this led to a
controversy with the abbot, who eventually accused Abelurd of heresy.
Bioo. DIV. vo. L
Abelard appealed to a council, which waa held in the year 1140, in
the cathedral of Sens, in Champagne, where he defended himself. But
the influence of Bernard was more powerful than the logic of Abelard ;
he was condemned by the assembly ; but he appealed to the Pope, and
set out on his journey to Rome, which however he never reached,
having been induced by Peter the Venerable to remain in his monastery
at Cluni, near Ma9on. The Pope confirmed the sentence of the council
of Sens, and Abelard was ordered to be confined, all his works to be
burned, and he himself was prohibited from writin? anything more.
Peter the Venerable addressed a remonstrance to the Pope, Innocent II.,
and the sentence was suspended. During this suspension Abelard was
removed to the priory of St. Marcel, near Chalons, for change of air,
and there he died April 21, 1142, in the sixty-third year of his age.
He was at first interred by the monks of Cluni in their monastery, but
his remains were afterwards removed to the Paraclete.
Heloise lived twenty years afterwards as prioress of the Paraclete,
and when she died was buried, at her own request, in Abelard's tomb.
The remains of Abelard and Heloise continued undisturbed for upwards
of 300 years, till in 1497 they were removed to the church of the abbey,
and were afterwards shifted to other places. In 1800 they were re-
moved to the garden of the Musee Francais at Paris, and in 1817 were
placed in the cemetery of Pere la Chaise, where they still remain
beneath their gothic tomb.
Abelard was a proficient in the scholastic learning of the times, a
dexterous dialectician, and a subtle thinker. His theological works
gave an impulse to the age, and though his writings are of little value
now, they belong to the history of philosophy and the progress of
the human mind. The disputes of that age turn largely on verbal
trifles, but these disputes form part of the effort of philosophy to
emancipate itself from the fetters of religious intolerance. Though
Abelard possessed a large share of the learning of the times, it is
probable that he knew little of Greek or Hebrew, and yet Heloise,
according to his testimony, knew Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. The
personal character of Abelard is best shown by hia letters and those
of Heloise. When he had once transgressed the bounds of his duty
by his illicit commerce with Heloise, he lost all self-control, and appears
a sensualist When his misfortunes drove him from the world, he
became cold and unfeeling towards the noble-minded woman, whose
passion and ardent attachment show that she was capable of the most
unbounded devotion to him whom she loved. The most complete
edition of their works is ' Petri Abelardi et Heloisse Conjugis ejua
Opera, nunc primum edita ex MSS. Codd. Franciaci Ambcesi,' Paris,
1616, 4to. M. Victor Cousin has also published ' Ouvrages luddits
d'Abailard,' Paris, 1836. There are several other editions, some of
which have portions, such as the ' Letters,' translated.
(Biographical Dictionary, published by the Useful Knowledge
Society; Biographic Univertelie; Bayle, Dictionary.}
ABEN ESRA, or with his complete name, Abraham ben Meir ben
Esra, a celebrated Jewish scholar, was born at Toledo, probably in
1119, and died about 1194, at the age of seventy-five yenrs. A con-
siderable portion of his life was spent in travelling. He visited Mantua
in 1145, and the island of Rhodes in 1156; in 1159 he was in England,
and in 1167 at Rome. His celebrity among his contemporaries, as a
scholar and as an accomplished writer of the Hebrew language, was
very great. Among ourselves Abeu Esra has become known chiefly
through his great commentary on the Old Testament, which it seems
he wrote at different periods, between the years 1140 and 1167. It
has been printed in the great Rabbinical editions of the Bible, which
have appeared at Venice, Bale, and Amsterdam ; and there have been
besides many separate editions of single parts of it. Abeu Esra wroto
also on mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, medicine, philology, and
astrology. His treatise in verse on the game of chess, translated by
Thomas Hyde (Oxford, 1667, 1694), affords us a specimen of his skill
in poetic composition. For an enumeration of the works of Abeu
E.'ra, which are still preserved in manuscript in several of the libraries
of Europe, see the article ABEN ESBA, by Hartmaun, in Ersch uud
Gruber's ' Encyclopaedia."
ABHNCERAGES (Beni Serraj), is the name given by Spanish
chroniclers and romance writers to a noble family in the Arabic king-
dom of Grenada, several members of which distinguished themselves
during the period immediately preceding the fall of the Mohammedan
empire in Spain. The history of the Abencerages is intimately con-
nected with that of the then reigning dynasty of Grenada. In the
year 1423 of our era, died Yussuf III., a wise and valiant prince. He
was succeeded by his son Mohammed VII., surnamed Al-Haizari, or
the Left-Handed, who followed the example and advice of his father
in maintaining friendly relations with the Christian court of Castille,
and with the Arab princes on the northern coast of Africa, but lost
the affection of his subjects by his pride and tyranny. The discon-
tent which soon manifested itself against the youthful monarch, was
for a time kept in check by the watchfulness of his principal chamber-
lain, Yussuf-ben-Zerragh, then the chief of the noble family which
probably derived from him the common designation of the Abencer-
ages. But, in 1427, an open revolt broke out, which had been incited
by one of the king's cousins, Mohammed-al-Zaghir. The royal palace,
called the Alhambra, was invested by the conspirators. Moham-
med VII., disguised as a fisherman, escaped to Africa, where the King
of Fez, Mulei-ben-Fariz, kindly received him, while Mohammed-al-
AMiUCTIMi. JOHN, M.D.
ABERCROMUV, SIR RALI'll.
YaMMM^teiMk, with
ovtioMto CastilU; and
t Grenada were
k.kBd
TIL to foi
late wt* Jok. IL
to Uvoorof
brok* oat. and John
*\n ttminttt to
*
wkioh a. kx. aod Y
I Bdlo
\'mr wi
oorapUd Grenada. wbJU
ll.%h*^BB> Tlu* MoOBjd inWfnipiiou of Mohani*
r only of short deration. H* refaiood hi*
* after Ik* doath of YoBBf-b*D-Albamar. which
of
fc
of t*W C^trHlfcin ooaiDMUvtlcr Coorl*. A on of
, B UM k**d T Mt*** hud of valiant knight*,
UasarU, ud fell w a halt!* (14S8), in
od orach lot*. Kw distarhaBOr. woo
reoada. Hohamsaod Vlt wa. (in 1444)
OMB !. SBBBfOBBB 1 by eo of hi* BOBbcwa, Orain-aJ- A boat But
. who WM Mapportod by John II.. and
14U. preT.tM.T.rhMOf>naMM. Booo after thi*, John II.
WSB *tmmA*4 ia th* juTiianxm of CMtilk by Henry IV.. who WM
wlw**t to Mooi.u**)4Nl-^B]o-lMD*uL owjd mirwwd Ux bu<inili<ii r which,
<NM Iks* Ma** took a tan oMdodly uBfavwombl* to th* kingdom of
that, aboot thiTtW an
by the Abonoerage*,
ononeoftfceirownfamily.
M .;,.',.
HiMlm of IkoM dUnrbinon to oocupy tk* foctnoi
Tk* Anhi* nlinlol>i My othing of web an *r*Bt,
If tkora b* aay tnrth in Ut*
lr litili
Of Ik. frwl. of Ik* At, II NIMH With th. Z
Ankian family in tk. kiafdom of Onoada. who
M Ik* M*4M*BBMdank*s of Cordon, of tk*
with th* ZefriM, another noble
who traced their dotcent
of thirty
UMporndy of their oppoosote, and
iraoad Vb. Chrutian
told ia tk. OOOTTM cTviU. d.' Oranada, by (Jinw
rk which |irn< to b* a IranaUtioo from an
but is of doobtfel aatkratioity. The work
.
*|mly miiili of two *otaM*. bot in ntort dittoo* only tb. fint
b iBfWtoa. and ipflu of tk* mini ar* mud to b. now extrwMly
nr. wtrn to Hpain. Am "-g^^ tr.nlrtlna of tb. flnt part, by
naiiiBiM.iiiiiiilwdattk*Ult*fTkaTUWar.ofOranad,'
KlMBII, JOHH. M.D, Follow of th. Koyal Collrge. of
Mrf IVnMM of BdWrnith, X WM born oath* llth of
Um WM Ik* OM of UM Rrr. Mr. Aboraronbio, for
Mof tk.
ia .
4k of JBM. 1HO. II.
Utfk. Md IMBBM a r0ow of Ik* Royal CoU*f* of
.
MIBM Ik* amovj** of a
kjk) flajlv oaraor atoordaw
that
. Aborcrombie. for
of Abordota. Abrrerombi.
took hi. dogn* there on th*
aracsU* MbotqaenUy in Edin-
.[*on* in the
to teach onr.ry, and taking the
-, though b* so far
witklkatof a Bhyaieian ovon in
. Ician; and
of Ik. ooUbratod
Dr. Abworombi* btgan to
M a praotiainK and
H.b*un.allotiatooflb.
and In 1814 WM admitted .
to the offio* of phyiicUu in ordinary to her Mnjerty for Sootlanil.
In the numerou* religioiu will beiiovolent ocieti* of K'linl.ur^li lie
hold a high and honourable potitinn. Dr. Aberorombie diol IMK!-
draly. ou ThurmUy, November 14, 1844, at hi* houje in York Place,
Edinburgh. Tho immediate cause of hi. death WM the bur- tin.; ..i
the coronary artery of the heart
The writing* of Dr. Abercrombie contributed no Ion to the eU-
Ui*hm*nt and mainteoaaoe of hi* fame than hU very ucful career a*
a praotioal member of bii profeation. In the early part of hi* oourw
h* ooofined hi. literary labour* to the 'Edinburgh Medical nu I
Surgical Journal,' and other periodical! in hi. own department of
eieooe. Mil fint dUtinot work of moment, leaving out of cousider-
atioo publiahad OM*. of dieeue and limilar minor traatuoi, WM one
entitled ' Pathological and Practical Kesearoha. on DiteuM of the
Brain and th. Spinal Cord,' Edinburgh, 1823, 8ro. In thi work,
which i* ohanoteriacd by no ordinary degree of purely scientific
knowledge, be also gar* an indication of the bent of hii geniua to tbo
tucly of mind and ite relations to the body. He jmblUhed about
tk* game time another profeaiional volume, and one which elevated
him (till more highly among the modern cultivator* of meilicin-,
tylrd Pathological and Practical Reaearcha* on the Dueate* of the
Inteelinal Canal, Liver, and other Vuoera of the Abdomen,' rxiin-
borgh, 1828, Svo. He now began to throw together the medical fact*
accumulated in the oourse of hi* extensive experience and reading,
and to examine their bearing, on the varioui metaphyical and moral
yitem* that have bean eetebluhed. The result of hi* labour* i* to
be found in two work*: the on. entitled ' Inqairie* concerning the
Intellectual Power* and the Investigation of Truth,' KJiubviivli.
Svo; and the other called 'The Philosophy of the Moral Feelings,'
London, 1883, Svo. The latter is in some meaiura a sequel to the
first, and th. whole composes a view of human nature intellectually
and morally, in which the faote of science and the revelations of
religion ar* shown to harmonise. Dr. Abercrombie also published
several tract* or easay* on religioiu topics, which inauifost the depth
of hi* piety and hi* earneetnoat in th* promotion of the welfare of
hi* Csllow-mon. In the disruption of the Scottish Established Church,
in 1848. Dr. Abercrombie took part with the Free Church, of whose
eldership he was, M he had been for many yean in the Established
Church, one of the moot active and exemplary members. For range
of acquirements Dr. Abercrombie perhaps stood unequalled among
the Scottish physician" of hi* day. He earned by his writings a name
that will not soon be forgotten, and be will long be remembered, a* a
private individual, for hi* piety and benevolence.
AUERCKOltBT, SIR RALPH, a British general, dirtinguishe I for
many gallant and important service*. He wa* the son of Qeorge
Aberoromby, Esq., of Tullibodie, hi CUokmannanahire, where he WM
born in 1738. After receiving a liberal education, ho entered the
army in March, 1756, M a cornet in the 3rd regiment of Dragoon
Ouird*. By the year 1787 he bad reached the rank of major-general
When the war with Franca broke out, in 1793, Aberoromby wag gont
to Holland, with the local rank of lieutenant-general, in the expe-
dition commanded by the Duke of York. Hi* bravery during thu
prosperou* commencement of this attempt was not more conspicuous
than the humanity with which he exerted hi* best energies in the
disastrous .equal to alleviate, M far M possible, the miseries of the
tick and wounded troop*, whom h* wa* charged to conduct in their
.: ..t.
Soon after hi* return to England, in April, 1795, he WM made a
Knight of the Bath ; and in August of the same year he WM sent
out to the West Indies, M coimnimdei -in-chief of the forces there,
and by February, 1797, he had taken in succession Grenada, Demerara,
Katequibo, SU Lucia, St Vincent, and Trinidad. He then returned
to Europe, having been previously raised to the rank of lieutenant-
general, and on reaching England he received the command of tho
Scot* Oreys, and the appointment of lieutenant-governor of the Islo
of Wight In 1798, on the breaking out of the rebellion in 1
Sir Ralph proceeded thither as commander-in-chief ; but after a short
time h. WM transferred to the chief military command in Scotland,
and the governorship of Fort Augustus and Fort George. He wag
soon however called again to active service abroad, on occasion of th.-
Moond expedition sent against the French in Holland, iu August,
1799, with the conduct of which he WM entrusted before the arrival
of the Duke of York. It proved, M is well known, equally unfortu-
nate with the former ; but it did not the leu afford many
lunitie* to General Abercromby of displaying his activity, intrepidity,
and high military talent In 1801 he WM employed to command the
English forces despatched for the relief of Egypt; and, in spite of
the utmost exertions of the French to prevent his design, he . ;
tb* landing of bis troop*, on the 8th of March, at Aboukir, though
not without the los* of 2000 men. A few day* after, the enemy
mail* a general attack upon the invading forces, M they lay cue .
near Alexandria, but were speedily repulsed. On the 21st WM fought,
on the same ground, the more obstinate and sanguinary
usually designated the battle of Alexandria, in which t
wen again driven back at all point*. Sir Ralph WM unhorsed and
severely wounded at an early period of the action, by one of tho
enemy, whom notwithstanding he disarmed, delivering his sword to
Sir Sidney Smith, whom he soon after met Then remounting hi*
21
ABERDEEN, EARL OF.
ABERNETHY, JOHN.
Ijorse, he concealed his situation from those about him till lonp after
the action was over, when he fainted through weakness and loss of
blood. The injuries which he had received, and which he thus nobly
bore in silence, were past the skill of surgery : he was immediately
conveyed to the ship of the Admiral, Lord Keith, and there lingered
till the 28th, when he expired. His body was interred iu the burial-
ground of the Commandery of the Grand Master, under the walls of
the Castle of St. Elmo, near the town of La Valetta, in Malta. A
monument has since been erected to his memory, by order of the
House of Commons, in St. Paul's Cathedral. Sir Ralph Abercromby,
whose private character was as excellent as his public merits were
great, left four sons. Hig widow was created Baroness Abercromby,
with remainder to her issue male by her late husband. A pension
of 2000?. a year was also settled upon Lady Abercromby and the three
succeeding inheritors of the title, of whom the present baron is
the last.
"ABERDEEN, GEORGE HAMILTON GORDON, EARL OF, was
born January 28, 1784, and succeeded to the title on the death of
his grandfather in 1802 : he was created Viscount Gordon in the
peerage of the United Kingdom in 1814, and it is by this title that he
sita in the House of Lords. After completing his education, the Earl
of Aberdeen spent some time in travelling. Both in Greece and Italy
he paid considerable attention to the study of the remains of anti-
quity ; and he was one of the original members of the Athenian
Club. These circumstances gave the point, such as it was, to Lord
Byron'a notice, in his ' Hours of Idleness,' of " the travell'd thane
Athenian Aberdeen." The result of the earl's antiquarian pursuits
was given to the world in an ' Introduction ' to Wilkins's transla-
tion of Vitruvius's 'Civil Architecture,' 1812; and this 'Introduction'
having been revised and extended, his lordship published as a distinct
work in 1822 under the title of 'An Inquiry into the Principles of
Beauty in Grecian Architecture.' In 1813 the earl was sent to Vienna
on a special mission, and he was instrumental in obtaining the adhe-
sion of Austria to the alliance against France, the preliminary treaty
for which he signed as the representative of England, at Tbplitz, in
October of that year. As the English Ambassador-Extraordinary to
the Emperor Francis I., he shared in the negociations which preceded
and followed the return of Napoleon to France from Elba. Subse-
quently to Ms retirement from the embassy, the Earl of Aberdeen
was known in politics as a steady adherent of the tory party, and on
the formation of the Duke of Wellington's first administration in
January, 1828, the earl accepted the office of Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs, which he held till the resignation of the ministry in
November, 1830. His first act in office was to express his disapproval
of the policy which led to the destruction of the Turkish fleet at
Navarino; and the passage in the king's speech (January 29, 1828),
which termed that an " untoward event," and expressed the deter-
mination of the government to uphold the independence of Turkey,
has been generally attributed to him. In this his first term of office
it fell to the lot of the earl to assist in establishing the independence
of Greece, and to acknowledge the " constitutional monarchy " of
France as the result of the revolution of 1830 : and the prompt and
frank recognition of both of these measures did much to secure the
good-will of those countries. In the short-lived administration of Sir
Robert Peel (November 1834 to April 1835) the Earl of Aberdeen
held the office of Colonial Secretary. When Sir Robert Peel was
restored to office, September 1841, the Earl of Aberdeen again re-
ceived the appointment of Foreign Secretary, and continued to hold it
until the defeat of the ministry in July 1846. His administration of
foreign affairs may be said generally to have been marked by a
cautious pacific policy, but at the same time there i> no other evidence
than the heated language of political opponents to show that he was
ever neglectful of the honour and dignity of the country. In the
dispute with the United State? on the Oregon question he took a firm
yet conciliatory position, and the credit of the satisfactory settle-
ment, of what at one time threatened to be a serious difficulty, is due
to him. At a very early period, as is shown by his despatch to Lord
Heytesbury, the English ambassador at St. Petersburg, dated Oct. 81,
1829, the Earl of Aberdeen had suspected if he had not clearly pene-
trated the designs of the Emperor Nicholas upon Turkey; and it
was probably with a view more effectually to counteract those designs,
that he laboured, during his possession of office, to strengthen as
much as possible the alliance with Austria. From his long connection
with Sir Robert Peel, the Earl of Aberdeen had come to be regarded
not merely aa the exponent of that statesman's views on foreign
policy, but as, next to the Duke of Wellington, his chief supporter and
representative in the House of Lords; and on the death of Sir
Robert, the earl was selected as the president of the great public
meeting of hi friends and admirers held at Willis's Rooms, July 23,
1850. From this time the Earl of Aberdeen may be regarded as
virtually the head of what was known as the Peel party ; and on the
defeat of the Derby ministry, in December 1852, he was entrusted
with the formation of the new administration. This he effected by
inducing a number of the leaders of the whigs to unite with his own
followers, thus forming a coalition ministry which lasted rather more
th;m two vears, and is likely to remain long a theme of aa much con-
troversy as other coalition ministries, whose acts and policy have so often
exercised the pens and tongues of political writers and debaters. As
at every other period of his political life, the earl was as prime
minister earnestly bent on the maintenauce of peace ; yet, despite of
his best efforts, " the country drifted into war," and a war, the mag-
nitude of which few probably better appreciated than himself. But
Lord Aberdeen, even after war was officially declared, clung to an
early restoration of peace, and rested for that purpose on his favourite
expedient of the Austrian alliance, more than was probably wise or
justifiable at any rate more than the public liked to see ; and this,
with the general feeling that the war was not being prosecuted with
the vigour which its importance and the character of the country
demanded, deprived the Aberdeen ministry of all support, except
from their immediate followers ; so that when the earl resolved to
treat Mr. Roebuck's motion (January 29, 1855) for an inquiry into the
state of the army before Sebastopol, as a vote of want of confidence,
and Lord John Ruasell seceded from the Cabinet, the motion was
carried by a majority greater probably than ever before defeated the
most unpopular ministry. The earl at once resigned, and has not
during the remainder of 1855 taken any prominent part in public
affairs. The war overturned all the earl'a calculations, and arrested
moat of those measures of social and political improvement, which he
had taken an early opportunity of announcing aa the basis of his
system of policy. Yet his administration will be remembered as
having effected an important change in the government of India ;
largely and beneficially modified the exclusive system of Oxford
University ; carried several measures tending to improve the con-
dition of the people; extended still further the principles of free
trade; and laid the foundation of a better system of admission to,
and improved management of the civil service of the country.
The Earl of Aberdeen has never been eminent as an orator. His
influence in the House of Lords has been due to his high personal
character, administrative ability, and social position. AVith foreign
potentates, with whom he has been brought into contact aa a minister,
he has always been a favourite. Since the publication of his work on
Grecian architecture, the Earl of Aberdeen haa not publicly evinced
any partiality for literature or its practitioners; and his government in
rather badly distinguished by his having appropriated to decayed
members of aristocratic families the larger portion of the fund pre-
vioualy set apart for the reward of persons eminent in literature aud
science. His lordship, however, holds various honorary offices usually
bestowed on the patrons of intellectual pursuits : he is Chancellor of
King's College, Aberdeen, President of the British Institution, aud a
governor of Harrow School and the Charterhouse ; and for some years
he was President of the Society of Antiquaries.
ABERNETHY, JOHN, a distinguished surgeon, born in the year
1763-4, either at the town of Abernethy in Scotland, or at that of
Deny in Ireland, for each claims the honour of having been the place
of his birth. He died at Enfield, after a protracted illness, on the
18th of April, 1881, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. In early
youth he removed from the place of his birth, and resided with his
parents in London, in which city his father was a merchant. He
received the elements of grammatical and classical instruction at a
day-school in Lothbury, and also attended school at Wolverhamptou.
At the usual age he was apprenticed to Sir Charles Blick, surgeon to
St. Bartholomew's Hospital, under whom, find especially in the wards of
that hospital, he had ample opportunities of acquiring a thorough
knowledge of his profession, of which he availed himself with dili-
gence. Competent judges, who observed at this early period the
qualities of his mind and his habits of study, predicted that he would
one day acquire fame, if not fortune. Though he appeared before the
public early aa an author, and though his very first works stamped
him as a man of genius, endowed with a philosophical aud original
mind, yet he did not rise into reputation nor acquire practice with
rapidity. In 1786 he succeeded Mr. Pott as assistant-surgeon to St.
Bartholomew's Hospital, and shortly afterwards took the place of
that gentleman as lecturer on anatomy and surgery. For a consider-
able time he had but few pupils, and he was at first by no means a
good lecturer, his delivery being attended with a more than ordinary
degree of hesitation. On the death of Sir Charles Blick, hia former
master, he was elected surgeon in hia room ; and subsequently
St. Bartholomew's Hospital obtained under him a reputation which it
had never before acquired. Ou the 9th of January, 1800, Abernethy
married Miss Ann ThrelfalL
Abernetby was a pupil of John Hunter, and the earnestness and
delight with which, at an early age, he received the lessons of this
his great master, were indications of the soundness of his own judg-
ment. It was from this profound and original thinker, who exercised
an extraordinary influence over the understanding, tastes, aud pur-
suits of his young pupil, that Abernethy derived that ardent love of
physiology, by the application of which to surgery he was destined to
convert a rude art into a beautiful science. He made himself
thoroughly acquainted with anatomy, but it was that he mi^ht bo
admitted into the then new world of physiology ; he studied structure,
but it was that he might understand function ; and the moment he
had obtained a clear insight into these two sciences, he saw the appli-
cations of which they were capable to the treatment of disease.
From that moment he looked with contempt on the empiricism then
almost universal iu surgery; he ridiculed its jargon ; he exposed the
narrowness of its principles, if it be at all allowable to designate by
fBTHT. JOHN.
ABINQER, LORD.
14
fife I
which aloe* nffulatod th* praotio*
"I with oeridio* what
of, and mainly coo-
to buM p. a MW edinos. By the dUigeal stadv of nature.
'isjUaail nwMliH oo what b* saw. and. M he himself ex-
it, th* MMsMsMioe, of what b* MW, b* reduced to order
HMbsrie th* Miflm bad looked upon the
I by nrtt
Hd K h*
I of *liMin whieb It WM hi* part to tnat, diseMM which almost
>lwJJ have IOM! Ma*. M iH which bar* also a local origin.
i which an to b* cured by local applies-
merit of first perceiving, in
MM EM
-j _ L-
OT| WIMB M WH^U W D*
i of th* treatment that grew oat of it In
i and original observation, and *xhibWng
ophioal views, entitled, 'The Constitutional
To AUatethy bslnssp the greet m.rit of ant perceivin
aiMl. OMltar {MOBp^ibOity of Ub aotioa with tbe
I of Looal DUeae**/ b* lay* down Mid **tabliah*s
tbss~ frsoi principle : Thai local dieeM** art symptoms of di-
sTtst c*M*it.)uQ)SX srlrt
I pri*V*w*VTT tod il)<Wp*MX}sM)t HuUjsVdiAsl ; 4U*d
thai iWy re to b* cored by reoiedle. oatoojated to make a salutary
laaMWMM) oo th* gMMral from*, not by topical drMsing, DOT any
SWM* MfailhtlMsl of sarnry. Tbi* aingl* principle changed th*
SMBOOI ** the eaOre told of surgYrr, and elevated it from a manual
art into th. rank of soiiBO*. And to this Brat prineipl* be added
eoood. the runs of which I* perhara aocofwhat IMS extenaive, but
Ik* *i*n*l*il ItsaqrwMO* of which is scaroely inferior to that of the
.. tW this dsaordorad state of the comtitution either
from, or i* liforoosly allied with derangement, of tbe
only b* reached by remedies
thin organ*. The
ly
aa.1 bowels, aad that it
is* HIHW.I a curaUre iufl
:. !
mankind
benete d^ly aad booriT oooferred upon mankind by the elucidation
and seUhtiibaswt of the** two prioc.pl-, both by the prevention and
tbe altsgaiiosi of diM aad sunenug, it were rain to attempt to
tutd U Is awt ***y to pay to
wmieb i. hi. due.
awJt | ::. U*f
of tb* structure and function.
iliU>h* of which bM SSM* bow attended with ipUodid suooeM-
MMtjr.th* tying Ih* carotid and th* external iliac arteri**. The
iiiiiiBint of th* p*tformaoo* of UMM capital operation, at once
imtillilil hi* reputation M a sorg*
the Kssjtish sobooltbioutl
Orsai
J throughout Eoropo.
M WM th* reputation which
|fk|gBSlS^ BsltlVMOLslVilljl.
s ow^ his e^brity clueaTtobU i
' and sissnil t
operation*
andlncroMed tbe e*t**m of
MSVSM*, impiwalva, an 1 fMrimHtw manner, whatever
krw. EMy and fluMt, y*t not inelegant abounding w
Uon *>> MMilit*. ye* Msthodiool-kciMl. yet often witt;
Mwslly tnuaoroo* almost to nmraonM* M!I! imnui
thU distinguished man
.n, it is probable
a teacher. Gifted
h* WM endowed
; to others in a clear,
be himself
rith illustro-
yet often witty, and ooesv
to imrMOMS seldom impusiooed, yet
rar allowing th* attention of hi* audi.no.
wraategj* sMtMOt-it WM rare, ind*d. that b* nuled to
whoever beard him, and u ran that b* failed to make
WM Mwvinesd iiillii partiMn. N.vrth*less, a highly
it IU ill, MiiklH apporeotly boa a careful and mature
> oY tk^ impra*sM mod* opon bis own mind by th* preleo-
.f hi. MMtor. gjv th* followtof aooount, whiou, if true, i.
U*T sfiiinnkh M U th* Miwi nsolt of tb* mod* and
spirit of hi* lectoring. " H* s *JoqunUy expounded soto. of ih*
i^.t 1 r-IV^.*Dr. I-h,T^ b. i SSTS-Ju^W
ibJMt*; bemad* that *o easy which
UM of SOOBT absent
Mjimonh, Ibot
for
portion of hi.
Bt be ienrl all hi.
be eo reel paid it, eo aet
-* W IM U. wfll know wkt In.) ;
Uborioo. Uanher. after
W.
-*2* fc tlf?5 tw " P* I
We should bar. bsM ashamed to do
i* with **.aulim. Md voted oarMlfwj by
- of Motel IkUtoonhoi^ M the M y rate
TWgrwt Lord Chatham, it is said, had
piso*nev into th* sniod* of other meo,
WM erw.qusrter of **, boor in hi* oocapuv without
Ui Lord ChoOaa WM th* An* MM ta UiTWorld sad
W* *^**bil i * d .*.** *** wM> * P> oopii* and MrT*
that he
to get at it, ud
at all eyenU in no mood to be aatUAed with anything but the cutiro
truth,
Tbe private character of Mr. Abernetby was blameleu. He waa
highly honourable in all hi. tranaaotiona, and incapable of duplicity,
niMDDiM. artifice, or aervility. HU manner, in the domestic circle
were gentle, and eren playful ; be gave to tboM about him a large
portion of what hi. heart really abounded with teudenieas and affec-
tion ; and on hi. part he wu tenderly beloved by hi. children aud by
all the mnnben of bit family. In public, and more especially to hi.
patieaU, hi. maoDen were coane, ctpriciou., churlub, and eouutime*
brutal. It would not be difficult to account for tliw anomaly
wan then any uee in punuiug the investigation : hi. conduct iu thi
reepect merit, unqualified ceniure.
For a lUt of the vanou. Tract* published by Mr. Abernethy, eee
Watt'. ' Bibliotbeca Britannica.' A collected Edition of hi. Surgical
Work* appeared in 1S15, 2 rols. 8vo. ('Memoir, of Abernethy,' by
George Macilwain. 2 voU. 8ro. London, 1853.)
ABINQER, LORD. Janet Scarlett wai a native of Jamaica, where
hi. family wa. wealthy and of long standing. He wa. the aeoond son
of Robert Scarlett, Eeq., and wu born in or about the year 1769. Hi.
mother', name wa. Eluabeth Anglin. The family estates went, it may
be praeumed, to the eldeet eon ; a third aon, who also remained at
home, and followed the profewioo of tbe law in Jamaica, became Sir
William Anglin Scarlett, and Chief Justice of Jamaica, and died there,
after having held that office for many yean. Jarnee wu at an early
age tent to England. Having finished his elementary education, he
waa, about tbe year 1736, entered a Fellow Commoner at Trinity
College, Cambridge ; and he wu also, a year or two after, admitted a
student of the loner Temple. He took hii degree of B.A. in 1790;
wu called to the bar 8th July, 1791 ; and graduated M.A. in 1791.
HU success at tbe bar wu very decided from the first, and every year
added to his reputation and his emolument*. It wu soon discovered
that, from whatever cause, no young barrister gained so large a propor-
tion of verdict*. Even while he was still a junior counsel, he wu
very frequently eutnuted with the sole conduct of important case*.
At last, in 1816, he received a silk gown ; aud from that date ire wu
reoogniaed u the leader of his circuit (the Northern), and u occupying
also a foremost place in Westminster Hall.
He had made an attempt to be returned to parliament for the
borough of Lewes at the general election in October, Is 12, but wan
defeated by Mr. Qeorge Shiffner, who wu brought in, u second member,
by a majority of 164 to 154 ; and he failed also in a second attempt on
the same borough when a vacancy wu occasioned in 1816 by the
death of the other member, Mr. T. It Kemp, being then defeated by
Sir John Shelley. He wu first introduced to the Hoiue of Commons
in 1818, u one of the member, for the city of Peterborough, under
the patronage of Earl Kitzwilliam. He did not however make a figure
in parliament correeponding to his eminence at the bar ; nor wu he
a frequent apeaker, although be supported both Sir Samuel Komilly
and Sir James Macintoah in their efforts to mitigate the severity of the
criminal law, and also occasionally took part in debates on financial
subject*.
He wu returned again for Peterborough at the general election in
1820 ; but be resigned hi* seat in 1822 to stand for the University of
Cambridge, when, however, be wu left at the bottom of the poll.
Upon this he wu re-elected for Peterborough, but not till after a
contest with Mr. Samuel Well*. Up to this time he bad been consi-
dered M distinctly belonging to the Whig party, although to the most
moderate section of it ; but hi* opinions gradually assumed more of a
Conservative complexion, and when the new Tory or mixed adminis-
tration of Canning came into power in April, 1827, Mr. Scarlett, having
been again returned for Peterborough at the general election in the
preceding year, accepted th* office of Mtorney-generaL He wu at the
same time knighted. Having been once more returned for Peter-
borough be retained his place throughout the administration of Lord
Ooderioh ; wu succeeded by Sir Charles Wetherell when the Duke of
Wellington became premier in January, 1828 ; but wu reinstated in
May, 1829, upon the dismissal of Sir Charles for his opposition to the
Koman Catholic Emancipation Bill; and, having been returned for
Maldon at the general election in 1830, he remained attorney-general
till the accession to office of the Whigs in November of that year, when
he wu succeeded by Mr. (afterwards Lord) Deumau.
At th* general election in May, 1831, Sir James Scarlett wu returned
to parliament for Cookermouth. At the next, which took place after
the paving of the Reform Bill, in December, 1832, he wu returned,
after a contest, for Norwich, along with Lord Stormont (now Earl of
Mansfield). When this parliament wu dissolved in December, 1834,
on Sir Robert Peel being appointed premier Sir James Scarlett wu
mad* Chief Baron, and a peer by the title of Baron Abiuger, of Abiu-
gcr, in tbe county of Surrey, and of the city of Norwich.
Lord Abinger died of a sudden attack of illness at Bury St. Edmunds,
while on the circuit, on the 7lh of April, 1844. He had been Uice
married ; first in August, 1792, to the third daughter of Peter Camp-
bell, Esq., of Kilmorey, in Argyletbire, who died iu March, 1829
secondly, in September, 1843, to Elizabeth, daughter of Lee Steere
Steer*, Esq., of Jays, Surrey, aud widow of the Rev. H. J. Ridley, of
Ockley. By bis first wife he bad three sons and two daughters. Hia
eldest son succeeded to his title and estate*; hi* eldest daughter, the
ABINGTON, FRANCES.
ABU-BEKR.
28
wife of Lord Campbell, was created a peeress in 1836 by the title of
Baroness Stratheden.
Lord Abinger was a skilful and dexterous rather than an eloquent
advocate, and while on the bench he was more distinguished for the
clearness with which he summed up a case to a jury than for the pro-
foundness or subtlety of his legal views. Yet he was considered also
a sound and good lawyer. In the great art of gaining verdicts he was
unrivalled ; and no practitioner at the bar had ever before received so
large a sum in fees in any year as he drew in the height of his practice.
His conduct as attorney-general under the Tories in 1829, when he
filed a number of criminal informations against the opposition news-
papers, naturally exposed him to some severe animadversions from
those who still continued attached to the more democratic political
creed which he had originally been accustomed to profess.
(Gent. Mag. for June, 1844.)
ABINGTON, FRANCES, was born in 1731, or, according to some,
in 1738. Her maiden name was Barton, and her father, although of
respectable descent, is said to have been only a common soldier. Early
in life she obtained her livelihood by running on errands, and one of
her places happening to be at a French milliner's, she soon contrived
to pick up the language. She was afterwards a dower-girl in St.
James's Park, London. Her first appearance on the stage was as
Miranda in the ' Busy Body,' at the Haymarket Theatre, on August 21st,
1755. Not making much impression on the public, she went to Dublin,
previously to which she was married to Mr. Abington, who had become
known to her as her music-master, and from whom she separated in a
few months. At Dublin she made her first step to fame, as Kitty, in
' High Life below Stairs,' which was brought out for the benefit of
Tate Wilkinson, who has left an animated account of her great success.
The more fashionable theatre in Crow-street was soon deserted for the
obscure house in Smock Alley; the head-dress that Mrs. Abiugton
wore was copied by every milliner, and the "Abington cap" in a;few
days figured in ev;ry shop window, and on the head of every lady
who had any pretensions to fashion. Mrs. Abington continued a first-
rate favourite at both the Dublin theatres until her return to England,
in 1765, when she was warmly welcomed by Garrick. In a few seasons,
by the retirement of Mrs. Pritchard and Mrs. Clive, the field was left
open to her, and she quickly became the first comic actress of her
day ; a station which she long retained. Her last public appearance
was on the 12th of April, 1799. She died at her house in Pall Mall,
London, 4th March, 1815. She left a legacy to each of the theatrical
funds.
ABLANCOURT, PERROT NICOLAS D', one of the most esteemed
French translators of the classic authors in the 17th century, was
born at Chalous-sur-Marne, in Champagne (now in the department of
Marne), in 1606, and died at Ablancourt in November, 1664. Ablau-
court commenced his career at the bar, but quitted it almost imme-
diately for literary pursuits ; and at the same time abandoned the
Protestant creed, in which he had been brought up. He returned
however to bis first belief; for six years afterwards he studied with
the deepest attention, under the learned Stuart for three years, at the
end of which time he abjured the Roman faith, and immediately
after retired into Holland, to be near the learned Saumaise, and enjoy
the society of that famous scholar ; perhaps also to let the scandal of
his second abjuration die away. From Holland he repaired to England,
and thence to Paris, where he became intimately acquainted with Patru,
one of the moat celebrated writers and distinguished lawyers of that
day, aud also with other eminent literary characters. In 1637 he was
received a member of the French Academy, and gave his whole atten-
tion to the translation of the works of Tacitus; but being eoon
obliged to quit Paris on account of the war which broke out, he went
to reside at his seat at Ablancourt, in Champagne, for the remainder
of his life, with the exception of the time he spent in Paris during
the printing of his works. Of his numerous translations, those most
known are, the whole of Tacitus, of which there have been ten
editions; four orations of Cicero; Ctesar; the Wars of Alexander,
by Arrian the most esteemed of bis translations as regards) the style ;
Thucydides ; the Anabasis of Xenophon ; and an imitation, rather
than a translation, of Lucian. During his life he appears to have been
held in general estimation as a translator, but his versions are very far
from accurate, and are now obsolete.
In 1C62 Colbert proposed him to Louis XIV. as the historian of his
reign, but Louis would not have a Protestant to commemorate its
events. However, he did not deprive him of his pensiou of 120/. per
annum, which had been granted to him as hUtoriogapher. Ablan-
court's life was written by his friend Patru.
ABRAHAM (originally Abram), the great ancestor and founder of
the Jewish nation, and the first depositary of the divine promises in
favour of the chosen people. He was the ion of Terab, the eighth in
descent from Sbrra, the eldest son of Noah, and was born probably at
Ur, a town of Chajdsea, about 2000 years before the Christian, era.
Hi* history occupies about a fourth part of the book of Genesis,
namely, from tlie llth to the 25th chapters inclusive. Having mar-
ried Sarah (originally Sarai), the daughter of his brother Haran, he
accompanied his father and his nephew Lot to Haran, where Terah
died ; and then, at the command of God, taking Lot along with him,
he left Harun, and proceeded towards the south till he reached the
plain of Moreh, in Canaan. The epoch of the commencement of this
journey, which happened when he was 75 years old, is called by chro-
nologists the Call of Abraham. Soon after, a famine forced the
patriarch to make a journey into Egypt, from which country, when
he had returned to the place of his abode in Canaan, he found that
the increase of his own flocks, and those of his nephew, made it
necessary that they should choose separate settlements ; and accord-
ingly, by mutual consent, Lot withdrew towards the east, and
established himself among the cities in the plain of Jordan, while
Abraham removed to the plain of Mamre, in Hebron. He had reached
his 99th year, and his wife (who had been hitherto barren) her 89th,
when God appeared to him, and declared that there should yet spring
from them a great nation a promise which was confirmed by the
birth of Isaac the following year. The severe trial of Abraham's
faith, in the command given him to sacrifice this beloved son, so
beautifully related in the 22nd chapter of Genesis, is familiar to every
reader. Some time before this he had given another striking proof of
his submission to the divine will and his implicit reliance on the
promises of God, in his dismissal of his son Ishruael, whom he had by
Hagar, the Egyptian bondwoman, on the assurance of his Heavenly
Father, that of him too would he make a nation, because he was the
patriarch's seed. The Arabs claim to have sprung from Ishmael, as
did the Hebrews from Isaac. After the death of Sarah, at the age of
127, Abraham man-led Keturab, and by her had six other sons. The
venerable patriarch died at the age of 175, and was buried, by Isaac
and Ishmael, in the tomb which contained his first wife in Mamre.
ABCJ-BEKR, properly called Aldattah-Atik-ben-Abi-Kohafah, but
better known under the name of Abu-Bekr (that is, 'Father of the
Maiden,' in allusion to his daughter Ayeshah, whom the Arabian
prophet married very young), was the first kalif or successor of
Mohammed in the government of the new empire founded by him.
Mohammed died in A.D. 632, without leaving any male issue. The
succession to the sovereignty was at first contested between his father-
in-law, Abu-Bekr, and AH-ben-Abi-Taleb, his cousin-german, who was
also, through marriage with the prophet's daughter Fatima, his son-
in-law. Between the two rivals themselves the dispute was settled
without an appeal to arms. Abu-Bekr prevailed, aud AH, though
disappointed, submitted to the authority of his successful opponent.
But among the Mohammedans the respective claims of the two com-
petitors became a point of perpetual controversy, and gave rise to
the great division of tbe whole Mohammedan community into Sunnites
and Shiites ; the former asserting the right of Abu-Bekr and his two
successors, Omar and Othman, while the Shiites condemn these three
kalifs as unlawful intruders, and maintain the exclusive right of AH-
ben-Abi-Taleb and his lineal descendants to the commandership over
the Faithful [ALI-BEX-ABI-TALEB.]
After the death of Mohammed, only the three important towns of
Mecca, Medina, and Tayef declared themselves for Abu-Bekr. It was
the first and principal object of the newly-appointed sovereign to
establish his authority in the other parts of Arabia, especially iu the
countries of Yemen, Tehama, Oman, and Bahrain. In reducing to
obedience these refractory provinces, Abu-Bekr was powerfully sup-
ported by Omar, afterwards his successor, and especially by Khaled-
ben-Walid, a military commander of extraordinary courage and
presence of mind. Besides this rebellion of some of its members, the
Mohammedan state had to encounter other difficulties from several
new pretenders to prophetship. Mosailamah seems to have been the
most formidable of these enemies of the Islam. He was however
defeated by Khaled, and killed in a battle near Akrabah. This con-
flict is memorable on another account. The precepts promulgated
at different times by Mohammed had till then been in a great measure
preserved by oral tradition, or handed about in fragments written on
palm-leaves, or pieces of parchment Many of the personal associates
of Mohammed, who were from memory familiar with his doctrine,
fell in the war with Mosailamah ; and Abu-Bekr, in order to obviate
any future uncertainty about the genuine text of the ordinances,
caused all the fragments to be collected, the passages remembered by
heart to be written out, and the whole to be embodied in the volume
known under the title of the Koran.
Abu-Bekr, anxious to increase the Mohammedan dominions, dis-
patched Khaled into Irak, where he subdued several of the frontier
provinces along the Euphrates. Two other commanders, Yezid-ben-
Abi-Sofyan and Abu-Obeidah, entered Syria and defeated tbe troops
of the Grecian emperor Heraclius. After a decisive victory over a
Greek army of 70,000 men, near Ajnaidain, the capture of Damascus
by the united forces of Abu-Obeidah and Khaled established the
dominion of the Arabs over Syria, and iu fact over the whole country
between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean.
On the day of the capture of Damascus (August 23rd, 634) Abu-
Bekr died, at the age of 63 years. Not one of his three sons, Abdallah,
Abd-al-rahman, and Mohammed, survived him; and in his will he
appointed Omar as bis successor. Eastern writers praise the simplicity
of his habits and manners, and his disregard of wealth and the luxu-
ries or even comforts of life. Every Frulay he distributed all the
surplus of his income among such persons as he thought deserving of
it. His short reign, of little more than two years, forms an eventful
epoch in the history of Mohammedanism ; and oriental authors have
vied with one another in recording details about the early conquests
of the armies of the Faithful. The volume of the great Arabic
ACHARn. FRArICOIS*!HARLF..S.
Auriih sf Tabsij
Ittl Itet. U entirely i
.Mr-.naj-: tW b*ter
trsashti < by Ka
i wi* only th.
(Qreirewmld.
part of Abu-
er the history *f tb* e*qoe.t. of Irak
A hicbly biter**tfasf account of
UtiT*l AW, from th. Arabia
be load to Ookley's -Hlrtory of tb*
AUrLFARAtJICS (properly JTr Onyenw AMfmj, also called
wsWMv AvAtAvw)i wo MI oritobU writer of maeh cl*brltT, who
iWt^thelMtsataryofoareca. Hs was bora in ISM, at btalatia,
srsMtt*. a town iltosl linear tb* western bank of tb* Euphrates in
Lsanr Asia, where bis mtbtr. Aaron, followed tb* profession of a
byesesea, TLo^ tbe oaVpriac of a Jewish bmily, he embraced the
Sill II I bdssltowbisb, aotwTtbstandiag a *urmiM to tb* contrary,
b* eeatismd ttHbf ol till hi* death. AbuUarej studied theology, phllo-
eoby.sirfmiiH.hii, R* speat tb* gre***r part of hi* Web Syria,
At tb. early at* of tweoty b* was appointed bishop of Ouba. and
isjiiisasstly sf AWppo. b 1M4 b* was elected Primate of all the
J*abs* CJilitJini b tbe East. He died U Meragha in Aserbijan,
I.1IML
Ahsbaraj was tbe aothor of a greet number of Arabic and Syriac
Mrfca, tmt Ib* composition through which bis name ha* become best
BseshA^SHK *aukA ** *- si eoebleB^SBshKl Ik^ssVassaa) earwlM^M !* flwlsu* Kt ri*
BssWB ssstPPff O> BOITT/f^sssI DIBVOsTTf WmND IB OJTUwO* UU WWD**
btted by tb* autbor llsinlf into Arabic, to which be has given the
UUsef Hirtoryoftbo DynsHisa.' It is divided into ten Mctions
tbslntof which lira son* account of tb* patriarch. ; the eecond.
rftb*
the jodge.; and the third, of the
!
errors are observable, into which
ntlleo through his ignorance of the classical language*
Thoogh written by a Christian, thi* work i* held in
Jew* and Mohammedans in the East. To u* it*
in the curious details which it contains con-
nsmhsf. tb* history of science among tb* Arab*, particularly nnder
tb* tbr<* Abbssid* kali*. Mmnsnr, Harun-al-Rashid, and Mamun. An
edMoo of tb* Arabia text of tb* Dynasties,' accompanied with a
Latin tramlatioo. was pubUsbed by Edward Pococke, at Oxford, in
IMS. 4to. ; tb* Syriac text, likewise with a Latin version, was edited
by Brans and Kincb, at Leipxig. hi 1789 4to.
ABUL-KAZU soo of ttb.ikb Mobsrik, was the vuir of the
ulitrssii Mogul emperor Akbar, who reigned from A.R 1555 to
106. b 1401, when returning from an expedition to the Oeoean, he
WM murdered in tb* district of Nurwar by banditti, and, it was sus-
peeted. bv tb* contrivance of Akbar's son Selim. who arWwards
ssisiisilid U* father on the throne, nnder th* name of Jehangir.
Tbe extensive sad valuable work* which Abul-Faxl found leisure to
write, have bwnrsd him a ooespieaous pUoe among th* bast authors,
; tbe most enlightened
statesmen, of the East Hi*
prbMipal work Is tb* Akbar-S ameb,' which *xi*te a* yet only in
sasmssript. sad oootain* history of tb* reign of th* sovereign
bom be served, sod to whom be was most devotedly attached ; thi*
Ustory Abul-Fast carried down till very near tbe time of his own
death, sod it was afterward* continued by Sheikh Enaietullah in a
Mill * !, entitled Takmueb-l-Akbar-Nameh.' Bat the work
wbkh bas toost *oa*rlbuted to make his name f.miliar to us ls the
Ayavi-Akbari,' or lostrtates of Akbar, a statistical and political
lliH|ilii of Ib* Mogul empire, sad of tb* several branches of
!* a Mead to theoppr.^ Hindoos.
in tb* Bast oa
style, I* tb* Ay*r i-Dwrf*.' or Touchstone of Intellect, a
Arabic of tb* well known fabla. of
id to bold tbst dignity *v*a after tb. E
Jddhvlbek, bad bvl^ art an eod to tb.
Jrria and Egypt. AomUrda was bora in 1
bU Camilybsd lad Wfor. tb* MojoU, who tbsn
"susr*** r v u * 1 ^
bsaBas.l.ooe.seBtasamb**.
tb* Ayu-
; - : ,
.
(IM)bs
of Hamah, on an expedition again*! the Mogols. After the death of
Modhaffar. in 12IW, the Bahrito lulUn Naitir declared the fief which
the Ayubit** bald under him to hare become extinct, and aatigned a
email penaion for their maintenance. When however, ten years after-
ward*, Sulten Nasir became personally acquainted with Abulfeda, he
not only reetored to him (1310) the former dignity of his family, but
aooo after, u an acknowledgement for hii aerrioe*, raUed him to the
rank of malik, or king. In 1316 Abulfeda was obliged to give up the
town of Maarrah and It* territory to the Arab Emir Mohammed-Ben-
lea, who demanded this boon as a reward fur bis defection from the
MogoU ; but he retained Barin and Haraah, and with his troops often
rendered military eervioel to Sultan Nasir. He continued on the most
friendly terms with Nasir till he died in 1331. The numerous works
which he has left behind attest the extent and variety of his informa-
tion. Among them we find mentioned works on medicine, Mohammedan
jurisprudence, mathematics, and philosophy : those most commonly
known are a treatise on geography, entitled ' Takwim-al-boldnn,' or
'Disposition of the Countries;' and an historical work called 'Hukhtaaar
fl akhbaral-baabar,' that is, ' A Compendium of the History of Mankind.'
The geographical treatise consist* of an introduction and twenty-eight
sections on particular countries, each containing, first, a tabl-, showing
the latitudes and longitudes of the most remarkable places, and after-
ward* detailed statistical and topographical notices respecting them.
In the description of such places as he had not seen himself, he takes
care to name the authorities from whom he draws his information.
The descriptions of single countries have been edited by Qraviua,
Reiske, Rommel, Koehler, Michaelia, and other*. The historical work
U a chronicle after the usual comprehensive plan of oriental works of
this kind. It* main object U the history of Mohammed, and of the
Arabian empire, which it carries down as far as the year 1328. The
earlier centuries of the Mohammedan power are but briefly treated.
Farther on the narrative become* fuller and richer in interesting details.
For the history of the Crusade* it is one of the most important oriental
source* which we possum, The latter part of the work, or the history
of Mohammedanism, was translated by Reiske, and edited with the
Arabic text by Adler, at Copenhagen, in five volume*, 4 to, 1739-17'.') ;
an edition and translation of the ante-Islamitic part has been published
by Fleischer, Leipzig, 1831, 4 to.
AHYDE'NUS (' Affutrirti), a Greek historian who wrote a history of
Assyria ('Airmfxamt), of which some fragment* are preserved by Kusc-
bius, Cyrillus, SynoaUus, and Moses of Chorene. His work was valuable
for chronology, and a fragment found in the Armenian translation of
the Chronioon of Enaebiua settles some difficulties in Assyrian history.
The time at which he lived i* not certain ; he mult however belong to
a later period than IlcitMns, one of hi* authorities, who lived about
B.C. 440. The fragments of his history are collected in Scaliger's work,
' De Kmendationa Tempo rum,' and more completely in J. D. O. Richter,
'Berod Chaldsei Historic qua lupersunt,' Ac., Leipzig, 1326, 8vo, p.
S3, Ac., and p. 85, Ac.
ACHARD, FRANCOIS-CHARLES, a chemist and experimental
philosopher, supposed to have been of French extraction, was born at
Berlin in 1763 or 1764, and died in 1821. He was the author of various
work*, written in the German language, on experimental physics,
chemistry, ami agriculture ; and he was long an active contributor to
different scientific journals, particularly the ' Memoirs ' of the Academy
of Berlin. In 1780 he published at Berlin a work entitled ' Chymisch-
Phyi*cbe Schriften,' which contains a great number of experiments
utrthe subject of the adhesion of different bodies to each other. Tables
containing the result* of three experiments, which seem to have been
conducted with great care, may b* seen in the ' Encyclopedic Metho-
diqne (ChlmieV torn, i., p. 469.
Acliard it however chiefly known for his proposal to extract sugar
from beet-root. Another I'russian chemist, Margraff, had discovered
the existence of a certain portion of sugar in this root a* early as 1 747.
He communicated his discovery to the Scientific Society at Berlin ;
but he himself thought it of little practical importance, as he declared
he could not produce sugar nnder 100 francs the pound. Achard, who
in this particular appears to have been somewhat of a visionary, on the
contrary, described the beet-root a* " one of the most bountiful gift*
whieh the divine munificence had awarded to man upon the earth."
He affirmed that not only sugar could be produced from beet-root, but
tobacco, m<ilsssi, coffee, rum, arrack, vinegar, and beer. The Institute
of Paris, in 1 800, gave Achard the honour of a vote of thank* ; but after
aeries of careful experiments they reported that the renulU were so
nnsattsfsetory, thai U would be unwise to establish any manufacture
of sugar from beet-root. But Napoleon I. In 1612 succeeded in forming
an imperial manufactory of sugar at lUmbonillet, when his decree*
bad deprived France of the produce of the West Indie*. The sugar
made at bom* was sold at a great price ; and consequently, after the
pemos, when foreign sugar was once more introduced, ite cheapness put
an and to the beet-root establishment*. The government of France
bow*r*r cboee to levy high duties upon the sugars of English colonies
to protect thoM of Martinique, Quadalonpe, and Bourbon ; and the
tax upon English colonial sugar, being 6 francs the 100 kilogramme*,
or about half a franc per pound, amounted to a prohibition. Tho
beetroot manufacture therefore was revived, and, with some fluetii-
has continued to increase. The aamo duty is now levied upon
igmr M upon French colonial sugar, but the consumption of
29
ACHILLES.
ADAM.
30
sugar in France is very limited in comparison with that of England.
In 1850, 160.917,000 Ibs. of beet-root sugar were made in France. The
average yearly consumption in France ia less than 10 Ibs. for each
individual ; in the United Kingdom, in 1850, it exceeded 30 Ibs. each.
Beet-root sugar is also made extensively in Belgium, Russia, Prussia,
and Germany. The improvements in the processes for the manufac-
ture of beet-root sugar have led to attempts being made to introduce
its use into the United Kingdom. A company carries on operations
in Ireland on a scale of some magnitude.
ACHI'LLES, one of the most celebrated characters of the mythic
age of Greece ; a distinction due rather to his having been selected by
Homer as the hero of the ' Iliad,' than to the number or wonderful
nature of the exploits ascribed to him. He belongs to that interme-
diate period between truth and 6ction, during which it is generally
hard to say how much ia real, how much imaginary. In the cir-
cumstances of his life however, as they are told by Homer, there is
scarcely anything impossible, or even improbable, allowing for poetical
embellishment.
The story of Achilles, as we find it in Homer, is soon told. He
was the son of Peleus, king of Phthia, and the adjoining parts of
Thessaly, and of Thetis, a sea-goddess, daughter of Nereus. He was
educated l>y Phcenix, a refugee at his father's court. From his mother
he learned that his fate was to gain renown before Troy, and die
early ; or to enjoy a long but inglorious life. He chose the former
alternative, and joined the Grecian army, in which he was pre-eminent
in valour, strength, swiftness, and beauty. During the first nine years
of the Trojan war we have no minute detail of his actions ; in the
tenth year a quarrel broke out between him and the general-in-chief,
Agamemnon, which led him to withdraw entirely from the contest.
The Trojans, who before scarcely ventured without their walls, now
waged battle in the plain, till they reduced the Greeks to extreme
distress. The Greek council of war sent its most influential members
to soothe the anger of Achilles, but without effect. He allowed his
friend and companion Patroclus, however, clothed in the celestial arms
which Hephiestus (Vulcan) gave his father, Peleus, to lead the Myr-
midons, his followers, out to battle. Patroclus was slain, and stripped
of these arms by Hector. Rage and grief induced Achilles to return
to battle. Thetis procured from Hephaestus a fresh suit of armour
for her son, who at the close of a day of slaughter killed Hector, and
dragged him at his chariot-wheels to the camp. Here ends the history
of Achilles, go far as it is derived from Homer, except that we may
infer, from a passage in the last book of the ' Odyssey,' that he was
slain in battle under the wall* of Troy. But the genuineness of the
last book of the ' Odyssey ' has, on good grounds, been disputed by
gome excellent ancient and modern critics.
By later authors a variety of fable is mixed up with this simple
narrative. Thetis is said to have dipped him, while an infant, in the
Styx, which rendered him invulnerable except in the heel, by which
she held him, and he was killed at hut by a wound in the heel. The
centaur Chiron is made his tutor instead of Phccnix, and feeds him upon
the marrow of lions and other wild beastx, to improve his strength and
courage. From this singular instructor he learned music and a number
of sciences, even before the age of nine years ; at which time Thetis,
anxious to prevent him going to Troy, removed him, disguised as a
girl, to the court of Lycomedes, king of the island Scyros. Here he
became the father of Neoptolemux, or Pyrrhus, by the king's daughter,
I>i' lamia, rather precociously ; for he had not been a year on the island
when Ulysses was sent by the confederate Greeks to seek him, in con-
sequence of an oracle which declared that Troy could not be taken
without the help of Achilles. Ulysses arrived at the island, discovered
him among the females of Lycomedes' s household, and carried him
away to join the army. He was betrothed to Iphigenia, daughter of
Agamemnon. The manner of his death ia variously told. Some make
him fall in battle ; others say that he was treacherously slain in a
temple, on the occasion of his nuptials with Polyxena, daughter of
i'ri:un ; but it is generally agreed that he was killed by Paris, Apollo
directing the arrow. He was entombed on the promontory of Sigseum,
and mighty barrow raised over his remains, which still rivets the
attention of travellers ; though it must always remain doubtful to
who>:e memory this mound of earth was really raised. Here Alexander
of Macedon celebrated splendid games in honour of the hero whom he
affected to emulate.
ACHI'LLKS TA'TIUS, a Greek astronomer, who lived probably in
the first half of the 4th century of our era, and wrote a treatise on
the sphere. There is still extant a fragment of Achilles Tatius, entitled
' An Introduction to the Phenomena of Aratus ;' it may be seen in the
' Uranologion ' of Petavins. Suidaa confounds this Achilles Tatius
with another, called by him Achilles Statins, who wrote a Greek
romance, 'The History of Leucippe and Clitophon.' This Achilles
was a native of Alexandria, and must have beeu later than Heliodorus,
whose romance he imitated. He probably wrote near the close of the
5th century. His romance is in eight books, and is preferred by some
of the earlier critics to that of Heliodorus. This latter, however,
appears to us one of the most tedious stories that ever was written.
The Greek romance writers give us no vivid picture of their own times,
but a distorted image of earlier forms of society, without any of the
spirit of historic truth. (Schoell, llitt. Greek Lilt. ; J'oreiyn Quarterly
>. 9.)
ACOSTA, JOSEPH D', a Spanish writer of the 16th century. He
was born at Medina del Campo in Leon, about the year 1539 ; and,
jefore attaining the age of fourteen, entered the Society of the Jesuits,
;o which his four elder brothers already belonged. He was remark-
able for his rapid progress both in literature and science ; and on
inishing his course, he became professor of theology at Oraua. In
1571 he went as a missionary to South America, aud became eventually
provincial of his order at Peru. During his residence in South
America, till 1588, he wrote an account of that continent, which was
published at Seville, in 4to, in 1590, under the title of ' Historia
Natural y Moral de las ludias.' This work, which is highly esteemed
as an authority on the early condition of South America, has been
translated into French, Italian, German, Dutch, and English. There
is a Latin translation of the work in Part IX. of De Bry's ' Collec-
tiones Peregrinationum in Indiam.' Acosta, after his return to his
native country, became a great favourite of Philip II., and had suc-
cessively the dignities of Visitor of his order for Arragon and
Andalusia, Superior of Valladolid, and Rector of the University of
Salamanca. He died February 15th, 1600. Besides the work we have
mentioned, he ia the author of another on the same subject, published
in 1589 in Latin, under the title of ' De Natura Novi Orbis Libri
Duo,' which was translated by himself into Spanish, and inserted in
his History. He is also the author of several theological treatises ;
and, among the rest, of a volume of sermons, in Latin. (Moreri;
Biog. Univ.; Robertson, America; Biblioth. Serif lor. Soc. Jesu, a
Jliliadeneira Alleyambe, et Sotvello.)
ACTON, JOSEPH, the prime minister of the court of Naples for
several years, was the sou of an Irish gentleman who practised medi-
cine at Besanjon, in France. He was born in 1737. He was originally
in the French naval service ; but subsequently obtained the command
of a frigate from Leopold, Duke of Tuscany. In an unsuccessful
expedition against Algiers, in 1774, in which the government of
Tuscany co-operated with that of Spain, Acton commanded thu
Tuscan vessels ; and by his gallant conduct succeeded in saving 3000
or 4000 Spanish soldiers, who must otherwise have perished. His
food conduct here was the cause of his advancement. He was recom-
mended to the service of the King of Naples. His intriguing disposi-
tion secured him the favour of the King and Queen of Naples ; and
ho was successively minister of the navy, of war, of finance, aud
ultimately became prime minister. In his policy he was constantly
opposed to the French party in Italy. Many of the persecutions for
political opinions, and the violations of justice, which occurred at
Naples subsequent to the period of the French invasion in 1799, arc
ascribed to the power or the influence of Acton. He is said to have
died in obscurity in Sicily, in 1803.
ADAIR, SIR ROBERT, was the son of Robert Ad.iir, sergeant-
surgeon to George III., by a daughter of the second Earl of Albe-
marie, through whom he became connected with many families of
political influence. He was born in London on May 24, 17C3, aud
was educated at Westminster school, whence he proceeded to Gottin-
gen to complete his studies. On his return iu 1780 he became
acquainted with Mr. Fox, took his side in politics, and wrote a pamphlet
or two, one of which, a letter to Mr. Burke, brought on him the
ridicule of Canning in the Anti-Jacobin. But in February 1806,
when Fox succeeded to power, he was sent as minister to Vienna,
where he conducted himself ably, and of which mission he published
a memoir in 1845 ; and in 180S, Canning, when iu office, though he
had rediculed his appointment to Vienna, selected him for a special
mission to the Porte, with Mr. Canning (now Lord Stratford tic
Redcliffe) and Mr. Morier as assistants, where he negociated iiio
treaty of the Dardanelles, concluded in 1809, and of this mission
he has also published an account. On its successful termination he
was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath. In April
1809 he was appointed ambassador at Constantinople, which office he
held till 1811. In July 1831 he was despatched by Earl Grey on a
special mission to Belgium, where Prince Leopold, recently elected to
the throne of that kingdom, was besieged in Liege by the Dutch
troops under William Prince of Orange. Sir Robert urged Priiico
Leopold to fly ; but he declined, saying, that " flight ought not to be the
first act of his reign ; he was ready to fight, but would allow him to
negociate,'' and Sir Robert, fastening a, handkerchief to a ramrod,
sought the hostile army, and in an interview with Prince William,
succeeded in gaining his connivance for Leopold to withdraw to
Maliues, whither he accompanied him. In this port he remained till
1835, when he retired with the rank of privy councillor, and a pen-
sion of 20002. per annum. He died on October 3, 1855, after a short
illness. Sir Robert had represented Appleby in 1802, and Camelford
in 1806 and 1807. In 1805 he had married Angelique Gabrielle,
daughter of the Marquis of Hazincourt, but left no issue. Sir Robert
possessed a wide range of information, aud his views with regard to
Russia have beeu remarkably confirmed by recent events.
ADAM, the first man, and progenitor of the human race, whom
God formed of the dust of the ground, on the sixth and last day of
the creation, as related in the first aud second chapters of Genesis.
The whole of the authentic history of Adam is contained in the first
five chapters of that book. His loss of the state of innocence aud
felicity which he originally enjoyed, is commonly known by the name
of ' The Fall.' It was after this event, and his expulsion from the
ADAM. ALEXANDER, LUD.
ADAM, ROBERT.
**ta**r>of
or Uu tan shrill raraitirr. Mr 4 BM*ld**A*oa Cain
d soTWAbrf. and hi. third Ma, or Shath,
b* was 130yanold. H* k also stated to lure
an not givso. H. dUd
to UM commonly received
hrist Man:
as?
of Christ
iad kU* qasMfeM raj***, by UMnbbinieal writer.
iBBliiiilliu Adan. for which UMW i no warrant whatever
. Th* reader who may be etiriooi to B** om* of tbeae
D***1U1T pVsTVQiB. OW v *JV
Bol*noa.' T. 10. Acconling to Ladol
MM ' beautiful, e*>nC *.; deoot
of God. la the N*w Te*tam*at UM
.
th* articte. in BayU. and in Calm*t's Dictionary of tb.
TawordAd*ia*saVtob*id.'BBdKfa*iippo**d thatin
to UM Hg-i^H^. of this Hbr*w verb, tbo earth out of
which Adam was mad* was called Aduwli ; ' while othen think tint
UM MOM Adaa ' wn'^ff* an allueioo to Ura reddiah oolonr of a
healthy asnoa. Be* th* a*s of the word 'adorn ' in the ' Song of
' LodoJf. 'Adamah, 1 in the Ethiopic.
I mat to be the chief work
ipresaion* the last Adam,"
UM aacoad OMB," are UM! to dsaignal* oar Saviour, M the head of
tb* aew creation. ia UM kingdom of heaven.
ADAM. ALEXANDER, LUD., an eminent teacher of Latin, who
WM bora in Jun. 1741, at CoaU of Burjrie, in the pariah of Rafford,
Manrahir*. Scotland. Baring acquired the ordinary knowledge of
Latin in Ib* parish school, b* prooraded to Aberdeen, in the hope of
irtrt-tntng one of UM bursari** which are open for annual competition
at King* CoUtg*. Dsmppolntod in thu expectation, he enterrd him-
aalf at UM r Diversity of Edinburgh in UM winter of 17S8. His
cVsaoaHis* and privation* while attending collrge were very great ;
hut although sometime* reduced to cncb destitution as not to know
wberr to obtain a mouthful of bread, be manfully persevered till lie
gained tb* reputation of bain? on* of the beat scholars in the Uni-
wrstty. His merits wan at length rewarded by hi* appointment, in
171, to the offlce of one of the toaebera in Watoon'a Hospital, an
invitation in Edinburgh for the education and rappoH of the sons of
deoaved I in sans*. In 1767 be wa* eboaan assistant to the Rector of
UM High School, tb* chief daadcal aeminary of the city. In 1771,
OB tb* death of UM Rector, Adam waa elected by the magistrate* aa
hat auoc*aior ; and in thU honourable port be remained throughout
th* reet of bu life. The Ant yean of bis rectorship however were
aooMwbat atonuy. In 1772 lie publuhed a little work entitled, ' The
riiBnlBsai of Latin and English Grammar,' and introduced it into the
aebool a* a aubatHuU for ' Koddimaa'i Grammar.' The four under-
Msten raaiatod thia innoration, and, after repeated applications to
UM ihs^Miata*. aa natron* of the school, obtained, in 1786, a prohibi-
tion again** tb* Rector's book. It baa nevertheless gone through
atraral +ilrH"Dt 1 and has been to aome extent used in the other school*
of ftmillaml Dr. Adam alao publuhed the following works : In
1791 a volume entitled ' Roman Antiquitiea,' which has gone through
rvrral edition*, and been traaalatod into Gorman, French, and Italian ;
hi 17t. a 'Summary of Geography and History,' also several times
reprinted; in 1 SOO, a Dictionary of CUasloal Biography ; and.inlSOS,
Latin Dictionary. under th* Utt* of 'Lexicon Lingual Latins) Com-
pendJarfam,' bates; aa abridgment of a larger work on which be bad
bean toot iBias.il A awoad edition of this Urt baa been published
aim the Bothers death, with vary considerable alterations, both in
Ih* way of addition and of curtailment Both this dictionary and
the ' Eoasaa Antiqviti**' era much used in th* achools of Scotland.
Ho penoa UUof B public situation waa more universally respected
awl isliMiii to Scotland than Dr. Adam in his Utter days. Hi*
ahswartaf waa on* of great manliness ; so much so, aa to make biui
BSSBsMimi perhaps htdfaerwtiy bold in to* xpreeaion of whatever be
Wl His political opinion. wan of a atrongly liberal complexion;
Bad b* ha* has* acooasd of not acrnpling sometime* to give them
*a with soasHanlli sotphaasa in UM praence of hi* claas. But
I wa th* general regard felt for him. that this charge, which,
by bis
._ Of hi* life was puMiab*d in 8vo. in 1810.
Of UM foot work* jo* ecmnMrsted, UM moat valuable and the beat
la UM lrnls.1 oa Roman Antiquities. Few book* in so small
BO lama a maa* of turful information ; and the
BBS*. 14 M " - -
work, baa
toBM of th* R
itUoblcbnnyptaof
to th* enVta C/UBM in changing tb*
anal an*, be hs* often ao arranged UM pasaage*
atracUd by him frooj Tatte authors oa tbia enbject, M sottnly to
both biasaalf aad hi* reader. Mom. orreotioea aad many
i an noaind w the tswtioa oa UM Roman y**r, particularly
tWttoaav1od*DtiertoUJ<lMaeonet.<io. No llul* caution .bould
ha ohswnd la r-diag th* na*rlu oa Roman money, a .object of
v.ta whioh U I* oftea awrspradeat to bei
^Mcsal diSeHy, t, whash to U often faor* pro*at to beMtisM
with spuraBii^ th*a to adopt UM ordiaary trpr*tatiooa. Th*
mhM *ad aaax. of th* Kooea coin* wan ooaeUatly cbaaginx, and
.hi. aa4.mlHii.Hly. tMsta, UM Buaa.tc*! oototioa *m P V'1 by
Ih* IfaNaaa* i* parUeuiuly UaM* to comnrfioa in tb* BMnuncripU:
and, *v*n where the text is not corrupted, the interpretation is un-
certain. With all these drawbacks, the work is of great value to
all who read the history or the literature of Rome, and does great
credit to Dr. Adam. It ought not to detract from his reputation
that be has not anticipated the important discoveries made by the
German* since he wrote.
The treat! v on classical biography is intended chiefly for the illus-
tration of Roman history. It deserves a much more extensive circu-
lation than we believe it possess** in England. We may say the same
of Dr. Adam's Latin dictionary, notwithstanding its inconvenient
arrangement, which often neglects the alphabetical order to bring
together words etymologically connected. The summary of history
and geography, published by Dr. Adam, has in parts great merit, but
it aim* at much more than can be fairly executed within the limits.
We need only aay that it professes to give, 1st, A summary of all
history, ancient and modern, Grecian, Roman, Persian, English, French,
German, Indian, American, &c. &c., with the manners and customs of
these nations; 2ndly, the mythology of the Greeks; 3rdly, the
geography of all ages and all countries, not excluding even the local
situations of remarkable cities ; 4thly, an account of the progress of
astronomy and geography, from the earliest periods to the present
time, with a brief account of the planetary system. Not satis&ed
with all this, the publishers have added an extensive index of geography,
and 13 maps of little value. When we look at ail that Dr. Adam
did, we can fairly aay, that no writer in the British 1 -lauds has ever
done more to assist the young student of Latin, or, what is perhaps
still more important, to connect that study with the attainment of
general knowledge.
ADAH, JAMES, an architect, who is chiefly known as the partner
and associate of his brother Robert, the subject of the following
article. He died in 1704.
ADAM, ROBERT, was born at Kirkaldy, in Kifeshire, according to
some authorities, and, according to others, at Edinburgh, in the year
1728, and wns the son of William Adam, Esq., of Maryburgh, near
Kirkaldy, who is said to have furnished the designs for Hopetoun
House and the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh ; but whether be wns
himself professionally an architect or not does not appear. Robert
received his literary education at the University of Edinburgh; and,
from hi* father, William Adam, it seems most likely that be derived
instruction in the principles and practice of his future profession.
When be was in his 26th year Mr. R. Adam went to Italy, and
remained there several years. His contemporaries, James Stuart and
Nicholas Revett, were, at the time of Adam's residence in Italy, en-
gaged in exploring, and preparing for publication, the architectural
remains of Athens ; but so little was Grecian architecture known and
appreciated, that he went, instead, to Spalatro in Ualmatia, to measure
and delineate the ruins of the palace of Diocletian there, a structure
indicating alike the decline of civilisation and the progress of bar-
barism. In this tour he was accompanied by Cldrisseau, a French
architect, whose name is connected with a work on the remains of
a Roman temple at Nisuies, in Languedoc. Mr. Adsm returned from
the continent about the year 1762, and settled in London, and shortly
after published there, in a large folio volume, engraved representations
and descriptions, with attempted restorations, of the Dalmatian palace.
About the same time, 1763-4, Mr.. It Adam was appointed architect
to the king. In the course of a very few years he designed, and, in
conjunction with his brother James, executed a great many public
and private buildings in England and in Scotland. In 17T3 the
brothers commenced the publication of their works, in large folio
engravings, with letter-press descriptions and critical and explanatory
notes, in numbers, which were continued at intervals down to 1778.
The principal designs included in these are, the screen fronting the
high road, and the extensive internal alterations of Sion House, a seat
of the Duke of Northumberland, near Brentford in Middlesex ; Lord
Mansfield'* mansion at Caen- Wood, or Kenwood, also in Middlesex ;
Luton House, in Bedfordshire, erected for Lord Bute ; the screen to
the Admiralty Office, London ; the Register Office, Edinburgh ; Shel-
burne House, now Lansdowne House, Berkeley-square, London ; the
parish church of Mlatley in Essex, *c. ftc. At a later period the Messrs.
Adam designed the Infirmary at Glasgow, and some extensive new
buildings in the Univenity of Edinburgh, though their practice, after
th* year 1780, lay principally in London, where a great many of their
production* still exist, and are easily recognised by any one accustomed
to discriminate architectural deign. Portland, Stratford, and Hamil-
ton Place*, tb* south and east sides of FiUroy-square, and the build-
ing* of th* Adelphi, are the most extensive of their works. Their
Interest in, aad connection with, thia last-mentioned expensive under-
taking, U intimated by th* name Adelphi, which is the Greek term
for brother*. 1 The Meeers. Adam were among the first, if they were
not themselves tbo very first, to make use in London of a stucco iu
imitation of stone, for external architectural decorations.
The style of architecture introduced by the Messrs. Adam was
peculiar to themwlvea, and very faulty ; but then is nevertheless
an air of prettinesa, and some good taste in it ; and the credit may
certainly be claimed for ite authors of having done much to improve
tb* strict architecture of London, for which species of composition
their tyl* waa betUr adapted than for detached and insulated
tructar**.
S3
ADAM.
ADAMS, JOHN.
Mr. R. Adam did not retain the appointment of architect to the
king more than four or five years, for he resigned it on being returned
to parliament for the county of Kinross in 1763. This latter circum-
stance however does not appear to have interrupted his professional
avocations, for we find that he continued to be actively engaged in
business down to the period of his death, which took place in March
1792. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, in the south transept of
which is a tablet to his memory.
As an architect Mr. Adam displayed an original and independent
mind ; for it required in hU day no small degree both of originality
and independence to break through the trammels which had been
imposed upon architecture. This Adam did nevertheless, and though
the result was that he became a mannerist, after a very peculiar and
not very elevated or classical style of his own, the effect on English
architecture was on the whole good. With Mr. Adam we believe ori-
ginated the idea of giving to a number of unimportant private edifices
the appearance of one imposing structure, by external architectural
arrangements ; and he certainly has the credit of having carried this
principle extensively into effect in several of the instances we have
mentioned.
ADAM (Sculptors). There were three brothers of this name, who
all enjoyed some reputation as sculptors in France in the early part
of the last century. They were the sons of a sculptor named Jacob-
Sigisbert Adam, who lived at Nancy. The eldest, Lambert-Sigisbert,
was born there in 1700, and made his first appearance at Paris in
1719. After remaining in that city for four years, he gained the first
prize in the Academy, and proceeded to Rome on a pension allowed
him by the king. Here he spent about ten years, and among other
works furnished the design which was adopted by Clement XII., one
of sixteen which were presented for the intended fountain of Trevi.
Tha offers of the French government then induced him to return to
Paris. On the 25th May 1737 he was admitted a member of the
Academy, and he was afterwards appointed professor in that institu-
tion. The two best known of this sculptor's productions are a group
of Neptune and Amphitrite, which he executed for the basin of Nep-
tune at Versaille, and on which he spent five years; and a figure of
St. Jerome, originally intended for the Hospital des Invalides, but now
placed in the church of St Roch at Paris. They are fair specimens
of the French school of that age, which however was one of the
least brilliant periods in the history of modern art. Adam published
in 1754 a work entitled ' Recueil de Sculptures Antiques Grecques et
Romaines." He died in 1759. Nicolas Sebastian, the next brother,
was born in 1705. He came to Paris at the age of IS, and went to
Rome in 1726, where, two years after, he obtained one of the prizes
at the Academy of San Luca. Having remained there for nine years,
he returned to Paris ; and after some time was also, like his elder
brother, received into the Academy. Among the designs which he
produced was one for the Mausoleum of the Cardinal de Fleury. His
two principal works were a tomb for the wife of King Stanislaus of
Poland, and his Prometheus chained to the Rock (which has been
commonly assigned by mistake to his elder brother). For the latter
work he had an offer from the King of Prussia of 30,000 francs ; but
he declined accepting it, on the ground that the sculpture belonged to
his own sovereign, for whom it had been at first intended. He died
in 1778. The third brother, Franeois-Gaspard, was born in 1710.
He made his way, like his elder brother, to Rome, and also on his
return from Italy fixed his residence in Paris. He worked for some
years at Berlin, in the service of the King of Prussia, and died at
Paris in 1795. (Biographie Univeridle.)
ADAMS, JOHN, a distinguished American statesman. He was
born in the town of Braintree, near Boston, in Massachusetts, on the
1'Jth October 1735, of a family which bad come from England at the
first settlement of the colony. At the usual age he was sent to Har-
vard College, in the neighbouring town of Cambridge ; after leaving
which, he proceeded to study the law, and was in due time called to
the bar. He soon raised himself in the profession which he had thus
chosen to great reputation and extensive practice. In 1765, when the
first opposition of the people of America was excited by the Stamp
Act, Mr. Adams took an active part in those measures of constitutional
opposition which eventually forced the repeal of that obnoxious statute.
An offer of the lucrative office of Advocate-General in the Court ol
Admiralty, made to him the following year by the Crown, with the
view of detaching him from the popular cause, was instantly rejected.
Ho was one of the select men, or state-representatives, deputed by
the several towns of the province, who in 1770 met in convention at
Boston, on the announcement of the intention of the British govern-
ment to station a military force in that town, in order to control the
populace, exasperated by the new Act imposing duties on glass, paper,
tea, ice., which had been passed in 1767, and by the other measures
which indicated a determination in the mother-country to maintain
at least the principle of her late aggression. Soon after this however
Mr. Adams gave a proof both of his intrepidity and of the modera-
tion which was associated with his zeal, by undertaking the defence
of Captain Preston and his men, who, on the 5th of March 1770 had
killed several of the people of Boston in a riot a transaction which
used to pass under the name of the Boston massacre. He delivered a
very powerful speech on this occasion, when the jury acquitted all
the prisoners of murder, and only found two of them guilty of man
moo. DIV. VOL. L.
slaughter. To the honour of his countrymen, the part he had tbua
taken did not diminish his popularity or influence ; and he continued,
during the remaining first years of the struggle, to exert himself con-
spicuously in the front rank of the friends and supporters of the
colonial cause. In 1773, and again in 1774, he was returned by the
House of Assembly a member of the Council of the State ; but on
both occasions the governor, General Gage, put his negative on the
nomination. The latter year however he was elected one of the four
representatives from the province of Massachusetts Bay to the General
Congress, which met at Philadelphia on the 26th of October, and
which, among other proceedings, entered into a resolution to suspend
the importation of British goods ; and he was also a member of the
second assembly of the same nature, held some time after, which took
measures to enrol the people in an armed national militia. In 1775
be was offered the appointment of Chief Justice of his State ; but
this he declined, feeling that he could better serve his country in
another sphere. It had already become evident to many indeed that
the contest with Great Britain must finally be decided by the sword ;
and Adams seems to have been one of the first who adopted this con-
viction. He was accordingly one of the chief promoters of the Decla-
ration of Independence, passed on the memorable 4th of July 1776.
The motion was made by Mr. Lee of Virginia, and seconded by Mr.
Adams ; who, along with Mr. Jefferson, was appointed the sub-com-
mittee to prepare the declaration. It was actually drawn up by Mr.
Jefferson. In November 1777 Mr. Adams proceeded to Paris as a
Commissioner from the United States to that court ; and after remain-
ing for a short time in France returned to America, when he was
elected a Member of the Convention for preparing a new constitution
for Massachusetts. In 1780 he was sent by the United States as their
ambassador to Holland; from which country, about the end of 1782,
he proceeded to France, to co-operate with Dr. Franklin and his brother
commissioners in the negociations for peace with the mother country.
In 1785 he was appointed the first ambassador from the United States
to Great Britain ; and he had his first audience with his Majesty in
that character on the 2d of June. He remained in England till
October 1787. In 1789, when Washington was elected President of
the Union, Mr. Adams was elected Vice-President, and he was re-
elected to the same office in 1793. In 1797, on the retirement of
Washington, he was chosen President ; but he failed to be re-elected
on the expiration of his first term of four years, his competitor, Mr.
Jefferson, who had also been opposed to him on the former occasion,
having a majority of one vote. The general tone of the policy of
Adams had been opposed to that of the democratic party, which was
represented by Jefferson ; but he does not appear to have given com-
plete satisfaction to the other great party whose leading principles he
espoused. On failing in being re-elected President, he retired from
public affairs to the quiet of his country residence at Quincy ;
declining, although nominated, to stand candidate at the next annual
election for the governorship of Massachusetts. The rest of his life
he spent in retirement. For some years before his death his health
had become extremely feeble, and at last little more remained of the
once active and eloquent statesman than the mere breath of life. In
this state he was when the morning arrived of the 4th of July, 1826,
the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Awakened
from sleep by the ringing of bells and other rejoicings of that grand
jubilee, the venerable patriot was asked if he knew the meaning of
what he heard. " Oh, yes," he replied, the glow of old times seeming
to return to him for a moment, " It is the glorious 4th of July !
God bless it God bless you all ! " Some time after he said, " It is
a great and glorious day, adding, after a pause apparently of deep
thought, " Jefferson yet survives." These were the last words he was
heard to utter. About noon he became alarmingly ill, and at six in
the evening he expired. The same day also terminated the career of
Jefferson, his fellow-labourer in laying the foundations of the inde-
pendence of their common country, and afterwards his successful
rival. Except for a short time, however, these two distinguished men
were friends throughout life. Mr. Adams was the author of a work
first printed in 3 vols. 8vo., in 1787, while ho was in this country,
under the title of ' A Defence of the Constitution and Government of
the United States,' but afterwards remodelled and reprinted in 1794,
with the new title of a ' History of the Principal Republics of the
World.' It is designed to serve, by an ample induction from history,
as a vindication of the federal principles of the American Constitu-
tion, an attachment to which, indeed, has always been considered the
distinctive characteristic of this statesman and his party.
ADAMS, JOHN, sometimes called 'the Patriarch of Pitcaim's
Island.' When H.M.S. ' Bounty ' was seized by a part of her crew,
in April, 1789, John Adams was one of the mutineers. He had not
been previously aware of the intentions of the ringleader, Christian,
and was in his hammock when the mutiny broke out, where he
remained until the distribution of arms among the men, when he
joined the rest, and assisted in keeping watch over the officers on
deck, while Captain Bligh was secured below. [Buon.] After Bligh
and those who adhered to him had been set adrift in an open boat,
the cry was raised " Huzza for Otaheite !" and the 'Bounty' shaped
tier course accordingly. Provisions having been obtained there, the
mutineers sailed for the island of Toobooai, on which they intended
to settle; but the hostility of the natives preventing this, they
D
ADAMS, JOHX.
ADAMS, SAMUEL.
Moat of Ik*
molred to ramaia at that
.faaxM r.:,h .: -..! >r>
iacftooloay in aoma of UM
Of tha usual track of
bomwa* Adama, joined
_ to their taking tha
. carrying with tkam six mala
aativ*. of Otakaite. Arriving at Pitoairn'. laUad,
la U * r IT' N. U>, ISO I' ' W. long., they found a
they resolved to fix
wte*w*B> Kick t of Vf* companion*, M
with Urn, aad UM net offering BO
wW, UM* art eail in UM 'Boa^,'
ll.7to.faMl. MUM. Of OUMiU.
whfak i. in 24' 3' 37' N. Ul, ISO* 8" V W
Mtfttlaoilpbatyof wood and water, aadmoa
bU of iilnii again** any numben; and bare
their abod* They landed thalr atone, and 01
bode. They landed their atone, and on UM ttrd January,
1TM, a* fir* to UM 'Bounty,' and thiu cut off all communication
witk Ik. world
a Tillafa was' built, aad tba wl.ol. land of UM island
UM white man. Tba Ouhotan. war. tmUd
broke OOt tnaar tk- which
to UM mountain*, and only returned upon a promiae
to spar. Ua Ufa. Ha aooo recovered of hi* woun
UM two raeaa wara now aqnal in number, but the
i of tk* wif. of oa* of the Otaheitena being eeUad by a
whoa* own wife had died. This led to a plot among tha
. for UM deatroetioo. of their maaten. which wa* discovered
aad foiled, aad two of the Otabaitana wen killed. The oppression
of UM white* continued to be ao galling, that a second attempt to
dotroy tken waa made, which resulted in the death of Christian
aad fear of hi* oompanioaa. On Uu* oooasion Adams waa ahot
through UM body, aad otherwise derperately wounded, but ha eaeaped
wSmiUmOtSSn
wound*. The men of
bites, by taking
> of iliurial. among UM OtaheiUna, and by treachery, sue-
a* Uagth in killing the Otehaitana, the la*t two being butchered
m aold blood by Adama and another white man. on the 3rd of October,
1793. Ewn after tbia, UM death of tha white men wa* repeatedly
plotted by the Otebeitea women, but without effect During 1798, one
of UM man discovered a method of distilling spirit from a root, which
gave ria* to continual drunkeon.es, aad was the cause of hi* own
death. Shortly after, on. of the three remaining original settlers
having rVirr'r' UM Uvea of tha other two, they put him to death.
Tka two survivors, Adama and Young, dUgusted at the scenes which
they had witaaaaad, and reflecting deeply on their situation, resolved
to eflect a thorough ehaage. During Christian', lifetime dirine service
had barn pat tot mad only once ; they now determined to introduce
daily morning and evening prayer*, with divine service every Sunday,
aad to train np the children in habit* of piety and virtue. Young,
who had been aa omcer oa board the ' Bounty,' was very useful in the
of this scheme, but be died one year after the plan was
id. Jhn Adama felt tha death of his companion deeply,
bat It only ooafmed him in Ua resolution. Than wan now nineteen
children on the Uland, many of them between eight and nine yean of
ran attended
}-. BBBH :.. '. T
idiepfeyedaa
with great succeas ; the Otaheitan
. -ility in receiving the doctrine* of
UM children wan ao ardent in the pursuit of scrip-
. thai ha had aooe ao further trouble than to answer
They grew op in habit* of strict morality, and became,
no* of Adams, a modal of a well-regulated society.
la IMS' the American whale-ahip < Topaa* accidentally touched at
Hwaira'a bland ; but tha account, which the captain. Polgier, gave
of tab community attracted little attention, until in 1814 the British
Irlaaln ' Briton' and 'Tagna' alao viaitod the Uland. In an interview
with MM aspaalas. Adama axpnaaad a wuh to be taken to England, in
roar, a* be expneaed H, to aaa hi* native land one* more, although he
felt ooaviaoad be abold ba banged for hU share in the mutiny ; and
M wa* oar/ oa Momg UM pain which his determination caused, espe-
ato k daagbtor. that ha gave up tha deaign. In December,
Oaaaria Baaohey. in UM i Btoaaom/ anchored at Pitoain'i Island,
shore
wkae. ke raiMliail sixteen daya. moat of which be paved on aho
with Adama. The aeeonnl of Adam* aad hi* colony in the narrati
of Binhiy'* Toyace la UM moat complete that we pomand till the
of Mr. Murray'. inUmting little TO) time. A long grace
waa arid bafcn aad after every meal by John Buflea, a aaafarlng~man,
wko had noaaUy artllad oa UM Uland. and tha utmoet can wa.
bit of bread abould ba eaten without prayer.
aarvio* waa performed five times, tha pnyen on
- aad UM exhortation aad hymn*
Aitt*
i acted a* a aort of chaplain, and
d tha oennon thna timea ovir, to
; .bt Adama Umaalf read prayen,
prayer*,
UM attea
A *
from' UM KaglUb Ritod, d bAaMTdf the
r appropriate or not Captain Baaohay
UM noagnpHou M mnat exempUry ; and
again at. Uter boor. Marrkaj. wm
eUkbw akowad the graateat
wa. al prfornMd. and hyma. rang.
.
UM eoajpU* Uw* oa U*
a* aki. patea, UM* ka
ate aW tka Otokate
own
ftatE
lateiaUyrafnlated; thi
had with MM ring united all
aw* waa ao troabUd
^,tor*adth**arvioato
be lived, and who wa* now
BBt
taIl,troog,aadmttacuUr; UM woman
aoaroaly lea. ao than UM men, though feminine in appearance, and
with oonaideraUe preteoaioo* to beauty. They were fully pc.
in attending to their crop* of yarn* and taro-root, on which they
ehiefly aubaictrd, la fishing, repairing their houMM, net*, Ac., and in
their religious duties. Adama ipent several days on board the
< Bloaaom/ the wind not aarving for hi* return to land ; and among
hie countrymen be displayed hi* cheerfulness without restraint, joining
with great spirit in all the songs and dance* of the forecatle. H,
still retained the habit* of a man-of-war' s-tnan, stroking down his bald
forehead whenever addreaaed by an officer, and showing much embar-
raaament when spoken to familiarly by those whom he bad of old been
aeeoatomad to consider ao much above him.
On leaving the island, present* of useful articles were made to all
tha inhabitant*, and Captain Beechey became the bearer of a request
from Adama to the British government to give its aid in removing
them to some larger island, aa the population, then amounting to 66,
had already begun to press on the means of subsistence. The propo-
sition was favourably considered ; but before any determination could
be come to John Adams died, in March 1829, at the age of 69. An
Englishman named Nobbs, who had recently come to the island,
became his successor, and is now a regularly ordained minister. In
1854 the population amounted to 200, nearly all descendants of the
original settlers, and all speaking and reading English.
There is a characteristic portrait of Adams in liecchey's ' Voyage,'
with a fao-aimile of his hand-writing, aa attached to his own narrative
of the mutiny and it* consequences. The name John Adams, by
which he is universally known, waa an assumed one ; his real name
was Alexander Smith. The change was msde after Captain Folgier
had touched at the island, in order probably to avoid recognition,
although he seems never to have concealed his share in the mutiny.
The incidents of hi* life have been frequently made the subject of
dramatic representation. The subsequent history and present con-
dition of the island are noticed in the article PITCAIRN'S ISLAND, in the
OEOO. Dnr. Eno. Cic.
(Jiioyraphical Dictionary of the Society for the Diffusion of I'teful
Knowledyt ; Rev. K. Murray, PUcairn, London, 1853.)
ADAMS, JOHN COUCH, one of the discoverers of the planet
Neptune, was born at a farm-house on the Bodmin Moon, Cornwall,
about 1817. He entered at St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1839,
where he soon distinguished himself in those studies which have since
placed him in the foremost rank of modern astronomers. In July,
1841, ho formed a design of investigating the irregularities in the
motion of Urauus, and commenced his task, after taking his degree,
in 1848. In September of 1845, and 1846, be communicated the
results of his calculation* to the astronomer royal, and in November
of the Utter year a paper to the Astronomical Society, entitled ' An
Explanation of the Observed Irregularities in the motion of Uranus,'
Ac., in which the existence of the supposed remoter planet (Nf)
was mathematically demonstrated. But as Le Verrier's investigation
of the same subject was first made public, he is regarded as the first
discoverer. There U however no doubt that each ono made hu
discovery perfectly ignorant of what the other was doing.
Other valuable paper* by Adam* are printed in the ' Memoirs of
the Astronomical Society.' In 1853 he sent to the Royal Society a
paper 'On the Secular Variation of the Moon'* Mean Motion,' in
which a question left "essentially incomplete " by Laplace is rectified.
ThU paper appears in the ' Philosophical Transactions.'
In November, 1845, Adam* wa* elected a Fellow of the Astrono-
mical Society, wa* made Vice-president in 1848, and President in
1851. In 1848 the Koyal Society gave him their highest scientific
award the Copley medal. He wa* elected a Fellow of that society in
1849, and wa* named of the Council the same year. He is a Fellow
alao of other scientific societies.
ADAMS, JOHN QU1NCY, the eldest son of John Adams, the
second President of the United States, waa born in Maasaohusette,
June 11, 1767. Some of his early years were spent in Europe, whither
he accompanied hU father. lu 1801 and 1802 he was minister pleni-
potentiary from the United States to Berlin, and during thU time be
travelled through Silesia, which country, its manufactures, and more
particularly it* educational establishment*, were described by him in
a series of letters addressed to his brother at Philadelphia. Thene
letter*, which were originally publuhed in a journal called ' The
Portfolio,' were collected in a volume and published in 1804. During
the presidency of Jefferson, Adams waa recalled from his embassy at
Berlin. Upon hi. return he became a professor in Harvard College,
aad wa* subsequently elected a deputy to Congress for Massachusetts.
Having been previously attached to the federalist party, he now allied
himself to the democratic party. He wa* next charged with a
miarioo to Ruatla, and in 1814 joined the Congress at Vienna as
plenipotentiary of the United Statea. In 1816 he was ambassador at
UM Court of St Jamea'p. In 1817 he became secretary of state for
the Interior; and in 1825 be succeeded Mr. Monroe as President of
UM Union. He was not however re-elected, hU place being supplied
by General Jackson. In 1 820 he waa elected deputy to Congress,
where ha distinguished himself until hU death by hU advocacy of the
abolition of slavery. He died at Washington, February 17, 1848.
ADAMS, SAMUEL, a conspicuous actor in the American revolution.
Ha was born at Boston on the 27th of September, 1722, and received
37
ADANSON, MICHAEL.
ADDISON, JOSEPH.
38
his education at Harvard College. On the first outbreaking in his
native province of the irritation and disturbances occasioned by the
Stamp Act in 1 765, Adams threw himself with zeal and determination
on the popular side. From that moment the forwarding and main-
taining the cause of his country's independence became the business
of his life. His name appears subscribed to the Declaration of Inde-
pendence in 1776. After the conclusion of the war he was nominated
a member of the convention for settling the constitution of Massachu-
setts ; and he afterwards occupied a seat in the senate of that state,
and presided over it for some years. In 1789 he was elected to the
office of lieutenant-governor, and in 1794 to that of governor, to which
he was re-elected annually till 1797, when he retired from public life.
He died at Boston on the 2nd of October, 1803. Samuel Adams was
one of the firmest and most active patriots of the revolution, and
powerfully contributed to the happy termination of the great cause
to which he devoted his life. But he was not a politician of very
enlarged views ; and useful as he proved in the subordinate sphere in
which he acted, there can be little doubt, from many parts of his
conduct, that the national struggle would hardly have been brought
to the successful issue with which it was eventually crowned, if it had
not been guided by wiser heads than his. He was actuated in the
whole course of his political career almost exclusively by one idea or
fueling jealousy of delegated power, however guarded. " Samuel
Adams," says one of his friends and admirers, "would have the state
of Massachusetts govern the Union, the town of Boston govern
Massachusetts, and that he should govern the town of Boston, and
then the whole would not be intentionally ill-governed."
ADANSON, MICHAEL, a French naturalist of high reputation,
was born at Aix in Provence, April 7, 1727. He was of Scotch
extraction, but his family had become exiles in consequence of the
troubles that distracted Scotland in the early part of the 18th century.
At a very early age he was placed in the University of Paris, under
the care of the celebrated Reaumur and of Bernard de Jussieu ; and
it is supposed that from these preceptors he imbibed that love of the
s-.tudy of natural history by which he afterwards became distinguished
in so eminent a degree. His successes in carrying off the academical
prizes from his competitors soon attracted attention, and Needham,
the well-known microscopic observer, having upon one occasion been
witness to his triumph, presented him with a microscope, accom-
panied, it is said, by these prophetic words " Young man, you have
studied books enough ; your future path will be among the works of
nature, not of man." At this time great originality of thought and a
strong bias for systematic arrangement had already begun to develop
itself. Emulous of the reputation of Linnams, which had already
found its way among the French, young Adanson is said, when only
14, to have sketched out not less than four methods of classifying
plants. His friends had destined him for the church, but a feeling
that his pursuits, and perhaps his temper, were but ill adapted to the
duties of the priesthood, induced him to resolve upon seeking some
other employment, in case his slender patrimony should proye
insufficient for his wants.
The genius of Adanson was much too active to allow him to remain
in the walks of quiet life. An opportunity occurring of visiting the
country whence ivory, and gums, and frankincense were procured, he
eagerly embraced the occasion, although at the expense of a consider-
able portion of his fortune. At that time the natural history of
Africa was almost unknown, except from such of its commercial
products as were brought to Europe. In 1748 he embarked for
Senegal, being then 21. Five years were spent by him in this colony,
duriug which time he succeeded in forming considerable collections
in every branch of natural history. Not only were botany and
(oology the objects of his attention, but he amassed a large store of
meteorological observations ; he made himself acquainted with the
language of the native tribes, and carefully preserved their respective
vocabularies ; he traced the river Senegal to a considerable distance in
the interior, formed charts of the country, and finally returned to
Paris in 1753, rich in knowledge, but impoverished in worldly means.
His ' Natural History of Senegal,' published at Paris four years after-
wards, is a mass of original views, and of valuable practical informa-
tion. Among other things, it contained the first attempt upon record
of classifying shells according to the animals they contain, instead of
their external forms alone. The opinions that Adanson had early held
of the insufficiency of the classifications in natural history at that time
received in Europe, had become confirmed by his discoveries in Africa.
He saw that however easy and complete the systems of Linnaeus and
Touruefort might seem to those acquainted with the European Flora
only, they were both essentially defective when applied to vegetation
in a more extended manner. He perceived that the sexual system of
Linnaeus was founded upon incomplete and partial views. To the
method of Tournefort the objections appeared fewer, and accordingly
he determined to attempt a classification of his own, of which that of
Tournefort might serve as the basis. This appeared in 1763, in two
Toluines 8vo, under the name of ' Families of Plants.' In this work
Adanson particularly insisted upon the indispensable necessity of a
system being so far in accordance with nature, that all those objects
which most resemble each other may be classed together; he demon-
strated tnat, to effect this, it is absolutely necessary for a system to be
founded upon a consideration of all the ports of the objects which it
comprehends, and that it cannot be confined to differences in the
nature of a few organs only ; the artificial system of Linnaeus he for
that reason most justly considered inferior to the method of Tourne-
fort. In many respects this work of Adanson's deserves the eulogium
passed upon it by one of his historians, who pronounces it a production
not more brilliant than profound. Unfortunately for its author, and
still more for science, his views were more advanced than those of his
contemporaries; his perceptions of botanical truths, however just,
were of a nature not to be valued by those who had less experience
or acuteness than himself ; he also attempted to introduce a barbarous
nomenclature, which, it must be confessed, was at variance with com-
mon sense ; and what was worse than all, he had unceremoniously
rejected that system of Linnaeus which had become the basis of the
botanical creed of almost all Europe. For these reasons, notwith-
standing the high character of Adanson's ' Families of Plants,' they
have scarcely had any circulation beyond France ; and when, in 1789,
the ' Genera Plantarum ' of Jussieu made its appearance, the utility
of his work generally ceased.
From this period we have little to record concerning the scientific
career of Adanson. A few miscellaneous papers, a chimerical project
of a vast ' Encyclopaedia of Natural History' to contain 40,000 figures,
and a portion of the early part of the botanical division of the ' Sup-
plement to the French Encyclopaedia,' are all that he has executed.
Up to the period of the French revolution, he appears to have been
chiefly occupied in amassing collections for the stupendous work he
had in contemplation, and in making experiments upon vegetable
physiology. That political catastrophe overwhelmed him in the ruiu
it brought for a time upon his country ; the little that remained of his
fortune was annihilated ; he had the mortification to see his plantations
of mulberry-trees, which had been long the object of his simple care,
destroyed by a ferocious rabble ; and he full into so lamentable a state
of destitution, that when, upon the establishment of the Institute of
France some years after, he was invited to become one of the earliest
members, he was obliged to refuse the invitation to attend " because
he had no shoes." In his latter days he enjoyed a small pension from
the French government ; but his constitution was broken by the cala-
mities he had nndergone : a complication of maladies tormented him,
a softening of the bones confined him to his bed, and on the 6th of
August 1806 he was finally released from his afflictions by the hand
of death, in the 80th year of his age.
As a philanthropist, his name will always be respected by every
friend of civil liberty ; for he was among the first to plead the cause
of the slaves, and to insist upon the impolicy, as well as injustice, of
forced labour. In 1753 a plan, very like that upon which the new
American colony of Liberia hai been established, was presented by
him to the French government, for the whole of the French provinces
in Africa. The ministers of such a sovereign as Louis XV. were not
the men to listen favourably to a project of this nature, and it fell to
the ground. Such was his love of his country, that, although his cir-
cumstances do not seem ever to have been very good, he had firmness
enough to resist offers from the Emperor of Austria, Catherine of
Russia, and the King of Spain, to enter into their service. Under the
cruel misfortunes that attended his latter days he is represented to have
exhibited great patriotism and magnanimity, which was the more to be
commended because he was of an impetuous and irascible temper.
(Bibl. Univ., vol. i. ; Spreng., Hist. Jt. Herb., v. ii. ; Art. ' Adanson,'
in Rees's Oycl. Suppl.)
ADDINGTON. [SIDMOUTH, LORD.]
ADDISON, JOSEPH. This eminent writer was the son of the Rev.
Lancelot Addison, a clergyman of considerable learning, who eventually
obtained the deanery of Lichfield, but was at the time of the birth of
his son rector of the parish of Milston, near Amesbury, in Wiltshire.
Here Addisou was born on the 1st of May, 1672. After having been
put first to a school in Amesbury taught by the Rev. Mr. Nash, and
then to that of the Rev. Mr. Taylor at Salisbury, he was sent to the
Charterhouse, at which seminary he first became acquainted with his
afterwards celebrated friend Steele. From this school he went about
the age of fifteen to Queen's College, Oxford, and removed to Magdalen
College upon obtaining a scholarship two years afterwards. He is
said already to have obtained considerable facility in the writing of
Latin verse; and this talent, which he continued to cultivate and exer-
cise, first brought him into reputation at the university. Several of
bis Latin poems, most of which were probably produced before he had
attained his 26th year, were afterwards published in the second volume
of the collection entitled ' Musarum Anglicanarurn Analecta.' Tho
first composition which he gave to the world in his native language
was a copy of verses addressed in 1694 toDryden, which procured him
the acquaintance and patronage of that distinguished poet. He soon
after published a translation in verse of part of Virgil's Fourth
'Georgic;' and he had also the honour of writing the critical dis-
course on the ' Qeorgics,' prefixed by Dryden to his translation, which
appeared in 1697. But before this Addison had made himself known
to one of the most'enlightened and influential patrons of literature in
that day, the Lord Keeper Somers, by a poem which he addressed to
him on one of the campaigns of King William. He was also intro-
duced by Congreve to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Montague,
afterwards Lord Halifax. The advantageous connections which ho
hod thus formed seem, together with other considerations, to have
ADDISOX, JOSEPH.
ADDISON, JOSEPH.
40
Usato
ram, MM! he MM Ml * on tour to 1
of going into the church.
ofMOCayearfroBthe
Here be remained till
UM death of Ktaf WHOM*, hi UM *prif ofl7, <Uprrred him of hi*
i^^ Md 2^1 H Wl to hb MDMtallMI oflMiBf ppebUd to
a ptac* MS* the parm of MM* aUjiii, then commending the
ta Italy. Meanwhile be had addreesed from that
cMir; U. wctTkaowa |>oUtkal iMter' to l^ord Halifax, which WM
greatly I .fairs* both in tf>ari and Italy, and WM translated into
Tube. bytWAbbeteSeMBJ; Greek profer at rlorenoe. Boon after
hi. N*4 IMM k at p^>U4Md Ct-TnT^,' which b* dedicated
to Lord BosMra. Hb Msade being ovtcrf power, be now remained for
i being ovt of power, he now remained for
tent; bat at length the victory of Blen-
td a wish in the tuinisten to find some
celebrate iU glories; and the Treasurer
A the matter to Lord Halifax, the latter
on M UM Attest person to execute the
plied to, and UM consequence WM the
The
rear. " Oodolohin, npWseeing it when' little
.WM so much pleased with the performance
the author a Commissions of Appeals. In
UM following year' Addiaon accompanied Lord Halifax to Hanover;
and in IT'* b. became aoder-aecretary to Sir Charle. Hodges, on the
appotetSMt of UM latter M secretary of state. He continued to hold
the MUM DIM* odor UM Earl of SonderUnd, by whom Sir Charle.
WM in a few nsah. aoestail But although he had thus fairly
on a political career, be did not desert literature. Hi* next
was nil English opera, entitled ' Kosamond ;' and he also
ted hi. Moad Stesle Us pky of UM Tender Husband,' not only
a proloyn* to UM piece, but with several of its most effective
. In 1707 an able anonymous pamphlet appeared under the
'The Present State of the War, and the Necessity of an
L' which ha* since been printed among Mr.
o' work*, and WM no doubt the production of hi* pen. In
1709 ho went over to I rats nil M secretary to the new Lord Lieutenant,
UM Maraoi. of Wbarton; the Queen also bestowed upon him the
Ace of Keeper of UM Records in that kingdom, with an increased
alary of SON. He WM in Ireland when the first number of ' The
Tatter' appeared on the 12th of April (OA) in that year-the happy
Idea of Steak, whose connection with the publication Addison U said
to have Jrteetid from an observation on Virgil which he had himself
ecnmunioated to his friend. The active part which he immediately
took in the conduct of this periodical work i* well known. The change
of ministry in 1710, by relsering him from hi* official duties, and
allowing him to retain to England, enabled him to make his contri-
butions still more frequent. In UM course of this and the following
year ho is alao undentood to have contributed several papen to the
political work, ' The Whig Examiner,' which WM started about this
SSM hi opposition to UM famous Tory print, ' The Examiner,' in
which Swift excreiMd hi* powerful pen. These papen, which are five
in all. are printed among his collected work*. The Taller' terminated
a UM tad of January, 1711 ; but on the 1st of March following
appeared its stfll more celebrated successor, The Spectator,' which
WM mihiJ tin UM 0th of December, 1712, and of which during
UM whole of that time Addison WM undoubtedly the chief support
' The Hpeetetor' WM followed by ' Th* Guardian,' of which the fint
Mtber WM published on the lth of March, and the 175th and last
on UM let of October, 1718; and in this also bis pen WM actively
Jill /ill. A* anonymous pamphlet directed against the commercial
Mia* of UM inkiry, and bearing UM title of The late Trial and
Convwtion of Count Tariff/ which appeared this year, is likewise
believed to be AddisocTt, and bss been printed among his work*.
Th. MUM year he aeqnind still greater fame than any of bis former
prodisstion. bed brought him by hit celebrated tragedy of ' Cato,' which
WM ftawMil with extraordinary appUoee, both on the stage and when
ft hMMd tram UM prtea. It WM played thirty-fir* night* in ucceaaion
ns of popularity for which it WM doubtless In part indebted to
Mspobtioala* well M to ite poetical merits; and it WM also translated
soon after fatto French, Italian, Latin, and Oerman. On the 18th of
J*a, 1714, sppeared UM ftnt number of a continuation of 'The
periodical publication in support
UUe of The Freeholder,' which be con-
st the rate of two papers a week, till the
the following yr. He had nowlndeed for some time
IB pobLe attain, having on the death of Queen
C.T.ppointed thS? Mortar, by the Lord.
g over of UM new king, having again cone
tol.io^Ltonant, Se^^uM^
th made a Urd
IU.
!!!'" 1 '!*' WiCowjUM of Warwick,
tatyr he WM nominated one of hi. Majert/.
Mate. if* OOQ howjT<r fomxl it n**owu.*rv tn
ill health, but in reality, M DM been generally undentood, in conse-
quence of hi* entire inaptitude both for debate in parliament and for
the ordinary business of hi. office. Hi. health however had also beeu
for some time impaired by attacks of asthma, the effect* of which were
probably in no alight degree aggravated by a habit of over-indulgence
in wine. He left office in March, 1718. It wa* hoped at fint that hi*
release from bushiest would have brought about his restoration, and
for some time the expected effect seemed to follow. In the course of
the year 1719 he WM so far recovered a* to be able to engage in a
somewhat acrimonious controversy with his old friend Steele on the
subject of the bill for the limitation of the peerage, then under din-
eoasion in parliament, which Steele had attacked in a paper called
' The Plebeian.' Addison's defence of the measure appeared in two
suooeative anonymous pamphlets, bearing the title of ' The Old Whig.'
They are not printed among his collected works, but are undoubtedly
his. He again however fell ill, and after lingering for some time, at
hut expired at Holland House, Kensington, on the 17th of June, 1711',
when just commencing his forty-eighth year. He left a daughter by
the Countess of Warwick.
Soon after Addison's death hit works were collected and published
in four volumes quarto by his friend Mr. Tickell, upon whom he had
expressly devolved that duty. Beside* the compositions already men-
tioned, and some translations from Ovid and other poetical pieces,
this edition contain* a ' Treatise on Ancient Medals,' in the form of
dialogues, which i* undentood to have been prepared by the author
many yean before his death ; and a portion of a work which he had
commenced in defence of the Christian religion, being that which is
commonly known by the name of hi* ' Evidences.' The comedy of
' The Drummer, or the Haunted House,' which bad been published
anonymously in his lifetime, with a preface by Sir Richard Steele, was
soon after reprinted by Sir Kichard, and declared to be Addison's.
Addison however has been charged with having been the author of
a poetical translation of the fint book of the ' Iliad,' which was pub-
lished in 1715 by Mr. Tickell, then his private secretary ; and by which
it has been said he intended to aim a covert blow at the popularity
and success of Pope'* ' Iliad,' the first volume of which had then just
issued from the press. The celebrated character of Atticus, now
inserted in the ' Epistle to Ur. Arbuthnot,' i* said to have been com-
posed by Pope after this, and sent by him to his former friend. Tho
clearest examination which this story has received will bo found in a
long and elaborate note in Dr. Kippia's edition of the ' Biographia
Britannic*,' (voL i. p. 86, 4c.) which is known to have been contributed
by Sir William Blackntone. The learned judge has undoubtedly suffi-
ciently refuted many points in the common statement ; but still it is
certain that a coolness did arise between Addiaon and Pope not long
after the appearance of Tickell's book, and there is also reason to
believe that their separation was not unconnected with that somewhat
injudicious and ill-timed publication. As for the authorship of the
translation however, it was probably Tickell's own.
Anecdotes of Addison'* private life, and trait* of hi* habit* and
character, have been handed down in great abundance by Spenoe and
other*. The strongest testimony has been borne by those who knew
him intimately to the charm* of hi* conversation when he felt himself
free from all restraint. " He was," says Steele, " above all men in
that talent called humour, and enjoyed it in such perfection that I
have often reflected, after a night spent with him apart from all the
world, that I had had the pleasure of convening with an intimate
acquaintance of Terence and Catullus, who had all their wit and
nature, heightened with humour more exquisite and delightful than
any other man ever possessed." {Preface to The Drummer.') Lady
Mary Wortley Montague told Speuce that " Addison was the best
company in the world." ('Anecdote*,' p. 232.) Dr. Young's account
waa, that, though he was rather mute in society on some occasions,
^ when he began to be company, he was full of vivacity, and went on
in a noble stream of thought and language, so a* to chain the attention
of every one to him." (p. 836.). " Addison," said Pope, " wo* perfect
good company with intimates; and had something more charming in
hi* conversation than 1 ever knew in any other man." (p. 50.) But
this was only when there was no one by of whom he was afraid.
" With any mixture of strangers," Pope added, "and sometimes only
with one, he seemed to preserve his dignity much, with a stiff sort of
silence." Young admitted that " be wa* not free with his superiors."
Johnson quote* Lord Chesterfield as somewhere affirming that "Addition
was the most timorous and awkward man that ho ever knew." Coarser
mind*, again, from the formality and stiffness of manner in which ho
wrapped himself up from their inspection, were led to set him down
for a mere piece of hypocrisy and cant. Mandeville, the author of the
1 Fable of the Bee*,' after an evening's conversation with him, charac-
terised him a* " a panton in a tye-wig;" and Tonson, who hated panons
in any kind of wigs as much as Mandeville, and who, besides, had
quarrelled with Addiaon, and did not like him, used to say of him
after he had quitted his secretaryship, " One day or other you'll sco
that man a bishop I I'm sure he looks that way ; and, indeed, I ever
thought him a priest in his heart." (Spence, p. 200.) It must be
acknowledged that this caution and cowardice spoiled Addisou's charac-
ter in some points of great importance ; he was not a man on whom
his friend, could rely ; and the way in which he lost or offended more
than one of them was not to his credit. In his conduct both to Pope
ADELUNG, JOHANN CHRISTOPH.
ADONIS.
and to Steele, there was something underhand and treacherous
something of the " willing to wound, but yet afraid to strike," which
the former had imputed to him. To Gay, again, he seems to have
behaved ill without having been either detected or suspected at the
time. A fortnight before his death he sent Lord Warwick for Gay,
who had not gone to see him for a great while; and when they met,
Addison told him " that he had desired this visit to beg his pardon ;
that he had injured him greatly; but that if he lived he should find
that he would make it up to him." (Spence, p. 150.) Here again we
see the conscientiousness of the man struggling with, and, in the end,
very nobly mastering, his more ignoble propensities ; for it would be a
great mistake to conclude from these instances of deceit and littleness,
that the regard he professed for virtue was not both real and deeply
felt. The pious composure in which he died, as evinced by the anec-
dote of his parting interview with the young nobleman, his stepson,
first told by Dr. Young in his ' Conjectures on Original Composition,'
published in 1759, though previously alluded to by Ticket! in his
Elegy on Addison is known to most readers. Dr. Young's words
are : " After a long and manly bat vain struggle with his distemper,
he dismissed his physicians, and with them all hopes of life. But with
his hopes of life he dismissed not his concern for the living, but sent
for a youth nearly related, and finely accomplished, but not above
being the better for good impressions from a dying friend. He came ;
but, life now glimmering in the socket, the dying friend was silent :
after a decent and proper pause, the youth said, ' Dear .Sir, you sent
for me ; I believe and hope that you have some commands : I shall
hold them most sacred.' May distant ages not only hear but feel the
reply. Forcibly grasping the youth's hand, he softly said, 'See in
what peace a Christian can die.' He spoke with difficulty, and soon
expired." Lord Warwick did not long survive his step-father.
Addison's writings present something of the same struggle of opposite
principles or tendencies which we find in his character as a man, re-
sulting likewise in the same general effect, of the absence of everything
offensive combined with some qualities of high, but none perhaps of
the highest excellence. Notwithstanding all the hesitation and em-
barrassment he is said to have shown on some occasions in the
performance of his official duties, so that a common clerk would have
to be called in to draw up a dispatch which could not wait for his
more scrupulous selection of phraseology, he usually wrote easily and
rapidly. " When he had taken his resolution," Steele h.-n told us,
"or made his plan for what he designed to write, he would walk
about a room and dictate it into language with as much freedom and
ease as any one could write it down, and attend to the coherence and
grammar of what he dictated." (Preface to ' The Drummer.') Pope
told Spence however that, though he wrote very fluently, " he was
sometimes very slow and scrupulous in correcting." " He would show
his verses," said Pope, " to several friends, and would alter almost
everything that any of them hinted at as wrong. He seemed to be
too diffident of himself, and too much concerned about hi* character as
a poet; or, as he worded it, ' too solicitous for that kind of praise, which,
Clod knows, is but a very little matter after nit' " ('Anecdotes,' p. 49.)
The literary greatness of Addison in the estimation of his contempo-
raries probably stood upon somewhat different grounds from those
upon which it a now usually placed. In his own day he was looked
upon as a dramatist and a poet of a very high order ; and appears to
have been not so much admired for anything else an for being the
author of ' Cato.' That stately but frigid tragedy has long ceased to
give the same pleasure, by its sonorous declamation and well-expressed
common-places, which it seems to have afforded to our ancestors. The
taste which then prevailed in poetry was the most artificial which has
distinguished any age of English literature. The quality which chiefly
drew admiration was a cold and monotonous polish the warmth of
genuine nature was accounted rudeness and barbarism. The return
of the public mind to truer principles of judgment in such matters
has been fatal both to the dramatic and to the poetical fame generally
of Addison ; and although his verses are still read with pleasure as
the productions of an elegant and accomplished mind, they are not
felt to possess any high degree of that power which we now look for
in poetry. His glory is now that of one of our greatest writers in
prose. Here, with his delicate sense of propriety, his lively fancy,
and above all, his most original and exquisite humour, he was iu his
proper walk. He is the founder of a new school of popular writing ;
in which, like most other founders of schools, he is still unsurpassed
by any who iave attempted to imitate him. His ' Tatlers,' ' Specta-
tors,' and ' Guardians,' gave us the first examples of a style possessing
all the best qualities of a vehicle of general amusement and instruc-
tion ; easy and familiar without coarseness, animated without extra-
vagance, poliahed without unnatural labour, and from its flexibility
adapted to all the varieties of the gay and the serious.
(liiographia Jiritanntca ; Life by Johnson; Spence's Anccdotet ;
Work, by Tickell.)
ADELUNG, JOHANN CHKISTOPH, grammarian and universal
linguist, was born at Spantekon, a village near Auklam in Pomerania,
on the 8th of August, 1732. He received his first education at the
town school of Anklam, and at Kloster-Berge, near Magdeburg ; and
afterwards visited the university of Halle. In 1751) he was appointed
profejBor in the evangelical gymnasium at Erfurt : but he held this
situation only till 1701, when, in consequence of a dispute with the
Catholic town-magistrates about a point of difference in religion, he
found himself under the necessity of leaving Erfurt. Adelung now
went to Leipzig, where he continued to reside till 1787. He supported
himself by literary labours, and chiefly by translations of valuable
works of foreign literature. The number of volumes which he thus
prepared for the press and many of which he enriched with extensive
additions of his own, is surprisingly great. The works by which ho
is best known iu this country, are ' Deutsche Sprachlehre fur Schulen,"
Berlin, 1781, 8vo., and ' Umstiiudliches Lehrgebiiude der Deutscheu
Sprache,' Leipzig, 1782, 2 vols. Svo., &c. In 1787 Adeluug was called
to Dresden, and appointed principal librarian to the electoral library
there. Adelung died on the 10th of September, 1S06.
ADOLPHUS, JOHN, was born in 1770 and died July 17, 1845.
Mr. Adolphus was a barrister of high standing in the criminal courts,
and at his decease was father of the Old Bailey bar. He was a keen
advocate, a fluent speaker, and a good lawyer. His practice, previously
very considerable, was highly increased by the manner in which he
distinguished himself as leading counsel for Thistlewood and the other
prisoners charged with a treasonable conspiracy in 1820, though he
was retained on their behalf only a few hours before the trial. As a
literary man Mr. Adolphus is best known as the author of the
' History of England from the Accession of George III.,' originally
published in 3 volumes in 1805, but which he subsequently revised
and greatly extended. Of this enlarged edition the seventh volume
appeared just before his death, but it left the work unfinished, and
the conclusion has not been published. It is a work of considerable
research and very carefully executed, but it does not exhibit very high
historical powers. He was also the "author of 'Biographical Memoirs
of the French Kevolution;' ' Political State of the British Empire,'
4 vols., 1818 ; 'Memoirs of John Bannister' ; and some fugitive piecea
and pamphlets.
ADONIS, the name of a personage of considerable importance iu
Pagan mythology, of whose story the following is a brief sketch :
Adonis, son of Myrrha, daughter of Cinyras, king of Cyprus, was
born in Arabia, whither his mother had fled iu consequence of cer-
tain transactions which it is not necessary to relate. Before the
birth of her sou she was transformed into a tree which produces
the fragrant gum called by her name ; this however did not hin-
der his being brought into the world in due season ; he grew up a
model of manly beauty, and was passionately beloved by Aphrodite
(Venus), who quitted Olympus to dwell with him. Hunting was his
favourite pursuit, until, haviug gone to the chase against the entreaties
of his mistress, he was mortally wounded iu the thigh by a wild boar.
After death he was said to stand as high in the favour of Persephone
(Proserpine) as before in that of Aphrodite ; but the latter being incon-
solable, her rival generously consented that Adouis should spend half
the year with his celestial, half with his infernal mistress. The fable
has been variously interpreted. One explanation makes the alternate
abode of Adonis above and under the earth, typical of the burial of
seed, which in due season rises above the ground for the propagation
of its species ; another, of the annual passage of the sun from the
northern to the southern hemisphere. In the time of Pausanias, in the
2nd century of our era, there existed an ancient temple of Adonis
and Aphrodite, at Amathus, iu Cyprus.
The story of Adonis appears to have been introduced into Greece
from Syria. According to Pausanias, Sappho sung of Adonis ; and
his name, with allusion to his rites, occurs in a fragment of Alctous.
But it is by the Greek poets of later date, Theocritus and Bion, and
their Latin imitators, Ovid and others, that his story has been expanded,
and invested with the elegance which is the peculiar character of
Grecian mythology. The Adonia are mentioned by Aristophanes
among the Athenian festivals, and this is, we believe, the earliest
mention of them, except some notice in the poems attributed to
Orpheus (the epoch of which is however too doubtful to be received
as authority), and the songs attributed to Sappho and Alescus. The
rites began with mourning for the death of Adonis (thus Ezekiel,
viii. 13, " He brought me to the door of the Lord's house . . . and
behold, there sat women weeping for Thammuz") ; then changed into
rejoicing for his return to life and to Aphrodite ; and concluded with
a procession, in which the images of Adonis and Aphrodite were car-
ried, with rich offerings, in separate couches ; after which the former
appears to have been thrown into the sea. (See Theocritus, ' Idyll.' xv.)
In the time of Pausanias, the women of Argos, in the Peloponnesus,
lamented Adonis.
In Syria we know the worship of Adonis (if, according to tho
received notion, he be the same personage as Thamrauz) to be probably
of much older date. We know, from the passage in Ezekiel already
quoted, that the adoration of the latter was one of the abominations
of Judah six centuries before Christ Whatever resemblance there
may have been between the early Syrian and Grecian rite,', the former
were far more deeply polluted by the atrocities of a brutish supersti-
tion, to which the natives of Syria were unusually prone.
Adonit (Nahfrel-Ibrahiin) is also the ancient name of a river iu
Syria, which rises iu the mountains of Lebanon. Byblos, a town near
the river Adonis, was one of the chief seats of the worship above
mentioned, which was intimately connected with a peculiarity incident
to the river. Its waters, at a certain period of tho year, assume a
deep red, and were said to be discoloured by the blood of Adouis.
ADRIAN
I ! Ueaaea aUerea
TW tyriaa easatsl. to hmmt bis tsie
Walls **>! Aaeais fresa Us asilvt 'rotk
lsap.nO. lo Ike sse, sejposed with blood
Panelse Lest,' L 441.
*u> ypmasPiaon hu been obecrred by modern travellers, aad is
attributed to the rain*, which brine; a quantity of red earth into the
stream. (See MaundreUi 'Travel*.') Thia, which probably is the
true solution, WM sugeeted even in the time of Luciau ( De Dea
--, :.;,.
At': ope, born at Rome, MOO*M BttttMO IIL in 772.
Like hie tic*Jlo*nir. be had to .truggl* against the power of the
invaded tlie Exarchate and other provinces
on the Roman lee. Devastat-
rbiuo, and other cities, they
r, and threatened Home with
Doekisriu*, king of the Longobard*, bad taken under
the two woe of Carioman, the deceased brother of
and be wiabed Adrian to consecrate them ai king* of
the Franks, in opposition to their uncle. Adrian refiued to do this,
and hence aroee the bitter enmity of Donderius. Adrian applied to
The king of the Krmnk. croeeod the Alpe
b4owd by Pepin. kinf of the Frank*, on
ing with fire tod .word Siuigaglia. Urb
advanced a far a. Otriooli, oo the liber,
by the way of Sow, defeated Deaidenua, and orwthrew the kingdom
of the Loofobarda in Italy, in 771. Charlemagne then went to Rome,
where be arrired on Beater ere, and wai reotirod by Adrian with
great honour*. They repaired together to the lUailica of SL Peter,
where Adrian acknowledged Cbarlee ai king of Italy, and ' Patrician
of BOOM,' and the latter renewed the grant of the province* bestowed
on the Boman eee by Pepin. Charlemagne paid another visit to
Adrian at Rome in 787 when hit ton Pepin wai christened by the
Pope. In 787 the seventh general council of the church wai held at
NioBa, in Bithynia, where Adrian cent hi* legatee, and in which the
worship of image* wu confirmed, and the Tconoclatta were excom-
In 791
municated.
there WM a dreadful inundation at Rome cauiod
by the overflowing of the Tiber, and Adrian exerted himself in
upplying the inhabitanU with provuion*. by meant of boat*, which
plied to the Tarioui parte of the city. He also rebuilt the wall, and
tower* of Rome, and wae liberal to the poor. He died aft-T a long
pontificate of nearly 24 yean, on Christmas-dsy, 795. Charlemagne
wa* much grieved at the new* of hi* death, and wrote his epitaph in
Latin versa*, in which he affectionately call* him ' father.' Adrian
wai a man of talent and dexterity. Under him Rome began to
breathe again after the continual alarmi caused by the Longobards, the
he* of the barbarian invader* of the Weatern Empire. (See ' Anuta-
eiae' In Muratori Ktnm Ilalicarnm Scriptortt, torn, iii.)
ADRIAN II., bora at Rome, succeeded Nicholai I. in the papal
chair, fan M7. He bad been married, and had a daughter by hi* wife
Besiinaiiii, from whom be afterward* aeparated in order to lire in
celibacy. After hi* election, hi* wife and daughter continued to lire
at Rome in a **paraU home, when an unprincipled man, called
Eleathenu*, carried off the girl by violence, and on the pontiff re-
taking bi* child, forced hi* way into the houee and murdered both
other and daughter. The murderer wa* tried and aenteuced to
death by the imperial
JiJiMeaii at Rone. It waa during Adrian'* pontificate that Photius,
Den, who still exerclaed the high
g Adrian'* pontificate that Photius,
of Constantinople, withdrew from the Church of Rome,
ninf the schism between the Greek and Latin churches,
which continue, to tail day. Adrian died in 872, and wu luooeeded
by John VIII.
ADRI A N 1 1 L, born at Borne, luooeoded Marinua in 884, and died
the following year on hi* journey to attend the imperial diet at
Worn, after a pontificate of only fifteen months.
ADRIAN IV, an Englishman, whose name wu Nicholas Break-
Needed AnaMasiuj IV, in 11J4. He had been a monk, and
'atep of Alb.no by Eoftniu* III., who *ent him u hi*
then in a
t" ' **? ** tb " D *"** to D"""* "d Norway. On hi*
be WM eteoted Pope much against hi* inclination. Rome wu
then in a very disturbed *
dMpteof Aoekrd,bed DM
early a* I1J9. bat bring dn
bed taken refoge at Zurleh.
RoeMn people, who had revc
against hk
dUturbed" etate. Arnaldo of Brescia, a monk and a
begun to preach a reform in the church u
dnven out of Rome by Pope Innocent II.,
wfc.jertZ.ir.eli. In 1143 however he wJTeealled by the
people, who had revolted against Innocent, and had proclaimed
- republic, which Amaldo contributed to constitute. Several
Popes, CeUetin IL, Lucius IL, and Bugoniu. III. kept up a
*to*1*na* ifmlnit thU popular reformer. Luciu. in
WM petted with itooea, and died of the Injury received.
aeoiua, WM obliged to leave Rome and retire into
confusion that prevailed in Uu city, the popu-
afterward* polled down the house* of many
interdict oa
, end cat^d all religioui Mrvion to
Ud the dUM to banlah Amaldo, who took
beroM of Campanle; and Adrian then came to
reaide in the LaUran palace. Frederic of Hohen*tauOu, known in
Italian hiatory by the name of Barbaroaia, bad lately been elected
emperor by the German Diet, and wai on bii way to Rome to be
crowned. The Pope'* legate* met him on the road, and among other
remonttnaeea, requested that the heretic Arnaldo should be givcu up
by the Viaoount of Campania, in order to be tried. Frederic axented
to thia, and ieroed order, in oonaequenoe ; other* *ay that Cardinal
Gerard took Arnaldo priaoner, alter an obetinate reautauce. He wu
brought to Rome, and delivered to the prefect of the city, by whoee
WM hanged, hi* body burnt, and the aihe* scattered to
the wind*, in the year 1155. Meantime Frederic approached Rome
with hi* army, and Adrian went to meet him near Sutri, where, on
the latter diunounttog, Frederic refused to hold hi* stirrup, a ceremony
on which the pope* alwayi inatsted, u a mark of reapect for tbcir
spiritual supremacy. The Pope, ou hi* aide, refused to aalute the
Kinperor with the 'kin of peace,' upon which the cardinal* were
terrified and ran away to Civitiv Cutellana. The queition of the
ceremonial wu debated for two daya, when Frederic, having aaoer-
tained that iuch had been the practice with hi* predecessor*, agreed
to conform to it They met, therefore, again at Nepi, and Frederic
having held the itirrup, Adrian gave him the ' oaculum p ici%' and
both proceeded toward* Rome. Frederic with hi* aruiy took posses-
sion of the Leonine city on the north bank of the Tiber, and of St.
Peter'* church, where he wu crowned by the Pope on tlio following
day. The Roman* took no part in the ceremony, but after having
held a council in the Capitol, tallied out and attacked the German
soldiers unaware*. A general battle took place, and continued with
great slaughter on both sides, till night separated the combatant*.
The city continuing in a disturbed state, both the Pope and Emperor
withdrew to Tivoli, whence Frederic returned toward* Lombanly.
Adrian went afterward* to Benevento, where he made peace with
William L, king of Sicily, whom he ha I excommunicated ; and upon
their reconciliation he agreed to give him the inveetiture of .Sicily,
Calabria, and Apulia, in 1156, on condition of the latter paying a
yearly tribute to the see of Rome. The Pope returned loaded with
rich present* of silk*, gold, and silver, and passing through Rome,
went to reside at Orvieto, which wu subject to the Roman aee,
Frederic now complained that the Pope had violated his faith, by
receiving ambassador* and entering into treaties with the King of
Sicily and the Greek Emperor, without hi* participation. Ue also
resented the pretensions of the Pope and hi* legates, who seemed to
assume that the imperial crown wu granted as a btneficium, or fee of
the see of Rome. Adrian, on hi* part, complained of the exaction* of
the imperial commissioner* who were lent to administer justice at
Rome without hi* participation ; he maintained that the patrimony
of the church should be exempt from paying foderum, or feudal
tribute to the Emperor ; and, lastly, he claimed the restitution of the
lands and revenues of Countess Matilda, of the duchy of Spoloti, and
even of Corsica and Sardinia. Thua arose that spirit of bitter
hostility between the popes and tho house of Hohenntauffen, which
lasted until the utter extinction of the latter. Adrian died in tho
beginning of September, 1159, in tho town of Anagni, and was suc-
ceeded by Alexander III. From the above (ketch it may be seen that
Adrian IV. stretched the papal prerogative* as for a* any f his
predecessor* had done, Gregory VII. not exempted. (See Floury,
llittove SccUtiaitiquc, and liaumer, Gttchichte der Hoherutau/en vnd
litre > 2 tit.)
ADRIAN V., a Genoese, succeeded Innocent in 1276, and died five
weeks after his election. He wu succeeded by John \ X .
ADRIAN VI., born at Utrecht in the Netherlands, of an obscure
family, advanced himself by hi* talenta to the post of vice-chancellor
of the University of Louvain. The Emperor Maximilian chose him
u preceptor to his grandson, afterward! Charles V. Ferdinand of
Spain gave him the bishopric of Tortoso. After Ferdinand's death
he waa co-regent of Spain with Cardinal Ximenes. He was elected
pope in 1522, after the death of Leo X., chiefly through the influence
of Charles V. whose authority wu then spreading over Italy. Adri-m
endeavoured to reform the numerous abuse* of the court and clergy
of Rome, practised a severe economy, and lived frugally, lly so doing
be displeased the Romans, who had been accustomed to the luxury
and prodigality of Leo; and when he died, in September, 1523, after
a *hort pontificate, the people could not conceal their joy. They
ityled hi* physician, 'the aaviour of hi* country.' He wu succeeded
by Clement VII. Adrian appears to have been an honest conacienti-
oui man, who fell upon evil times, and wu unequal to the difficulties
which he bad to encounter. He wu deairou* of maintaining peace,
and of .topping, if possible, the aohism of the Lutherans by reforming
the church, but he did not live long enough to effect any thing essential .
Burmann published hi* life at Utrecht, in 1727
^EOINHARD. [EuiittiABD.]
.KLKKIC, an eminent Saxon prelate. He is said to have been tho
ion of an Earl of Kent, but at an early age he embraced a devotional
life, and assumed the habit of the Benedictine!, in tho monastery of
Abingdon. In 983, when Athclwold, the abbot of that house, became
Btahop of WinoheiUr, he took ^Elfrio along with him, and made him
one of the prieete of hi* cathedral. Here be remained till 987, when
be removed to Cerne Abbey. Next year he wu made Abbot of St.
Alban*. and eooa after wu promoted to the bUhopric of Wilton.
yELIANOS.
.ENEAS.
Finally, in 994, he was translated to the archbishopric of Canterbury,
over which see he presided with great ability till his death, on the
16th of November 1005. .<Elfric was one of the most learned eccle-
siastics of that age, and distinguished himself throughout his life by
a very praiseworthy zeal and activity in the diffusion of knowledge.
The following are the principal works which have been attributed to
him : 1. A Latin and Saxon Glossary, printed by Somner at Oxford,
in 1659. 2. A Saxon translation of most of the historical books of
the Old Testament, part of which was printed at Oxford in 1698.
3. A charge to his clergy, in articles, commonly called his Canons,
which was published by Spelman in the first volume of his ' English
Councils.' 4. Two volumes of Saxon Homilies, translated from the
Latin fathers. 5. A Saxon Grammar in Latin. There were however
other Saxon ecclesiastics of his name, and it has been doubted if all
the works enumerated were the productions of the Archbishop of
Canterbury.
^ELIA'NUS. A person of this name wrote a book on the military
tactics of the Greeks, which he dedicated to the Emperor Hadrian.
There are several editions and translations of this work. A German
translation, by A. H. Baumgiirtuer, appeared in his complete collection
of the Greek writers on military tactics, Frankenthal and Mannheim,
4to., 1779. There is an English translation by Lord Dillon, 4to.,1814.
.ELIA'XUS, CLAU'DIUS, a Roman citizen and a native of Pra-
ncste (Palestrina), probably lived about the middle of the 3rd century
of the Christian era. Like Cicero, Atticus, and many other Romans,
he made himself so completely master of the Greek language as to
write it with ease and correctness. There is extant a work of his in
fourteen books, entitled ' Various or Miscellaneous History,' which
is a compilation or collection of extracts made by the author in his
extensive reading. The value of it does not consist in what the com-
piler has written, but in the passages of lost writer] that he has been
the means of preserving. An edition of this work was published at
Paris iu 1805, 8vo., with Heraclides of Pontus nd Nicolaus of Damas-
cus, by the learned Greek Coray. There is a French translation of
.Elian's work, by M. B. T. Dacier, Paris, 1772, 8vo., with notes.
Another work of ^Elian's, in seventeen books, also written in Greek,
is entitled ' On the Peculiarities of Animals.' Though the author
cannot claim tho merit of being a scientific naturalist, he has pre-
served a number of curious facts, collected from the works he had
read. Some critics are of opinion that the two works belong to dif-
ferent authors. (Schoell, vol. ii. ' Greek Lit.') J. G. Schneider
published an edition of the work on animals in 1784 ; but the latest
edition of the Greek text is by F. Jacobs, Jena. There are also
twenty Greek letters extant attributed to .'Elian.
.EMI'LH, the name of a patrician gens, or clan, in ancient Rome,
who pretended to derive their origin from Mamercus, the son of
Pythagoras. Of the families included in this gens, the most distin-
guished were the Pauli, or Paulli, the Lepidi, and the Scauri. [LEPIDI ;
SCAUBUS.] Among the Paulli the most worthy of notice was Lucius
.'Emilius Paullus, the son of the consul bearing the same name, who
fell in the battle near Cannco (B.C. 216), after -using his utmost efforts
to check the rashness of his colleague. Young vEmilius was a mere
boy at the death of his father, yet by his personal merits and the
powerful influence of his friends he eventually attained to the highest
honours iu his country. His sister ^Emilia was married to Publius
Cornelius Scipio, the conqueror of Hannibal, who was consul for the
second time B.C. 1 94 ; and this very year .'Emilius, though he had
held no public office, was appointed one of three commissioners to
conduct a colony to Croton, in the south of Italy, a city with which
lie might claim some connection on the ground of his descent from
the Pythagoreans. Two years after, at the age of about thirty-six,
he was elected a curule eedile, in preference, if we may believe Plu-
tarch, to twelve candidates of such merit that every one of them
afterwards consul. His aodileship was distinguished by many
improvements in the city and neighbourhood of Rome. The follow-
ing year, B.C. 191, he held the office of praetor, and in that capacity
was governor of the south-western part of the Spanish peninsula,
with a considerable force under his command. The appointment was
renewed the year after, with enlarged powers, for he now bore the title
<if 1'roconsul, and was accompanied by double the usual number of
lictors. In an engagement however with the Lusitani, 6000 of his
men were cut to pieces, and the rest only saved behind the works of
the camp. But this disgrace was retrieved in the third year of his
government by a signal defeat of the enemy, in which 18,000 of their
men were left upon the field. For this success a public thanksgiving
was voted by the senate in honour of ^Emilius. Soon after he returned
to Rome and found that he had been appointed, in his absence, one of
ii commis-ioners for regulating affairs in that part of western
Asia which had l.itely been wrested by the two Scipios from Antiochus
the Great. .(Emilius was a member also of the college of augurs from
an early age, but we do not find any means of fixing the period of his
election. As a candidate for the consulship he met with repeated j
'<, and only attained that honour in B.C. 182, nine years after
li'ilding the office of pnetor. During this and the following year ho
commanded an army in Liguria, and succeeded in the complete reduc-
tioii "f a powerful people called tho Ingauni, who have left their name
in tho maritime town of Albenga, formerly Albium Ingaunum. A
public thanksgiving of three days was immediately voted, and on his
return to Rome he had the honour of a triumph. For the next ten
years we lose sight of jEmilius, and at the end of this period he is
only mentioned as being selected by the inhabitants of Farther Spain
to protect their interests at Rome, an honour which at once proved
and added to his influence. It was at this period, B.C. 171, that the last
Macedonian war commenced, and though the Romans could scarcely
have anticipated a struggle from Perseus, who inherited from his
father only the shattered remains of the great Macedonian monarchy,
yet three consuls, iu three successive years, were more than baffled by his
arms. In B.C. 168 a second consulship, and with it the command against
Perseus, was entrusted to .Emilius. He was now at least sixty years
of age, but he was supported by two sons and two sons-in-law, who
accompanied him to the war in Macedonia, and contributed iu a marked
manner to his success. Perseus was strongly posted in the range of
Olympus to defend the passes from Perrlisebia into Macedonia, but
he allowed himself to be outmanoeuvred. ^Emilius made good his
passage through the mountains, and the two armies were soon in view
of each other near Pydna. On the night before the battle an eclipse
of the moon occurred. The Roman soldiers, forewarned of its occur-
rence, regarded it with amusement rather than fear. In the Mace-
donian camp, on the other hand, superstition produced the usual effect
of horror and alarm ; and on the following day the result of the battle
corresponded to the feelings of the night. In a single hour the hopes
of Perseus were destroyed for ever. The monarch fled with scarcely
a companion, and on the third day reached Amphipolis. Thence ho
proceeded to Samothrace, where he soon after fell into the hands of
the conqueror. The date of the battle of Pydna has been fixed by
the eclipse to the 22d of June. After reducing Macedonia to the form
of a Roman province, ^Emilius proceeded on his return to Epirus.
Here, under the order of the senate, he treacherously surprised seventy
towns, and delivered up to his army 150,000 of the inhabitants as
slaves, and all their property as plunder. On his arrival in Rome
however he found in this army, with whom he was far from popular,
the chief opponents of his claim to a triumph. This honour he at
last obtained, and Perseus with his young children, some of them too
young to be sensible of their situation, were paraded for three succes-
sive days through the streets of Rome. But the triumphant general
had a severe lesson from affliction in the midst of his honour. Of
two sons by a second wife (he had long divorced Papira), one, aged 12,
died five days before the triumph ; the other, aged 1 4, a few days after ;
go that he had now no son to hand down his name to posterity. .-Euii-
lius lived eight years after his victory over Perseus, in which period
we need only mention his censorship, B.C. 164. At his death, B.C. 160,
his two sons, who had been adopted into other families, Fabius and
Scipio, honoured his memory iu the Roman fashion by the exhibition
of funeral games; and the 'Adelphi' of Terence, the last comedy the
poet wrote, was first presented to the Roman public on this occasion.
.(Emilius found in his grateful friend Polybius one willing and able to
commemorate, perhaps to exaggerate, his virtues. Few Romans have
received BO favourable a character from history. (Polybius ; Liry ;
Plutarch.)
^ENE'AS, a Trojan prince of the royal blood, son of Anchises and
Venus. According to Homer he commanded the Dardanians, and his
name occurs frequently in the ' Iliad,' but not in the first rank of
heroes. He owes his celebrity to those stories which make him the
founder of the Roman empire iu Italy, and to his being the hero of
Virgil's poem. According to the Latin poets, on the night when Troy
was taken, or, as others say, before its capture, .(Eneas quitted the city,
bearing on his shoulders his aged father, and the images of his house-
hold gods, accompanied by his wife Creusa, who perished by the w^y,
and his son lulus, also called Ascauius. The older authors do not
speak of the multitude of followers and number of ships with which
Virgil has adorned his narrative. According to them he quitted the
Trojan shores in a single ship to seek his fortune in the unknown
regions of the west. After many wanderings he reached the coast of
Latium with 100 followers, and was favourably received by Latinus,
king of the country, who assigned a small tract of ground as a settle-
ment for the Trojans. But war soon broke out between the strangers
and the natives. Turnus, prince of the Hutuli, joined Latinus to
expel the foreigners ; but the allied princes were defeated, and Latinus
was slain in the first battle. Lavinia, his daughter, became tho bride
of the victor, and tho citadel of Laureutum fell into his hands. JEueoa
now built the city of Lavinium, which was hardly completed when
Turnus again appeared in arms, assisted by Mezentius, king of Caere.
Another battle ensued, in which Turnus fell; but the Latins were
defeated, and jEneas was drowned, or at least disappeared in the river
NumiCius. He was afterwards adored as Jupiter Indiges : a temple
was raised to him on the bank of the river ; and the Latins, and in
later ages the consuls of Rome, offered yearly sacrifices to him under
that name. lulus, his son by Creusa, succeeded to the throne, and
founded a city, celebrated in the history of Latium, called Alba Longn.
He was succeeded by Sylvius, son of ^Eneas and Lavinia, from whom
a long line of Latin kings descended. Such is a sketch of the chief
traditions about this reputed Trojan prince and his settlement in Italy,
(Niebuhr, Roman History, voL L p. 176. Hare and Thirlwall's
translation.)
The only allusion in Homer to the history of .(Eneas after the Trojan
war, is a prediction that he and his children shall reign for centuries
JEPIHUS, PRAXflS THEODORE.
AESCHYLUS.
MT the TrejeB.; Bothinf i. Mid of UM place of their BtttUoMot.
nOia*t DkT*9 iMlppOMtl tA4%l DA) FCQMUMd IO to* TtXMfed, tsMXi
of hi.
.n i
to I
of the 'Xoti
that the ^ .ry
.. of foundation.
MARIA* ULiuc THEODORE, a celebrated
of the I8th century, who was bom at Rostock in Lower
iber IX 1734. but of whow life few particulars have
; he died at Dorpat la Livonia, in 1801
toin by .Epinaa, relating to mathematical and philo-
ibjeete, were printed the TUt, 8th, th, and 10th volume.
irii P.tropoL/ aod in UM Mcmoire.' of tb
BermAdny for 1745 adm. U UM volume for UM latter year,
and aUo in a RecsjsO de Memoir**,' publiabed at St. Petersburg
v -- 1~_. i. n-*uu. J
1 7t b his paper eBtitbd De qnibo
wirfoh ooBtiM UM discovery of UM
a ininl which DM nine* been M
ACL.
electrical polarity of tourmalin*,
much noticed on account of iu
to polarised light .ttpinus found that on
-
of the mineral U. a brat between WJ- and 812' Kahr
it acquired UM vitreon* and UM other the rrainou
M 101> volume of UM ' Novi Comment' i* hi* nape
>per
nriac the esfcct of parallax OB the duration of a transit of Venus
the diet of the euB. ia cooseqaenee of the position of the
OB the earth MHBM* ; and in the same volume is
produced by looking directly at the ran. Also,
hi UM ISUt volume of UM earn, work there b contained an account of
UM electrical properties of UM Brazilian emerald, a eryatal which hu
bee* riBce found to b* merely a variety of tourmaline. In 1758 he
of
81. Petersburg Ml academical diacoune concerning the
eUefcteiti and magnetism; and in 1761, at the aame
Me entitled 'CogitatioiMS da Distributione Calorii per
Caloris per
.Kpinu* i* chiefly duitinjruiahed by hi* 'Tentamcn Tbeoriic
IdteU* et Msgnetumi,' which, in 1759, was published also at
Unburg. IB tU* work he sets out by assuming that there
i in all bodies a fluid whoa* particle* mutually repel one another
' KB flinrmJng a* the distances between them increase, and,
to the same law, attract the particle* of the bodie* with
. are in combination. He assume, also that the electrical
fluid penetrate, with dimculty through the bodies called electric., a.
glass, resin, Jtc,; and that it meet, with no sensible obstruction iu
pessmg through such as are called non-electric* or conductors, a* the
metela, unbaked wood, etc. ; and be has succeeded in showing, by the
striot process of mathematio.1 analysis, that the phenomena of elec-
tricity depend chiefly on the tendency of the fluid to attain a state of
equilibrium, by passing from a body which contain* an excess to those
about H which may have lea* than the natural quantity. The intricate
i distribution of electricity and mtSSm
. ' ....
. .1. .-.,.'
of bodie* of given form., a* _
and though UM neult* of the investigations, so far a* they
t __ f . _ * . . *
on the surface*
i* however left un-
stew), accord satisfactorily with phenomena, >et there remain* an
BBBlBiuuuliil dHBcully in UM fact that, when a body i* deprived of
UM electrical fluid, it* particle* are held together by coheaion, while
UM UMory requires that in euch a atato the partiolei ahould exert on
. ,. H T T. : .'.-.: *JH
In UM -raUophkel Transactions' for 1771, there i* an elaborate
paper em
prmdple*
Mr. CaTra
_ a MtrnmaUeal theory of electricity, on the same
as those assumed by .Kpinus, which was written by
Mr. Cavendish without any knowledge of what had been previously
" *. U _~*"+* .*H-"l*f S -V d * .of the
_
IUuy in 1787 > UDd<r * utle
U. Tbeorte de lEUctridU!.'
n*mt the m*an* of charging a plate of air with
electricity, when it I* confined between two board.. He appear* to
ba*. directed hi. attention to mechanical lubject* ; for he diicoTered
U>et wbra aay force*, acting upon the arm* of a balance, keep them in
quiUbrio, UM *um of the f.ircea, deoocnpoaed in the direction of the
The brief notice, of the diaoorerie* of
J te taken from the work, named above.)
UM Philosopher, wa. one of the scholar* of Socratea,
h the furnace of modern criticism, have been declared not to
fee* by him. The langnag. of the** dialogue, proves them
rr to beloH to an (* wbm Greek wa. still written with great
be wn y m.
bowerer to belonc to
voice and a fine person,
iher he stepped fremthe t_,,
of pblic lity we do not know? but he -
tAMechtwt at an e1y (*,* a public BM.
K a littl* oldsr, if we trust the
a kind of clerk to som* of the
*r wa. somewhat bolder: having a
he tried hi* fortune on the
By having discharged
hi. function, a* a clerk, and having been in the service of the orator*
Arissaphon and Eubulu* in some similar capacity, ho had acquired
some knowledge of the law* of hi* country. In *hort, he wa* a bold
adventurer, gifted with many of those qualities that are calculated to
inure svoce** in the dubiou* game of political warfare.
Only three oration* of .Machine* are extant, all of which relate to
important event, in hi. public life. He wa* accused by Demosthenes,
on* of hi* fellow ambassador*, of malversation and corruption in hi.
second embassy to King Philip, the object of which wa* to obtain
Philip's ratification of the treaty of peace, and to this attack he
replied in hi* oration entitled ' On Malversation iu hi* Embassy.'
Timarchus, a friend of Demosthenes, had joined in the attack on
.Eechine* ; but the orator .poedily rid himself of thu adversary by
prosecuting him for a disreputable course of life. /Kuchinrs gained
hi* cause, and Timarchu*, according to some accounts, concluded the
affair by hanging himself. The oration on this subject i. called
4 Against Timarchus.' The delay caused by the prosecution of Timar-
chus deferred the prosecution of .Machines till about three years after
hi* return from the second embassy, which wa. no doubt favourable
to the accused, a* it tended to destroy the popular feeling Against
-tjchines, who finally escaped from a verdict against him. The third
oration is entitled ' Against Ctesiphon,' but is in fact an attack on
Demosthenes, who replied in his famous oration called ' The Crown.'
The pretext on which .Vochines attacked Ctesiphon was this : For
some public services which Demosthenes had rendered to the state, it
was proposed by Ctesiphon that ho should receive a golden crown,
but this proposition was considered by .Kochine* to contain plaumi*
contrary to existing law*. He also denied the claim of Demosthenes
on the ground of public services. A* early as ao. 338, .Machine* had
declared his intention to prosecute Cte.iphon, but the cause was not
tried till B.C. 330, after the death of Philip, whilst Alexander was in
the midst of his Asiatic conquests. ./Eschines lost his cause, and not
having obtained one-fifth part of the votes of the jury, he was com-
pelled to leave Athens, being unable to pay the penalty in that case
required by the law. He retreated to the island of Ithodes, where, it
i* (aid, he resumed the profession of his earlier days, by opening
clssso. for instruction in elocution, and became tho founder of a
school of eloquence. He is said to have died at Samoa, B.C. :',17.
[DIUOBTUENBS.J
The Greek and Roman critics considered the Rhodian school of
eloquence, of which ..-Kschines was the reputed founder, to be charac-
terised by a happy mean between the florid Asiatic and the dry and
more sententious Athenian style. The style of -Kscliinea is distin-
guished by great perspicuity and correctness of language. 11U
narrative and descriptive power* deserve high praise, nor ore we
disposed to undervalue his powers of abuse, though in this he falls far
below his great rival We have the strongest testimony to his per-
sonal qualifications as an orator, in the reluctant but unambiguous
manner in which Demosthenes acknowledges hi* own inferiority.
There are numerous edition* of ^Kschines : the latest and best, as
far a* the mere text i* concerned, is included in Brkker's edition of
the 'Attic Orators,' Oxford, 1822. One of the best editions of
JSschine. alone is by J. H. Bremius, 1824, 2 vol*., Svo. The Abbd
Auger translated the oration* and letters of Machine* into French,
and inserted them in the wcoud volume of his ' Demosthenes.' Tho
oration of Machines against Cteiiphon, with the reply of Demosthenes,
wa* translated into Latin by Cicero, and into German by Fr. liaumer,
1811. The oration against t'tesiphou has been translated into Kuglish
by Portal and Leland.
There arc twelve letter* extant attributed to Machines, the genuine-
a of which, we fear, would not stand the test of a thorough
examination. It wa* usual, iu the later ages of Greek literature, for
teacher* of rhetoric to employ themselves on fictions of thu kind.
.f SC'HYLUS, the son of Euphorion, and a native of Eleusis in
Attica, wa* born about B.C. 625, and died in Sicily probably about
in-. 456. A* the great father of the Athenian drama, ,'Eschylii.i
occupies one of the most prominent places in the history of the lite-
rature of his country. The particulars of his life that have come
down to us are however few and unimportant, with the exception th .it
be fought bravely iu the bottles of Marathon and Salami*. At 25
vears of age he contended for the prize of Tragedy. In hi* 41st year
bo gained his first victory, which was followed by twelve similar
triumphs. In his 57th year, indignant at the price being awarded to
bis younger rival, Sophocles, he retired to the court of Hioro, king of
Syracuse, who, being a patron of poets and learned men, hod collected
around him the most illustrious writers of that day, such as Pindar
and Simonides. An odd story i* told of the cause of the poet's death :
ao eagle carrying off a tortoise let it fall on the great dramatist's head,
mistaking the bald pate for a stone.
Seven tragedies of -fcschylus, out of a very large number that ho
wrote, still remain, entitled respectively, 'The Prometheus Bound,'
The Seven against Thebe.,' ' The Pemians,' ' The Female Supplianta,'
'Tho^ Agamemnon,' ' Cboi-phori ' (libation-bearers), and ' Eumenides,'
or ' Kiine*.' The three last form a continuous drama or action, which
contains (1) the return of Agamemnon from Troy, and his murder by
hi* wife Clytcmnestra ; (2) the revenge of Oretes, the ion of Aga-
memnon, who kill* his mother and the adulterer .iFginthun ; and (3)
the persecution of Orestes by the Furie., and hi* release therefrom l.y
AESCULAPIUS.
^ESOPUS.
the sentence of the high court of Areopagus, and the casting vote of
Minerva. It was usual with the candidates for the dramatic prize at
Athens to write three tragedies on some connected subject, to which
they added a fourth, called a satyric drama, on some subject treated
in a tragi-comic style. The ' Prometheus Bound ' of jEschylus belongs
to a set of this description, for we know that there was a play entitled
' Prometheus the Fire-stealer,' and a third named ' Prometheus
Loosed.'
The Greek drama, in its origin, consisted simply of a chorus or
company, who celebrated the festivals of a deity or hero by appro-
priate songs and dances. The introduction of a personage to tell
Borne story or history was an innovation, and the connecting this
narrator more closely with the chorua was another step towards the
drama, a Greek word, which signifies an action, or, in its more
technical sense, the representation of a series of events ending in
some striking catastrophe. But yKschylns carried improvements still
further, by introducing a second speaker, and thus making the
dialogue, as it really is, the essential part of tragedy. To the chorus
however ^Eschylus still allowed a great degree of importance, as we
may see from his extant plays, in which the choral songs occupy a
large part. He adds also to stage effect by improving the dress of the
actors, and giving them masks. Thespis, his predecessor, went about
the country in a waggon, and daubed the faces of his company with
lees of wine.
The plot or plan of his plays is exceedingly simple ; the personages
are few in number, and the events follow one another without any
complexity or occasioning any great surprise. Hia language is always
forcible, and the dialogue clear where the Greek text has escaped
damage ; but unfortunately few works of ancient writers have suffered
more serious injury from frequent copying than the plays of ^Eschylus.
In consequence of this the choral parts are often exceedingly obscure,
and this obscurity is increased by the wild and gigantic conceptions
of the poet, which often seem as if they strove with the imperfections
of language, and endeavoured to find utterance by a heaping together
of strong epithets and the use of long compound words. In spite of
these defects, which make the poetry of -Eschylus at times border on
bombast, and afforded a fair subject of ridicule to Aristophanes in his
play called the ' Frogs," we may often admire a real sublimity of con-
ception, a boldness of imagination, and a power to paint what is grand
and terrific, in language which for force, simplicity, and truth, bag
never been surpassed.
The play of the 'Persians' derives a peculiar interest from being
the only extant Greek tragedy which treats of a subject contempora-
neous with the age of the writer. It waa written or acted probably
about eight years after the battle of Salamis, and may be considered
as the most durable monument of the defeat of the Asiatic iuvader.
The poet writes as he fought, with a noble spirit of patriotism.
There are numerous editions of the works of --Eschylua. The first
was printed at Venice in 1518, 8vo, at the press of Aldus, after his
death; but the 'Agamemnon' and 'Choephori' are both incomplete
in this edition, and what there is of the ' Agamemnon' is oddly enough
tagged to the ' Choephori,' which has lost its beginning, consequently
this edition contains only six plays. The best recent editions are by
Wellauer, Lips., 1823; W.Dindorf, Lipa., 1827; and Scholefield, Camb.,
1830. There ia an English poetical version of /Eachylua by John
Potter, and also several poetical versions of the 'Agamemnon.' A prose
version is published in ' Bohu'g Classical Library.' The Germans have
several poetical translations of jEachylua ; the latest ia by Voss, 1826.
There is a translation of the 'Agamemnon' (1816) by William
Uumboldt.
^ESCULA'PIUS, or, according to the Greek form of his name,
Aiclepiot, was the god of medicine in ancient mythology. Several
yK.-iCulapii are said to have existed ; and it would not be easy to deter-
mine whether tradition pointed to so many distinct persons, or merely
handed down different versions of the parentage of the same man.
Cicero mentions three : the first, sou of Apollo, invented the probe,
and the art of bandaging wounds ; the second, son of Mercury, was
struck dead by lightning ; the third was of mortal parentage, son of
Arsippus and Arsinoe, and first practised purging and tooth-drawing.
The Egyptians also had their .(Eaculapiua (as the Greeks call him),
the eon of Hermes. Of the moat important of theae we proceed to
give a brief sketch.
Aaclepios waa the son of Apollo by Coronis, daughter of Phlegyas.
Hia mother, having succeeded in concealing her pregnancy, exposed
the child upon Mount Myrtium, afterwards called Titthium, in Argolia,
near Epidaurus. A shepherd, missing bis dog and one of his goats,
ought the wanderers throughout the country; and at last found them,
the dog keeping watch over a child enveloped in flames, which the
goat was suckling. The herdsman, " thinking that it was something
divine," and being frightened, went away ; but he spread the marvel
abroad, and it waa aoon noised over all the globe that Asclepios could
heal every disease, and besides bring the dead to life.
Another version of the story nays that Apollo, in a fit of jealousy,
having caused the mother's death, the unborn child was snatched by
Mercury (or, according to Pindar, by Apollo himself) from her funeral
pile. 'H'U circumstance may be connected with the other story, which
assigns the parentage of /Eculpius to Mercury.
According to Pindnr, Apollo sent the child to be educated by the
DI v. VOL. I.
Centaur Chiron, who instructed him in medicine, as at au after-period
he did Achilles. Having reached manhood, ho went with Castor aud
Pollux on the Argonautic expedition, Returning to Greece, he prac-
tised with eminent success ; not merely curing all diseases, but recalling
the dead to life. Among others, he did this service to Hippolytus, sou
of Theseus. The gods regarded this as an invasion of their privileges,
and at last Zeus (or Jupiter) struck the bold practitioner dead with
lightning, in consequence of a complaint lodged by Pluto, that the
infernal regions were depopulated by these new proceedings. Apollo
revenged the death of hia son by killing all the Cyclopes, who forged
thunderbolts for Zeus. Finally, Asclepios was raised to heaveu, and
made a constellation, under the natne of Ophiuchus, the serpent-
holder ; though some say that Ophiuchus is Hercules.
In the latter ages of paganism, when scepticism was very prevalent,
and it was the fashion to see allegory iu every mythological story, the
whole was thus explained : ^Esculapius signified the air, the medium
of health and life. The Sun was his father, because the sun, shaping
his course agreeably to the changes of the seasons, produces a healthy
atate of the atmosphere. The same spirit is visible in the names given
to his daughters, which all but one bear reference to the father's art :
Hygieia, health ; Panakeia, universal remedy ; laso, healing ; Aigle,
splendour.
In Greece, the original seat of Asclepios's worship was in the neigh-
bourhood of hia birthplace at Epidaurus, where a splendid temple was
erected to his honour, adorned with a chryselephantine (or gold and
ivory) statue. He was represented sitting ; one hand holding a staff,
the other resting on a serpent's head ; a dog couched at his feet. In
coins aud other ancient remains he ia commonly seen with a long beard,
holding a staff with a serpent twined about it. Often he is accompanied
by a cock ; sometimes by an owl. The cock was commonly sacrificed
to him. These animals seem meant to typify the qualities which a
physician should possess ; the owl being emblematic of wisdom, tho
cock of vigilance, the serpent of sagacity, and, besides, of long life.
The serpent was especially sacred to Asclepios. At Epidaurus there
was a peculiar breed of yellowish-brown snakes, of large size, harmless,
and easily tamed, which frequented the temple, and in the form of
which the god was supposed to manifest himself. In this shape he
waa conveyed to Sicyon, and at a later period, about B.C. 400, to Home,
when that city, being afflicted by pestilence, sent an embassy, at the
command of an oracle, to fetch Asclepios to their help. On the
ambassadors being introduced into the temple, a serpent came from
under the statue, aud glided through the city, and on board their ship.
Arriving in the Tiber, he swam ashore to the island upon which his
temple afterwards was built. A few inscriptions have been found in
this island relating cures, and the means employed. The means are
of such a nature that the cures must have been impostures, or have
been wrought by the force of imagination. It was customary to placo
similar inscriptions in all temples of Asclepioa. At Epidaurus there
were stones in the sacred precinct erected in commemoration of cures
performed by the god, recording in the Doric dialect the namea and
diseases of the patients, and detailing the methods of cure employed.
Six of these remained when Pausanias visited the place, aud, besides,
an ancient pillar, commemorating the gift of twenty horses by
Hippolytus, in gratitude for his restoration to life.
Of the extent of Asclepios's knowledge, and of his method of practice,
or rather of that which prevailed in the early ages before the Trojan
war, we know little. His sons, Machaon and Podaleirios, who fought
before Troy, and are often mentioned in Homer, seem only to have
meddled with external injuries. Pindar, in a passage of rather doubtful
meaning, seems to confine the father's skill within the same limits,
when he speaks of him as healing those afflicted with self-produced
ulcers, wounds from brass or atone, or injuries from summer heat or
cold. Hia remedies, on the same authority, were incantations, soothing
drinks, external applications, and the knife. There is a remarkable
passage in which Plato ('Rep.,' iii. 14), inveighing against tho
effeminacy of his own times, contrasts the attention of physicians to
diet, exercise, &c., with the negligence of the sons of Asclepios iu
these respects ; quoting a passage from Homer, in which Maohaon,
returning from battle severely wounded, partakes immediately of a
mess of meal and cheese, mixed up in strong Pramnian wine. (' II.,'
xL 639.)
For some centuries after the Trojan war medical science, if it deserves
that name, seems to have been confined to the temples of Asclepios, in
which hia descendants, the Asclepiada;, who formed the priesthood,
were alone allowed to practise ; until in later times pupils were admitted
into the brotherhood, having been solemnly initiated, and sworu to
conform to ita rules. The most celebrated temples, besides that at
Epidaurus, were those of Rhodes, Cnidos, and Cos, where Hippocrates,
a native of the island, ia said to have profited by the records preserved
in the temple. Croton and Cyreno also possessed schools of medicine.
The practice seems to have been intended chiefly to work on the
imagination. The god often gave his own prescriptions in dreams and
visions, aud the patients were to be prepared by religious rites for this
divine intercourse.
jESO'PUS, now commonly called ^Eaop, a Grecian author, who lived
about the middle of the 6th century before Christ, contemporary with.
Solon and Piaistratus. He ia usually acknowledged as the inventor
of those short moral fictions to which we especially appropriate tho
II
JMOTO&
ttoritaof him an derived from a ' Lif.,'
lacuooof FabUa, bearing tb* nan* of
i Oaaetoaltocpolitaa monk, about the
Thai contain* a distorted vl*w of tb*
l.i -k <mi h *mU SA he known, uiixe.1
AETIC8.
tl
of confe*ting hi* wit and acuteneat
a* totaQy unworthy of credit. Thar* b no allusion to the** pereo
aataliaritii* to any rti*alt*.l antbor, and etroog negative reaton* have
bean urt*d for believing tbat non* tuch existed. So* Bentiey't
DtoMrtation upon flfann. tnVJnlntil to that upon Pbalaria.
Tb* pita* of kit birth, like thai of Homer, it matter of qnortion ;
Samoa, flaroia, CotitMun to Phrygia, and lloMmbria ia Thrace, laying
claim aba* to that honour, the early part of hi* life wat tpent to
aad th* name* of thre* of hi* nutter* have been preserved :
, AthraUa, ia wboM sci-rioe be ia said to bar* acquired a
oorrt and pui knowledge of Greek ; Xanthns. a SamUo, who flgura*
In riaaude* M philosopher ; and ladmoo, or Idmon, aootber Samian,
by whom be waa enfranchi^d. Ha acquired a bigh reputation in
time* for tbat tp*d*t of composition which, after him, wai called
ia oooaaqiMoo* wat toliciied by CroMus to take op bii
ahod* at th* Lydian court. Hera be i* (aid to have met Solon, and
to haw nbuktd tb* tag* for hi* nnconrtly way of inculcating moral
I* aaid to Uav* vUted Athena during the usurpation of
Piaittrataa, and to bav* eompoetd th* fable of 'Jupiter and the Frogs'
far tb* tottrneUon of th* dtuann. (Phaxlnu, i. 1) Being charged
by Cretan* with an *mba**y to Del | hi. to the course of which he waa
to dieti Ihato a torn of money to every Delphian, a quarrel arose between
Urn and tb* uilltaas, to contoquano* of which he returned the money
to bit patron, alleging that those for whom it was meant were unworthy
of iL Th* disappointed party in return got up a charge of sacrilege,
upon which Ibejr put him to death. A pestilence which ensued waa
attributed to tbl* crime, and to consequence they made proclamation
at all tb* public a-embliet of the Grecian nation, of their willingness
lo make eomptnaallnn for -taop't death to any on* who thould appear
to claim it A grandson of hi* matter ladmon at length claimed and
received it, no parson more cloeely connected with the lufferer baring
appeared. Thi* ingular tale rette on the authority of Herodotus.
The time of .Kaup't death it uncertain. Some place it as early at
In* 6Jrd Olympiad, about B.C. 665. If however then be any truth
to tb* tcmtterrd notions which we have combined, he wai at Athent
daring tb* ntnrpatten of Piaittratua, and met with hit death in the
errricc of Cromu, and therefore before the capture of Sardia and fall
of the Lydian kingdom. This, according to Newton's chronology,
would Ax hi* death in th* 67th or 68th Olympiad, between the year*
sxc. 640 and 664. Tb* Athenian* erected to hi* honour a statue from
the hand of tb* celebrated sculptor Lysippus.
There it abundant proof that fabl** patting under the name of .-Ksop
wan current and popular to Athens during the moat brilliant period
of ita literary bbtory, and not much more than a century after the
death of th* suppoatd antbor. Th* ' drolleries of ,*op ' (AlfmwuA
>XMal are moaUoMd by ArUtophane* in terms which lead u* to
sfpOM that they won commonly repntUd at convivial partiei.
Bon-ate*, to priton, tunw.l into veree those tbat he knew ;" and
Plato, who hanlsat* the action* of Homer from hia ideal republic,
>of the tendency of thoee of .Eeop. Demetrius
a collection of JUop.an fable* ; and w* hear of two
metrical veraioas of thorn of still later date, one by an anonymous
utt,/, tb* other by Ilabrina. PbaHrus published a collection of
fahie* to Latin v*rw to tb* Urn* of Tibtriua, tb* u.ateriuls of which
b* prafitatt to bav* taken from S*a\> ; and it ia not improbable that
the nearest approach to tb* tnbatanc* of the original apologue* may
there b, bund. Another collection wat written to elegia?vri*, in
tb* 4tb otatury, by A vicuna.
Ther* I, no ground whatever for blUving that th* Greek prate
thlea which pa* under tb* turn* of X*>\> are really of hit COUIIH>-
aWa~at toaai, tbat they cam* from hi* band* in their prevnt state.
Tbos* which are mbttenlially the tamo with the fabl.t of Pbttdrut,
the *U*.t to which w* aw aign certain dale, may be believed, for
eon* alreadjr .tjsgntrf. to have originally emanated from the
number of them it about 200 or 300, and
i..
to aaaiber 144,
contain internal eridenoe that, aa
> fc V rt date, an,i probably
Lj^hHT^^i ** * ** *** ananmcripte couteto* th* fable*
I bf Plaaudee; and that th* editor expreti.t bit belief that
H-T. " k k of dJbreat band*. 8om* b. attribute* to the
toaaa, Btatuti tt*y ooatata aUation* to tb* monastic lif*. which I*
at Uatt toBciagt evidonc* of tbtsr late date. Tbl. edition, wUd
?.*?? *7 **?** /'*"'. "ootetot 897 fable* aacribtd to ,*op and
40 of th* )** Ankllimlna I.,. li._l 1. "H. >uu
**t n * M iwiHi* wuu tivtu In ins 3rd CMULIIPV *
. i , w v^ wu.urT ,
Ulaal vtiMiiiii to Ortek and Latin.
rVeoMteTB pbilotoplwr and fabutitt Lokmaa U vppoaid by many
to bar* b**a the earn* peraon aa .Kop. The former, by the Mohaiu-
medaa anthoritiea, ia mad* eontomporary with David and Solomon ;
but bia hiatory it too uncertain for ut to (peculate upon it The name
fable* are to be found current under the namea of each, and the cor-
raepondenoe between their peraonal hittorie*, at commonly told, ia too
dote to be entirely accidental (BABBIUS ; LonuM.] Many tranala-
tiooa of the (able* attributed to j&top bar* been made in mott modern
languaget : th* moat recent English translation U by the Her. Thomas
Jamea.
ACTION CAcrfer), a celebrated Greek painter, and, according to
Lucian, on* of the beat ancient colourUts. That writer mentions
Action, Aprllea, Euphranor, and Polygnotut, at the mott successful
of the ancient Greek painters in the mixing and laying on of colour*.
Action'* exact time it uncertain, although, from the manner in which
he it mentioned by Luciau, notwithstanding the Dame* he ia associated
with, be lired probably in Lucian's own time, or at most very shortly
before him. He tpeakt of him aa the most distinguished painter of
hit time, and describe* a very celebrated picture by him of the marriage
of Alexander and Roxana, which the painter exhibited at the Olympic
games, and which pleated Proxenidaa, one of the judges, so much that
he gave Aiition hia daughter in marriage. " It may be asked," lays
Lucian, " what wai there to marvellous in that painting, aa should
indue a man of such high rank to reward the painter, who withal
was a stranger, by bestowing on him his daughter ? The picture U
"till in Italy, and I am able to speak of it from personal inspection.
It repratente an extremely magnificent bed-chamber with a nu;>ti.il
bed. In it U teen sitting Uoxana, the most beautiful virgin that can
be conceived. Her eye* are modestly fixed on the ground bcfuro
Alexander, standing near her. She ia surrounded by several smiling
Cupids. One of them behind her lifts up the bridal veil from her
forehead, and shows it to the bridegroom. Another, in the attitude
of a slave, it officiously employed in drawing off her shoes, that she
may no longer be detained from lying down. A third has bold of
Alexander's robe, pulling him with all hia might towards Roxaiia.
The king presents the maiden with a crown, and betide him stands
HepbiMtion at a bridcman, holding a lighted torch in his hand, sup-
ported by a wonderfully fine youth, whom I guess to represent the
god of marriage, for the name it not beneath. On the other side of
the piece are drawn several more Cupids, playing with the arms of
Alexander. Two of them carry his spear, and teem almost ov rlmr-
deued with the weight of it. Another couple take his buckler, with a
figure like the king stretched upon it, trailing it along by the handles.
Another creeps backwards into the coat of mail, where he seems to
lurk in order to frighten the two little porters as they coma on."
" These collateral incident*," continues Lucian, " are by no means
the mere wantonness and idle sport of the artist's fancy ; they arc to
show the martial disposition of the bridegroom, and timt bin lore for
Roxana had not effaced his passiou for arms and military glory."
(Tooke'a Translation.)
From this description Raphael is aaid to have made a design, of
which there are duplicate* or copies, and it wot executed in ft
the to-called Villa of Raphael, in the garden of the Villa liorghese at
Rome ; but the competition ia puerile, and does not at all inn-it the
praises which Lucian hat given to the ancient performance of Ai-tiou :
it hat been several timet etched or engraved by J. Caraglio, Volpato,
and other*.
Lucian in the above description remarks, that he guesses a fine
youth to represent the god of marriage, as "the name is not beneath."
He alludes to an ancient custom which prevailed among the Greeks,
of attaching the names in their pictures to the figures represented ;
the name* in mott cases were probably written below the feet of the
figure. In the picture* on vases we find the name sometimes written
by the aide of the figure, but the practice was not universal. In thi -
case, from Lucian's remark, it would seem that tome of the figures
had name* attached to them, as be speaks of the other characters with
certainty, and guesses only at the god of marriage, because there was
no name attached. It was a practice however seldom if at all had
recourse to in later times, and in case of ita employment the name was
probably to placed as not to disturb the pictorial effect. SoinctiuicH
sentences were inscribed on pictures, as for instance Zeuxis wrote
upon his picture of Helen three lines from Homer, celebrating her
extraordinary beauty. ('Iliad/ iii. 166-158; Valerius Maximum, iii. 7
S 8.) There are similar examples on works of the middle ages, and
also of much later times: inscriptions below allegories are very
common*
The circumstance that Pliny hns not mentioned Action is an addi-
tional reason for concluding that ho lived about Luciou's own time, or
in the early half of the 2nd century of our era, subsequent to 1'liny.
Some however have supposed that the Echion of Pliny and Cicero is
the Action of Lucian, especially as the former was celebrated for a
picture of a bride distinguished for the modesty of her expression;
'lit this implies a great blunder in Lucian, who speaks of him as a
painter of hia own time, and there ia no sufficient reason for such n
luppoeition.
(Ludan, Jfcrodottu or Ailio*, De Marctdt Conduct*, 412, and Jmag. 7;
1'liny. J/ut. Nat. xxxv. 10, 36 ; Cicero, Brutui, 18 ; Parad. v. 2.)
AK'TIUS ('A^TIOI), of Amida in Mesopotamia, a Greek writer on
medicine, who probably lived about the end of the 5th and the begin-
63
AFFRE, DENIS AUQUSTE.
AGAMEMNON.
ning of the 6th century of our era, aa we may infer from the persons)
whom he mentions in hia work. He studied medicine at Alexandria,
then the seat of the moat celebrated medical school, and afterwards
he went to Constantinople, where he appears to have been raised to a
high office at the court, since Photius (' Biblioth. Cod.' 221) calls him
K&fiTls o^dffou, comes obsequii, a title belonging to the principal officer
attending on the emperor. Aetiua waa a Christian, but not free from
the superstitions which at that time were introduced into Christianity
from Egypt, and which were connected with his profession. His work
contains some curious examples of the pretension to cure diseases by
means of superstitious ceremonies. The work of Aetius which has
come down to us entire bears the title of Bi0A.ia i'aTpik or ySi/SAi'ov
larpiK^v, and consists of 16 books. The whole however was afterwards
divided by some editor into four sections, each of which contained
four books, from which the work is also called Tetrabibli (TfTpdf3tf)\oi).
According to Photiua (1. c.), who gives a brief summary of the work,
it is a compilation made from the writings of Oribasius, Galen, Archi-
genes, Rufus, Dioscorides, Herodotus, and other eminent medical
authors; but the compilation ia made with judgment, and Ae'tius
appears to have introduced into it some original matter. The book
is a kiud of systematic encyclopaedia of medicine, embracing the whole
ranse of medical and surgical knowledge of the ancients. A complete
edition of the Greek original has never been published. The first
eight books appeared at Venice (1534, foL), and particular chaptera
have been edited at different times. Complete translations of the
whole work appeared at Venice (1534, 4to., 1543, &c., 8vo.), Easle
(1534 and 1539, foL), Lyon (1549, fpl.\ and at Paris (1567, foL)
among H. Stephens'a 'Medicss Artis Principes.' (Fabricius, 'Biblioth.
Gncc.' a. p. 228, &e., where a full account of the modern literature
on Aetius is given.)
AFFRE, DENIS AUGUSTE, archbishop of Paris, was born nt
St.-Rf.me, in the department of Tarn, Sept. 27, 1793. At an early
age he evinced a desire to devote himself to the Church, and he
became a student at the seminary of St.-Sulpice. He waa ordained
priest in 1S18, and discharged a variety of ecclesiastical functions till
he became archbishop of Paris in 1840. Although a man of ability
and learning, and the author of several treatises (amongst which WHS
one on Egyptian hieroglyphics), he would scarcely have found a
place in the history of his times, but for the lamentable circumstance
of his deatli on the 27th June, 1848. Paris was then the scene of a
fearful contest between the soldiery and a vast body of insurgents.
The archbishop was induced to apply to General Cavaii^iac, proposing
to stand between the contending bodies ns a messenger of peace.
The general told him that the course was full of danger. " My life,"
he replied, "is of small consequence." Some hours afterwards the
firing of the soldiery having ceased at his desire, the archbishop
mounted a barricade erected at the entrance of the Faubourg St.
Antoine : he was preceded by M. Albert, a national guard, wearing a
workman's dress, carrying in his hand a green branch aa an emblem
of peace; and he bad nt bis aide a faithful servant named Pierre
Sellier. The devoted ecclesiastic was not received with the confidence
that he expected to inspire. Some indeed of the combatants stretched
out their hands, but others remained silent, while others groaned and
hooted. The prelate endeavoured to speak a few words; but the
insurgents, fancying themselves betrayed, opened a fire upon the Garde
Mobile, and the archbishop fell. Then a cry of horror went up from
the crowd, and many, even of the insurgents, rushed to his aid.
Albert and Sellier were leading him away, when Sellier was also
struck by a ball. The insurgents who surrounded the archbishop
cried out that the Garde Mobile had inflicted the wound, and that
they would avenge him. " No, no, my friends," he replied ; " there
has been blood enough shed ; let mine be the last that is spilt." He
was carried to the archiepiscopal palace, and died the same day. The
National Assembly issued a decree announcing its profound grief at
the event of his death, and his public funeral took place on the 7th
of July, amidst the deepest feelings of popular regret. (Nouvelle
flioyrapkie Univerielle, 1852.)
AFRICANUS, LEO. [LEO, JOHN.]
AFRICANUS, SEXTUS CJ3CILIUS, a Roman jurist. Many
excerpts from his Nine Books of ' Qutestiones ' are contained ia the
'Digest.' He was a pupil or friend of Salviua Julianus, whose
>ns he often cites. ('Digest' 25, tit. 3, a. 3.) This fixes the
: of Africanua to the reign of Hadrian, who died A.D. 138, and
t of bis successor Antoninus Pius. As Julianus belonged to
the legal sect of the Sabiniani, it is probable that Africanus also
ii'l. Aulus Gelliua (xx. 1) has given the substance of a discussion
between .iSextus Cfecilius, a distinguished jurist, and Favorinus, a
philosopher, on the Twelve Tables; and the date of the Twelve
Tables is fixed in thia discussion aa near 700 years prior to the
time of Gellius. As Golliua probably was not living later than
'70, and the Laws of the Twelve Tables were finally enacted
B.C. 449, the number of 700 is too much by a century for the age of
us. This error is no objection to our concluding that the Sextus
Csccilius mentioned by Gellius is Sextus Caecilius Africanus. Lam-
priding ('Alex.Sev.' 68) makes Africanus a disciple of Papinian and
a friend of Alexander Severus, but Cujacius exposes the anachronism
liy mi extract from Africanus founded on a legal maxim which was no
' in force in the time of Papinian. The Excerpts of Africanua
treat of many subtle legal points, and have been well illustrated by
Cujacius (' Opera,' torn. i.. tract 9).
AFRICANUS, SEXTUS JULIUS, a Christian writer of the 3rd
century, is considered by some authors to have been a native of
Africa, and was, according to Cave, bishop of Emmaus, A.D. 232.
Clavier, in the 'Biographie Uuiverselle,' makes him the descendant
of an African family, and born in Palestine. Between 218 and 222
Africanus was employed in an embassy to the Emperor Heliogabalus
for the restoration of Emmaus, which city, in consequence of hia
entreaties, was rebuilt under the name of Nicopolis. He attended the
lectures of Bishop Heracliua at Alexandria before the year 231.
Eusebius ascribes to Africanus a work which contains, under the
title 'Kesti* (embroidered girdles), a collection of passages from
various authors, chiefly on physical and mathematical questions, and
topics which belong to domestic economy ; medicine, botany, minera-
logy, and the military sciences. Fragments of thia work are printed
among the 'Mathematical Veteres," Paris, 1693, folio, and reprinted
in the 7th volume of the works of Meursius, Florence, 1746, but it is
not quite certain whether this work contains the real ' Kesti ' of
Africanus. The section on the military art has been translated by
Guischardt, in his ' Mdmoires Militaires des Grecs et des Remains,"
1758, 4to. There is a translation by Africanus of the book of Abdias
of Babylon, under the title ' Historia Certamiuis Apostolici,' 1566, 8vo.
Africanua wrote a chronological work in five sections under the
title of ' Pentabiblos,' containing, as some learned men think, an
abridgment and a continuation of Manetho's work. The ' Peutabiblos '
was a sort of universal history, composed to prove the antiquity of
true religion and the novelty of paganism. Fragments of this chro-
nology are extant in the works of Eusebius, Syncellus, Malala,
Theophanes, Cedrenus, and in the 'Chronicou Paachale.' The 'Penta-
biblos' commences with the creation, B.C. 5499, and closes with A.D.
221. The chronology of Africanua places the birth of Chriat three
years before the commencement of our era. But under the reign of
Diocletian ten years were taken from the number which had elapsed,
and thus the computation of the churches of Alexandria and Antioch
were reconciled. According to Fabricius, 'BibL Gr,' ed. nova, viii.
p. 9, there exista at Paris a manuscript containing an abstract of the
' Pentabibloa.' Scaliger has borrowed, in hia edition of Eusebiu-;, the
chronology of Africanua extant in ' Geo. Syncelli Chronographia ab
Adamo ad Dioclesianum, a Jac. Goar, Gr. et Lat.,' Paris, 1652, fol.
Africanus wrote a learned letter to Origen, in which he disputes the
authenticity of the apocryphal history of Susannah. This letter has
been printed at Baale, in Greek and Latin, 1674, 4to. A great part
of another letter of Africanus to Aristides, reconciling the disagree-
ment between the genealogies of Christ iu Matthew and Luke, is
extant in Etisebius's ' Ecclesiastical History." In order to reconcile
the difference between the genealogies, he has recourse to the law of
adoption among the Jews, by which brothers were obliged to marry
the wives of their brothers who died without children.
The fact of a man so learned and intelligent aa the chronologor
Africanus being a Christian, refutes the error of those who think that
all Christians iu the first centuries of our era were illiterate. The
criticisms of Africanus upon the apocryphal books seem to attest that
he did not receive the canonical writings of the Now Testament
without previous examination ; and from hia manner of reconciling
the different genealogies of Chriat, it appears certain that ha recog-
nised the authenticity of the Gospels in which they occur.
AGAMEMNON, king of Mycenoo, and commander-iu-chief of the
Grecian army at tho siege of Troy. According to the fabulous
genealogies of the poets, he was fourth in descent from Jupiter, and
grandson to Pelops, who came from Asia into Greece, and laid the
foundation of a new dynasty of princes, which soon supplanted the
older race of the Danai. Pelops acquired the kingdom of Pisa by
marriage. Atrexis, son of Pelops, beiug banished from his father's
house for having slain his brother Chrysippus, fled to Myoenaj, where
his sister's son Eurystheus, grandson of Perseus, then reigned. He
ingratiated himself so much with the people, that he was chosen king
on the death of Eurystheus, and left the sceptre to his eldest son
(or, some have said, grandson) Agamemnon. The dominion of
Myceute comprehended the northern part of Argolis, Corinth and
Sicyon, with the territories annexed to them, and ^Egialos, afterwards
called Acliaia ; thus including the whole northern coast of Pelopon-
nesus. Menelaus, second son of Atreus, obtained the kingdom of
LacediBmon by marriage with Helena, daughter of Tyndareus and
Leda. The southern and larger portion of Argolis, though governed
by a monarch of its own, was probably dependent to a great degree
on its more powerful neighbour of Mycenoo. It does not appear who
inherited tho kingdom of Pisa after Pelops ; none of the four chiefs
who led the Eleians to Troy were of hia family, so that the degree of
influence which thePelopid princes possessed over Elis can hardly bo
ascertained. A large portion of Measenia, according to Strabo, was
occupied by colonists who followed Pelops from Asia. Thus, in at
leaat four, probably in fivo, of the six principal divisions of Pelopon-
nesus (Arcadia being the one excepted), the house of Atreua had a
direct family interest and influence.
The history of Agamemnon, before tho Trojan war, is comprised iu
two sentences : he was the son of Atreus, whence he and his brother
were called Atridso; and he married G'lytemnestra, sister of Helen.
IXUflUA
AQASSIZ, LOUIS.
M
Tb.Tn.JM war an*, out of the abdncUon of Helen by Pari., utber
*. eafid Alexandras, son of Priam, king of Troy. It i* commonly
aid, UkU a numhrr of UM prince* of Grew* having been drawn
toswUMr a* suilon by UM extraordinary beauty of Helen, Tyndareus
, ____ l.y UM extraordinary beaoty of Helen. Tyndarvus
uclad an U> from them. Uui on whomsoever UM ohoio* should
faU, if 111* maid should U carried off all the rest should uniU to
recover her; and thai, in virtuo of this oath. UM confederate prince*
ssssmblsd under UM command of Agamemnon. In reference to thi*
dorr. Thucydide* ha* expressed bit belief; - that Agamemnon got
tontiwr that <*, not 10 much for thai be had with him Uw uitort
of lltleaa. bound thereto by oath to Tyndareoa, as for this, that be
rioKilfel U>* rest in power." In continuation, the hutoriao layi
wot sirs** npun hk naal power, u evinced by bU being, in Homer'*
wooU. " king of many ialanda," and by hia leading sixty akip* to the
Arcadians, bssidis conducting a hundred fiUcd with LU own follower*,
a larger number than waa led by any other chief.
The asMBbbd fUat wae detained at AulU by contrary wind*. The
aeer Cstosas, being consulted bow the anger of the goda might be
averted. and UM delay obviated, declared that Iphigenia, daughter of
Agamemnon, who bad incurred the displeasure of Diana by killing
her favooriU iUg, muit be sacrificed to the goddess. The natural
reluctance of the father wae overcome by importunity and ambition ;
and UM intended victim waa summoned to AulU, under pretence of
betrothing her to Achilla*. At the point of death ahe waa miraculoualy
saved by Uuuia, wboee prieawea abe afterwards became among a aavage
neopk of Asia, oaUed the Tauri. Thia atory u related neither by
Homer nor Hewxl ; it reata however on the early authority of Pimlar
C PyUL,' U.) and JCschylu* ; and u pregnant with too important con-
to be omitted, aince the alienation of Clytcmnestra from
ber husband i* said by those authors to have originated in her horror
of tab unnatural action. Tb* siege of Troy wss protracted for ten
The most memorable event of it i* the quarrel between
and Achilles, the subject of the ' Iliad? in which Aga-
i placed himself completely in the wrong. Homer represent*
him a* brave, and expert in arms, insomuch, that when a Grecian
warrior was selrcUd by tut who should contend with Hector in aingle
combat, it wss the general prayer that the lot might fall on Ajax,
Dittoed**, or Agamemnon. Still it is aa the commander, rather than
a* UM soldier, that he i* presented to our notice, and usually with
some reference to bis wealth and power : ' king of men ' i* the distin-
S' thing epithet constantly added to hi* name, a* 'swift-footed' i* to
name of Achillea, Hesiod also (' Fragm.,' 48) lays that the
Olympian god has given strength to the descendant* of ..Uacui,
wealth to those of Atreus. Returning from Troy, with Coseandra,
tb* daughter of Priam, ha was murdered by hi* wife, who had formed
an aduluron* attachment to ^Egiatliua, son of hi* uncle Thyesto*.
Thi* catastrophe is the subject of the ' Agamemnon ' of .Eschylus,
on* of UM moat sublime composition* in the range of the Grecian
drama, Orestes, son of Agamemnon, then a child, was saved by the
car* of hi* tutor. After passing seven yean in exile, he returned in
secret, avenged hi* father'* death by the slaughter of hia mother and
of .i&risUina, and recovered bis paternal kingdom, which he ruled
with honour. These Irgend* of the house of Agamemnon formed a
favourite subject with the Greek tragedians.
AOA8I AS, a Onek sculptor of Epbesus, whoso age is not accurately
known. The stitue now at Bom* called the Borgheae Fighter, which
is a fine spMimen of skill in representing a figure in action, and also
shows a cartful study of external anatomy, is the work of this Agasias.
On tb* support behind UM figure is the following inscription in
Omsk :-" Apsis* tb* son of Dositneus of Kphesus made it"
AOA8SI2, LOUIS, on* of tb* most distinguished naturalist* of
UM present dsy. He was born about the beginning of the present
rectory, in Switzerland, and was for many yean Professor of Natural
History at NeofebaUl. About the year 1 847 be accepted an invitation
tj beooso* professor in an American college, and he i* now Profeasor
of Natural Hi.tory at Cambridge, MassachuietU. Hi* public career a*
a nsturalUt date, from 1828, in which year be published descriptions
of two new Uu* in tb* 1*1*' and ' Linns*,' two foreign periodical.
<Uvotod to natural history. In 1829 be assisted Spix and Martius in
describing the grnen and specie* of fishes found in the Brazil*. In
Us* asm* Tew also we find the gnat tnasorndental anatomist, Okn,
^aJs'* discoveries before the Berlin meeting of German
VlM tfab time till now hi* publication* upon various
' ~7 bave been constant and most important
J of UMM contribution* to the knowledge of
, may b. rsekoned bis rosesrch. upon fossil fish**. Th* result*
IMS. research** bav* been published in various form, in the natural
ibUtry journals of tb* day, and in the Transactions of scientific societies.
Mst taportaat of UMSS labours have been directed to the strata of
rtUs*, so many of which are rich in the remains of fishes belong-
l~ MUM ps* iwriods of UM world's history. In 1834 be published^
o UM ' Fossa Fish of Scotland. 1 in ' ~
:'
of UM OU
. Since that time
fa tb*s*we Transaction*. In
Posl TabU of British Fish*.,'
" fwlogkej formsUon*. [Fun, in NAT.
'
. -
,- and i,, 1844 a ^portupoo those found in
the I/radon Clay. Agassii was the first to propose the division of
fossil fisnes according to the forms of their scales, and ha* thus placed
in the hands of the paleontologist a ready means of dUtinguinhing, by
their Male* alone, fishes belonging to the Cartilaginous and Osseous
tribes. His papers on this subject will be found in the 13th and 14th
volumes of the second series of the 'Annalcs dee Science* Naturellea,'
in the 'Comnte* Kendu*' for 1840, and in the 28tb volume of the
' Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal' Hi* researches have not
however been confined to fossil fishes ; and numerous papers scattered
through the scientific periodical* of Europe and America attest hi*
knowledge of recent a* well a* fossil forms.
Another family, in both their recent and fossil form?, has attracted
the attention of Agassis, and these are the Star- Fishes, or E,-hin<>-
dcmtata. Hi* researches upon this family have resulted in a great
work containing illustrative figure*, entitled ' Monograpb.es il'Echino-
dermes Vivaua et Foasile*,' and published in parU, from 1837 to 1842.
Several papers on this family attest the zeal And care with which he
hnx studied these animals, which have through successive period* of
time pUyed an important part amongst the organic beings of the j-lul"-.
Although the attention of Professor Agasaiz has been chiefly directed
to object* not requiring microscopic investigation, he has successfully
investigated many of the forms of /n/iuorto, which are only seen by
mean* of this instrument. He was not only one of the earliest to
confirm Mr. Shuttle-worth's curious discovery of the existence of
animalcule* among the red snow of the Alps, but also to point out
the existence of higher forms of animal Ufa (such as the Rotifera)
than had been suspected by that observer. [SNOW, KED, in NAT.
HIST. Drv.] In some recent researches upon the habits and structure
of animalcules, he has even proposed to abolish the class of /n/tuon'a
altogether, endeavouring to show that all these beings may be placed
amongst the Polypi/era, Jtliizopoda, plants, and ova of higher aninmU.
[INFUSORIA, in NAT. HIST. Div.]
His researches upon fossil animals would naturally draw his attention
to the circumstances by which they have been placed in their present
position. The geologist has been developed as the result of natural
history studies. Surrounded by the ice-covered mountains of Switzer-
land, bU mind was naturally led to the study of the phenomena which
they presented. The moving glaciers, and their resulting morains,
furnished him with facts which seemed to supply the theory of a large
number of phenomena in the past history of the world. He saw in
other parts of the world, whence glaciers have long since retired,
proofs of their existence in the parallel roads and terraces, at the bases
of hills and mountains, and in the scratched, polished, and striated
surface of rocks. Although this theory has been applied much moro
extensively than is consistent with all the facts of particular cases by
his disciples, there is no question in the minds of the most competent
geologist* of the present day that Agassiz has, by his researches on
this subject, pointed out the cause of a large series of geological pheuo-
uetua. His papers on this subject are numerous, and will be found in
the 'Transactions of the British Association' for 1840, in the 3rd
volume of the ' Proceedings of the Geological Society,' in the 1 8th
volume of the ' Philosophical Magazine ' (third series), and in the 6th
volume of the 'Annals and Magazine of Natural History.'
In hia writings Professor Agassiz show* a strong tendency to gene-
ralisation ; and if a suspicion has grown up of the unsoundness of his
viewa in certain departments of natural history inquiry, it baa arisen
from this peculiar mental disposition. He has embraced the doctrine
of the successive creation of higher organised beings upon the sur-
face of the earth, and a paper of his on this subject will be found
in the thirty-third volume of the 'Edinburgh New Philo.-ojihi.Ml
Journal.' A more detailed account of his views on this subject will
be found in the ' Outline* of Comparative Physiology,' written by
Professor Agaaaiz in conjunction with Mr. A. A. Gould. This work,
originally publiahed in America, has been republUbed in England, with
notes and additions by Dr. T. Wright. It is unnecessary to say here
that these vinws have upholders and opponents in KngUnd. Amongst
the moat distinguished of the former are Professor Owen and Professor
Sedgwick, whilst the latter number amongst them the late Professor
Edward Forbes and Sir Charles Lyell. Both parties are equally
opposed to the theory of organic development, as proposed in an
anonymous work called 'The Vestiges of the Natural History of
Creation.' Professor Agassiz ha* written in this controversy with
great sagacity, and brought his researches on the ' Embryology of the
Siilmoiiidiu ' to bear upon the argument. This work was published at
Neufcbatel in 1842.
Another general subject on which Professor Agassiz has entered with
his usual enthusiasm, is the question of the origin of the human race
from a single pair. Although the doctrine of a multiplicity of stock*
must alwaya be received with more than usual suspicion when coming
from persons living in communities where slavery is legalised, it is
only fair to Professor Agassiz to say that, before his residence in
America, bo maintained the theory of the creation of the same species
in several distinct centres, both in time and space. It H therefore not
to be wondered at that be should uphold the same theory with regard
to man. His views on this subject will be found most distinctly
enunciated in a paper forming part of a volume published in America
in 1 -:. I under the title of ' Typet of Mankind,' and edited by Dr. Nott
and Mr. Gliddon.
67
AGATH ARCH IDES.
AGATHOCLES.
68
Amidst all his original labours, Professor Agnssiz has found time to
devote himself to the general literature of natural history. Ill 1842
he published hia ' Nomenolator Zoologicus," which contains the syste-
matic names of the genera of animals both living and fossil, with
references to the authors and the books in which they are described.
He also laid the foundations of the great work entitled ' Bibliographia
Zoologise et Geologise," which has been published in England, edited
by the late Hugh E. Strickland and Sir W. Jardine, Bart., in the series
of works issued by the Ray Society. It consists of four volumes,
comprising an alphabetical list of all writers on Geology and Zoology,
with a list of their works. We must refer to this work for a com-
plete list of Professor Agassiz's own writings up to the time the first
volume was published in 1848.
When the chair of natural history in Edinburgh became vacant by
the death of the late Professor Edward Forbes, it was offered to
Professor Agassiz ; but he declined accepting it, preferring his honour-
able and wide sphere of usefulness in the New World to returning to
Europe, where he won the first triumphs of his great reputation.
AGATHARCHIDES, a Greek writer on geography, a native of
Cnidos in Asia Minor. He lived in the time of Ptolemy Philometer,
king of Egypt (who reigned from B.C. 181 to 145), and wrote
numerous works on geography, and among them one on the
Erythrcean Sea.
This work is only kuown to us by extracts from the first and fifth
books preserved by the Greek patriarch Photius, and some extracts in
Diodorus. The works of Agatharchides contained a great deal of
seful information, as we may fairly infer from the fragments which
remain. He is the earliest writer who attributes the annual rise of
the Nile to the periodical rains in the upper regions of that river.
(DiodoruB, i 41.) He has left a very minute account of the mode of
working the gold-mines which lay between the Nile and the Red Sea ;
and he is the first writer who mentioned the giraffe, a quadruped
peculiar to the African continent. His remarks on the mode of
hunting elephants, and ou the inhabitants of the Red Sea coasts,
prove him to have been an inquisitive and careful writer.
What remains of Agatharchides may be seen in Hudson's 'Minor
Greek Geographers,' vol. i. The description of the gold-mines is also
to be found in Diodorus, iii. 12.
AGATHARCHUS, a Greek painter, who apparently, from a passage
in Vitriivius, may be considered, if not the inventor, at least the first
artist who applied the laws of perspective practically in painting. He
painted a dramatic scene for /Eschylus in perspective, which was the
first work of the kind exhibited to the Greeks ; as the contemporary
of jEschylus therefore, he was a man of mature years about B.C. 480.
The words " scenam fecit," in the passage in Vitruvius referred to,
have been interpreted, "he constructed a stage," but this interpretation
is shown by the context to be incorrect The whole passage is as
follows : " When -EschyluB was exhibiting tragedies at Athens,
Agatharchus made a scene, and left a treatise upon it With the
assistance of this treatise, Democritus and Anaxagoras wrote on the
same subject, showing how the extension of rays from a fixed point of
sight should be made to correspond to lines according to (natural
reason, so that the images of buildings in painted scenes might have
the appearance of reality ; and although painted upon flat vertical
surfaces, some parts should seem to recede and others to come
forward."
This kind of scene-painting was termed Scenography (amivayfatftia.)
by the Greeks, and was sometimes practised by architects; Diogenes
I.aertius mentions Clisthenes of Eretria as scenograph and architect.
Aristotle gives Sophocles the credit of introducing scene-painting ; he
may have first treated it as indispensable in a dramatic representation,
and rendered the practice common, or Vitruvius may have erroneously
ascribed its introduction to /Eschylua instead of Sophocles.
There was another Greek painter of the name of Agathitrchus, who
live 'd about half a century later than the above. He was contem-
porary with Zeuxis, and Plutarch relates an anecdote of the two, how
Xeuxirt reproved Agatharchus for boasting in company of the rapidity
with which he painted, by quietly observing that he (Zeuxis) painted
very slowly. This Agatharchus is the painter whom Alcibiades shut
up in his house until he had painted certain pictures in it The
circumstance is noticed by Plutarch and by Andocides, but they give
different accounts of the conclusion of the affair.
(Vitruvius, viL, Pnef.; Diogenes, ii. 125; Aristotle, Poetic., iv. ;
Plutarch, Periclet, 13, AIM., 16; Andocides, Oral, in Alcib., 7.)
AiiATHEMEUUS, a Greek writer who lived about the middle of
the 3rd century, and wrote a short treatise on general geography.
His work, as we possess it, is a collection of heads, or rather a kind
of syllabus for a set of lectures. There are two books extant, of
which the second is so confused and contradictory, that critics are
disposed to assign it to a pupil of Agatbemerus. His first chapter
HIS a sketch of the history of geography, with the names of
those who haxl rendered the moat eminent services to the science.
His sixth chapter treats of the spherical figure of the earth, and what
is now called the doctrine of the sphere, &c. (Hudson, Minor Qeo-
ijrapheri, vol. ii.)
AGATHIAS, a Greek historian and poet, who lived under the
11 .lii.-.tiniiiii und Justinus the Younger. Ho was a sou of
McinuoniuH, and born at Myrina in Asia Minor, about A. D. 030, but
he received his education at Alexandria, whence he went in A.D. 554 to
Constantinople, where his father seems to have settled during his son's
stay at Alexandria. Agathias now commenced studying the law, and
afterwards distinguished himself as a speaker in the courts of justice.
The title of Scholasticus (SXO^CWTIKIJS), which some writers give him,
and which appears in the manuscripts of his work, refers to his pro-
fession of advocate, for Scholasticus at that time signified an advocate.
But notwithstanding the great reputation he acquired, he never liked
his profession, which he practised, according to his own account, only
for the sake of gaining a livelihood : his favourite pursuits were poetry
and history. He was esteemed by many of the most distinguished
men of the time, and seems to have been rather given to courting the
great. Some of his epigrams contain incontrovertible proofs that
Agathias was a Christian. He died a short timo before the death of
Tiberius Thrax and the accession of Mauritius, A.D. 582.
Agathias was the author of the following works: 'Daphniaca'
(Aa^piaKa), or a collection of erotic poems in hexameter verse. It
consisted of nine books, but is completely lost. He calls it a juvenile
production. 2. ' Cyclus ' (KwcAos), a poetical anthology, in which he
collected the poems of his contemporaries, especially of his illustrious
friends, and also many of his own. The collection is lost, with the
exception of the introduction. His epigrams, which are still extant
in the ' Greek Anthology," may have formed a part of the ' Cyclus : '
they show that Agathias had considerable poetical talent and wit.
3. ' History of his Own Time,'' is the most important among hia works,
and is complete. It breaks off abruptly in the 25th chapter of the
fifth book, probably in consequence of the author's death ; for he states
that this history was commenced at a late period of his life. It con-
tains the history of the short period from A.D. 553 to 559. He appears
throughout this work as a good and honest man, and as a faithful
writer, but wanting in historical and geographical knowledge, especially
with regard to the West of Europe. HU language is a compound of
nearly all the dialects of ancient Greece, in which however the Ionic
predominates. Among the editions of this work the most important
are that of Bonaventura Vulcanius (Lugdun. 1594), those in the Paris
and Venice collections of the Byzantine writers, and above all that of
B. G. Niebuhr, which forms the third volume of the ' Corpus Scrip-
torum Histories Byzantinao" (Bonn, 1828, 8vo.), and contains a good
account of the life of Agathias, and also his Epigrams.
AGATHOCLES, a Syracusan of low extraction, who became ruler
of Syracuse and great part of Sicily. The principal events in hia life
range between B.C. 330 and 289. He was the sou of a potter, and is
said to have worked at his father's trade. He was remarkable for
beauty, strength, and capacity for enduring labour. In the outset
of life he belonged to a baud of robbers ; afterwards he served as a
private soldier, and in that capacity gained the favour of a patron
named Dainas, who, being chosen general of Agrigeutum, advanced
him to the rank of chiliarch, or commander of a thousand men. On
the death of Dainas, who bequeathed his great wealth to his wife,
Agathocles married the widow, and became one of the richest citizens
of Syracuse. In this state of his fortune he distinguished himself by
his eloquence in the assembly of the people. But his conduct now
was as seditious as his former life had been profligate.
The constitution of Syracuse, as established by Timoleon, was
democratical ; but in the outset of Agathocles' political life, the
aristocratical party, headed by Sosistratus, a personal enemy of his
own, drove him into exile ; and he retreated into Italy, where for some
time he lived as a soldier of fortune. The restoration of democracy,
and the banishment of Sosistratus and his friends, enabled him to
return. The Carthaginians interfered in behalf of these new exiles ;
and a war ensued, in which Agathocles bore a distinguished part : but
he was suspected of aiming at the tyranny, and was a second timo com-
pelled to quit Syracuse. In banishment he collected an army which
overawed both Carthage and Syracuse. After frequently defeating the
troops of the former, he was recalled, under the pledge of an oath
that he would attempt nothing against the democracy; and he was
chosen general and protector, for the ostensible purpose of reconciling
or putting down faction. Strong in the support of his own mercenary
troops, united with some of the poorest and most desperate of the
citizens, he proceeded to arrest and execute by military process the
leaders of the aristocratical party, and gave up their adherents to the
fury of his soldiery. Four thousand persons are said to have been
murdered, and six thousand to have fled. The wives aud children of
the latter, those of them who were unable to accompany the fugitives,
fell victims to the soldiery.
Agathocles now declared his intention of retiring into private life ;
but he knew that the partners of his crimes could not maintain them-
selves without his countenance. At their call he consented to retain
his office, on condition of holding it without a colleague (B.C. 317).
He did not assume the state of a monarch, but exercised the powers
of the most absolute king, with the title of ' autocrator ; ' that is,
ruler according to his own pleasure. He had risen as the champion of
the poor; and he. fulfil led his promises by the abolition of debts aud
the distribution of lands. He aimed at the dominion of the whole
island ; and succeeded in reducing all except the subjects of Carthage.
Hut the Carthaginians made a strong effort to crush him. He was
defeated with great slaughter (B.C. 309), his subjects nearly all revolted,
aud he was obliged to shut himself up in Syracuse. In the following
AOATHOn.KMOX.
y*r be adopted U>. bold plan of carrying the war into Africa : but
moory was required for thb purpose: and hi* contrivance for raising
It *>tns borrowed (ram UM habit* of hi* early life He offered to
U ell b feared UM hardships of a *e retire from Syracuse, and
Iw ami an armed fore, to plunder and murder thoee who availed
jbafjiihn of UM permMoaj. By thai atrodo.ii act he at once gained
aupftUea, *** r**wtfted himself upon hi* eoemta*.
On hi* Undue; m Africa he burnt hi* ship., tl.it hts loldlen might
Uv M bap* but In victory. H. took aeveral towns, defeated a power-
Ad OtrUMfiaian fore. Mot to oppose him. and threw Carthage iUeif
iato free* alarm. But a new ihsagiir threatened the rule of Agatbooles,
from UM powwful dty of Agrigentum. which proflted by the exhaus.
lion of Carthage and 8yracu to invii. the Sicilian, to shake off the
dominion of both, Afatboeiee returned In haste, and reduced torn*
of the revolted eitise. But the foroai of the rest under the command
of Democrat.*, a Syracusan. proved too strong for him. Moreover,
hit preMtx* WM again required In Africa, where the Csrthaginians had
repaired their tone*, and regain* I their ascendancy. He saw the pro
Ubility that the Ryraenmn* might call in Deinocratea in hi* absence.
In thi* dOeeam*. he took advantage of a public festival to ascertain
who wr hi* eucmiea, and put to death the chief men of the party to
the number of 600.
H* WM received on his return to Africa by a mutiny among his
troops, in aaajaaquaaea of his son Aroharathns having been dilatory in
furniehine; their pay. H. harangued the soldiery, saying that they
net |H their pay from the enemy, and that the booty should be in
common. Bat UM neeesaity of recovering the good will of his army
betrayed him into imprudence*. He attacked the Carthaginian* unad-
ri**diy. and loat UM battle, and a Urge portion of hi* men. He wa*
compelled to retreat to hi* camp, where he saw that his rashness had
art the eoldiers against him ; and he bad reason to fear thst they would
renew UM mutiny on account of the arrears of par. He therefore fled
n the night, accompanied by Archafathu*. They were pursued, nml
the eon was taken : the father, with better fortune, reached the ships
In which be had returned from Sicily, and escaped. All his sons were
murdered by the enraged soldiers, who then made terms with the
Carthaginiaus. Agathocla* avenged himself in kind on the murderers
of hU tout, by (laying UM kindred of those who had (erred with him
in Africa.
On hi* return to Sicily, he found that a large portion of the troops,
and trveral of the cities, bad gone over to Deinocrates, who himself
Mpired to UM sovereignty. He therefore made peace, with the Cartba-
**"! and commenced a war against the exiles, whom he defeated,
and treacherously slew to the number of 7000, after they had laid
down their arm* under aunranoe of safety. But he received Deiuo-
erate* with favour, and appointed him his general After thia he
undertook an expedition into Italy against the liruttii, laid the Lipari
Island* under contribution, and made himself master of Crotona, but
WM obliged by severe illnen to leave hi* main design* uncompleted.
Hi* ambition wa* to render Sicily a great naval power ; and he had
advanced far in the prosecution of this attempt when he died, by one
account of a miserable and wasting sickness, by another of poison
admibistored by Msinon, one of hi* lasociates, in concert with his own
grandson. Hi* death took place in the year B.C. 289, at the age of 72,
after a r^ign of 28 years.
AOATII ' f Alexandria, a map-maker, and apparently the
author of UM map* found In the olde*t manuscripts of the geography
of Claodlu* PtoUmsra*. There can be no doubt that the work of
Plnlimam WM accompanied by map* ; if indeed it U pocaiblo that a
tabular lyatom of geography like hi* could be without them. Maps
on plat*, of copper are mentioned by Herodotus, who wrote above
M* year* before PtoUmeraa. But a* we know nothing at all about
UM of Atalhodroon. we cannot conclude, M some do, that the
map. of PtoUmsro* wen constructed by him. It i* more likely that
U wa. a Uter editor or amender of them. In the Vienna and Vene-
tian manuscript* the following not. In Greek U found at the end of
the maps : " According to the eight books of the Geographical work*
of Claudius Ptohtnajos, Aathodmon of Alexandria delineated the
wboU earth." It has been inferred from this, that Agathodemon was
eowUtoporary of Ptolcm.ro*. But thi* doe* not seem to be quite
**"** Tbe Aape which A*athodmon gave to th. different
i of UM Mrth maintained iu ground on modern map* till the
* refuUr rorveya became in use : and indeed till of late yean,
our map* were only the traditional delineations of
m of Alexandria. (Schoell, ToL ii. ; Hecren, l)t
Protxmcrs. CLADDIUI.)
Id
new election previous to obtaining the imperial confirmation of the
bishop elect The confirmstion Itself however continued to be re-
quired for a considerable time after, if not from the emperor, at least
from the exarch of Ravenna, who was the emperor** representative in
Italy. Aptthon died A.D. 682. He Is numbered by the Church of
Rome among ite sainU. (Sandioi, Vila Pontijicum Romn*onu x
Antlquii lf<mttmra/u ColltOa.)
AUESILA'DS, younger son of Arcbidamui, king of Lacedannon,
succeeded hie brother Agis, B.C. 398, to the exclusion of his nephew
Leotvchidea, who laboured under the stigma of bastardy, being Where .1
to be the son of Alcibiades, and not of Agis, hi* reputed father. As
the crown descended in direct line fi-ora father to son, the succession of
Agesilaua seemed, in his youth, to be barred ; and hi* education win
conducted a* that of a private person, in all the itriotness of Spartan
discipline. He was lame, and advantage wa* taken of this to excite a
prejudice againit him ; yet so high wss bis personal character, or so
general the belief in the spurious birth of Leotychides, that by a
vote of the general assembly, the heir-apparent was passed over,
and Agesilaus was appointed king.
In the first year of his reign a plot was formed to effect a change of
government. The political constitution, established by Lycurgus, had
degenerated into an oligarchy of a peculiar kind. Almost nil political
power, with the exclusive right to hold hi. -It civil or military office,
was engrossed by those families who boasted to be of puro Spartan
blood, the term Spartan being opposed to Lacedajmonian. The Lace-
demonians are conjectured to have been the progeny of enfranchised
Helots, strangers associated into the citizenship, a remnant of the
Aclirci, and in a word, all who could not trace an unblemished line of
Spartan descent to the early ages of the monarchy. Foreigners might
become members of the community and Lacedtomouinna ; but th-y
could never become Spartans ; at least, Herodotus only knew of two
instances up to this time (ix. S3, 85). The object of Cinadon's con-
spiracy, who complained that he counted ouly forty Spartans in tho
agora, or place of assembly, and that these were all official person*,
was to extend the right nf holding their high office* to all citizens.
The plot was discovered before it wa* ripe ; Cinadon, the author and
ringleader, was executed, and the Spartans held fast their monopoly.
In order to prosecute wore effectually the war with Persia (B.C.
396), Ageiilaus was sent to command in Asia. At setting out, he
pledged himself either to conclude an honourable peace, or to disable
his enemies from giving any further disturbance to the Greeks. lli<
first object was to conciliate the Asiatic citiea by prudent manage-
ment and liberality ; and he succeeded in reconciling their factious.
It may bo doubted whether the design of Agesilaua was limited to
tho protection of tho Greek state* of Asia, but the war that broke
out in Greece, sfti-r he had been about two years in Asia, did not
allow him to follow up his sucoense*,
The intrigue* of the Persians and the hatred of the Spartan influ-
ence had occasioned a dangerous league to be fonned against Sparta.
Thebes, Argos, and Corinth declared against the Lacedemonians, and
Athena followed the example at the pressing instance of the Tuebans.
The ephori ordered Agesilaus home ; in the height of his glory, and
with the prospect of victory, he instantly obeyed. The Lacedte-
! moniaus and their enemies met near Coroneia in Ilceotia, and a fierce
battle took place (August, B.C. 39*). The Thebons alono made a
gallant resistance. The Spartan king was wounded, and obtained only
a doubtful victory. He returned to Sparta, not importing with him
I the luxuries of Asia, but adhering to the temperance and frugality
characteristic of his country's discipline. The probability of .'
recovering her former power after her walls were rebuilt (D.C. 892),
induced the Spartan* to *end Antalcidas (n.c. 887) with proposals to
Persia, favourable to themselves, but disadvantageous to the rest of
Greece. The bearer of these offers was the personal enemy of Agesi-
lau*, and was supposed to have a mean pleasure in lessening hi*
power and tamihing his glory. The Persians dictated the treaty
in the language of conquerors (Xen. ' Hellen.' v., i. 31 ), and Artaxcrxes
concluded with denouncing war against those who should not submit
> to hi* terms. The Thcbans refused ; but their steadiness was shaken
by preparations for coercion on the part of the ephori, invidiously
I recommended by Agesilaus, in revenge for a former aflr
had now, though not worthily, recovered her power in Greece. ' 1 1. r
virtms, indeed, were to be found rather in adversity than prosperity ;
nor did she profit by her own experience, that tyranny lead* to the
destruction of the tyrant Plirobidas, one of her generals, on hi
march into Thrace against Olynthus, was encamped iu the neighbour-
I hood of Thebc*, while parties were so nearly balanced, that Is
OATIIOX. a native of Sicily, succeeded Domnui in the see of and Leontiade*; the head* of opposite factions, excrci-.-.l the chief
' Conetentin* Poronatus havlnir con. magistracy together. Leontiades, who courted the friendship of
, succeee omnni
Emperor Conetantine Pogonatus having con-
^y^Sy^ *iv MO - A *" h *
concurred in condemning the heresy of the Mono-
rlitea, .bo enntendrd that, hi oonaaquence of the union of the two
**?"? Chrht, there wa* In him only one will and
W, an opinion which appear* to have been till then coun-
.V** > *' t * A ty Pol* Honoriu* I. These
al aetoetlona, to .hiaj, ,], of y,, oriental*
i_to bar. puded at time, the more aober and matter-
i Lacedamon, aecretly introduced rhmbidas and his troops iuto the
Cadmela, the citadel of Thebes (n.c. 382). This at once gave
*. line whiohUM of Rom. pSitotta Si^ uCr?
. .
the luperiority to that party of which he was tin
was apprehended, and 400 of his friends immediately fled to Athens.
Complaint was made at Sparta of this treacherous aggression in time
of peac<-. Agesilaus was, in general, more just and liberal tlinii Hi
rest of his countrymen ; but he contended that it wo* necessary to
examine whether the poiaesaion of the Cadmeia wa* of advantage to
Sparta. Tho decree of the Spartans was, as we might expect, in
their own favour. The assembly resolved to koi-p tho citndel, and to
81
AGIS I.
AGIS IV.
bring Ismenias to trial. But a counter-revolution was soon effected ;
aatl the Spartans were compelled to evacuate the citadel.
That the Lacedaemonians, when now at the height of power, were
all at once involved in a train of misfortunes which effectually broke
their supremacy, is ascribed by Xenophon to the divine anger against
their perfidious seizure of Thebes. Agesilaus probably had come
round to the same opinion ; for he excused himself from the com-
mand of the army sent to reduce the Theban revolutionists, oti the
plea of being weighed down by age. His colleague, Cleombrotus, was
appointed in his stead. The events which occurred during the absence
of Agesilaus, form no part of the present subject. On returning
home, Cleombrotus left Sphodrias at Theapiae, in command of part of
his army. Sphodrias, whether from his own folly, or, as many
believed, induced by Pelopidas, made a most unwarrantable and faith-
iroad upon Attica. The Athenians complained to Sparta, and
Sphodrias was recalled, and brought to trial. Unfortunately, Agesilaus
was persuaded to exert his influence in the delinquent's favour, und
he was acquitted ; at which the Athenians were so much offended,
that they immediately concluded an alliance with Thebes against
Sparta. Agesilaus then resumed the command and held it through
two successive campaigns, till obliged to resign through failing
health.
The battle of Leuctra (B.C. 371), in which the Lacedaemonians under
Cleombrotus were overcome by inferior numbers, produced a striking
instance of Spartan character. The news arrived at Sparta during a
relk'ious festival, but the ephori did not allow the celebration of it to
be interrupted. The list of the elain was sent to the houses of their
kindred, and the women were told to bear their sorrows in silence.
Those parents whose children had met with a glorious death went
abroad the next day to receive congratulations ; the friends of the
survivors kept their houses, as if in shame and sorrow. On this
occasion, a number of the combatants having fled, Agesilaus was
allowed to suspend the law which visited cowardice with disgraceful
punishment. He prudently announced that it might sleep for one
day only, and then resume its power.
There was a proverb, frequently repeated by Agesilaus, that "a
Spartan woman had never seen the smoke of an enemy's camp ; "
but he had the mortification to fee his proverb belied. The Theban
army increased daily by the defection of the allies of Sparta ; it pene-
trated into Laconia, and laid waste the whole country; the city how-
ever was saved by the prudence of Agesilaus, who shut himself up in
Sparta, and avoided au engagement. Epaminondas did not venture
to assault the city ; and at last, his allies growing weary of the service,
the winter approaching, and relief coming to Sparta from Athens, the
Theban general found it necessary to retreat.
After the death of Epamiuondas, at the battle of Mantinea (B.C. 362),
the weariness of all parties produced a partial cessation of hostilities.
: m was now above eighty years old, but he had still vigour enough
left to lead an army into Egypt, to assist the Egyptians who had
rebelled agaiunt the Persian king. According to Plutarch, Agesilaus
went expressly to help Tachos against his master King Artaxerxes II.;
luit a rival to Tachos starting up in the person of .Nectanebos, another
Egyptian, Agesilaus found it convenient to change sides. After esta-
blishing Xectanebos in the government of Egypt, the old king set out
on his voyage homewards, loaded with money and presents, the reward
of bis services and his treachery. Being driven by contrary winds on
the coast of Africa, he died there at the advanced age of eighty-four.
His attendants preserved the body in melted wax, and took it to Sparta
to be buried, consistently with the usages of their country, which did
not allow the body of a king to rest in a foreign land.
The character of Agesilaus is exalted by Xenophon far above its
merit*. The historian was on terms of personal intimacy with the
Spartan king, and was besides no great admirer of the constitutional
forms of Athens, his native city, which he loved to contrast disadvan-
tageously with those of Sparta. We may admire the energy and
vigour of Agesilaua, and grant him a full share of those peculiar
virtues which characterised his country. He may have been temperate
in hia habits, kind to his friends, and not cruel to his enemies ; but
more than one public act of his life throw suspicion on his integrity
as an individual and a statesman.
(Plutarch, Life of AgeiUaut ; Xenophon, Hdltnica, and Panegyric
on Ayftilaut; Pausanias, iii. 9.)
AGIS I., king of Sparta, wag the son of Eurysthenes, and grandson
of Aristodemuft, to whom Laconia was allotted after the Heracleid
invasion. Aristodemus had two sons, Eurysthenes and Procles : and
this Agi was, therefore, the second in one of the series of that double
race of kings, which reigned conjointly. His reign is said to have
commenced about B.C. 1032, but no certain dates can be assigned to
these early times. Agis deprived the conquered people of the equal
political rights to which his father had admitted them. The inhabit-
ant* of the town of Helos having attempted to regain their freedom
were reduced by him to the abject bondage so long endured by the
clan of the Helots. (Pausanias, iii. 2.)
A' MS II., the son of Archidamus II., reigned from B.c. 427 or 420
to 397. In the fourteenth year of the Peloponnesian war the Lace-
demonians endeavoured to recover their influence in Peloponnesus,
and marched out with nil their force under Agis. The Argeian army,
against which his operations were directed, was completely hemmed
in. Two Argeians went privately to Agis, and pledged themselves to
effect a reconciliation if he would grant a truce of four months. To
this he consented. The order to retreat was heard with astonish-
ment by the army of Agis, and the Argeians, on their part, were
highly incensed against their countrymen for having defrauded them
of an opportunity, as they thought, of destroying the enemy. Agia
was called to account, and it was proposed to fine him, and demolish
his house ; but his humble demeanour and earnest entreaty prevailed,
and he was allowed to resume the command, under the mortifying
restriction of a superintending council. He made amends, a short
time after, by defeating the Argeians, and their allies the Athenians,
in the great battle of Mantineia. (Thucydides, v. ; Pausanias, iii. 8.)
At the siege and surrender of Athens, B.C. 401, accompanied with the
mortifying demolition of the long walls, and the fortifications of
Peirams, Pausanias and Agis, the two kings of Sparta, conducted tho
operations by land, while Lysander blockaded the city with his fleet.
In B.C. 401 Agis conducted an army into Elis, which yielded him
abundant spoil, since, as the scene of the Olympic games, it had
usually been held sacred, and exempted from the ravages of war.
Having gone to Delphi to dedicate a tenth of the spoil, he fell sick
on his return, and died a few days after he reached Sparta. Agis
was succeeded by his brother Agesilaus.
AGIS III., the son of Archidamus III., reigned from B.C. 338 to
331 or 330. At the time of the battle of Issus (333) he communi-
cated with the Persian commanders in the ^Egeaa, to obtain supplies
for carrying on the war against Alexander iu Greece. While Alex-
ander was engaged in hia fourth campaign iu Asia, Agis laid siege to
Megalopolis, a town in Peloponnesus, which held out till the arrival
of Antipater, the governor of Macedonia. A bloody battle was fought,
in which the Lacedaemonians behaved with their accustomed gallantry,
but were overpowered by superior numbers. Agis fell after his
phalanx was broken, and with him above 5300 of the Lacedecmouians
and their allies. The Lacedaemonians sued for peace, and obtained
it ; giving hostages that they would submit to Alexander's decision on
their fate. (Pausan., iii. 10 ; Arrian, ii. 13.)
AGIS IV., son of Eudamidas II., reigned from B.C. 244 to 240.
The year after his accession he was defeated in an engagement with
Aratus, the general of the Achaean league. But the chief interest of
his reign lies in the attempt he made to restore the institutions of
Lycurgus. Public manners had degenerated from their ancient
severity ; the privileged class, to whom the name of Spartans was
confined no longer, enjoyed the equal portion of land prescribed by
the ancient discipline. Of 700 families, to which their number was
now reduced, not more than 100 possessed estates. These were rich,
haughty, and licentious ; the poor were oppressed and burdened with
debt. The two great features of the proposed reformation were, a
new partition of the lands, and the abolition of all debts. Agis also
proposed to abolish the distinction between Spartans and Laced&uio-
uians, retaining that between the Lacedaemonians and the Perioeci, or
people of the smaller towns. These latter, however, were to be
trained in the strict discipline of Lycurgus, and to succeed to the
privilege of citizenship as vacancies occurred. In laying his propo-
sals before the senate Agis recommended them by the offer of the
first personal sacrifice, iu the contribution of his own lands and money
to the common stock. His mother and his kindred followed his
example. The multitude applauded : but his colleague Leouidas and
the rich men opposed the plan, and persuaded the senate to reject it ;
the question was lost by a majority of only a single vote. To rid
himself of Leonidas, Agis contrived to get Lysander appointed one
of the ephori ; who forthwith accused Leonidas of having violated thj
laws, by marrying a stranger, and residing for a time iu a foreign
land ; two acts forbidden to the race of Hercules. Leonidas could
not venture to make his appearance : he was therefore deposed, and
his crown devolved to his son-in-law, Cleombrotus, who co-operated
with Agis in his measures of reform. On tho expiration of Lysander's
office, a reaction took place. As the reformers despaired of succeeding
by mild means, Agis and Cleombrotus went to the place of assembly,
plucked the ephori, now of the anti-reforming party, from their seats,
and placed others in their room. The life of Leonidas, who had
returned into the city during the short triumph of his faction, was
threatened ; but Agis himself protected him from assassination,
meditated against him by Agesilaus, who was the uncle of Agis.
The want of sincerity in this unworthy relation of the reforming
king occasioned the failure of the scheme, when all its difficulties
seemed to have been nearly overcome. Agesilaus was deeply in-
volved hi debt : he therefore persuaded the two kings to burn all
deeds, registers, and securities in the first instance. When the divi-
sion was proposed he devised repeated pretexts for deluy. Before tho
lirst measure, owing to these underhand practices, could bo completed,
the Achsoans, who were allies of Sparta, applied for assistance against
the ^Etoliaus, who threatened to lay waste the country of Pelopon-
nesus. Agis was sent to command the army, and exhibited the same
republican virtues tn his military office as in his civil administration.
He joined his forces to those of Aratus, whose over-caution gave no
opportunity for enhancing the glory of the Lacedaemonian soldiery :
but the conduct of the troops, and the rigid performance of every
duty oa the part of their commander, impressed both the allies and
the enemy with respect for the commonwealth.
A'-.I.A !'! 'V.
AGRICOLA. CN^DB JULIUS.
On UM return of Alia, be fond that a change had Ukeo place in
th. JSijrs i^siw UM p~'. iidto * >
wa. again one of the ephori, the lands were not
I thrown themselves into the party
of their owa enemies, and .uflered them to dethrone Cleombrotu.
mA restore L-oaM- to powrr. Agfa wee compelled to flyU . BUM-
taery Some ti aiilierniii friend* entrapped him, and dragged him to
pcWo. Being nmeticaid by the ephori. whether be did not repent of
Crmg faWuij innovation. F bTWplied, that in the face (/death
he would not repent of eo worthy an eoterprUe. He was oon-
dMDMd. aad exeootod with mdeotnt haete; the plea for thi* wai the
deacer of a leuiui. One of his exeoutionen wai moved to tear*.
Agfa said to USB, * Lament me not ; *un>ring unjustly, I am happier
than my murderers," The cruelty of the victorious party did not
end hers: hfa mother and grandmother were strangled on hi* body.
Bb widow wae forcibly taken out of her house by Leoaidaa, and
married against her will to his son Cleomenea. Though a huibanu
by oompaUon. Oeomenei was attached to hi* wife, whose conversa-
tion inspired bun with the desire of accomplishing the projected
reform. rCLo*mJ (Plutarch. HJttf Ago.)
aUPHON. There were two distinguished Greek painters of
A'OLAOPHON
this name, who were probably related.
Bottiger tup
that the
III Mil ' the grandson of the elder, and tb*~*on of Aristophon the
brother of Polygnotoa.
The elder Aglaophon lived about B.C. 500, and wai a native of the
island of Tbaeoe, where hit Mm Polygnotu* wai also burn. Aglao-
pbon'a greateet distinction ia that of baring been the father and the
Instructor of Porygnotna, who ii the fint painter recorded in history
who attained great fine. Quintilian it the only writer who speak* of
the atyle of Agtaophon, but he indieoriminately couple* him with
Polygnotaa. He eaya, " Notwithstanding the aimple colouring of
Polmoto* and Aglaophon, which wai little more than the crude
br-jiffAi*; of what wai afterward* accomplished, many hare, certainly
with MOM affectation, preferred their works to thoee of the greatest
matter* who succeeded them." There can be as little doubt that this
pierap refer* to the elder, aa that the following, from Cicero, refer* to
the younger : Ciocro aayt, .peaking of style*, Aglaophon, Zeuxis, and
ApeUe* were all different in their MTeral styles, yet each was perfect
in hi* own style.
None of the works of the elder Aglaophon are particularly mentioned,
nnlr-i the winged Victory spoken of by the scholiast on the ' Birds '
of Arietophanei (T. 573) may be attributed to him.
The two picture* of Alcibiade* mentioned by Athenicus must have
been by the younger. After Alribiadea, aay* Atheuxus, returned to
Athene a victor at the Olympic game*, he exhibited two picture* of
himaelf, one mmeeiiliin. (Jlympia* and Pythias crowning him, and in
UM other be wa* painted extremely beautiful, lying on the knee* of
Nenea. Plutarch attributes the latter of these pictures to ArUtophon,
Ike brother of Polygnotaa, and the (uppaeed father of the younger
Aglaophon ; bat a* the account of Athenarai accords better with the
time, it M more probably correct, at least under the supposition that
there were two artuta of thi* name. The beautiful hone ipoken of by
.tOian wa* probably the work of the younger Aglaophon.
(Mdai ; (juinUuen. /net. Orator, til 10, 3; Atbenstua, xil 634 ; Pin-
Unej.JMoM<ie),I;aeero,/>iOnU.iii.T; .Elian, I* A*im. i Kpilom.)
AUNKH, MAIUA OAETANA, wa* born at Milan in 1718. When
Tery yooof, eh* dietintruUhed henelf by the acquisition of the Latin,
Greek. Hebrew, French, German, and Spanish language*. She then
turned her attention to mathematic* and philosophy, and at the age
of 1 wrote in defence of W these*, which were published in 1738,
ndcr the title of Proposition*. Philosophic*.' In 1748 she pub-
meet celebrated work, Institution* Analitiche ad Uso dell*
Italiana,' in two volume* 4 to. The first volume contain*
of Algebra, with th* application of Algebra to Geometry;
tain* an excellent treatise on the Differential and Integral
Cabal**. In 1780, her father, who waa then a professor of the univer-
sity of Bologna, being 111, ahe obtained permission from the Pope
Benedict XIV. to supply hi* place. She ended her career, but in what
year we cannot ascertain, by retiring into a convent, and taking the
veil She died m January. 17W. aged 81.
The second volume of the 'Analytical Institutions ' wai translated
into French by tXAntslmy, with additions by Boesut, and published
** Part* in 1776. The whole was translated into English, and pub-
hehed et the expense of Baron Masen* in 1801.
AOSOLO, BACCIO !>'. a Florentine, wee at first a wood-engraver,
sad afterwards aa architect H* wa* born in 1460. and bad already
,
his art and boaineaa a* a wood-
engraver,
probably for the means of rubsfatence, and hi. studio, or workshop,
we. fun mil il by the meet eminent men of taste aud learning then
tL H b^nJoio7 ^lUofcel Angilo, Sansovino, and
C)BsetUins;bwslfasanarehiUctinFlonnoe, Baccio was engaged
la erreral work* of importance there, and acquired notoriety of a
olsagrteaSU natnr* through deviation from the ordinary | r,
the time. He adorned the window* of a mansion or palazxo (as tho
Italian* term the large town-house of a distinguished person), in tho
Pious di Santa Trinit-X with frontispieces, and put a frontispiece,
~~uu..ft of columns with a regular entablature, to the portal, in tin-
manner, indeed, which has been so commonly practised ever since,
and i* at the present time in vogue, but which had been restricted to
churches up to tbii time. All the wits in Florence aet upon poor
Baocio, who wa* lampooned and ridiculed in every possible way, for
making, a* it wa* said, a palace into a church ; indeed, he was almost
induced to retrace his steps, but being conscious that he hnd dono
well, "he took heart and stood firmly/' It was a novelty, and aa tho
biographer of all the architect* says, ' like almost all other novelties,
it wai at the first scorned and afterwards worshipped." Hut the same
writer is somewhat severe on him for making perhaps too bold a
crowning cornice to the front of this identical edifice, saying that it
looked like a boy with a huge hat on his head.
Baocio had been engaged to complete the architectural arrangements
about the tholobate or drum of the cupola of the metropolitan church
of Santa Maria del Fiore, which were left incomplete by lirunelleschi,
and whose design for that part was lost. Baccio wai about to supply
what was wanting after hi* own invention, and had begun to cut away
the toothing* left by Brunelleschi in the work because they did not suit
what he proposed to do. At this juncture Michel Angelo happened
to coma to Florence from Rome, and attacked him so violently on the
unfitness of hi* design, that Baocio was (topped, and in consequence
of subsequent disputes on the subject, the edifice, in that particular,
still remains incomplete.
liaccio d'Agnolo died in 1543, being eighty-three years of age, and
left a son Giuliano, an engraver and architect, who succeeded to the
direction of his father's works. The most esteemed of Baccio' s pro-
ductions are the villa Borghesini, near Florence, and the campanile
or bell-tower of the church di Santo Spirito (a production of Brunei-
leschi's), in Florence. By some writers, the great palaz/o Salviati, iu
the Transtiborino portion of Rome, is attributed to this architect,
but it ia more commonly referred to Nanni <li Baccio Bigio, a mau of
far inferior merit and reputation to Baccio d'Agnolo.
AGRICOLA, CN^EUS JULIUS, was born June 13, A.D. 87, at
Forum Julii, now Frejus, in Provence. His father was Julius One-
cinus, a writer of some eminence on agriculture, and distinguished as
a senator for his eloquence and integrity. His virtues were the cause
of his destruction. The emperor Caligula, desirous to get rid of hi>
father-in-law, M. Silanus, called upon Gnecinus to undertake the accu-
sation which was to be the pretext for hh destruction. Gr.ecimis
refused, aud met with the same fate as the unfortunate Silanus.
Agricola was an infant at tho time of his father's death. His mother
was Julia Procilla, who appears to have watched with great care over
the education of her son. After having studied philosophy at MassilU,
now Marseilles, the principal seat of learning in Gaul, Agricola was
sent to Britain, where he served under the immediate eye of Suetonius
Paulinus, tho period of his service including the grand insurrection
under Boadicea, in 61. In 62 he returned to Rome, where ho married
Domitia Decidiana, a lady belonging to one of tho first families. In 63
he went as qutcetor to Asia, where he proved his integrity by refusing
to unite with the proconsul Salvius Titionus in the system of extortion
so common in the Roman provinces. During the latter part of Nero's
reign he was tribune and pnctor, but from a regard to the jealousy
of the emperor remained comparatively inactive. On the accession of
Oalba in 68 he was appointed to examine the property of the temples,
and to restore whatever had been taken away by Nero. In the con-
testa between Otho and Vitellius his mother was murdered by a detach-
ment from Otho's fleet, which landed in Liguria and ravaged tho estates
of the family near Intemelium (Vintitniglia). On his way from tho
funeral of bis mother, he learned that Vespasian had been proclaimed
by the legions of the east. He declared in his favour, and was rewarded
by the command of the 20th legion in Britain. On his return to Rome
about 73 be was enrolled by the emperor among the patrii-i.-m*, an. I
appointed governor of Aquitania, a province which included the south-
western port of Usllia, from tho Pyrenees to the Loire. After a suc-
cessful administration of nearly throe years, he was recalled to receive
the still higher honour of the consulship. His daughter was now
betrothed to the historian Tacitus, and the next year she was giveu
to him in marriage. Agricola, at the expiration of hi* consulship, was
appointed governor of Britain, and proceeded thither about 78. lit!
passed seven or perhaps eight summers iu Britain ; iu the first of
which he added North Wales and the sacred island of Anglesey to the
Roman province. By the end of the fourth campaign the whole island
south of the Clyde and the Fortli.was secured to the Roman* by a lino
of fort* running from tho one mtuary to the other. Kvery summer
extended tho dominion of the Roman arms, but it was only in tho lost
year of his government that he entirely broke the spirit of the BriUw
by the defeat of Qalgocus on the Grampian Hills. At the close of
this campaign a Roman fleet, for the first time, railed round the island.
Agricola taught the Briton* to settle in towns, to improve their dwell-
ing*, to erect temple*, and to cultivate the arts of civilised life. Ho
*et up a system of education for the sons of tho chiefs, who adopted
in time the language and the drees of Rome. By these means he in n
great measure reconciled tho natives to the yoke which they hod pre-
viously so ill rmlured. Th<i>e 'I'lemli 1 s'lce-fc* ivcro unpalatable to
65
AGRICOLA, RODOLPHUS.
AGRIPPA, MARCUS VIPSANIUS.
the suspicious Domitian, and Agricola was honourably recalled, under
the pretext of being sent as governor to Syria. By order of the
emperor he entered Rome at night, and, after a cold reception, retired
into private life. When his consular rs.nk a few years after entitled
him to the proconsulship of Asia or Africa, he wisely declined an
appointment which had been fatal to the previous possessor. He died
on August 23, A.D. 93, in the 56th year of his age, not without suspicion
of poison. The emperor could not endure the presence of one who was
universally regarded as the only man equal to the exigency of the
times. Dion Cassius asserts that he was killed by Domitian. His
property was left between his wife Domitia, his only child the wife of
Tacitus, and the emperor Domitian. All that we know of Agricola,
with the exception of a single chapter in Xiphilin (66, 20), which is
very inaccurate, is from the pen of Tacitus, whose interesting narrative
exhibits him in the character of a great, wise, and good man.
(Tacitus, Agricola.)
AGRICOLA, RODOLPHUS, one of the most learned and remark-
able men of the 15th century, was born at a village variously written
Bafflon, Baffeln, Bafflen, Baffel, or Bafflo, two or three miles from
Groningen, in Friesland, about the end of August, 1443, not in 1442,
as often stated. (See the inscription on his tombstone as given in
SI. Adam's 'Apograph. Monument. Haidelburgens,' p. 22.) In a short
notice of Agricola by M. Guizot, in the ' Biographic Universelle," it is
said, but we do not know upon what authority, that his name was
properly Huesmann. His first master is also there said to have been
the famous Thomas h Kempis. After distinguishing himself at school
he proceeded to the college of Louvain, where he remained till he took
his degree of Master of Arts. He was then solicited to accept a professor-
ship in that college, which he declined, and set out on his travels. He
went to Paris, whence, after remaining some time, he proceeded to
Italy, and arrived in 1476 at Ferrara, where he resided during that
and the following year, and attended the prelections of Theodore Gaza
on the Greek language. He also extended his own reputation by giving
a similar course on the language and literature of Rome. The favour
of the duke, Hercules D'Este, and the admiration of the most famous
scholars of Italy, were liberally bestowed upon the accomplished
foreigner, who used to contend, we are told, in amicable rivalry with
the younger Guarino in writing Latin prose, and with the Strozzis in
verse. After visiting Rome and some of the other cities of Italy, he
left that country, probably in 1479. On hU return to Holland he
appears to have occupied a chair for a short time in the university of
Groningen, and he was also chosen a syndic of that city, in which
capacity he spent about half a year at the court of the emperor
Maximilian I. In the year 1482 he removed to Heidelberg on the
invitation of Joannes Dalburgius, the bishop of Worms, whom he
had taught Greek, and by whom he was appointed to one of the pro-
fessorships in the university of Heidelberg. The remainder of his life
seems to have been spent partly at Heidelberg and partly at Worms,
where he lodged in the house of his friend the bishop. At the request
of the Elector Palatine, who greatly delighted in his conversation, he
composed a course of lectures on ancient history, which he delivered
at Heidelberg, the Elector being one of his auditors. He also, after
coming to reside in the Palatinate, commenced the study of the Hebrew
tongue. In this new study Agricola had made great progress, when a
sudden attack of illness carried him off at Heidelberg on October 28,
1485, at the early age of 42. There was certainly no literary name out
of Italy BO celebrated as that of Agricola during his age ; and, if we
except Politian and Miranrlola, perhaps not even Italy could produce
a scholar equal to him. The most eminent cultivators of classical
learning in the next age have united in placing Agricola among the
first of his contemporaries. We need only mention Cardinal Bembo,
Ludovico Vives, the elder Scaliger, and, above all, Erasmus. Agricola
indeed may be regarded as the immediate forerunner of the last great
writer, and in gome degree as the model on which he was formed.
Agricola, in the same manner as Erasmus, appears to have clearly
discerned many of the ecclesiastical abuses of his time, and to have
anticipated the revolution in the opinions of men that was at hand,
although he refrained from doing anything to urge on the crisis.
I!csidia his skill in ancient learning, Agricola was a skilful practitioner
of the arts of music and painting. His collected works were published,
as it is commonly stated, in two volumes 4to at Cologne, in 1539, under
the title of ' R. Agricola) Lucubrationes aliquot,' &c. According to
Gesner's ' Bibliotheca Universalis," and the Bibliotheca Belgica ' of
Foppens, the principal contents of this collection are his three books
' De Inventione Dialectica ;' some letters, orations, and poems ; and
some translations from Aphthonius, Lucian, Isocrates, and other
Greek authors. It does not appear to contain, as commonly stated,
his abridgment of ' Universal History. 1 The work ' De Inventione
Dialectica' is the most celebrated of Agricola's performances. It has
been repeatedly printed with ample scholia : in 1534 a compendium of
it, tiy Joannes Visorius, appeared at Paris ; and an Italian translation
of it was published in 4to at Venice, in 1567, by Oratio Toscanella. It
idered to have been one of the earliest treatises which attempted
to change the scholastic philosophy of the day. Morhof speaks of it
;ng anticipated in several respects the ' Logic ' of Peter Ramus.
In th(s in junctions given by Henry VII I. to the University of Cambridge
in 1 S35, the ' Dialectics ' of Agricola and the genuine ' Logic ' of Aristotle
are ordered to be taught instead of the works of Scotus and Barlams ;
BIOQ. DIV. VOL. I.
and in the statutes of Trinity College, Oxford, founded some years:
later, we find a similar recommendation.
(Besides the works already mentioned, the following authorities may
be referred to for further information respecting Agrieola : Bayle,
Dictionnaire ; Baillet, Jugemens des Sarans ; Vital Germanorum Philo-
sopkorum, a Melchiori Adamo; Vie d'Erasme, par Burigny, Paris,
1757, vol. i., p. 17 ; Vita R. Agricol/F, autore Ger. Geldenhaurio Novio-
mago, in Virorum Eruditione et Doctrina Illastrium Vitis, Francfort,
1536, p. 83, &c. See also an interesting letter on the habits and cha-
racter of Agricola, from Melancthon, dated Frankfort, March 28, 1539,
in the edition of Agricola's works published at Cologne.)
AGRIPPA, HENRY CORNELIUS, a remarkable personage, who
may be ranked with his contemporaries, Paracelsus and Cardan, as at
once a man of learning and talent, and a quack. Agrippa was born
at Cologne, of a noble and ancient family, on September 14, I486.
HU first employment was as secretary at the court of the Emperor
Maximilian, after which he served in the wars in Italy, where, having
repeatedly signalised himself by his bravery, he obtained the honour
of knighthood. About his 20th year he seems to have assumed the
character of a scholar, and to have commenced a wandering life. The
profession which he took up was that of a physician ; but he allowed
himself also to be regarded as an alchemist, an astrologer, and even as
a practitioner of magical arts. Not satisfied with this extensive range,
he thought proper to set up likewise for a great theologian, as well as
to indulge himself with occasional excursions into other departments
of literature and science. The effect of all this pretension, supported
as it was by unquestionable talent and by real acquirements of great
extent, was to raise Agrippa, for a time at least, to high estimation
and importance. Pressing invitations were sent to him by several
monarchs that he would enter into their service by our Henry VIII.
among the rest. He appears to have visited England before this, one
of his pieces being dated from London in 1510. His excessive impru-
dence however was continually involving him in difficulties ; and
especially, having by some of the effusions of his satiric spirit pro-
voked the enmity of the monks of the church, he experienced the
consequences to the end of his days. After having led for many
years what may almost be called a fugitive life, he died at Grenoble,
in 1535. He had been thrice married, and had several children. Tho
works of Agrippa were published in two volumes, Svo., at Leyden, in
1550, and also at Lyon in 1600. The most remarkable of them, and
the only one which is now remembered, is his treatise ' On the Vanity
of the Sciences,' which is a caustic satire on the kinds of learning
most in fashion in that age.
(Bnyle, Dictiannaire Jfistorique, art. Agrippa ; Gabriel Naud<5,
Apology for the Great Men who have been inspected of Magic.)
AGRIPPA, HEROD. [HEBOD.]
AGRIPPA, MARCUS VIPSANIUS, was born B.C. 63, within a
few months of Octavius, afterwards the Emperor Augustus, with
whom throughout life he was so intimately associated. They studied
together at Apollonia in Illyria. The death of Julius Cresar brought
them both to Rome, and Agrippa was charged by Octavius to receive
the oath of fidelity from the legions that were favourable. In B.C. 43
he was chosen consul, and conducted the prosecution of Cassius, one
of the murderers of C;esar. Two years later he had a command as
prator, in the war against Lucius Antonius, whom he besieged in
Perusia. In B.C. 40 the town was taken by him, and towards the close
of the same year he recovered Lipontum from M. Antonius. In
B.C. 38 he added to his reputation by a victory over the Aquitani, and
rivalled the glory of Julius Ctesar by leading a second Roman army
across the Rhine. Octavius, now Octavianus, offered him a triumph,
which he declined; but the consulship was conferred on him in B.C. 37.
Seztiis Pompeius, being at this time master of the sea, Agrippa was
charged with the construction of a fleet. By cutting a passage through
the barrier of Hercules, which separated the Lucrine Lake from the
sea, he converted that lake and the interior lake of the Avernus into
a serviceable harbour, giving it the name of Portus Julius. Having
there prepared a fleet and exercised his mariners, he, in B.C. 36,
defeated Sextus Pompeius at Mylrc, and completely broke his naval
supremacy at Naulochus, on the coast of Sicily. For these victories
he received a naval crown, and was most probably the first on whom
that honour was conferred. In the year B.C. 33, though of consular
rank, he accepted the office of ocdile, his administration of which was
distinguished by the restoration of the numerous aqueducts, and the
erection of fountains throughout the city. The victory of Actium,
B.c. 31, which left Augustus without a rival, was mainly owing to tho
skill of Agrippa as admiral of the fleet. In reward for his services,
he shared with Maecenas the confidence of Augustus, who associated
him with himself in the task of reviewing the senate ; and in B.C. 28
again raised him to the consulate, giving him, at the same time, in
marriage his own niece, the sister of the young Marcellus. Agrippa
had been previously married to tho daughter of Cicero's friend,
Atticus. Attica, by whom he had Vipsania, afterwards the wife of
Tiberius, may have been dead, or it is not improbable that he divorced
her to make room for Mnrcella. A third consulate awaited him tho
year following, in which he dedicated to Jupiter, in commemoration
of the victory near Actium, the celebrated Pantheon, which remains
to the present day, perhaps the most beautiful specimen of Roman
architecture. It is now called, from its form, Santa Maria della
ACHTESSBAU, HENRI FRANCOIS D 1 .
superior titfc. A rivalry sprang up between I
tamft by the ambtgnoos conduct of Augustus, me
Us severe illness In n.r. S2, when, apparently on his <
y seat Us itat to Agripp*. On the recovery of
tosnrtpUon. "M. Agripp* L. F. Co*.
MBMtoa AogttttaM ill to* rwnwtioti of
had the honour of reprMenting the
II the mifcrtuaiM Julia and Mwcellua,
out as the ruutiiMui of Augustas. Tet the
upon hoiedUMi dsiesnt, was not yet
M; and the splendid deedi of Agrippa,
with Marcella. gave him in some
reen them, which
us, more especially
n his death-bed, he
i itaf to Agripp*. On the recovery of the emperor,
wd Us mBnenos, and Agripp* WM sent by Augustus
exile m y/vwnot of Syria. Death in a few months
removed Us rival, sad he WM not merely recalled to Rome, hut, at the
rsmsM> of the ouiueiui. divorced his wife Marcella to marry the young
widow Julia. In r. 10 h* finally subdued the Cantabri, who had
gain been in srms for more than two year*. Agrippa was now looked
upon M the undoubted suctessur of Augustus ; and in the following
fated in the imperial dignity as to share the
i the emperor for five years. In B.C. 17 he pro-
time to the Kart, where his administration seems to
satisfaction, more especially among the Jewish
who benefit*! largely by bis protection. On his return he
d the tnbunirian power fo'r a second period of five yean. His
last military duty WM to quell in insurrection smong the Ponnonians,
for which his messoos WM sufficient After this expedition he
itUsfpod to Campania, where he died suddenly in March, B.C. 12. His
family by Julia were Cains and t.ucim, whom Augustus adopted,
Julia. Agrippin*. and Agripp* Postuinii., born, as his name imports,
after the death of hi* father. It has been observed that every
oo* of tacM CUM to premature end. (Appian, Plutarch, Dion,
:
AORIPI'IXA, the daughter of M. Vipsanins Agrippa and Julio, the
only child of Augustus, married Oermanieus, the son of Drums, and
nephew of Tiberius, to whom she bore nine children. Of these three
died in their infancy, but among the remaining six were Caligula,
afterwards emperor, and the second Agrippina, the mother of Nero.
On the death of Augustus, A.n. 14, Oermanieus and his wife were
with the army on the banks of tho Rhine, where they had much
difficulty in restraining the soldiery from proclaiming Germanicus in
opposition to his uncle. On this occasion Agrippina, by her deter-
mined bearing, showed herself worthy of her descent from Augustus,
and the following yew she had an opportunity of evincing the same
spirit, in a panic occasioned by report that the army of Cacina had
been eat off by Armminf, and that the victorious Germans were on
the point of crowing the Rhine and invading Oaul. It was proposed
to destroy th* bridge ; but Agrippina, in the absence of her husband,
unissilsj the disgraceful expedient, and herself received the worn-out
troop* of Caeina, supplying them with clothing, and all that was
necessary tor th* enre of their wounds. In A.D. 17 Agrippina accom-
panied her hnsband to the East, and WM with him in Syria when he
Ml victim, as be snspocted, to the srts of the emperor and his
mother, Livie, Disregarding his entreaty that she would restrain her
rMsntmont, she proceeded to Italy, and landing at Brundi.ium with
tWO ?f.^ <r cbiWrr0 ' nd '"""g herself the funenl urn of Oennani-
CM, seemed to court th* attention of tho people, who received her in
Two pnetortsn cohorts, sent by Tiberius for the purpo.e,
nfed her to Rome, where she wss met by the consuls, the
. and a larf* body of the dtiwns. The subsequent tenor of
her oodoet WM rach M to exasperate Tiberius, and when her cousin
idia Pulebr* (A.O. Jl was about to be the object of prosecution
**J*lfsd by th* emperor, sb* ventured to express her resentment
!*"^l^J W T^'" l>OBMMtlr * d '*" A nppina had now remained
in widowhood for seven years, when she o.kcd bis permission to
choose another hmsband. But Tiberius knew too well that the bus-
lnd of Afrippin* would b* a dangerous enemy, and he parted from
ntboat giving any answer. The artifice* of Sejanus completed
th*t Ttbssfr* intended to remove herby poison, and Agrippina fatally
rorby opwdy exhibiting her suspicion.. She was
'. Her two el,le.t ons, Nero and Dnmis,
Inonu'. (Tacitus ; Suetonius.)
' th * <l ** l ^I^ 0f " 1n " 1 . ict " "d **> Agrippina of
*. 28, to Cn.
^ e had a son, who at fint bore the
5 torwm ** ld * r tl>tof Nero became Kmpe
Xl *'*? *" i0 ' her 5S
from
gln a widow, and now directed her
of IKT uncl-, the Kmprror Clsudiu..
""^ *" nmprror <Jlsu<1i
WM held to fa* incoftaous, bnt on the death
Meesalioa it was legalised by a decree of the senate, and Agrippina
became the fifth wife of the emperor. Her fint object was to secure
to her own son those expectations to which Britoimicus, the son of
Claudius by the infamous Measalina, was more equitably entitlnl.
The marriage of Domitius to Outarm, daughter of the emperor, and
hii adoption by the emperor himself, from which ho derived the name
of Nero, at once placed him shore Brltannicus ; and in th- year 54
Agrippina completed the object of her ambition by poisoning her
imperial hnsband. Her power over her son, who was now at the
head of the empire, soon disappeared; and though for a time she
partially recorered it by means of an incestuous intercourse with him,
the beauty of I'oppsca destroyed eren this influence ; and in the sixth
year of bis reign Nero determined, under the encouragement of
Poppies, to rcmoYR bis mother by her own arts. But it was not easy
to poison one, who, familiar herself with poison, was ever on her
gnarJ. Nero therefore changed his course. After an unsuccessful
attempt to effect her death near Bajeo by means of a vessel with a
false bottom, she was dispatched by assassin, in March in the year CO.
Her last words, as she presented herself to the sword of her
murderer were, "Ventrem feri," strike the womb (which pare birth
to such a son). To enumerate all her debaucheries, murders, and
other crimes, would require a much larger space than we think it
necessary to assign to them. Agrippina wrote some commentaries
concerning henelf and hrr family, which Tacitus says he consulted.
They are alto quoted by Pliny, vii. 8. (Tacitus ; Suetonius ; Dion.)
AOUE33EAU, HKNRI FRANCOIS V, a chuncellor of France.
He was born Norember 27, 1668, at Limoges, the principal town of
the then province of Limousin, and now the chief town of tho depart-
ment of Hante-Vienne. His father, who was intendant of that
province, devoted himself to the education of his sou. The abilities
of Agnesseau brought him early into notice. At the age of twenty-
one he was admitted an advocate at the ChAtelet ; and, three months
after, he was mode one of the three advocates general It has been
said that this high office was conferred upon him through the recom-
mendation of his father, in whom Louis XI V., the then reigning
monarch, placed great confidence. During ten years that he
the situation, be obtained the great reputation which secured U<
future elevation.
In the year 1700 he was appointed Procureur-Ge'n<?ral (Solicitor-
General). His opposition to the registration in parliament of the
papal bull Unigemtus, which he considered as an assumption of the
papacy inconsistent with the rights of the French nation, nnd de-
structive of the independence of the Galilean church, hod nearly
caused his disgrace with the king. But he maintained his position
by the force of his talents and integrity. He employed his authority
as Prccureur-Gc'ne'ral in most coses wisely and honeatly. He reformed
the system of the management of public hospitals; improved tho
discipline of courts of justice; and instituted a quicker mode in the
investigation of criminal coses previous to their being brought to
judgment. Agnesseau aspired through life to the high but difficult
reputation of a legal reformer : and it is in this particular that his
character has the greatest claim upon our respect. His principal
objects were to define the limits of particular jurisdictions ; to intro-
duce uniformity in the administration of justice through the vnriuux
provinces; and to secure the right to the subject of a just testa-
mentary disposition of his property. His praiseworthy attempts were
resisted no doubt by all those whose mistaken interests suggested to
them that the attainment of justice ought to bo kept expensive and
uncertain, instead of being rendered cheap and secure. He is said
to have confessed that he did not go so for as he wished, because he
did not like to reduce the profits of his professional brethren. This
was a mistake even in mere worldly policy ; for when law, as Wrll
as any other article of exchange, is dear and worthless, the purchasers
will be few. D'Aguesseau was not much before his age, probably, in
the knowledge of political economy, or he yielded to popular clamour.
During the famine which afflicted France in 170!), ho carried on
vigorous prosecutions against what were called forestallers and mono-
polists, that is, holders of corn a class of persons who, by equali-ing
th" price of corn, by buying in times of plenty, and selling at a profit
in times of scarcity, have done the only thing which could relieve
the pressure of bad harvests upon the people.
In 1717 Agucsseau succeeded Vov.in in the chancellorship. His
appointment to this high office by the Regent (Due d'Orh'ans), in
the minority of Louis XV., gave genenl satinfiiction. However bo
did not retain it long, for he was dismissed and exiled the following
year, on account of his opposition to Law's financial system. His
perception of the fallacy of this adventurer's schemes for substituting
fictitious wealth for real capital showed that in some points of
political philosophy his views were sound. His recall, two years
afterwards, at the moment of the great crisis brought about by Law's
. was a signal triumph for Agues-can. His l,i,'h sense ot
integrity and justice would not allow him to hear of a national bank-
ruptcy : ho moisted on making good the government obligations, or
at least allowing those who held its paper to lose only :i i
part; and, by thus preventing a bankruptcy, he contribt:'
degree to restoring general confidence.
New agitations were again raised on account of the bull Unigenitus,
the registering of which parliament still opposed. Agucssoau, by
AHASUEEUS.
AIKIN, JOHN, M.D.
70
endeavouring to conciliate both parties, exposed himself to the charge
of a change of opinion in this matter. The parliament were on the
eve of being exiled to Blois, when they at last consented to register
the bull with modifications.
Cardinal Dubois, the unworthy favourite of the Regent, claimed
precedence in the council ; and Agueaseau retired from office in 1722,
rather than yield to him. He lived in the quiet cultivation of his
literary tastes at Fresne, until 1727, when he was reappointed chan-
cellor. From his reappoiutment to office, till 1750, he continued to
administer justice uninterruptedly; he was then eighty-two years of
age, and feeling himself unable to discharge the high duties of his
station, he sent in his resignation to the king, who accepted it, and
granted him an annuity of 100,000 francs. This he did not enjoy
long, as he died the following year, on the 9th of February. Aguesseau
was buried by the side of his wife, in the churchyard of his pariah
church ; but during the first French revolution the remains of the
chancellor were removed to another place, into which they were
thrown with the bones of thousands. A statue of him was erected
in front of the Palais Legislatif, by command of Napoleon, by the
side of the one erected in honour of L'HopitaL
The principal features of Agueaseau's character, says the Due of
St. Simon, were much natural talent, application, penetration, and
general knowledge ; gravity, justice, piety, and purity of manners.
According to Voltaire, he was the most learned magistrate that France
ever possessed. Independently of his thorough acquaintance with
the laws of his country, he understood Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Italian,
Spanish, Portuguese, &c. His knowledge of general literature, assisted
by his intimacy with Boileau and Racine, gave an elegance to his
forensic speeches which was previously unknown at the French bar.
His works now extant form 13 voU. 4 to : they consist principally of
his pleadings and appeals (' nSquisitores"), when advocate and solicitor-
general, and of his speeches at the opening of the sessions of
parliament
AHASUERUS, or ACHASHVEROSH, is the name of the Persian
monarch whose feastiugs, revelry, and decrees are recorded in the
book of Esther. The apocryphal additions to that book, as well as
the Septuagint, and Josephus, call him Arthasastha or Artaxerxes.
He is probably the same king as the Artaxerxes Lougimanus of the
Greek historians, whose reign commenced B.C. 405. The name Achash-
verosh occurs also, Dan. ix. 1, where some interpreters take it for
Astyages, king of the Medes ; and Ezr. iv. 6, where Cambyses seems
to be meant by it. (Eichhorn's ' Repertoriuin fur Bibiische und
Urientalische Literatur,' voL xv. p. 1, seq.) The word Achashverosh
has been explained by means of the modern Persian as signifying ' an
excellent or noble prince.' (Winer's ' Lexic. Hebr.,' s. v.) This would
nearly agree with the explanation given by Herodotus (vi. 98) of the
name Artaxerxes, which according to him means a great warrior.
The signification of the name accounts for its being given to various
mouarcbs.
AHAZ, or ACHAZ, the son of Jotham (2 Kings, xv. 38 ; xvi. Ac.),
a king of Judah, who reigned B.C. 742-726, and was contemporary
with the prophets Isaiah, Hosea, and Micah. (Isaiah, i. 1 ; vii. 1,
Hoe. i. 1, Mich. i. 1.) He made the dial mentioned Is. xxxviii. 8.
Another Achaz is mentioned, 1 Chrou. viii. 35 ; ix. 42.
AHAZIAH, also written ACHAZIAH or AHAZIAH0, the son of
Ahab, a king of Israel, who reigned B.C. 897-896 (1 Kings, xxii. 40 ;
2 Chron. xx. 35). Another Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, was king of
Judah, B.C. 884-883 (2 Kings, viii. 24; ix. 16), who occurs also under
the name of Jehoahaz (2 Chrou. xxi. 17) and Azariah (xxii. 6). The
name, according to its Hebrew etymology, is interpreted as signifying
' the property or possession of the Lord.'
AHMED I., the fourteenth sultan of the Ottoman empire, was the
son of Sultan Mohammed IIL He came to the throne in the year
1603, and contrary to the practice of many of hii predecessors, spared
the life of his brother Mustafa. He was unfortunate in a war with
Shah Abbas of Persia, during which he lost the important town of
Erivan. [ABBAS.] He at the same time supported an insurrection in
Hungary and Transylvania against the German emperor, Rudolph II. :
in 1606 however a treaty of peace was concluded at Komorn and
Situarok between the two monarchg. The efforts of Ahmed's govern-
ment were then directed towards the suppression of revolutionary
movements in the Asiatic part of the Ottoman dominions, which had
been instigated chiefly by two daring adventurers Kalendcr Ogli and
Janbulad-zade : both were finally subdued, and in 1609 tranquillity
was restored in the interior of the empire. Ahmed I. died in 1617.
He was of a mild and moderate disposition, and fond of the enjoy-
ments of a quiet and luxurious life : it is said that his seraglio con-
tained 3000 women, and that not less than 40,000 falconers were in
his pay. A magnificent mosque, which he built at Constantinople,
and a richly-ornamented curtain which ho sent to the sanctuary at
Mecca, attest, at the same time, that he was not indifferent about the
Mohamm>>dan religion.
AHMED II., the son and successor of Sultan Soleiman III., occupied
rone of the Ottoman empire from 1691 till 1695. He owed his
elev.ition to the throne chiefly to the influence of the celebrated
grand-viair Kiuprili or Kiuperli, who soon afterwards fell in a battle
against the Austriaus near Salankemen or Slankeiueut. Ahmed II.
was a weak and superstitious prince. His reign is marked by many
disastrous events. The plague, a famine, and au earthquake desolated
the empire, and the capital was afflicted with a destructive fire. The
Beduins of the Arabian desert, in defiance of the imperial safeguard,
dared to attack the caravan of the Mecca pilgrims; and at sea the
Turkish empire was infested by the Venetians, who took possession
of the island of Chios, and even threatened Smyrna. Ahmed II. died,
it is said, from grief, in 1695, at the age of 50 years. His successor
was Mustafa II., who reigned from 1695 till 1702.
AHMED III., the sou of Sultan Mohammed IV., was raised to the
throne of the Ottoman Empire in consequence of a revolt of the
Janissaries, in 1702. When, after the loss of the battle of Pultowa
(1709), King Charles XII. of Sweden took refuge at Bender in the
Turkish dominions, he was well received by Ahmed, who even made
him a present of ready money to the amount of 16,000 ducats.
Charles XII. succeeded in kindling a war between the Ottoman Porte
and Russia, which turned out favourably for the Turks. During
several days Czar Peter the Great was cut off, and placed in a most
embarrassing situation on the banks of the river Pruth, almost within
the grasp of the Turkish army; and though the unskilfulness of the
Turkish commander Battaji Mohammed let him escape from this
difficulty, he was yet soon afterwards obliged to resign to the Turks
the important town of Azof. Ahmed III. was also fortunate in a war
with the Venetians, who were compelled to quit the Morea, and to
give up the islands of Cerigo and Cerigotto, and their possessions in
Cuudia. But he failed in an attempt to take Hungary from the
Austriaus. Prince Eugene of Savoy won an important victory over
the Turks near Belgrade, and by the subsequent peace (made at Passa-
rowitz, iu 1718) that town, as well as Orsowa, and part of Servia and
Wallachia, came under the Austrian dominion. In 1723 Ahmed
entered iutoxi treaty with Russia, and soon afterwards commenced a
war with Persia, which brought the frontier towns and provinces of
Erdilan, Kermanshah, Hamadan, Urmia, Ardebil, aud Tebriz into the
possession of the Turks, aud a peace subsequently concluded with the
Persian king, Ashraf Khan, secured to the victors the possession of
their conquests : but Nadir Shah, the successor of Ashraf Khan,
disregarded these stipulations, and by degrees retook the conquered
provinces. The news of the capture of Tebriz by the Persians caused
a revolt at Constantinople, in consequence of which Ahmed III. abdi-
cated the throne in favour of his nephew, Mahmud I. (1730). He died
six years afterwards in prison at the age of 74.
AiKIN, ARTHUR, the eldest son of John Aikin, M.D., the subject
of the following article, was born in 1784. Arthur Aikin begau his
literary career, we believe, as editor of ' The Annual Review ;' upon
the title-page of the first six volumes of which 1803-1808 his name
appears as editor. His earliest scientific work was ' The Manual of
Mineralogy,' of which the first edition was published in 1814. Besides
these he is the author of a ' Tour in North Wales,' a ' Dictionary of
Chemistry and Mineralogy,' and a ' Dictionary of Arts and Manufac-
tures ;' and also of numerous papers in various scientific journals.
For a long series of years Mr. Aikiu was the resident secretary of the
Society of Arts, and a frequent contributor to its ' Transactions.' He
was also one of the oldest fellows of the Limueau and Geological
societies. Mr. Aikin was a man of quiet retiring habits, and outlived
his scientific reputation ; but was well known in scientific circles as
one of the most regular frequenters of the meetings of the learned
societies in the metropolis, and was generally esteemed. He died at
his house in Bloomsbury April 15, 1854, in his eighty-first year.
AIKIN, JOHN, M.D., born in 1747, was the only son of the Rev.
John Aikiu, D.D., for many years tutor in divinity at the dissenting
academy at Warrington, in Lancashire. He was educated chiefly at
Warriugton, and having chosen the medical profession, he studied at
the University of Edinburgh, and was subsequently a pupil of Dr.
William Hunter. As a surgeon, he first settled at Chester, and after-
wards at Warrington; but finally took the degree of Doctor of Medi-
cine at Leydeu, aud established himself as a physician in London. He
is now chiefly remembered as a popular author; and to him, in con-
junction with his sister, Mrs. Barbauld, we owe some of the first aud
best attempts to take science out of the narrow confines of the profes-
sionally learned, and to render it the means of enlarging the under-
standings and increasing the pleasures of the general body of readers.
The most popular as well as the most useful of Dr. Aikin's works
still maintains its reputation, ' Evenings at Home.' The volumes of
this work appeared successively, tho sixth and last in June, 1795.
This was the joint production of Dr. Aikin and Mrs. Barbauld, whose
contributions however did not exceed half a volume in the whole.
The object of these volumes was a favourite one with their authors,
who desired to teach things rather thau words. In the execution of
their task they presented, iu a manner sufficiently attractive to engage
the attention of young persons, a good deal of natural history, with
some of the elements of chemistry and mineralogy ; but the principal
charm and value of the work consist in its just views of hurnau cha-
racter, and in th(j uncompromising integrity visible in every line.
Another work of Dr. Aikin's has been the foundation of many descrip-
tions of the appearances of nature; but none have surpassed 'The
Natural History of the Year ' in conciseness and accuracy.
The professional success of Dr. Aikin seems to have been impeded
by his zealous endeavours to obtain a recognition from the state of the
great principle of liberty of conscience ; he was, moreover, of delicate
:i
AIMOI.V.
AJAX.
ri
Ia W8 he relinquished hi* .
of tie life at Stoke Newingtoa, ooneteaUy employed in
wrary undertaking*, of which UM eaten number wu r
-
AJMOIN,
of Vule-Kraneoe, in UM province of Prrigord. He wrote, or rather
began, afetory of UM French, which he dedicated to hi* patron and
daaiaal. Abboa, abbot of FUurteur- Loire. It is -id in hi. preface
that he intended to giv an account of the origin of the French nation,
and to bring hi* narrative down to Pepto-W-Bref, father of Charlemagne
(741) ; bat what w, have of UM work bring, u. down only to the six-
tenth year of Clovi* IL (690). Two book* were afterward* added by
an unknown writer. Thi* history of Aimoin i* incorrect, and he doe*
not dwell eufficiraUy oa UM event* he hu to relate. Hi* best and
moat litaartiag work b an account of the life of Abbon. Aimoin
died ia 1008.
AINSWURTH, ROBERT, the author of a well-known 'Latin
ntntiaa*.ry.' He wu born at WcodvaU, about four mile* from Man-
oh alter, in September, 160. Having completed hi* education a*
Bolten, he afterward* taught a school for some time in that town. He
then came to London, and formed an establishment at Bethnal Green,
from which he nuioved. Ant to Hackney, and afterward* to other
village* hi UM neighbourhood of the metropolis. About 1714 he wu
induced by UM often of the bookseller* to commence the compilation
of hi* Dictionary ; but the execution of the work wu frequently
upended, and it did not appear till 1736. Ainsworth died near
London on the 4th of April, 1743, and wu buried at Poplar, where
an inscription of hi* own composition, in Latin verse, wu placed over
hi* remain* and tho** of his wife. Having acquired a competency,
he had retired from teaching for some time before his death. Dr.
KippU, in hi* edition of the Biographia Britannica,' ssya, from
private information, that in the latter part of hi* life he u*ed to be
fond of rummaging in the shops of the low broken ; by which means
he often picked up old coin* and other valuable curiosities at little
expense. He i* aaid to have written aome Latin poem* ; and he also
published ' Proposal* for making Education leu Chargeable,' and some
other Utatiees, the list of which may be seen in Watt'* ' Bibliotbeca ;'
bat hii Dictionary i* the only work for which he is now remembered.
A Mcond edition of it, edited by Mr. Samuel Patrick (with a notice of
Aioaworth'* life prefixed), appeared in two volumes, 4to, 1746, and it
has since been frequently republuhed. One edition, which came out
in 1753, i* in two folio volumes, and used to be in some request u a
handsome specimen of typography. It wu superintended by tho
Her. William Young, the supposed original of Fielding's Parson
Adams. Another, in two volumes, 4 to, wu published in 1773, by
Dr. Thomu MorelL Both Young and Morell also edited abridgments
of Ainsworth' s Dictionary, which, until lately, wore much used in
ashool*. The best edition of the larger work is that which appeared
in 1816, in one volume, 4to, under the care of Dr. Carey. This
Dictionary, regarded u a mere word-book, U a laborious and useful
work ; but it hu no chum to be considered u a philosophical exposi-
tion of the etymology of tho Latin language, or u anything like a
complete exhibition of UM usage of words by Latin authors. Not-
withstanding UM corrections which it hu received from the labours
of its loeenalve editors, it (till remains di*Bgurod by many errors
and de&cionci**, which leave the book a great way behind tho present
Mate of philological learning.
AINSWORTH, WILLIAM HARRISON, wu born at Manchester,
ia February 1805. Ho wu originally intended for the profession of
barruAer, but he at an early age quitted hi* legal studios for the
more attractive pursuit* of literature. For aome time he wu chiefly
known u a prolific contributor of eauy* and sketches to the Mag.-
sine* ; but hi* Ant novel, Rookwood, published in 1834, at once gave
him a place among UM meat popular novel writen of the day. His
peculiar popularity arc*, mainly from the circumstance of hi* having
elected a. UM hero*, of hi. tele. Jack Sheppard aud other* who
Ann in the annal* of crime. Hence aj*o hi* novel* wen seized upon
wiU. atid.tv by a certain clan of dnmaUste u fumiahing the rtimu-
laUng condiment so much in request at the lower suburban tbeatro*-
Ir Aianrorth's reputation came to be coupled in the public
i hero.* rather more unpltaaantly than the novel* alone
rotJd perUp. have ruected. In later tale*, u tho Star Chamber,'
f London,' and tho like, he went beyond the Newgate
Astronomer Royal,
AIRY. OEOROK BIDDELL, the
t^ at Ainwld^ Northumberland, in iuiy.ioui. Me received hi* early
- ** -^ A *'* tte^ma^oS
fS&^JS&jLHjtt* * ?** Cauv
i WW a . ,
frf TSfc_ kJi^vJVS* &" * wu elected
^E! i t ^**5 Uo * " ** of K-A. ln 182 .
r-pointed to the LucaaUn Professorship, of which chair he may
be amid to have re-created the duUot by delivering coune* ofpubUo
><" BxperiaMoUl Philo P by, smoa. whidTth. prdectionVon
ELf .^ir ' 5 3 !r r 25*^*^*5
u |>|muluiMt ia 1838, on Uioz elected Plumiau Professor
at AMTflBou-y-a poet which, wUinii^ the EsperuMatal Lecture.,
involved also the management of the then newly-erected Cambridge
Observatory. He devoted himself earnestly to that work, and devised
a *y*tem of calculation and publication of hi* observations so much
more complete and ervieeablo than any preceding that it hu been
adopted by other observatories ; and be introduced many important
improvement* in the mounting of the instrument*.
In 1835, on the resignation of Mr. Pond, then Astronomer-Royal,
Mr. Airy wu appointed to the honourable post, which he hu since
held, with signal advantage to science and to our national reputation.
Under his administration, the observatory at Greenwich bu become
second to none in tho world. The yearly observations are published
in a form and with a regularity never before attempted ; and, zealous
for the cause of science, Mr. Airy has reduced and published the
long-neglected observations of the Moon and Planets from 1750 to
1830, "by which" to quote the words of Admiral Smyth "an
immense magazine of dormant fact*, contained iu the annals of the
Royal Observatory, are rendered available to astronomical use," and
from which " wo may perhaps date a new epoch in planetary
astronomy." The observatory itself, with new methods and new
instruments, is more efficient than over ; and since 1843 magnetic*!
and meteorological observations have been token, as well as astronomi-
cal, and regularly published.
A long list might be written of Mr. Airy's claims to scientific
distinction. His writings on mechanics and optics are well known.
He wrote the articles ' Figure of the Earth ' and ' Tides and Waves '
for the ' Encyclopedia Metropolitana,' and ' Gravitation ' for tho
'Penny Cyclopaedia;' and, to mention but a few of big labours
which have a national character : he ha* been for many years Chair-
man of the Commission for the Restoration of the Standards of
Weight and Measure ; he reported on the comparative merits of tho
broad and narrow gauge of railways, and on the national clock to be
erected at Westminster; he bos undertaken the determination ot
longitude by means of the electric telegraph ; hu suggested a remedy
for the deviation of the compass in iron ships ; and has accomplished
a series of pendulum experiments for the determination of that
difficult question, the density of the earth. On the two hitter sub-
jects he has communicated elaborate papers to the Royal Society ; and
the ' Philosophical Transactions,' the ' Memoirs of the Astronomical
Society,' and the ' Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical
Society,' contain numerous highly valuable papers from his pen.
Mr. Airy wu elected a Fellow of the Astronomical Society iu 1823,
and became President in 1835, since when he has repeatedly filled the
Chair and sat on the Council. He ho* received two of the Society's
medals one for the planetary observations before mentioned ; tho
other, "for his discovery of the long inequality of Venus and the
Earth," the investigation of which was published in the 'Philosophical
Transactions.' He wu elected a Fellow of the Royal Society iu 1836,
hu received their Copley and Royal medals, and hu been often
chosen into the Council. He hu also received the Lahuide medal
of the French Academy of Sciences ; he is a corresponding member
of the Academy, and a member of other scientific societies in Europe
and America,
AJAX, a son of Telamon, aud third iu direct male descent from
Jupiter, wu one of the most renowned heroes of the Trojan War.
According to Homer and Pindar, he wu next in beauty and iu war-
like prowess to Achilles. He U said by later poet* to havo been
invulnerable. Pindar (Isthm. 6) relates the story fully ; but, as in the
case of Achilles, it is not found in Homer. Telamon, banished from
.cEgina by his father .ICocus, for killing his brother 1 'hocus, retired to
the island of Salamis, and wu choseu king. During his father'* life,
Ajax led the forces of Salamis to Troy, in conjunction with the Athe-
nian*. His chief exploit*, recorded in the ' Iliad,' are his duel with
Hector, in the 7th book, when tho Trojan prince challenged any of
the Greek army to siugle combat ; aud his obstinate defence of tho
ships, in the protracted battle described in the 13th, 14th, 1.1th, 10th,
an. I 17th book*. In the funeral games of Patroclus ho contended for
three prizes : iu wrestling with Ulysses, single combat with Diomedes,
and throwing the quoit; but without obtaining the prize in any.
Blunt in manners, nigged in temper, and somewhat obtuse in intellect.,
hi* strength and stubborn courage made him a most valuable soldier,
but no favourite ; and his confidence in these qualities induced him
to despise divine aid, by which he roused tho anger of Pallas, tho
author of his subsequent misfortunes. After Achilla's death, the
armour of that hero wu to be given as a prize to him who had
deserved best of the Greeks. Ajax and Ulysses alone advanced tl>> ir
chums : the former depending on bis pre-eminence in arms ; the latter,
on the services which his inventive genius had rendered ; thoorscmUeJ
prince* awarded tho splendid prize to Ulysses (Ovid's 'Met.' b. 14.)
Ajax wu so much mortified at this, that ho went mod, and iu his fury
attacked the herds and flocks of tho camp, mistaking them for the
Grecian leaders, by whom bo thought himself so deeply injured. On
recovering his senses, and seeing to what excesses he had been trans-
ported, he slew himself with the sword which Hector had given him
after their combat. This cataitropho U the subject of that noble
tragedy of Sophocles, ' Ajax the Scourge-Bearer.' The circumstances
of his death are differently told by other authors. The Greeks
honoured him with a splendid funeral, and raised a vast tumulus on
Uo promontory of llhwteum, opposite that of Achilles, on the pro-
73
AJAX.
AKBAR, JALAL-UD-DIN MOHAMMED.
71
montory of Sigeum. He left a son named Eurysaces, who succeeded
Telamon on the throne of Salamis. One of the Attic tribes was
named after Ajax. Some of the moat illustrious Athenians, as Mil-
tiades, Cimon, and Alcibiades, traced their descent from him. He
was worshipped as the tutelary hero of Salamis, where there was a
temple to him with a statue ; and with all the ^Eacidie, or descendants
of YEacus, was honoured as a demi-god in Attica. The traditions
concerning him supplied not only themes to the poets, but subjects to
the painters and sculptors of antiquity. (Herod., viii. 64, 65.)
AJAX, son of Oileus, a leader in the Trojan War, remarkable for
swiftness of foot, and skill in using the bow and javelin. He is called
the Lesser Ajax, and fills a less important part in the ' Iliad ' than his
namesake, though he is distinguished by his defence of the ships in
company with Ajax, son of Telamon. At the Back of Troy he offered
violence to Cassandra in the temple of Pallas. For this profanation,
the goddess, on his voyage home, raised a tempest, which wrecked his
vessel, with many others of the Grecian fleet. Ajax escaped to a rock,
and might have been preserved, had he not said he would escape in
spite of the gods. Neptune cleft the rock with his trident, and
tumbled him into the sea. (' Od.' iv. 502.) Virgil relates his death
differently. (' JEu.' i. 39.) Some authors say that the charge of
violating Cassandra was a fiction of Agamemnon's, who wished to
secure her for himself.
AKBAR, JALAL-UD-DIN MOHAMMED, the greatest and wisest
of all the monarch.? who have swayed the sceptre of Hindustan. At
the early age of 13 he succeeded his father Humayun, Feb. 15, 1556.
About the time of Akbar's birth, his father Humayun, a mild and
lenient prince, was deprived of his kingdom through the restless
ambition of his brothers Kamran and Hindal. The dissensions thus
excited enabled Sher Khan, a Patan, or Afghan chief, to usurp the
government of India. Humayun, attended by a few faithful adherents,
became a wanderer and an exile. In his flight through the western
desert towards the banks of the Indus, he and his little baud experi-
enced a train of calamities almost unparalleled. The country through
which they fled being an entire desert of sand, they were in the
utmost distress for water. Some went mad, others fell down dead.
At length those that lived reached the town of Amerkote, where, on
Oct, 14, 1542, the wife of Humayun gave birth to a son, Akbar.
Humayun sought shelter in Persia, where he was hospitably received
by Shah Tahmasp. After twelve years' exile, he waa once more
restored to his throne at Delhi, but in less than a year died from the
effects of a fall down the palace stairs. When Akbar ascended the
throne the whole empire of India was in a very distracted state ; and
though he was possessed of unusual intelligence for his age, he was
incapable of administering the government. Sensible of his own
inexperience, he conferred on Bahrain Khan, a Turkoman noble who
had ever proved faithful to hia late father, a title and power equivalent
to that of regent or protector. Bahram for some time proved him-
self worthy of the young king's choice; but he was more of the
soldier than the statesman, and there were numerous complaints of
hia arbitrary if not cruel disposition, though these qualities were
essential for maintaining subordination in his army, which consisted
of licentious adventurers, and for quelling the rebellious chiefs who
abounded in every province of the empire. In the course of a few
years the energy of Bahram succeeded in restoring the country to
comparative tranquillity. Hitherto hia domination was submitted to
even by Akbar himself, because the general safety depended on his
exercise of it ; but now that tranquillity was restored, the pressure of
his rule became less tolerable. Akbar therefore, in 1558, made a
successful effort to deliver himself from the thraldom which he had
hitherto endured. He concerted a plan with those around him, and
took occasion, when on a hunting party, to make an unexpected
journey from Agra to Delhi on the plea of the sudden illness of his
mother. He was no sooner beyond the reach of hia minister's
influence than he issued a proclamation announcing that he had taken
the government into his own hands, and forbidding obedience to any
orders not issued under his own seal. The proud Bahram perceived,
when too late, that his authority was at an end. He endeavoured to
establish an independent principality in Malwa ; but, after two years
of unsuccessful rebellion, he came, in the utmost distress, to throw
himself at the feet of his sovereign. Akbar, mindful of his former
services, raised him with his own hands, and placed him in his former
station at the head of the nobles. He gave him hia choice of a high
military command in a distant province or an honoured station at
court. Bahram replied that the king's clemency and forgiveness were
a sufficient reward for his former services, and that he now wished to
turn his thoughts from this world to another. He therefore begged
that his majesty would afford him the means of performing the
pilgrimage to Mecca. The king assented, and ordered a proper retinue
to attend him, at the same time assiguiug him a pension of 50,000
rupees.
The first objects of Akbar's attention were to establish his authority
over hia chiefs, and to recover the various portions of his empire that
had been lost during o many revolutions. When he ascended the
throne his territory was limited to the Panjab and the provinces of
Agra and Delhi In the fortieth year of his reign, according to Abu-1-
Fazl, the empire comprised fifteen fertile provinces, extending from the
Hiudu-Coosh to the borders of the Deccau, and from the Brahmaputra
to Candahar. These provinces were not recovered without great
efforts and the sacrifice of many lives, yet we have no reason to attri-
bute this career of conquest to mere restless ambition on the part of
Akbar. The countries which he invaded had been formerly subject
to the throne of Delhi, and he would have incurred more censure than
praise among his contemporaries if he had not attempted to recover
them. To every province thus recovered a well-qualified subahdar,
or viceroy, was appointed, whose duty it was to administer justice and
give protection to all, without any regard to sect or creed. Thus his
conquests, when once concluded, were permanent, for good govern-
ment is the surest safeguard against rebellion. Of the vigilance with
which Akbar watched the proceedings of his viceroys, and the extreme
attention which he paid to the administration of his more remote pro-
vinces, we have ample proofs in his letters preserved by Abu-1-Fazl.
Unlike most eastern princes, his fame is founded on the wisdom of
his internal policy, not on the vain-glorious title of subduer of regions.
One of the most striking traits in his character as a Mohammedan
prince was the tolerant spirit which he displayed towards men of other
religions, and he felt great interest in all inquiries respecting the
religious belief and forms of worship prevalent among mankind. In
the summer of 1582 he wrote a letter to the " wise men among the
Franks," that is, the Portuguese ecclesiastics at Goa, requesting them
to send him a few of their more learned members, with whom he
might converse respecting the Christian religion. This curious docu-
ment is preserved in Abu-1-Fazl's collection, and was translated by
Fraser in hia 'History of Nadir Shah.' Fraser makes a mistake
however in saying that it was addressed to the king of Portugal.
Accordingly, on the 3rd of December following, three learned padres,
by name Aquaviva, Monserrate, and Euriques, departed on this im-
portant mission. Travelling by easy stages by way of Surat, Mandoo,
and Ougein, they reached Agra in about two months. They were
immediately admitted into the presence of Akbar, who gave them a
most gracious reception. The missionaries then solicited a public
controversy with the mullas, or doctors of the Mohammedan religion,
which was readily granted. Of this disputation the Christians and
Mohammedans give different accounts. Akbar, who is strongly sxis-
pected to have sought amusement as well as instruction from these
discussions, informed the padres that an eminent mulla had under-
taken to leap into a fiery furnace with a Koran in his hand, to prove
by this ordeal the superior excellence of his faith ; and he trusted that
they would do the same with the Bible. The worthy fathers, who had
during the discussion made some pretensions to supernatural powers,
were considerably embarrassed by this proposal, which however they
wisely declined. Abu-1-Fazl says that " the disputants having split on
the divinity of their respective scriptures, the Christian offered to walk
into a flaming furnace bearing the Bible, if the Mohammedan would
show a similar confidence in the protection of the Koran ; to which
the Moslems only answered by a torrent of abuse, which it required
the emperor's interference to stop. He reproved the mullas for their
intemperate language, and expressed his own opinion that God could
only be worshipped by following reason, and not yielding implicit faith
to any alleged revelation." The missionaries seeing that Akbar showed
BO little partiality to the Mussulman religion, naturally concluded that
they had made him a convert. At that time however his attention
waa distracted by disturbances in Cabul and Bengal, and hia visitors
returned under a safe conduct to Goa, which they reached in May,
1583., It appears that Akbar requested and received two other similar
missions in the course of his reign, which, after going through the same
round as their predecessors, returned without any further result. It
would appear also that at Akbar's request one of the missionaries,
Jeronymo Xavier, remained at Agra, for the purpose of translating
the Gospela into Persian. He was assisted in his task by Mulana
'Abd-ul-sitar-ben-Kasim of Lahore, and the work was completed in
1602. It is very much on the plan of our Diatessaron, and divided
into four books. The first book is entirely occupied with the history
and life of the Virgin Mary, and our Saviour's infancy. These puerile
legends have been long declared apocryphal even by the Church of
Rome, and it is difficult to conceive why the worthy padre should
have ventured to interweave them with the sublime truths of the
Gospel : yet this compilation, such as it is, has had considerable cir-
culation among the Moslems of India, who have naturally viewed it as
a standard authority in judging of the Christian religion, from the
circumstance of its being issued forth under the patronage of Akbar.
Of the encouragement which general literature received under this
enlightened monarch there are numerous monuments extant. He
established schools throughout the country, at which Hindoo as well
as Moslem children were educated, each according to his circumstances
and particular views in life. He encouraged the translation of works
of science and literature from the Sanscrit into Persian, the language
of his court. In this he was ably seconded by the two brothers Faizi
and Abu-1-Fazl ; the former the most profound scholar and the latter
the most accomplished statesman then existing. Faizi was the first
Moslem who applied himself to the language and learning of the
Brahmins. Assisted by qualified persons, ho translated into Persian
two works on algebra, arithmetic, and geometry, tho ' Vija Ganitu '
and ' Lilavati,' from the Sanscrit of Bhaskara Acharya, an author of
the 12th century of our era. Under Faizi's able superintendence were
also translated the Vcdas, or at least the more interesting portions of
t
AKBAK, JALAlrUD-DIN MOHAMMED.
AKENSIDE, MARK.
tiMai * Utt Btvml piaM of UK Mth^^v*^ w**l RHflfjMi* ; *u*l >to>
a eurioas bUory of Cashmere during the 4000 yean previous to it*
, by Akbar. remarkable as UM only specimen of historic*!
' i in the Sanscrit language. Abu-I-Kasl long held the highest
reak,bota military and civil, under Akbar. His great work, the* Akbar
Nam*,' is a lasting monument of his master's lame, and of bis own
ifcHngilik 1 111 Hi u I i ' ' J Maniucript copi of it have been
multlplMd in abundance, particularly the third volume called the
Ayin-i Akberi,' which is descriptive of the Indian empire.
For a more ample and detailed account of the many admirable
works, original and translated, which were written under the poirjuag*
of Akbar. the reader i* referred to the first volume of Qladwiu'* trau.-
ution of the Ayin i-Akberi.' But of all the measures of Akbsr's
i sage, perhaps there is none which redounds more to bis true glory
Uuo hi* humane and liberal policy toward* the Hindoos, who formed,
as already stated, the majority of his subject*. Thi* injured race had
long been subjected to a capitation tax. imposed upon them by their
haughty conquerors as a punish moot for what they were pleased to
osll their infidelity. This odious impost, which served to keep up
animosity between the peopU and their ruler*, was abolished early iu
Akbar'* nifu. He at the *ame time abolished all taxes on pilgrimages,
nhcsniin " that it wa* wrong to throw any obstacle in the way of the
devout, or of interrupting UMU mod. of intercourse with their Maki '
Bt though Akbar sho
,'
lindtol
i to the Hindoos in the exer-
cise of their religion, he was not blind to the abuse* of the Brshminical
yatem. lie forbade trial* by ordeal, and the slaughter of animals
for senriflf* lie also mjoined widows to many a second time, con-
trary to the Hindoo Uw. Abore all, ha positively prohibited the burning
of Hindoo widows sgaiast their will ; and used every precaution to
aincrtsin. in the case of a suttee, that the resolution was free and
wainHaenned. U i* sUtod in the ' Akbar Kama ' (hat on one occasion,
rsrinr. that the raj* of Joudpoor was about to force bis son's widow
to the pile, he mounted hi* bores, and rode with all speed to the spot
in order to prevent the intended sacrifice. It may be observed, that
all those ewe* in which Akbar interfered with the religion of the
i really abuses originating with the corrupt priestcraft of
Such prohibition*, being of a purely benevolent nature,
would nowia* affect the loyalty and atUchmrnt of the great body of
the people. In fact, we have an interesting memorial of the impression
mads upon the Hindoos by the mild sway of Akbar in a spirited ninou-
trance, sddreejnri a century after to the bigoted AuruugMbe, by the
descendabt of the very raja of Joudpoor above mentioned. The then
raja eays : ' Your ancestor Akbar, whose throne is now in heaven,
oood noted UM affun of his empire in equity and security for the space
of fifty year*, lie preserved every tribe of men in ease and happiness,
whether they were followers of Jesus or of Moses, of Brahma or of
Mohammed uf whatever sect or creed they might be, they all
equally enjoyed his countenance and favour ; insomuch that his people,
u gratitude for the iadiseriminate protection which be afforded them,
distinguished him by the appellation of -Guardian of Mankind.' "
In the revenue department Akbar effected vast reforms. He estab-
lished a uniform standard of weight* and measures, and caused a
correct measurement of the land to be made throughout the empire.
He ssnertsipid the value of the soil in every inhabited district, and
fixed the nte of taxation that each should pay to government, He
strictly prohibited bis officer, from fanning any branch of the revenue,
the collector, being enjoined to deal directly with individual culti-
vate**, and not to depend en the headman of a village or district
For the iiialasetreliMCj of justice he appointed oourU composed of
two oncer, with differtnt powers; the one for conducting the trial
and expounding the Uw, and the other, who was the superior authority,
far reeling Judgment Thee* were enjoined to be .paring of capital
paniehmeai, and, unless, in oases of dangerous sedition, to inflict none
until the proceedings were sent to court, and the emperor'* confirma-
tion returned. He also enjoined that in no case should capital punish-
moat be accompanied by any additional severity. Akbar was fully
acute of UM Importance of commerce, which he greatly promoted.
Ue improved the roads leading to all part, of the empire, andreudered
InveUtsw cafe by UM establishment of an efficient polio*. Above all,
I a vast Dumber of vexations imnoel* which merely fettered
prohibited bis
afl M , i. ,
by Akbar for
> country, perhaps the least snoosscful was bu
. , * TT? l ' |ito *** r- V m - * *" wb J * "a*
wfll mad ample awbraaattoa In the franeacUoos of the Literary Society
of Bombay/ vol. u, contribute b, Cclancl KdUMdy of that presidency
It aces not appear that Akbsr's faith made an j great progreu beyond
ilaca. In fact it had numberUss foes to encounter
d both of Mohammed and Brahma, who throve
of their rcspecUve flock*
he abolished a inet number of ve
trade without enriching the treasury. He strictly pro
owsear* (roes reeeivingTees of any kind, and thus cut of
source of abac*. Asaocg the numerous ofbrU made by
UM IsjilUfiminl of Us country, perhaps the least SUOOSM
.
the a
___ , .~MT(..,r. Akbar bad three
seeaaaet the Utter days of hi. life were embittered.
cut of in early youih Uirougb habits of dMpa-
m carvivcr (afterward* Jehan-ghir), repeatedly raised
ilien sgciast bis father. These -*Hii-ns. tonther
wtU, UM k. of ajceVTl.. l-a.auW.^b^^lT^up^
Akbar's wind. He died iu September 1005, in the Cith year of Li*
age, after a prosperous and beneficent reign of half a century. In
person Akbar U described as strongly built, with an agreeable expres-
sion of countenance and very captivating manners. Ue was possessed
of great bodily strength and activity; temperate in his habits, and
indulging in little sleep. He frequently spent whole nights in those
philosophical discussions of which bo wss so foud. His early life
abounds with in.tanixs of romantic courage, better suited to a kui^ht
errant than the ruler of a mighty empire. The first half of his reign
required almost bis constant presence at the head of his army, y< t ho
never neglected the improvement of the civil government; and by a
judicious distribution of his time be was enabled not only tu dispatch
all essential business, but to enjoy leisure for study and amusement
Klpuiustoue, Uiitory of India; Ferihta, JJulory ;
and Traiuac'iuHt of the Literary Society of Bombay, voL ii.)
AKENSIDE, MARK, was the second son of Mark Akenside, a
butcher of NewcasUe-ou-Tyue, and of his wife Mary LuuisJ.
was born in the street called Butchers' Bank iu that town, on Kuv. it,
17-1. The Rev. John Brand, who was also a native of Newcastle,
states, in his ' Observations on Popular Antiquities,' that a halt which
Akeuaide had in his gait was occasioned by the falling of a i .
from his father's stall upon him when he was a boy ; and " this,'' addd
Brand, who was himself bred a shoemaker, " must have been
petual remembrance of his bumble origin." It is said that Akeuside
wss far from regarding the ever-present memento either with com-
placency, or even with the most philosophic composure. Thu butcher
was a strict Presbyterian ; and young Mark's original destination was
to be a clergyman in that communion, with which view, according to
the common account, he was sent to a duseutiog academy in his native
town, whence, at about the age of eighteen, that is to say, probably in
November 1739, be proceeded to the University of Edinburgh. But
it appears from a Memoir of Richard Dawes (the author of the ' Mis-
cellanea Critic*') by the Rev. Mr. Hodgson, in the 'Ju.l volume of the'
' Archseologia -Eliaua,' 4 to., Newcastle, 1632, that Akeuside was a
pupil under Dawes, who was appointed head master of the Royal
Grammar School at Newcastle in July 173S. If this was the cose, his
attendance at the school could not have been long. The expense of
his residence at Edinburgh, or part of it, was defrayed by the Dissen-
ters' Society. But after studying divinity for one session, he deter-
mined to change his intended profession, and the remaining two years
of his attendance at college were given to the medical classe
afterward* returned the money he had received from the Dissenters'
Society. In 1742 be went to finish his medical course at Leydeu, and
he was admitted by the university to the degree of M.D. May 16, 1744,
on which occasion he published a thesis, or Latin inaugural discourse,
on the human foetus (' Ue Ortu et Incremento Foatus lluinaui '), iu
which he is said to have displayed eminent scientific ingenuity and
judgment in attacking some opinions of Leeuweuhoek, and other
puthoritiea of the time, which have now been generally or universally
abandoned. But if the date of his graduation (given by Johnson, and
copied by all his subsequent biographers) be correct, Akenside hod
already made a brilliantly successful literary debut before the appear-
ance of this professional essay. His English didactic blank verse poem,
iu three books, entitled ' The Pleasures of Imagination,' which, accord-
ing to one account, be had begun, and even, it is absurdly said, finished,
while he was on a visit to some relations at Morpeth, before he went
to college at Edinburgh, was published at London in February 1744.
He had taken to verse-making at an early age ; in the 7th volume of
the ' OeuUeman's Magazine,' published in 1737, is a poem, entitled
'The Virtuoso, in imitation of Spenser's Style and Stanza,' dated
from Newcastle, having the signature of Marcus, and stated to be the
production of a writer in his sixteenth year, which is undoubtedly his ;
this was followed by other poetical contributions to the same miscel-
lany ; and while at Edinburgh he had written some of the odes and
other minor pieces which have since been printed among his works.
But he bad as yet published nothing iu a separate form or with his
name, and was conqueutly altogether unknown, when he took or
sent his ' Pleasures of Imagination to Dodsley the bookseller, with a
demand of 1201. for the copyright Johnson, who mentions this, says
that he had heard Dodsley himself relate that, hesitating to give so
Urge a price, "ho carried the work to Pope, who, having looked into
it, advised him not to make a niggardly oiler, for this was no every-
day writer." Pope, who diod in the end of May of the year iu which
it appeared, lived nevertheless long enough to see his judgment ratified
by the extraordinary success of the poem. It reached a second editi >n
in May, and continued in constant demand. The poem was first pub-
lished anonymously, and a story is told by Boswell, on Johnson's
authority, of the authorship being claimed by a person of the name
of Roll, who is even said to have had an edition of it printed in Dublin
with bis name on the tiUe-page; but in England, at least, the name of
the true author appears to have been very well known all along. Akeu-
side wa* certainly in England before his poem was published : if tlio
date of his graduation be correct, he probably returned to Leydeu to
go through t hat ceremony. His firnt attempt to < < .ictice
as a physician wss at Northampton ; but he only continued there for
about a year and a half, during which he appears to have written
more poetry than prescriptions. It seems however to have been before
he settled at Northampton that ha wrote hi* ' Epistle to Curio,' a satire
77
AKENSIDE, MARK.
ALARCON Y MENDOZA, DON JUAN RUIZ DE.
78
on Pulteney, recently created Earl of Bath, which was published by
Dodsley in a quarto pamphlet in 1744. While at Leyden, Akenside
had formed an intimacy with one of his fellow-students, Jeremiah
Dyson, a man of fortune, who afterwards became clerk of the House
of Commons, then one of the members for Horsham, subsequently
secretary to the Treasury and a lord of the Treasury, and ultimately
cofferer to the household and a privy councillor. They had returned
from Holland together, and on Akenside, shortly after the publication
of his great poem, being attacked by Warburton in a preface to a new
edition of hia * Divine Legation,' for something he had said in a note
in support of Shaftesbury's notion about ridicule being a test of truth,
Dyson took up his pen in defence of his friend, and published, anony-
mously, ' An Epistle to the Reverend Mr. Warburton, occasioned by
his Treatment of the Author of the " Pleasures of Imagination." '
Warburton took no notice of this appeal ; but he afterwards reprinted
his strictures at the end of his ' Dedication to the Freethinkers ' in
another edition of his work. Dyson now gave Akenside a more sub-
stantial proof of his friendship by making him an allowance of 300Z.
a year, to be continued till he should be able to live by his practice.
Thus secured in an income, he came up to London, and established
himself in the first instance at Hampstead, and after being two years
and a half there he removed to London, and fixed himself in Blooms-
bury-square, where he resided till his death. This change of residence
occurred in 174S. In 1745 he had published, in quarto, ten of his odes,
under the title of ' Odes on Several Subjects ;' hU ' Ode to the Earl of
Huntingdon' appeared in 1748 in the same form; and several others
of his poems appeared afterwards from time to time in ' Dodsley's
Collection,' then in course of publication. An ' Ode to the Country
Ocntlemen of England, 1 4to., 1753, and an 'Ode to Thomas Edwards,
Esquire, on the late Edition (by Warburton) of Mr. Pope's Works,'
fol. 1766, are almost his only separate poetical productions after this
late. Besides being admitted by mandamus to the degree of M.D. in
the University of Cambridge, he became in course of time physician
to St. Thomas's Hospital, a Fellow of the College of Physicians, and
one of the physicians to the Queen ; but he was probably indebted for
these honours as much to his literary as to his professional reputation.
His practice is said never to have been considerable. The late Dr. John
Aikin, who himielf attempted to combine the pursuit of literature
witli the practice of physic, says, in his ' Select Works of the British
Poets,' " It is affirmed that Dr. Akenside assumed a haughtiness and
ostentation of manner which was not calculated to ingratiate him with
his brethren of the faculty, or to render him generally acceptable."
Another account that has been given is, that his manner in a sick*oom
was so grave and sombre as to be thought more depressing and inju-
rious to hia patients than his advice or medicines were serviceable.
Tet his latest and most elaborate biographer, Mr. Bucke, has noted
that he had practice enough to enable him, with his pension, to keep
a carriage ; and he also sustained his reputation at a respectable point
by various professional publications. In 1755 he read the Qulstonian
Lectures before the College of Physicians ; and an extract from them
containing some new views respecting the lymphatic vessels being
afterwards read before the Royal Society (of which he was elected a
fellow in 1753) was published in the ' Philosophical Transactions' for
17">7. This publication drew Akenside into a controversy with Dr.
Alexander Monro of Edinburgh, who in a pamphlet, entitled ' Obser-
vations Anatomical and Physiological," both accused him of some
inaccuracies, and also insinuated a charge of plagiarism from a treatise
of his own published the preceding year. Akenside replied to these
charges in a small pamphlet published in 1758. In 1759 he delivered
the Harveian Oration before the College of Physicians ; and it was
published by Dodsley, ia 4to, in the beginning of the next year, under
the title of ' Oratio Anniveraaria,' &c. An ' Account of a Blow on the
Heart, and its Effects/ by Akenside, appeared in the ' Philosophical
Transactions' for 1763. In 1764 he published, in 4to, what is
accounted the most important of bis medical works, his treatise on
dysentery, in Latin, 'De Dysenteria Commentarius,' "considered,"
says Johnson, "as a very conspicuous specimen of Latiuity, which
entitled him to the game height of place among the scholars as he
-^ed before among the wits." It has been translated into English
both by Dr. Dennis Kyan and by Motteux. To these performances
are to be added several papers in the first volume of the ' Medical
Transaction^,' published by the College of Physicians in 1767; and,
having been appointed Krohnian Lecturer, he also delivered three
lectures before the college on the history of the revival of learning,
which have not been printed. He might probably have risen to
greater professional eminence and more extended practice if his life
'en protracted ; but he was cut off by a putrid fever on the 23rd
of June, 1770, in his forty-ninth year.
As a poet, Akenside has been very differently estimated. He must
be judged of principally by hi* ' Pleasures of Imagination, 1 which is
admitted on all hands to be bis greatest work. Johnson, who hated
Ij'.tli the kind of verse in which it was written and the politics of the
author, which, always whig, were at the time when it was composed
almost republican, admits that " ho is to bo commended as having
fewer artifices of disgust than most of his brethren of the blank song;"
but seern to regard the poem on the whole as having more splendour
than substance, more sound than sense. Akenside had a warm and
susceptible, but not a creative imagination ; there is probably not in
bis whole poetry a thought which can properly be called his own, or
even a new and striking image or metaphor, or a felicity of expression
not borrowed or imitated. He interests and affects his readers chiafly
through the sympathetic glow which he excites by his enthusiasm in
behalf of truth and beauty, and other elevating conceptions ; he has
no touches of nature, no pathos, no dramatic power, little or no
invention ; and even his pictures of natural scenery, which are
perhaps what he has done best, are brought out always by an elabo-
rate accumulation, of details, never by those happy characteristic
strokes which flash forth at once the lineaments and spirit of a scene
like sudden sunshine. All is operose, cumbrous, and cloudy, witli
abundance of gay-colouring and well-sounding words, but filling the
eye oftener than the imagination, and the ear oftener than either.
Something of all this was natural enough in a poem written at so
early an age as the ' Pleasures of Imagination ; ' and Akenside him-
self, after a time, became so dissatisfied with the work, that he
proceeded not so much to rewrite it as to compose a new poem on the
same subject. Of this second poem, which was to have been much
more extended than the first, he had finished three books and part of
a fourth before his death ; and he had eveu printed the first and
second books, although he did not publish them. Both poems were
published by his friend Mr. Dyson, in a complete edition of Akenside'e
works, 4to and also 8vo, London, 1773 ; but his admirers have con-
tinued to prefer their original favourite, its rapid flow being felt to
have more of pleasurable excitement than the greater correctness and
more matured thought of the later composition. Akenside's minor
pieces have the same beauties and defects with his chief work. They
are mostly odea and hymns, and are full of lofty sentiments and
swelling verse, which are farther made impressive by a spirit of
earnestness and ardour coming from the thorough conviction and
sincerity of the writer. A few are in a less ambitious style, consisting
of plain sense neatly expressed ; but, although he sometimes
attempted the gayer flights of the muse, he had no wit or humour,
and what he has done in this way is wholly unsuccessful.
(Kippis, Siograpltia Britannica ; Johnson, Lives of the Poets; Bucke,
ft, Writingt, and Qeniut of Aktmide, 8vo, London, 1832.)
AKEKBLAD, JOHN DAVID, a Swedish scholar, who distin-
guished himself by his researches in Runic, Phoenician, Coptic, and
hieroglyphic literature. He enjoyed in early life an opportunity of
travelling over several countries in the East in consequence of being
appointed secretary to the Swedish embassy at Constantinople. While
holding this appointment he made a journey to Jerusalem, in 1792.
In 1797 he visited the Troad. Some years after he was appointed
Charg<5 d' Affaires to the king of Sweden in France. He spent his last
days in Rome, where he was supported by the bounty of the Duchess
of Devonshire and other admirers of his talents. He died in that
city at an early age, on the 8th of February, 1819. The following
are the titles of some of hia publications : ' Lettre h, M. Silvestre de
Sacy sur 1'Ecriture cursive Copte,' published in the 'Magasin Ency-
clope'dique ' for 1810. ' Inscriptionis Phosnicise Oxouiensis Nova
Interpretatio,' Paris, 1802; 31 pp. 8vo. 'Lettre sur 1'Inscription
Egyptienne de Rosette, adressde a M. Silvestre de Sacy,' Paris, 1802 ;
70 pp. 8vo. ' Notices sur Deux Inscriptions en Caracteres Runiques,
trouv<Ses a Venise, et sur les Varanges ; avec les Remarques de
M. d'Ansee de Villoison,' Paris, 1804 ; 55 pp. 8vo. ' Inscrizione
Greca sopra una Lamina di Piombo, trovato in uno Sepolcro nelle
Vicinanze d'Atene,' 4to, Rome, 1813. He was preparing a new and
enlarged edition of this work at tho time of his death. ' Lettre sur
une Inscription Phdnicienne trouvde Ji Athenes," Rome, 1817 ; 23 pp.
4 to. M. Akerblad is said to have been able to speak as well as read
various eastern and European languages. He was a corresponding
member of the French National Institute, and a member of several
other learned societies.
ALARCON Y MENDOZA, DON JUAN RUIZ DE, a Spanish
dramatic writer of the reign of Philip IV. Of the writers of Spain,
unless pre-eminent in reputation as well as talent, biographical notices
are by uc means abundant. Nicolas Antonio did not know the place
of his birth nor the time of his death, but supposed him to have been
a native of Mexico. Ferdinand Denis however, in the ' Nouvelle
Biographic Universelle,' states, that he was born towards the end of
the 16th century, at Tlasco, or Tlachco, in the ancient province of
Mexico, of a noble family, which was originally from the little town
of Alarcon, in the province and diocese of Cuenza in Spain. His
time is generally fixed about the middle of tho 17th century ; but in
a preface to a second volume of his 'Comedias,' published in 1634, he
says that he is the author of twenty pieces, aud complains that some
of them had been attributed to others, as indeed they had, by certain
booksellers, to Lope de Vega and Montalvau. This fact carries back
his labours to a much earlier date, and places him among the compe-
titors of the most celebrated dramatists of his country ; and it also
indicates the reputation he enjoyed. It has been conjectured that he
was an actor ; but of this there is no sufficient evidence. He xvas a
licentiate, a jurisconsult by profession, and instances appear in his
dramas of research into the ancient laws of Spain. Though without
positive data, we have a strong persuasion that he was a cadet of the
noble family of Ruiz de Alarcon ; but his best history is In his works.
They show, not only that his attainments wore of a very high order,
but that he was deservedly esteemed for his noble qualities and
ALARIC.
ALARIC II.
It i* iMflraQy admitted that the be** ptatar* of SpanM.
the r*i(n of UM Philip* U eoouioed in the Spanish
_ Jtton to UM divine unities, u Boilaan and La Harp*
UMB. they nevertheleas tool* M h*Id tho minor up to
ad sbo**d the very age and body of U> time hia form and
* also DO mean historians
' and they WOT* aso DO mean historians of Ui* chlrmlrotti
. praeadeJ UMM ; Ihiy UM t~t part* of the Ticotooa
of ibsfe aaearton, in their own *ooorous and majestic
. rvwy S(as*a*MD*.i*>pif<of lyrwal poetry. Alarcon
DM Mi May portraiiar** of that d%nin*d deportment, that generou*
aod manly sentiment, that punctilious MOM of honour, and that
honor of Weh of faith, which characterised th. old nobility of l,i.
country (aquaUo* Chrfathon* Tieio.); and he bat akatehetl them wit!,
DO IMB fcUltty tad apirit than Lop*, Calderon, and DC Cattro. No
wriur ha* ever nor* bwaUfully ddioaaUJ that true and delicate
mcud for hcnale character in UM high-born Spaniah cralier, for
whieh b* DM b*i and i* still distinguished.
Tbw* i* mor*ot*r in mott of hit drama* a tone of morality which
do** him honour, and plaon them unquestionably among the beat
of thU branch of literature. It hai been truly obMrred
coovry
Pared**
annotator, "Hi*
.
pieoa* not only amuse, but generally
chastisement of the backbiter in ' La*
(' Wall* bar* Kan '), and of the Liar in ' La Verdad
('Suspicious Truth'), are example* of this. It is no
amall proof of the merit of the hut-named piece, that Corneille, who,
to OM hi* own phrase, partly translated, partly imitated it for tha
Parisian ****, under the title of ' Le Menteur,' affirms that he hud
often Mid b* would give two of hi* best piece* if he could call the
invention of that drama hi* own. Alarcon's plot* are ingenious, his
well marked, his style nervous, pure, and elegant, and hi*
IB easy and harmonious. His piece* are also free from tie
i and extravagance which disfigure the work* of most of his
contemporaries, and the object of which seem* to bare been to mys-
tify and te-*, rather than to instruct and delight. Among tho
numerous Spanish poet* of thi* class, none could be more fitly
selected as a model for a real national drama than Alarcon. Huerta
fftM the title* of thirty of hi* comedie*. Th* 'Oanar Aniigos,' ' La
Verdad ospecboea,' ' La* Parcde* oyen,' *nd ' El Examen de Maridos,'
are beat known. The 'Teiedor d* SegovU' was Terr popuUr. Like
Schiller's ' Robber*,' to which it bean a great resemblance, it has been
UM subject both of much censure and much praise. No complete
edition of Alaroon'* work* ha* appeared, nor any volumes except the
in the article. Hi* pieces are only found in mUcel-
(Nkolau* Antoniua, BiUio&cem EitpaAa ; Coleccim General th
CwsMfcs*, Madrid, 1826-34.)
AI.ARIC, on* of the most eminent of those northern chiefs who
*nec*a*iv*!y overran Italy during the decline of tho western empire,
aod UM fini of them who gained possession of imperial Rome. He
learned the art of war under the celebrated emperor of the East,
Tbeodoaios, who curbed th* depredations of the Goths, settled them
in different province* of the empire, and recruited hi* armies from the
youth of the nation ; but they threw off the yoke as soon a* the
powerful band which bad imposed it ceased to hold the sceptre, and
AUric, born of one of the noblest families of the nation, waa chosen
by bis countrymen as their leader. L'nder bis guidance the Visigoths,
th* division of th* Gothic nation to which he belonged, issued from
Thrace, where they bad ben settled, and overran Greece, A.D. 396.
AUric look Athens; but instead of treating it with severity and
destroying to edifice*, aa ha* cometine* been aaserted, it is most
probable that b* did very little damage to it* work* of art, although
be carried off rack a* were moveable. The Goths were soon com-
pelled by Btflieho to evacuate that country, and to return into Kpinii
About (be year A.D. 398, Alarie, on the ground* of his high military
WM proclaimed King of the VMgoths; and about the same
diua, UM uceMor of Theodo*iu>, alarmed at hi* repeated
time Arcadiu*. the
td to identify hi* interest* with thwe of the empire
by declaring him Matter General of th* Eastern Illyrian Prefecture.
The Visigoth* who obeyed hi* order* were thoroughly organized a* an
army, tat u yet bad few claim* to the civil character and stability of
nation. They threatened both empire* equally at the same time,
and sold their alliance to each alternately. Alarie at last determined
to make bis way into UM empire of the west, for tho purpose of
Early In UM year A.D. 403 h* appeared before Milan, which was
ImmrdlaUly evactuUd by UM Emperor Honorius. Besieged in the
fortrs** of AHa, Hoooriu* wss on the point of surrendering, when
MHebo CUM to hi* axisUnoe, with an army hastily recalled from the
frontier* of Haul and Germany. On Kasbr-day, A.D. 403, waa fought
UM battle of PoUeati*. Th* testimony of historians vane* a* to the
*v, nt of it ; but the advantage isms to have been on tho side of the
RocBeos. In a mbwqnent bstUe, near Verona, AUric was completely
defeated by Htilkbo, aad wa* compiled by the voice of his people to
MOfpt term* which bis pride would have rejected to ratify a treaty
witi. the Mapire of UM west, and to retire from Italy with the remains
of his army. (Claudian, I)e IU-llo Oetioo.')
After hi* retreat from Italy, Alarie concluded a precarious peace
with Hoooriu*, and crrn entered into hi* service, being nominated
Master-Oeneral of the Western Illyrian Prefecture, In this capacity
be WM required to enforce the claims of the court of Ravenna to
certain province* held by the eaitera empire ; but hi* effort* were
ineffectual, and at the end of a few yean, when his army was recruit. .1
by the German youth* who were attracted by his fame, he renewed
kit design of eatablishing himself in Italy. Claiming an extravagant
reward for the service* which he had performed, be plainly intimated
that war would be the consequence of a refusal. The demand waa
made in the year A.D. 403. The emperor was then at Rome, and it
was debated in the senate what steps were proper to be taken. Tho
majority were for war; but by Stilicho's advice it was determined to
buy off the enemy by a contribution of four thousand pounds weight
of gold. One of the senators exclaimed, in the language of Cicero,
"This is not a treaty of peace, but a contract of slavery." Tho
minister maintained the demand to be nothing more than just, a*
Aloric had remained three years in Epirus for the service of Honorius.
While the Visigoth* were at the foot of the Alps, tho cowardly and
weak Honorius procured the assassination of Stilicho, the only man
who could still have defended the empire. Hia son and almost all his
officer* were murdered along with him. Those Visigoths win
serving in the pay of the empire hod left their wive* and children in
the Roman cities : they were all massacred at the same time. All the
treaties concluded by Stilicho with AUric were annulled, and tin-
court of Ravenna seemed to take pleasure in provoking an enemy
whom it was unable to resist. Alarie crossed Yenetia without encoun-
tering any Roman soldiers; with tho rapidity of a traveller who meet*
with no obstruction, he advanced under the very walla of Rome, and
formed the siege. An application for terms was made on the part of
the Romans, with an intimation that if once they took up arm* they
would fight desperately. Alarie returned this pithy answer : " Tho
cloeer bay is pressed, the more easily it i* cut." He demanded all
the wealth of Home. The ambassadors asked what he would leave
to the inhabitants ; " Their lives." He at length however consented
to retire, on condition of receiving a heavy ransom. But Honoriti.",
although he had taken no measures for the defence of hia capital,
refused to ratify the treaties by which it might have been saved.
Alarie laid siege to Rome a second time in A.D. 409. The imposing
name of the Eternal City seemed to inspire the barbarian with
involuntary respect. He endeavoured to save it from the consequences
to which he was otherwise pledged, by appointing a new emperor in
the person of Attains, prefect of tho city ; but the weakness of Attains
rendered it necessary for tho Visigoth conqueror to undo the work of
his ytn hands, and Honorius was reinstated on a powerless throne.
A treacherous attack on the Goths at Rarenna, while the conferences
were still open, exhausted tho patience of Alarie. The city was a
third time besieged, and Alarie entered at midnight on the 24th of
August, 410, when he gave the town up to be pillaged for six days,
but with orders to hi* soldiers to be sparing of blood, to respect the
honour of the women, and not-to burn buildings dedicated to religion.
After the limited period of plunder and vengeance he hastened to
withdraw his troops, and led them into the southern provinces of
Italy ; but he died in the course of a few months, after a very short
illness, while besieging Coeenza in Calabria. Alarie not only dispUyed
great courage and military skill in his various campaigns, but was
distinguished by his moderation and justice in the intervals of pence.
The works of art and the usages of civilised life were respected by
him, and bis humanity restrained not a little the excesses of hia
followers. He showed by his reverence for the churches of Hume
during the sack of the city, that he was in some measure umlrr tin-
influence of the Christian faith, which he bod learned from Arian
teacher*, and while some regarded him as an instrument of vengeance
against the remaining paganism of Rome, he seems to have mado
pretensions at times to an impulse from Heaven.
(Zosimus; Claudian ; Jornandez, DcJlcbta Geticit; Gibbon, ch. xxix.,
xxxi.)
ALARIC II., ALARICUS, king of the West Goths, succeeded his
father Eudcs in A.D. 484. Gothio, the then name of the West Gothic
kingdom, had been considerably enlarged by Eudes, and exi
over Hispr.nia Tarraconensis and Bxtica, and in Gaul as far as the
Loire and the Rhone, by which rivers it was separated from the king-
dom* of the Franks, tho Burgundians, and the East Goths, who \\.T.-
matter* of the province. If we can trust Isidorus, Alarie had spent
bis youth in idleness and luxury, though the truth seems to be that,
preferring a peaceful reign to war, which in the eyes of the Goths was
the only occupation worthy of kings, ho incurred that reproach because
he wa* not fond of bloodshed. He wa* an Arian, like most of his
countrymen, but very tolerant, as wo sec from tho acts of the Council
of Agde, which wa* held in A.D. 506, and by which many privileges
were granted to the orthodox Catholics. Clovis, king of the Franks,
having overthrown tho last remnants of the Itomnu power in Gaul,
coveted the fine countries west of the Loire ; and there being still
many Catholics in Qothia who were dissatisfied because their king
did not adopt the Catholic faith, be declared war against Alarie. The
old East Gothic king, Thcodoric the Great, whose daughter Tlieudi-
gotha was the wife of Alarie, foresaw the war, and tried to prevent it
by conciliatory mrans : the letters which be wrote to that (-fleet to
the king* of the Franks, the West Goths, and the Burgumlians, are
given by Casaiodorua ; but his endeavour* were in vain, nnd the war
81
ALAVA, MIGUEL RICARDO D'.
ALBA, DUKE OK
83
broke out in 507. In a pitched battle near Vougld, in the environs
of Poitiers, the result proved fatal to King Alaric, whose army was
eutirely defeated. Alaric fled, but was overtaken and killed. The
Goths made a halt at Narbonne, and quarrelled among themselves
about the choice of a new king. One part of them chose Gesalic, or
Gisolcc, the elder but bastard sou of Alaric ; and another Amalaric,
the lawful son of Alaric and Theudigotha. This prince being too
young to rule, the regency over the West Gothic kingdom was
intrusted to his grandfather, the East Gothic king Theodoric, who
drove out Gesalic, and compelled the Franks to restore their con-
quests. A proof that Alaric was peaceful because he appreciated the
blessings of peace, and that he was able to consolidate that peace
by a regular system of legislation, is the code called Breviarium
Alaricianum.
(Cassiodorus, Variar. 3, ep. 1, &<x; Gregorius Turonensis, ii. 36;
Procopius, De Sell Outh. ii. 12; Jornandez, DC Reb. Goth. p. 129;
Mascou, Hist, of the Ancient Germans, translated by Lediard; Asch-
bach, GetcMchte der Westgothen.)
ALAVA, MIGUEL RICARDO D', was born at Vitoria, in Spain,
in 1771. He first entered the naval service of his country, in which
he attained the rank of captain of a frigate, which he then exchanged
for a corresponding rank in the army. At the beginning of the
French occupation of Spain in 1807, Alava, as a member of the
assembly of Bayonne, signed the new constitution given on the
nomination of Joseph Bonaparte as king of Spain ; and he subse-
quently accompanied Joseph to Madrid. He soon however saw reason
to be dissatisfied with the side he had taken, and he joined the army
of the independents. In the progress of the war the Duke of Wel-
lington appointed him one of his aides-de-camp, in which capacity,
after the battle of Vitoria, he was enabled to save his native town
from pillage ; he ultimately attained the rank of general of brigade.
When Ferdinand VII. was restored, he remembered Alava's first
defection more vividly than his recent services, and he was thrown
into prison, but the intervention of the Duke of Wellington procured
his liberation within a few days. Alava at length succeeded in ingra-
tiating himself with Ferdinand, who appointed him ambassador to
the Netherlands, where his kindness to his banished countrymen
occasioned, it is said, his recal in 1319. At the commencement of
the revolution of 1820 he was elected member of the Cortes for the
province of Alava, and was President in May 1822. When in June of
that year the insurrection took place against the Cortes, he fought
with Ballastcros and Murillo against its enemies at Madrid, and
followed the Cortes to Cadiz, whither they had conveyed the king.
When Cadiz was invested by the French army in 1823, Alava was
commissioned by the Cortes to negociate with the Due d'Angouleme,
and under the assurance of the Due that he would use his influence
to obtain from Ferdinand (whose liberty was first stipulated for) a
constitution insuring the freedom of Spain. Ferdinand was conveyed
to the quarters of the French general, having previous to his leaving
Cadiz repeated the assurances in proclamations published in his name.
Arrived in the French camp, Ferdinand lost no time in declaring the
promises null, as well as all the acts of the government during his
captivity. Alava, with many other members of the Cortes, retired to
Gibraltar, and thence to England. After the death of Ferdinand VII.
he returned to Spain, embraced the cause of the Queen Dowager and
her daughter against Don Carlos, was appointed ambassador to
London in 1S34, and to Paris in 1835. After the insurrection of La
Granja he refused to take the oath of allegiance to the constitution
of 1812, retired to France, and died at Bareges in 1843.
(Nouvelle Biographic Universelle, 1852.)
ALBA, or ALVA, FERNANDO ALVAREZ DE TOLEDO, DUKE
OF, General of the imperial army, and Minister of State of Charles V.,
was born in 1 508. He was the son of Don Garcia, and grandson of
Don Fadrique, or Frederic, who was first-cousin of King Ferdinand
the Catholic, and the second Duke of Alba de Tormes. His father
having lost his life in an engagement against the Moors of Gelvez,
his grandfather superintended his education. He entered very young
into the service of the emperor, and accompanied him in his expe-
ditions to Algiers, Tunis, and Pavia. He afterwards followed him to
Hungary ; and it is said that the emperor promoted him to the first
rank in the army, more as a mark of favour than from any considera-
tion of his military talents. His reserved disposition, and the pecu-
liar bent of his mind to politics, had at first given an unfavourable
idea of his talents as a general. On the emperor wishing to know
his opinion about attacking the Turks, he advised him rather to build
them a golden bridge than offer them a decisive battle. Through his
wise measures, however, the emperor obtained a complete victory
over Frederic of Saxony at Muhlberg, where the elector was made
prisoner. Alba subsequently commanded at the siege of Mentz.
About 1556 Pope Paul IV. had deprived the house of Colonna of
their states, and added them to the territory of the church. The
French favoured the Pope ; and the duke was ordered by Philip II.
to proceed thither against the united French and papal army. Having
obtained the title of Lieutenant of all the Austrian dominions in
Italy, with unlimited power, he entered the Italian territory. Imme-
diately upon his arrival, he obliged the Count of Brisac to raise the
siege of Ulpian ; placed Milan in a state of security ; and, proceeding
to Naptai, where the Pope by his intrigues had caused serious distur-
BIO'.. DIV. VOL. I.
bances, he restored tranquillity, and secured respect for the Spanish
authority. He then entered the Papal States, and made himself
master of the Campagna of Rome, with a determination to humblo
both the Pope and the French; but having received fresh orders from
his court, he was obliged to conclude an honourable treaty of peace
with the Pope, not without telling his master that timidity and scru-
pulousness were incompatible with the policy of war. This proud
warrior, before whom the bravest trembled, was subjected to the
humiliation of asking the Pope's pardon; and, as he himself cou-
fessed, was so struck with awe at the ceremony, that he could scarcely
utter a word.
About 1560 the Flemish provinces of Spain began to manifest
symptoms of discontent. Philip, a bigoted Catholic, was determined
to maintain the Roman religion in all its purity throughout his
dominions. He disliked the Belgians as much as his father had been
well-disposed towards them ; and his whole conduct was calculated
rather to alienate than to gain their affection. He attempted to
destroy their liberty and privileges, and to establish the Inquisition at
any hazard. When one of his ministers represented to him, that if
he did not abolish the inquisitorial edicts, he exposed himself to the
risk of losing the states, he answered, that he " would rather have
no subjects at all than have heretics for his subjects." A rebellion
was the result of this ungenerous policy. To quell it, Alba was
furnished with troops and money, and invested with unlimited powers.
He set sail from Spain in '1567, and landed at Geuoa, where he
strengthened his army with some Italian troops, and proceeded to
Brussels. On his arrival, the country, which, through the mild and
conciliatory measures adopted by the amiable regent, Margaret of
Parma, was comparatively tranquil, became full of alarm. Events
proved that the fears of the people were not unfounded. The Priuco
of Orange fled to Germany, and in vain urged the counts of Egmont
and Horn to do the same. Alba summoned a council of state to his
house, to consult about the best means of restoring tranquillity and
repressing sedition. The two counts came as councillors, when Alba
seized them, with the secretary, Cassenbrot, and put them in prison.
The princess-regent, seeing herself deprived of her authority, retired
to Italy, and left the government of the country in the hauds of
the duke.
Immediately upon the imprisonment of D'Egmont, Alba instituted
a council, composed of twelve judges, whom ho named ' Judges of
the Tumults ; ' by his victims they were called the ' Court of Blood.'
He was himself president. He summoned the Prince of Orange, and
all the other nobles and citizens who had fled from the country, to
appear before his tribunal, under the penalty of confiscation of their
property. All the prisons were filled with victims, who were speedily
condemned and executed. The principal cities were fortified, and
filled with soldiers; and a country which had hitherto enjoyed all
the benefits of rational liberty, under one of the mildest governments
of Europe, was now converted into a military camp. More than
30,000 persons sought refuge in the neighbouring countries. All the
laws which curb the strong and protect the weak, were virtually
abolished : there was no other rule but the will of the tyrant
The Prince of Orange had collected an army in Germany, with
which he advanced into Friesland, and defeated a body of Spaniards
at Groningen. The news of this reverse exasperated the duke. He
hurried the trials of the counts of Egmont and Horn to a speedy
conclusion. They were condemned and beheaded; and the secretary
of D'Egmont was torn alive by four horses. The Prince of Orauge
was desirous to give battle to the Spaniards, but the duke avoided an
engagement ; and by his prudent movements, without losing a single
man, he caused the patriot army to disband. Alba returned co
Antwerp to carry on the fortifications of the citadel. The works
were soon finished ; and in the middle of the fortress the duke
caused his />wn statue in brass to be erected. This statue represented
him in full armour, and at his feet a two-headed monster, referring
allegorically to the nobility and the people. The whole was sup-
ported by a pedestal of marble, with the following inscription : " In
honour of the Duke of Alba, for having restored the Belgians to
their allegiance to the king and the church, and the country to tran-
quillity, peace, and justice." This insult was greater than a nation
could endure. It was so revolting, that it alienated even his friends ;
and from that moment his dictatorship was virtually ended. His fall
was hastened by the cruelty practised towards the inhabitants of
Haarlem, where he caused more than 2000 persons to be executed,
after having led them to expect forgiveness if they surrendered.
He now began to encounter misfortunes and disappointments on
every side. His health was in a weak state ; the greater part of
Holland had openly revolted, and proclaimed the Prince of Orange
stadtholder ; his armies had ceased to be invincible ; and he earnestly
requested to be recalled. In December, 1573, he published a general
pardon, and left a country which he had rendered desolate ; iu which
he had delivered into the hands of the executioners 18,000 victims,
and kindled a war which raged for thirty-seven years, and cost Spain
the blood of her Best troops, immense treasures, and the final loss of
some of her richest provinces. The first act of his successor's
authority was to demolish his statue ; so that nothing remained in
Flanders after his departure but the memory of hia cruelty.
On his arrival iu Spain, far from being well received at court, he
AI.IUNI.
ALBERONI, CARDINAL.
Of Spain put I
.,' i
iUsboB.alU.
The Uukof
He ws pnacipi
US BOettoM. SI
in hi. army. 11
which wouldh
M be always did. ai
bishop urged him to
the victory.- Durii
loetahattk The 1
a* Alba, surrounded
belong to intolrnn*
UM bigot and tyran
' :
of Ueed*. Foot TMIB after his
ving no rightful h-ir. Philip 1 1.
farad by the sword. Alba WH
i, and at the head of 12,000 men
MSSIS he pUonl Philip in pot
Three jean after, 1583, he died
dly the ablest general of hi* age.
hii alill and prudence in choosing
cement of the stricteat discipline
atisnf stratagem those advantages
ray or dsarly acquired by a pre-
Being at Cologne, and avoiding,
ith toe Dutch troops, the arch-
bject of a general," answered the
tt ; be fight* enough who bbtaini
> many jean' warfare, he never
, and caution of mch a character
all the evil circumstance* which
i, were only instrument* to render
and odious. Under more favour-
of society, they might haro produced a juit and benevolent
(Mariana, But, <f- />/>., Bentivoglio, Ouerr. di Plandr.; Do Campo,
Hi*l. de Portugal)
ALBAXI, a patrician Roman family, originally from the town of
t'rbrao. One of ite members. Cardinal Gian Pranceeoo Albani, was
raued to the papal see in 1700, when he auumed the name of
Clemen* XL Since that time the Albani have been classed among
the Roman princes, and have furnished the Church of Rome with a
sooceesion of cardinal*, who hare been in general men of taste and
abilities. Cardinal Alesaandro Albani, in the last century, was known
a* a patron of the art*. During the course of fifty years he enriched
his villa outside of Porta Salaria with a magnificent collection of
objects of art, which rendered the Villa Albani one of the most
Inlarselliis! spot* about Rome. When the French republican army
invaded Rome in 1798, this villa was stripped of all it* treasures.
The cardinal, however, escaped to Naples. After the death of Pius VI.,
Cardinal Albani repaired to the conclave at Venice, which elected
Pius VII., and soon after died at an advanced age. The lay repre-
sentative of the Albani family is possessed of the estate of Soriano
near Viterbo, and of other domains in the papal states. [CLEMENT XI.]
ALBAXI. FRANCESCO, was born at Bologna, March 17, 1678.
and was placed under the tuition of Denys Calvert, to be instructed
in painting. Ouido Rent was studying at the same time under that
mastrr, and being more advanced in art than Albani he was enabled
to afford him effectual assistance in his studies. The two youths
quitted Calvert, and placed themselves under Ludovico Cnrracci, whose
school began about this time to be conspicuous in Lombardy, and
undtr that great master they pursued their studies with an emulation
advantageous to both. Having made considerable proficiency, Ouido
proceeded to Rome, whither he was followed by Albani, whose taleuta
soon excited attention in that metropolis of art. Annibale Carrocci
had been employed to ornament the chapel of San Diego, in the
National Church of the Spaniards; but being disabled by illness, he
recommended Albani to continue the work, which he finished so
successfully aa to obtain universal applause. He afterwards painted
several large picture* at Rome, Mantua, and Bologna, but it is on his
1 picturw that Albani's reputation is chiefly founded. The natural
> of hi* mind was towards subjects of feminine and infantine
to high finishing rather than bold effect All his latter work*
sM |
elaborate; they became extremely fashionable during
Us day. Albani was well acquainted with ancient sculpture, but
diapUys DO indication of such knowledge in hi* male figures; his
women and children are better drawn. He might have become a good
' ' I .::; :.:.. I:. I v.i.i !,
Impairs tha brilliancy of his tints, and gives his flesh the appearance
of ivory. There are at Borgbley House, the seat of the Marquis of
Exeter, some tapestries from his designs. Three of his pictures,
namely the Three Marys at the Sepulchre, and two Holy Families,
* **li fTl jr** BobCT * Strange. Albani died Oot 4, 1060.
ALBANY, LOUISA, COUNTESS 'oF, daughter of Prince Stolberg
Oedern. in Gennanv, was born in 1768, and was married in 1772 to
9 tarii- ... Jal 2? Rfw " p '*f U d U Young Pretender, grandson of
James II. They resided at Rome, and had a little court, by which
were addressed as king and quean. In 1780 Louisa left her
Ml ill, "ho wai much older than herself, and with whom she did
ot apse, and retired to a eonveat She afterward* went to France ;
but upoo her husband's death in 1788, she returned to Italy, and
!?Zi g !i U 7 i f* P* 00 *- >> WM thn secretly married to Count
AlfUri. the Italian poet, who died at her house in 1803. She however
, as the widow of the last of
blob happened at Florence,
and of the art*, and her
by the most distinguished person* at Florence.
"* " '"""nt by Caoova to bo erected in 1810, in the
Santa Cme, to the memory of AUUrL
ALBATKOXIUS (Astronomer). D'Herbelot calls him Mohammed
Uon Oiaber, but Mr. Uayangos, who has given more particulars of him
than any one else (in the ' Iliogr. Diet' of the Society for D. U. K.),
names him iloltammrd /on JAlir Ibn Snuln AbA AbdUtah. The term
Albategnius is the Latinised form of El Batani, or El Bateni, from
Batenra Mesopotamia, where he was born. He lived in parts of the
!>th and 10th centuries, beginning bis astronomical observations in
A.D. 877, and continuing them till his death in 029. He generally
resided at Rakkah (Aracta) or at Baghdad. His writings comprise
abridgements of Ptolemeens and Archimedes, with comments ; a work
on astronomy, chronology, and geography; a treatise on the rising of
the constellations, and various other points of astronomy ; an elemen-
tary treatise on astronomy, and one on astrology, with minor works.
The treatise on the rising of the constellations (Lnlunde in verb.
'DeUmbre') was translated from Arabic by one Plato Tiburtinus, but
badly (as was detected by H alley ). This translation was twice printed :
first as ' Alfragani Rudimenta Astronomic, et Albategnii Liber do Motu
Stellarum . . . cum Job. de Regiomonto Oratione Introductoria . . .
Norimbergte, 1637,' 4to: next as 'Albateguii de Scientist Stellarum
Liber, cum aliquot Additionibus J. liegiotnontani . . . edidit Bernar-
dinus Ugulottus, Bononbe, 1645,' 4 to. Both editions leave out the
tables which the book was written to explain, from which it is difficult
to form a very accurate idea of the labours of Albategnius ; but there
is enough to show that he was an astronomer of great merit, and of a
very independent turn of thought : it is likely that he was among the
first, if not the very first, to find out that the data used by PtoltCMMS
required correction. He seems to have had no other guide : the Indian
numerals are not found in his work, so that it is difficult to suppose
that he derived any astronomy from that quarter.
He was the first who rejected the chords, and substituted sines in
their place, and of this apparently trifling improvement we are reaping
the fruits to this day : he also used versed sines and (though without
seeing the full extent of their utility) tangents. He determined tha
obliquity of the ecliptic with the paraUactic instrument as described
by Ptolemanis, in such manner that his observation, compared with
those of our time, gives 0-505" for the annual diminution of that
element; our modern tables give it, at this time, 0'475 '. His sines
gave trigonometry, even iu his own hands, quite a new appearance
and a new power ; and he had a much greater number of methods in
spherical trigonometry than the Greeks. It is most likely that he
invented these himself, for he distinctly intimates himself to be tha
first who abandoned the chorda : the rules for finding the third side
from two sides and the included angle, and the angles from the sides,
must be attributed to him; with great simplifications in the doctrine
of right-angled triangles. He determined the length of the tropical
year, making it only 2m. 26s. too short ; a result much more exact
than that of Ptoletmeus. The same may bo said of his determina-
tions of the precession of the equinoxes, of the place of the solar
apogee, and of the eccentricity of the earth's orbit. Looking at his
determinations of the two latter, and seeing that he does not infer
that they are changeable elements, wo are left to conclude that ho
attributed the difference between himself and Ptolemicus to errors of
observation. But as it is by the research of Albategnius that succeeding
astronomers were able to infer the variability iu question, and as the
only reason for his not inferring it was bis well-grounded want of
confidence in Ptolemaous's results, he has the merit of the discovery.
Several writers have affirmed that he did announce it ; but incorrectly.
The changes which ho made in the lunar theory of Ptolemtcus are
slight, and in his plnnotary theory he has very little success. For a
fuller account of his work, see DeUmbre, ' Hist de 1'Astrou. Moyenno,'
p. 10-62. This learned and excellent historian, who rarely lete an
author go without stripping a few leaves from his crown, shows
Albategnius to great advantage in comparison with Ptolemrous as an
observer, and with his European follower liegiuiuontanus as a theorist :
and the subject of our article may fairly take rank as the greatest of
the Arabic school, which forms the link between that of the Greeks
and our own.
ALBEMAHLE, DUKK OF. [Moult.]
ALBERONI, QUILIO, CARDINAL, was born in the state of
Piaoeoca, in May, 1664. Ho was bred to the church, and became
curate of a country parish. The Duke of Vondome, who commanded
the French army in Italy during the war of the Spanish Succession
in 1702-1704, happening to be in the states of Parma, and being in want
of corn for his troops, sent for AlberouL The curate had become
personally known several years before to Campistron, the poet, one of
the duke s followers, when the Utter, travelling through Italy, and
being stripped by robbers in the same neighbourhood, was kindly
taken home by him, and his wants supplied. Alberoui, who was a
man of natural abilities and quickness, rendered himself useful to the
French general ; on which account however he became obnoxious to
the opposite, or imperial party. When Vrnddmo was recalled fnmi
Italy he took Alberoui with hint, and obtained for him a pension of
1000 French crowns from Louis XIV. Alberoni followed the duka
into Spain, where the war was then raging iu Catalonia. Vendomc
employed Alberoni in his negociations with the court of Philip V.,
where at that time the Princess Jes U rains enjoyed the greatest influ-
ence. Alberoni found favour with the princess, whoso intriguing mind
was congenial to bis own, and he became her confidant Through her
85
ALBERT I.
ALBERT, PRINCE,
86
means he was constituted agent of the Duke of Parma at the court
of Madrid, in which capacity he wag instrumental in bringing about
the marriage of Philip V. with Elizabeth Farnese, daughter of the
Prince of Parma. He set off for Parma to stipulate the marriage-
contract in the king's name. In the meantime the Princess des Ursins,
having understood that the character of the future bride was not so
mild as it had been represented by Alberoui, and that she was likely
to endanger her own influence at court, prevailed on the king to
despatch a courier to Parma, with orders to Alberoni to suspend the
negociation. The courier arrived on the eve of the day appointed for
affixing the signatures. Alberoni, it was said, by threats or bribe,
prevailed upon the man not to make his appearance until the day
after. The marriage-contract was signed in December, 1714, and the
new queen set off for Spain. The first favour she asked of her husband,
in writing, was to dimiss the Princess des Ursins from court. The
latter, who had set off from Madrid to meet her, received an order
from Philip to quit Spain immediately. The new queen, in gratitude
to Alberoui, had him appointed a member of the king's council, bishop
of Malaga, and, lastly, prime minister of Spain. He now devoted all
his energies to rouse Spain from the state of weakness into which she
had fallen during the preceding century, and mako her act a principal
part in the affairs of Europe. Alberoni was not scrupulous about
means. In violation of the Peace of Utrecht he suddenly invaded the
island of Sardinia, which had been secured to the emperor, and after-
wards in like manner conquered Sicily the Duke of Savoy being then
at peace with Spain. All Europe was astounded at this new war stirred
up by Alberoni; England, France, and the emperor resented his con-
duct; and an alliance was formed against Spam in 1719. Alberoni
defied them all : he favoured the Pretender, in order to find employ-
ment for the English at home ; he tried to excite disturbance in
France, especially among the Protestants in the south, by claiming
for Philip V. the regency of that kingdom during the minority of
Louis XV. ; and he even corresponded with Ragotski of Transylvania,
and with the Sultan, in order to divert the attention of the Emperor.
The latter sovereign was in consequence obliged to recal Prince Eugene
in the midst of his successful campaigns against the Turks, and to
conclude with the latter a disadvantageous peace at Passarowitz. The
clamour against Alberoni, on account of these intrigues, was universal.
Pope Clement XI., who had been induced by Philip V. to make Albe-
roni a cardinal, was loud in his remonstrances against him. The fall
of Alberoni was resolved by the allied powers as the only means of
restoring peace to Europe. The Duke of Parma was prevailed upon
to use his influence with the court of Spain, and especially with the
queen, who being already weary of the haughty and overbearing tone
of the cardinal-minister, induced Philip V. to write with his own hand
an order for Alberoni'g deposition, aud his banishment from the Spanish
territories. This happened at the end of 1719, after Alberoni had been
minister about three years. Alberoni repaired to Italy, where he had
transmitted large sums of money. Orders had been given by the Pope
for his arrest, which Alberoni however evaded. A process was insti-
tuted at the same time against him at Rome, which he also contrived
to protract. Pope Clement XI. having died in March, 1721, Alberoni
suddenly repaired to Rome to attend the conclave, to the astonishment
of the people, who crowded to see this famous personage. The new-
elected Pope, Innocent XIII., quashed the proceedings against him.
Some time after, Alberoni was sent as legate to Roraagna. But he
had not yet totally forgotten his habits of intrigue ; and being now
unable any longer to disturb the peace of Europe, he contrived to
embroil the diminutive republic of San Marino, which unfortunately
was placed in the neighbourhood of his government. Under the pretence
of remedying gome discontents he entered the town of San Marino, and
called upon the citizens to swear allegiance to the Pope. Some ran
away, others refused, and the rest complied through fear. The Pope
however disapproved of Alberoni's conduct, and sent another legate,
who reinstated the republican government. This occurred at the
beginning of 1740. Alberoni after this retired to Piaceuza, his native
country, where he lived in affluence, and built a large religious house.
He remained in retirement, forgotten by the world, till the 26th of
June, 1752, when he died at the advanced age of 88.
Alberoni left a quantity of manuscripts, from which a work, called
his ' Political Testament,' published at Lausanne in 1753, was said to
be derived. He is remarkable as one of the most prominent examples
of that class of statesmen who rose to power by the most pitiful
intrigue* ; and who, being uncontrolled by public opinion, thought
their own ambition and their pretended zeal for their despotic masters
n sufficient motive to plunge the people of Europe into continual
wan, in which they had no real interest, and whose effects have so
long retarded the natural progress of mankind in civilisation by the
efforts of peaceful industry.
(Muratori, Annali d' Italia; Botta, Storia d' Italia; Cox, Alenoin of
the A'inyt of .Spain of the Haute of Bourbon.)
ALBERT I., Duke of Austria, and afterwards Emperor of Germany,
was the son of liudolf of Hapiburg, the founder of the imperial Austrian
dynasty. Albert married the heiress of the former dukes of Austria.
After his father's death in 1291 he assumed the imperial title, in oppo-
ition to the votes of the electors, who had chosen Adolphus of Nassau.
After several years' war between the two competitors, Albert defeated
Adolphus, who wa> killed in battle in 1298. Albert then ascended the
imperial throne, and received after many difficulties the confirmation of
the Pope, Boniface VIII. He was next engaged in wars with the Bohe-
mians, whose country he attempted to conquer, but without success.
Soon after this the Swiss forest cantons revolted, on the 1st of Jauuary,
1308, against Albert's lieutenants, whose government was arbitrary and
oppressive : this was the beginning of the Swiss Confederation. [SWIT-
ZERLAND, in GEOG. Div.] Albert, full of indignation, came with troops
to chastise them : he advanced as far as Badcu in Aargau, where he
summoned his vassals, aud held a council for the reduction of tho
revolted cantons. On the 1st of May, 1308, Albert left Baden to
return to Rheinfelden, where the Empress Elizabeth was. As he
crossed the river Reuss at Windisch in a boat, he was separated from
the greater part of his suite, his nephew, John of Hapsburg, and three
other noblemen only, crossing over with the emperor. John, who had
lately come of ago, had been importunate with his uncle to restore to
him his father's estates in Suabia, which Albert seemed determined
to keep in his owu possession. The nephew, despairing of justice,
had formed a conspiracy with the three noblemen already mentioned ;
and as the party landed on the opposite bank of the Reuss, the con-
spirators fell upon the emperor and murdered him, in sight of his
attendants on the other side of the river, who could give their master
no assistance. Albert expired in the arms of a poor countrywoman
who happened to pass that way. The murderers fled : two of them
were afterwards taken and executed, as well as a number of other
persons mostly innocent, who 'were suspected to have been concerned
in the conspiracy. Agnes, Albert's daughter, and queen of Hungary,
carried her vengeance for her father's death to a most dreadful extent.
Nearly one hundred noble families, and one thousand persons not
noble, of every age and sex, were involved in this inhuman proscription.
The executions lasted several months. After this butchery Agnes built
a monastery on the spot where Albert had been murdered, which waa
called Konigsfelden, and here she shut herself up for the rost of her
days. The remains of this monastery and church are still to be seen,
as well as the apartments which Queen Agnes occupied. Konigsfelden
is on the high road from Basla to Baden and Zurich in Switzerland,
and in sight of the castle of Hapsburg, whence the house of Austria
origiually sprung. (Johann Miiller, Geschichte der Schweitzer.)
ALBERT, Archduke of Austria, son of the Emperor Maximilian II.,
was made a Cardinal and Archbishop of Toledo. He was appointed
by Philip II. in 1596 governor of the Low Countries, and succeeded
the Duke of Parma in the difficult task of carrying on the war against
the Dutch, who had revolted from Spain. He resigned the cardinal-
ship, and married Elizabeth of Austria, daughter of Philip II., who
brought him Flanders and Franche-Comtd as her dowry : he thus
became sovereign, nominally at least, of the Belgian provinces. lu
July, 1600, be fought the battle of Nieuport against the Dutch under
Maurice of Nassau : this engagement, in which Albert was defeated,
decided the independence of Holland. Albert next besieged Ostend,
which he took after a long and murderous siege, in which 100,000
men are said to have lost their lives on both sides. In 1609 Albert
concluded a truce with the Dutch for twelve years, before the expiration
of which he died, in 1621. He left no children, and the dominion of
Flanders reverted to Spain.
ALBERT, Prince of Mecklenburg, was called to the throne of
Sweden in 1364 by the nobility who had deposed King Magnus. The
partisans of the latter, joined with Haquin, king of Norway, carried
on the war for several years ; at last Magnus formally gave up the
crown to Albert in 1371. Waldemar, king of Denmark, dying in 1376,
his daughter Margaret, widow of Haquin, king of Norway, became
queen of both Denmark and Norway ; and soon after the Swedes, being
dissatisfied with Albert, who favoured his German countrymen at their
expense, offered to Margaret the crown of Sweden. After several more
years of war, a decisive battle was fought at Talkoping in West Goth-
land, in which the queen's forces defeated Albert, and took him prisoner
in 1388. Peace however was not re-established in Sweden till 1395,
when Albert consented to give up his claims to the crown. He then
retired into Mecklenburg, whero he died. Margaret of Waldemar thus
united ihe three northern kingdoms under one sceptre.
ALBERT, Margrave of Brandenburg, and first duke of Prussia, was
born in 1490. He was elected in 1511 Grand Master of the Teutonic
Order, who held dominion over Prussia proper, that part of the present
kingdom of Prussia which borders on the Baltic Sea. He fought
against Sigismund, kiug of Poland, for the defeuce of his order, who
had been for ages at war with the Poles. Peace was made in 1525 at
Cracow, in which Albert managed to havo the duchy of Prussia secured
to himself and his descendants as a fief of the crown of Poland, thus
laying aside the rights of the order. Albert some time after embraced
the Protestant faith, and married a princess of Denmark. One of hia
descendants, Frederic William, elector of Brandenburg, threw off the
allegiance of Poland ; and his son, Frederic I., changed the title of Duko
into that of King of Prussia in 1701. [BRANDENBURG, in GEOU. Div.]
ALBERT DORER. [DiiRER.1
ALBERT, PRINCE. Albert Francis Augustus Charles Emmanuel,
prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and consort of Queen Victoria, was bora
August 26, 1819, and was the second son of the Duke Ernest I., who
died in 1 844. Prince Albert was educated along with his elder brother,
Prince Ernest, the present Duke-regnant of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, under
the Consistorial Councillor Florschutz, and subsequently at the
IT
Al.nEKTL LKO.V BATTI8TA.
ALIJKRTUS 1CAQXU5.
M* of i|hte*a. UK Prince U to bo Regent until .uch an
A* IVioc. wa. not unmindful of th grave responsibilities
Hi* studies are described a* tneludlni. besides
/. th* physical and natural sciences ; and also
_ in both of which arts h* attained considerable
PriaoT Albert wa* married to Queen Victoria on tb* 10th
of February 1840 at St. James'* chapel, having a few days before been
nrturalised by Act of Parliament By * Act which received the royal
4. 1840, it was provided that, in ease of the demise of
' ill have attained the
is reached.
which his
oast upon Urn, or of those" which might possibly accrue,
immediately after hi* settlement in this country h* read a
I of Eojtiah eoosUtotioaal history and law with one of our highest
authorilieaTMr. Selwyn ; and whilst h* has most judiciously held him-
erlf aloof from all political parties, h* ha* at different times shown an
intimate -~r~b>**~* with th* general bearing of great public move-
ments, such a* could only result from a careful study of the principles
of oar social economy, a dear knowledge of English institutions, and
a eooeidente observance of th* progress of events. In many of those
public questions which are distinct from party politics, and in nearly
all those which boar on the improvement of the physical condition of
the poorer cbset*, on th* progress of the mechanical and fine arts,
and in various benevolent project*, the Prince has taken a very active
part; and his speeches on public occasions have always shown an
intelligent appreciation of the objects sought to be accomplished. As
the head of the Fine Arts Commission the Prince did much towards
in motion that effort to reach the higher purposes of art which
mtiaie*! th* painting and sculpture of the last twelve or
years ; aad he has, by his zealous patronage of schools of
evinced an equal dear* to aid in raising the artistic character
of our manufacture*. But it was as the Chairman of the Council of
the Great Exhibition of 1851 that his activity and knowledge found
iu wideet scope aad fullest development ; and it seemed to be admitted
by all who were intimately connected with the origin and progress of
that great undertaking, that it owed very much of it* high position
aad ultimate raoccis to the taste, judgment, and tact of Prince Albert
Th* Prince is a field-marshal in the English army and a colonel of
the Grenadier Guards, and he is said to take much interest in the state
of the army and the condition of the soldier ; but his tastes and pur-
suit* are 'for the most part entirely of a pacific character. The fine
and mechanical art* do not, however, engross his attention. His
name appears in the list* at the Smithfield Club, and other leading
agricultural exhibitions, as a competitor, and generally as a successful
competitor, for the prize* annually adjudicated for superior breeds of
cattle, Ac. He has indeed given a good deal of time to agricultural
pursuit*, and his 'model farms' at Windsor are said by practical
farmer* to be really entitled to their designation.
Besides those above mentioned, the Prince holds several offices under
the crown. H* was elected in 1842, after a sharp contest, Chancellor
of th* University of Cambridge ; aad he is president of the Society of
ArU, Grand Master of the Freemasons, and patron or president of
various benevolent and other institutions.
ALBERTI, LEON BATTISTA, a distinguished mathematician, but
more celebrated a* an architect, and hardly less so as a philosopher,
poet, painter, and sculptor. He was of the ancient and noble family
of the Alberti of Florence, but was born in Genoa in 1404. He was
nephew of the Cardinal Alberto degl' Alberti, and he himself became
a canon of tb* metropolitan church of Florence. Having devoted
much of hi* attention to the acquisition of tho principles of architec-
ture, by the observation aad admeasurement of the remains of ancient
edifices in various part* of Italy, Alberti became distinguished among
tb* promoter* of tb* then new style, which ha* been colled a restoration
of th* ancient and classical When at Rom* he was employed by the
Fope, Nicholas V., to repair the ancient aqueduct of the Aqua Vergine,
and to construct th* Footeoa di Trevi ; but the structure was so much
decorated by Salvi, in th* pontificate of Clement XII., that not a
T**U|* now remain* of th* design of Alberti.
At Florence, Alberti succeeded to the direction of several works
which had been commenced by Brunellesohi, and left unfinished at
hi* death. H* himself designed and executed in Morenos the Palazzo
RoeeUai, th* choir and tribune of the church of the Annunciation ;
and some attribute to Alberti th* principal front of th* church of
Suite Maria Novell*. At Mantua h* executed several edifice* for the
Duke Ludovioo Gonzaga. But tb* most esteemed architectural work
of Alberti U the church of St Francis at Rimini, which ha was
empiojed to decorate by Sifianoixio MalaUsU, lord of that city. He
wrote a work on sculpture, Delia Statua,' which was followed by
other on painting, 'b. Motor*/ which h* call* pnedilectissima
*P*aU, UudaU art, " ( a most delightful art, never suffi-
iently praised"); but hi* hut and most esteemed work is hi* treatise
on architecture, De Re .Kdificatori*.' This wa* not published until
after hi. death, when it wa. edited by hi. brother Brtrend, and at
Us own detir* dedicated to Lorenzo d*' Medici. He died in 1472.
n^ntomiMt of hi* dually yet exieU in tb* church of Suite Croce,
< Vaeari. fiu <U Pillori, Ac,, ed. Soborn. : Tireboscbl 4c.)
_ALBBRTIKKLLI, MAKloTTO. on. of ltb*b*.t of the earl,
, wa* bora at Florence about 1475. U* was th*
pupil of Cosimo Ruselli, but he became eventually the frirnil :m.l
imitator of Fra Bartolomeo, whom he assisted in some of his work*.
In tone Albertinelli equalled, if he did not excel, Fra Bartolomeo.
Thar* are three of his works in the gallery of the academy at
Florence, one of which, the Annunciation of the Virgin, is a master-
piece in ton*. H* excelled for his period also in design, and some of
bis works are drawn in a style worthy of the best of the Ciuqueceu-
tisti, as the Italians term the painters of the 16th century. He drew
from the antiques in the garden of Lorenzo de' Medici. His master-
piece is considered the Visitation of Elizabeth to the Virgin, in tho
imperial gallery of Florence ; it contains however only the two saints,
but beneath it U a predella in three compartments, illustrating in
small figures the Annunciation, the Nativity, and the Presentation in
the Temple ; it has been engraved by V. dclla Bruua.
Albertinelli was of a very singular disposition, and of dissipated
habits. At one time he forsook painting, having taken offence at
some criticisms upon his works, and turned publican, an occupation
however which he soon exchanged for his original profession, lie
painted several works in partnership with his friend Fra Bartolomeo,
and when that painter joined the order of the Dominicans, Alberti-
nelli completed his unfinished works, among which was the Last
Judgment, for the cemetery of Santa Maria Nuova, which, says
Vasari, many suppose to have been the entire work of liartolomeo.
Albertinelli was so much distressed at losing the society of Bartolomeo,
when the latter turned monk, that his friends had much difficulty in
preventing him from following his example. Vasari says that he died
about 1520, aged 45, the victim of his own debaucheries. Ho had
some distinguished scholars ; the best was Viaino, who, according
to Vasari, died in Hungary ; others were Giuliauo Bugiardiui,
Franciabigio, and Innocenzio da Iniola.
Albertinelli painted in fresco in Florence, in Viterbo, and in Rome.
Visari mentions a very excellent portrait by him of tho mother of
Lorenzo de' Medici, Donna Alfonsina Orsini, daughter of Roberto
Orsini, the constable of Naples. A picture in the Louvre by him U
inscribed " Maricocti Debertinellis Opus. Anno. Dom. 1LD.VI.'' In
the chapter-house of the Carthusians at Florence, a crucifixion iu
fresco, with the same date, is marked " Mariotti Florentine Opus."
(Vasari, Vite de' Pittori, &c.)
ALBERTRANDY, JAN CHRZCICIEL, or JOHN CHRIST! AN.
bishop of Zenopolis, was born at Warsaw in the year 1731. His
father was by birth an Italian. On the death of his mother, which
occurred when he waa very young, he was placed entirely under the
care of the Jesuits, and educated in their public school. Here his
progress was so rapid, and the ability he displayed so extraordinary,
that at the age of 15 he was admitted into the order, and immediately
on the completion of his novitiate, namely, iu his 19th year, was sent
as public tutor to the college of Pultusk ; he subsequently filled the
same important post at Plovzko, Nieswiez, and Wiliia. In the year
1 700, Bishop Zolusk i, having determined to throw his extensive library
open for the benefit of the public, appointed Albertrandy his librarian.
This post he occupied four years, during which time he drew up a
very elaborate catalogue of the entire collection, stated to contain
200,000 volumes. In 1764 the Prince Lubienski confided to his
charge his grandson, Count Felix Lubienski, afterwards minister of
justice in the duchy of Wai-saw. In the year 1770 he accompanied
his pupil into Italy, to the Academy of Siena, and afterwards to
Rome. The growing inclination of tho young Lubieuski for the study
of antiquities, particularly numismatics, attracted the attention of his
instructor, who applied himself with redoubled diligence to this
science, and in the course of two years gained for himself a place
amongst the first numismatists of Europe. Two years later, Count
Felix Lubienski, having presented his collection of coins to Kin ;
Stanislaus, with a request that they might be continued under tho
care of Albertrandy, the king appointed him keeper of his medals, and
subsequently his lecturer and librarian, and keeper of his prints.
Albertraudy, anxious to avail himself of the royal confidence for tho
good of his country, proposed to the king to collect from foreign
countries the various scattered notices relating to Poland. He was iu
consequence sent into Italy in 1782, and in the course of three years
bad gleaned from the Vatican and sixteen other libraries in Rome, and
also from various collections iu other pluccs, their most important
contents relative to Poland. He shortly afterwards went to Sweden
upon a similar mission. The product of these two journeys formed
a most valuable collection of historical materials in almost 200 folio
volumes, which arc stated to have been deposited in the library of
Pulawy, by Prince Czartoryski. King Stanislaus, as an acknowledg-
ment of the extraordinary merit of Albertraudy, presented him with
the great medal of merit, and the cross of the order of St Stanislaus,
and made him Bishop of Zeuopolis. When 70 years of age he was
unanimously called upon to preside over the newly-formed Royal
Society of the Friends of Science of Warsaw, and he continued to
direct its operations with the greatest activity and zeal, enriching its
transaction* with numerous papers, until his death, which took placo
on the 10th of August, 1808. (Biographical Dictionary of the Society
for the Di/iuion of Uleful Knowledge.)
ALBERTUS MAGNUS. It is a matter of controversy whether
this celebrated scholar derived his laudatory name from tho admi-
ration of his contemporaries, or whether it was a Latinised form of
ALBINUS, BERNARD SIEGFRIED.
ALBOIN.
90
the surname Groot, or Grot. He was born at Lauingen, in Siiabia,
according to some in 1205, according to others in 1193. In 1222 he
entered the order of Dominicans. During a long series of years he
gave public lectures at Cologne, which were frequented by the prin-
cipal scholars of the age; and he filled many places of trust and
dignity. He was however unambitious of worldly honours, and he
resigned even a bishopric which was forced upon him by the Pope,
that he might enjoy the retirement of his cell, teach, and compose
books. He died in 1280. His works form 21 volumes in folio, and
are devoted to logic, physics, metaphysics, and theology.
There is great difficulty in classifying the works of Albertus, so as
to obtain a correct estimate of his system, owing to his having been
more a man of great erudition than a comprehensive and coherent
thinker. He had read more than he had thoroughly digested ; his
mind in some measure broke down beneath the extent and variety of
his learning. He had a taste for information of every kind ; but the
multiplicity of inquiries into which this universality prompted him
to enter, rendered it impossible for him to retain them except by the
mere formal memory. When any branch of science was mentioned,
his tenacious memory recalled what the authors he had read delivered
concerning it, their arrangement, and manner of dividing the subject.
He had a vigilant and sharp eye to the phenomena of external nature,
and a singular talent for clear exposition. His style and manner are
too formal ; the logical framework is pedantically ostentatious ; but
what he knows himself he makes clear to others.
All that we know of Albertus as an author or as a man is calculated
to inspire us with respect for him. If his writings do not evince the
subtle intellect of his scholar Thomas Aquinas, or the comprehensive
genius of hU master Aristotle, they evince an enthusiastic love of
knowledge, an extraordinary power of persevering labour, and a pure
and elevated disposition. Though frequently called to take part in
public business, both civil and ecclesiastical, he was free from
ambition ; his cloister-cell was his favourite abode ; adding to his
store of knowledge, and communicating it to others, his favourite
occupations. Yet such was his reputation for integrity, that laymen
selected him as umpire in disputes with dignitaries of the church who
were his personal friends, and popes consulted him even when the
interests of his order might have been supposed to bias his opinion.
When, in addition to these qualities, his influence in promoting the
progress of knowledge in Europe is taken into account, his being the
first to present the students of the middle ages with an encyclopaedia
of knowledge, it is easy to enter into the feelings of those who
bestowed upon him the name of ' Great.' There are not many
among those to whom that abused epithet has been applied who have
so well deserved it.
(Biographical Dictionary of the Society for the Difftuion of Utefal
Knowledge.)
ALBINUS, BERNARD SIEGFRIED, oue of the most celebrated
anatomists of the 18th century, was born at Frankfurt, in the year
1697. His father was professor of the practice of medicine in the
University of Frankfurt, but subsequently filled the chair of anatomy
at Leyden, then the most celebrated school of medicine in Europe.
The position of his father afforded him the advantage of studying
" om his early youth under the greatest masters of the age Boerhaave,
' luysch, and Rao. In 1718 he went to Paris to study at the hospitals,
but in the following year was recalled to Leydeu to take the office of
reader in anatomy and surgery. In 1721, on the death of his father,
he was" unanimously elected to the professorship of those sciences,
and for more than twenty years from that time he entirely devoted
himself to the study and teaching of them. In 1745 he was chosen
professor of therapeutics, and he remained in this office till his death
in 1770.
Bernard Siegfried Albinus, though the best anatomist of his time,
was not a great discoverer. The knowledge of many single facts is
due to his investigations; but he was not the author of any important
principle in anatomy or physiology. His merit consists in the accuracy
with which he investigated all the subjects of his study, the clearness
and completeness of his descriptions, and the cara which he bestowed
on the delineation of the various structures of the body. In all these
he was unequalled ; and he thus contributed more than any of his
predecessors to render descriptive anatomy an exact science. The
commencement of that close study of anatomy by which it is now
nearly perfected in its adaptation to surgery may be traced in the
publication of his works. The engraving* of the bones and muscles,
by Vandelaar, have never been surpassed in fidelity, and have rarely
been equalled in beauty of execution. They are said to have cost
Albinus 30,000 florins, for the artist lived several years under his roof,
and many of the first engravings were destroyed for trivial inaccuracies
or defects. (For a lUt of the works of Albinus, see Watt's ' Biblio-
theca Britannica,' vol. i. p. 11, :.)
ALBITTE, ANTOINE LOUIS, one of the most violent Jacobins of
the French revolution, and afterwards a humble satellite of the Emperor
Napoleon I. At an early age the violence of his principles procured
hi* election as a member of the Legislative Assembly for the depart-
ment of the Lower Seine, in September, 1791. His profession was
that of an advocate, which he carriud on at Dieppe. On the morning
after tin memorable 10th of August, 1792, he and his colleague Sera
:d and carried the resolution that every statue of a king should
be destroyed, and a statue of Liberty erected in its stead. He was
sent in September with Lecointre-Puyraveau to the department of the
Lower Seine, to disarm suspected persons, and deport the priests who
refused to take the oath. He executed his commission with great
severity, and in return was elected by the department to the National
Convention. Here he was of the number of those who voted, on the
21st of December, against allowing Louis XVI. counsel on his trial,
and shortly afterwards for putting him to death. On the 23rd of
March, 1793, he carried the decreo that emigrants taken prisoners in
foreign countries should be massacred, whether found with or without
arms. In Paris he was always the ardent opponent of the Girondins,
and the proposer or supporter of the most violent measures ; but it
was in the country, and as commissioner to the armies of the republic,
in which he attained the military rank of adjutant-general, that his
atrocities were carried farthest. He wag present in this character at
the siege of Lyon, and at the partial demolition of that city after its
capture, at the operations of Carteaux against the insurgents of the
south, and at the opening of the siege of Toulon, where he made the
acquaintance of Bonaparte, which was useful to him in after-life. His
cruelty was accompanied with luxury and avarice : at Bourg he is said
to have bathed every inoruin; in the milk that was brought for the
consumption of the town. His success and his excesses seem at this
time almost to have turned his brain : he amused himself by having
the pope, the king of England, &c., guillotined in effigy ; and when one
day at the Theatre Franjais, the pit applauded the hemistich in
Chenier's ' Caius Gracchus,' which may be translated " Let us have
laws, not blood," he rose in auger, and vociferating imprecations on the
audience, shouted out, " Let us have blood, not laws." On the fall of
Robespierre numerous denunciations of his conduct were sent in to
the Convention from the departments, and one from the adminis-
trators of the district of Bourg was referred to a committee. Albitte,
thus pressed by danger, joined in a conspiracy to re-establish the reign
of terror, which burst out in the insurrection of the first of Prairial
in the year 3 (the 20th of May, 1795), one of the most terrible days of
the whole revolution. It was on this occasion that the insurgents
broke into the Convention, compelled that assembly to pass several
decrees at the point of the sword ; and after murdering Ferand, one of
the members, presented his head on a pike to the president Boissy
d'Anglas. After a desperate contest in the hall of the Convention,
the insurgents were defeated and driven out ; and the legislative body
revoked the decrees it had passed under the influence of force, and
voted, at the proposal of Tallien, the instant arrest of the members
who had dared to bring them forward, or to countenance the conduct
of the insurgents. Albitto was ably defended by his younger brother
Jean Louis, also a representative of the Lower Seme, who, on this
occasion, broke through a course of habitual inaction ; the decree for
his arrest was nevertheless passed, but it was found that during the
confusion he had escaped. He was condemned in default of appear-
ance ; his colleagues were sentenced to death, and committed suicide
in a body to avoid the guillotine. Albitte remained concealed till the
general amnesty for revolutionary offences issued on the 26th October,
1795 (the 4th Brumaire, year 4), soon after which he was appointed
by the Directory municipal commissary at Dieppe. On the overthrow
of the Directory by Bonaparte, he became a warm partisan of his old
acquaintance, who rewarded his zeal by naming him sub-inspector of
reviews, a post which ho maintained during the imperial government.
He accompanied Napoleon I. in this capacity in the invasion of Russia,
and died of cold, fatigue, and hunger, on the retreat from Moscow, on
the 25th December, 1812. It is said that he maintained existence
during three days with the remains of a flask of brandy, which in his
last moments he shared with one of his unfortunate companions, cue
only act of benevolence that is recorded in his history. (Abridged
from the Biographical Dictionary of the Society for the Diffusion of
Uieftd Knowledge.)
ALBOIN, one of those northern princes who established kingdoms
in Italy upon the ruins of the Roman empire. He was the sou of
Audoin, king of the Lombards [LONGOBAUDS], who, about the middle
of the "ith century, were settled in, Pannonia. Here they became
engaged in hostilities with the rival monarchy of the Gepidte ; and in
the early stage of this contest, Alboin, then a youth, signalised his
courage, strength, and skill in arms ; and the prince of the Gepidte fell
by his hand. After his accession to the Lombard throno ho became
enamoured of Rosamond, daughter of Cunimond, king of the Gepidse,
and sister of him whom he had slain, and sought her in marriage. His
suit being rejected, he carried her off by force. The Gepidso, supported
by a Roman army, were strong enough to compel the restoration of
! the princess. But the love or resentment of Alboin led to the renewal
f of hostilities : he obtained the assistance of the Avars ; the Gepida;,
abandoned by the Romans, were defeated with great slaughter (A.D. 566),
and their name and uatiou passed away. Cunimond fell by the hand
of Alboin ; and Rosamond became the bride of the victor, whose savago
temper led him to fashion the skull of the deceased monarch into a
drinking-cup, loug_preserved as a trophy by the Lombard princes.
In the year 568 Alboin led the Lombards into Italy, and overran
the whole inland district, to the gates of Rome and Ravenna, without
meeting an army in the field. Milan opened its gates on the 4th of
September, 569. Before Pavia he was detained more than three
years ; and, in anger, he vowed to put all the inhabitants to the sword.
CAKIULLO DE.
ALBUQUERQUE, ALFONSO DE.
The olty at length yielded to famine. A* he entered the g.U hi*
km* bit. and could not l ri*o.| from the ground ; and UM humanity
of ooe f hi* attendant*. who (aUrpnUd thu accident w a token of
Unnei's wrath enittt bU bloody denign. induced kirn to counter-
maud UM intended BatMcre. l>.-l:ghud with UM situation. he fixed
hu ab^ el frvu, and it muaiiied for tome ag*tU chief city of the
I |M*\| ,4_rim.lM.tnl
By UM joetiee and mildness of bit government Alboin wound the
JlsrtfcMtl of bu subject*. The conquest of tbe Lombards was in eome
sort UM epoch of the ragmmUon of tbe people. Independent princi-
palities, oommuniuo., and republics, began to be formed on all sides ;
principle of life wo infused into tbe country, which bad boon to
low boned in letbarfio slumber. Tbe series of monarch* who sue-
oeeded Alboin were long dirtingiiisheil by their prudence, and by
making tbe law* their rate of conduct.
Alboin life wai terminated by domeetic treachery. Hnving drunk
deep at a feaet with tbe chief of bis countrymen, he called for tha cup
of victory, tbe akull of Cunimood ; and when it had paeied round the
circle, ordered it to be carried to Roeamond, with hU requeet tint she
would Uete tbe win*, and reioioe with her departed father. Tbe
queen obeyed, but the determined on revenge. One evening, wh-u
Alboin, oppress* d by wine and aleep, had retired to bU chamber, she
unbolted UM door to her puraraour, the king'* armour-bearer, after
UM bad benelf fattened hU tword to the scabbard. Alboin wai the
beet aad braveet of tbe Lombard warrion; but, unarmed and sur-
prised, be fell an ea*y victim. Hit valour, geuerotity, and luooesaM
were celebrated in the aongi of the German nations even to the age of
Cfcarlemegnc.
(Paul Waroefrid, Dt Gatil Zoayooanfonrai ; Huratori; Gibbon,
chap. xlv. ; Mroxd, ///ory o/ forma**. Load. 1819.)
ALBOItXO'Z. (ill. CAUIU1.I.O DE, a celebrated cardinal, WM
born at Cueooa, about the beginning of tho 14th ceutury, and became
Archbishop of Toledo. In thoee dayi churchmen were annu-times
warrion, ae well a* politician, Albornoi caved the life of hi* king,
Alphonso XL, in an engagement with the Moon at Tarifa ; wai at the
lege of Algccira*; and wae dubbed a knight by the king himself.
I>riven from Spain by hi* conscientious oppoaition to the criminal life
of Peter tbe Cruel, he sought refuge in Avignon with Pope Clement VI.,
and WM created a cardinal In 13it he wa* appointed legate, and
entrusted with the important minion of the reoonqueat of the Papal
State*. When Urban V. came to Italy, Albornos went to meet him
al Viterbo, an I tbe Pope called bu legate to give him an account of
hit administration. The cardinal ordered a cart loaded with old keys
and locks to be brought into the court of the house, and showing
it to tbe pontiff, said, " I have spent all my fund* in placing your
holiness in possueion of all tbe town* and castles, the key* of which I
present to yon." The pope, sensible of bis ungrateful mistrust towards
a man who had done so much for him, embraced him cordially, and
always after entertained for him tbe greatest esteem. Having been
appoint*<l legate of Bologna, be gave to that city a new constitution,
and at nil own expense founded there a college for the Spaniards.
Cardinal Albornoz died at Viterbo in 1361.
ALURECHT. WILHELM, was born in Germany, in 1786. He
WM one of tbe most distinguished pupil* of Thaer, in the agricultural
school at Mogbin, in Pruatia ; and he afterwards taught rural economy
in PelleaberB?* school at Hofwyl. In 1819 he was employed by the
government of Nassau to edit a weekly publication devoted to agri-
cultural subject* ; and in the following year he was made director of
an experimental agricultural school, established at Iditciu. The
experimental farm was transferred to Geubeiy, near Wiesbaden, and
it became at one* distinguished as the source of agricultural improve-
Beats for tbe west of Germany. As it was found impossible con-
stauUy to employ all tbe pupils on tbe farm, Albrvcht determined to
open tbe school, during the six winter-months, for instruction in the
theory of agriculture ; while in April of each year the students went
to the homes of their parent*, or to some farming establishment, in
Older to familiarise themselves with the practical labours of an agri-
culturist. During tbe life of Albreoht tbe school was highly success-
fuL " Tbe best students for our institute," said be, " are young men
from about eighteen to twenty-two, who, after distinguishing them-
elves at UM primary schools, have followed agriculture for eome
year* at borne, or on tome well-managed farm ; they bring a well-
disposed mind, not fatigued will, study, nor distracted by too many
pursuits." While managing theie establinhmenU, Albrecht, besides
bis weekly pap-r. edited tbe 'Annals of tbe Agricultural Society of
;' to which society he was perpetual secretary. Albreoht
1818, al bit bouse in Frauoonio, whither he had retired on
the dinotion of tbe establishment at Oeisberg, a short time
k>ljr. (AVweeU* .
LBUQUKHqUB. ALFONSO I)K (or, as tbe Portuguese write his
am*. AKr'OX.S') |> Al.ll .yUKBQUK), ...roamed -the Qreat,' and
O Mart* PortugiMs)' (tbe Portuguese Msrs), owing to his great
e*pl.*te, was born in 1163, at a country villa near tbe town of
Albandra. about tO miles from Lisbon, and not at Melinda, in Africa,
as generally .tat-.L Ue wa* tbe tseood son of Oonialvo d 1 Albu-
querque, lord of Villaverde. desceoded of a bastard branch of the
royal fatally of Portugal IB bis youth be was first eequire to King
John II. j but be fires becomes well known to us in tbe year 1603,
when, in conjunction with Francisco Albuquerque, bin cousin, or
uncle, be conducted a fleet to India, and secured the King of (
on bis throne, which bad been endangered by his powerful neighbour,
the Zamorin of Calicut In gratitude for their services they obtained
leave to build a fort at Cochin, which, according to the Portuguese
authors, is to be considered a* the foundation of their national empire
in tbe East Francisco Albuquerque was wrecked on hi* voyage home.
Alfonso reached Lisbon safely, July 16, 1501, and was favourably
received by tbe king, who sent him out to India again, in 1506, in
command of a squadron of five ships, composing part of a fleet of
sixteen, under the orders of Tristan da Cunha. For a time the
generals carried on a prosperous warfare against the Moorish cities on
tha eastern coast of Africa. Da Cunha, sailing for ludia, left Albu-
querque to command in the Arabian seas; who appeared before
Ormuz, 25th September, having already in bis cour*e reduced most of
the chief trading towns between the Red Sea and the 1'eraian Oulf.
The terms of his message to tbe prince whose territory he invaded
are worthy of attention. He came, he said, not to bring war, but
peace, peace however to bo obtained only by paying tribute to the
King of Portugal, instead of the King of Persia; but then the Portu-
guese monarch was so great a lard, th:it it was better to be hit vassal
than to command empires, /eifndiu, king of Ormuz, was obliged to
submit, after the shipping and part of the town had been burnt.
Cogi-Atar, bis prime-minister, however, concerted a revolt, which
proved successful. Albuquerque was compelled to evacuate the
place; and after an unsuccessful attempt to reduce it by famine,
returned to the island of Socotra, off Cape Guardafui, leaving hU
chief purpose unaccomplished.
Ileing joined by three ships bound to India, he set sail for tho
Malabar coast, in 150S. He had received a secret commission,
authorising him to supersede Don Francisco d' Almeida, governor of
tbe Indies, when the period of his commission should have expired.
On arriving at Caunnor he informed Almeida of this ; but the governor
received him very coldly, declined either to surrender the govern-
ment, or to accept his services in any subordinate capacity, and finally
threw him into prison, where he remained three months. The arrival
of the Grand Marshal of Portugal, with a powerful fleet, restored him
to liberty. Almeida returned home, and Albuquerque was acknow-
ledged General and Commander-in-Chief in India.
This fleet waa intended to act against the Zamorin of Calicut, whoao
long-continued hostility had made him very obnoxious to the Portu-
guese. The fleet accordingly was divided into two squadrons, of
which the marshal commanded one. Albuquerque's division gained
the start in landing, and emulation induced the marshal to venture
too fur with a small number of followers, in hopes of gaining possession
of the Zumoriu's palace. He succeeded in this; but the Indi.in-i
rallied, and he was surrounded and slain, with most of his principal
officer*. Albuquerque, in attempting to rescue him, was desperately
wounded ; and the Portuguese were forced to return to their vessels
with considerable loss, paving done much injury to the town and
shipping.
The court of Portugal had now divided their Indian government
into three portions one comprehending the eastern coast of Africa
uu'l the coaat of Asia, from the tropic of Capricorn to Cambay ; the
second, Hindustan, which was allotted to Albuquerque; the third, the
rest of India east of the Gauges, ltd chief object was to prosecute
its conquests in the Red Sea, and to monopolist) tho Indian trade by
destroying that carried on between India and Egypt. With this view
the greater part of the reinforcements sent to the East were <>i
to act in the Red Sea, under the command of George d'Aguiar ; and
Albuquerque thus seemed placed in a secondary command : but by
good fortune and good policy he succeeded in frustrating, in some
degree, the designs of the court, and contrived to gain nearly as
extensive authority as his predecessors had held. After some intrigue*
to avoid assisting his unsuccessful coadjutors, he resolved to sail to
Uoa ; and that rich and prosperous city fell into his hands almost
without reiistanoe. His energy may be judged from the rapidity
with which his enterprises were conducted. He appeared before
Calicut January 2, 1610, and though severely wounded there, ha
entered Uoa February 17th following. Hut he was unable to hold it.
That town, in name belonging to the Deocan, was governed by a
Moor named Idalcan, who, like other powerful Indian subject
little obedience to his nominal sovereign. He was absent when Albu-
querque took his town, but he lost no time in collecting a powerful
force, and by dint of numbers regained possession of it, and shut the
Portuguese up in the citadel. Albuquerque's difficulties were in-
creased, and in great measure produced, by the discontent, mutinous
conduqft, and almost treachery, of his officer*. At last he was reduced
to the alternative of abandoning the citadel and taking to his ships,
or suffering the river to be blocked up, and all chance of escape lost.
He chose the former. But the bar being impassable during the south-
west monsoon, which had already set in, he was obliged to remain i
the harbour, compelled by the enemy's fire constantly to shift bin
place, and exposed to all the evils of famine. His energy and tho
bravery of bin troops triumphed over their embarrassments; and
they maintained their ground, though not without much loss and
suffering, till tbe navigation was again open. Finally he left the
harbour, August 16, 1610.
03
ALBUQUERQUE, ALFONSO DE.
ALCAMENES.
94
In the course of the year strong reinforcements were sent out from
Portugal, and, at the same time, Lemos was recalled, and his com-
mand made over to Albuquerque. The same autumn Albuquerque
attacked Goa a second time, and carried it by storm, NOT. 25. Early
in the next year he meditated new conquests. A detachment of the
fleet, which had been sent out in the preceding year, was especially
ordered to proceed to Malacca under the command of Diego de
Vasconcellos. This Albuquerque forcibly prevented, seizing Vascon-
cellos, and sending him back to Portugal, and three of his officers
were put to death. As soon as Vasconcellos was removed, Albu-
querque sailed himself on the expedition against Malacca, which
hitherto he had put off on different pretexts, and, with some diffi-
culty, captured the town, which was given" up to plunder. Immense
wealth was obtained. The fifth of the booty, which was set apart for
the king, was valued at 200,000 gold crusadoes, exclusive of naval
and military stores, among which 3000 cannon were said to have
been found. In this expedition his troops amounted only to 800
Portuguese, and 200 Malabar auxiliaries : the Malayan prince is said
to have had 30,000 men under arma.
Albuquerque had it much at heart to establish the Portuguese
power as firmly at Malacca as at Goa. He built a citadel, coined
money, established a new system of law and police, and lost no oppor-
tunity of conciliating the natives. He received and sent embassies
to the kings of Siarn, Pegu, and other neighbouring princes, who
were deeply impressed by the rapid growth of the power of these
European strangers. After remaining at Malacca near a year, he set
sail for Goa. On his voyage he encountered a violent storm ; his ship
was wrecked, and he himself, washed into the sea, narrowly escaped
with his life. He reached Cochin with the scattered remains of his
squadron at the end of February, 1512. His first object was to proceed
to the relief of Goa, which in his absence was hard pressed by Idalcan,
and where he arrived Sept. 13, 1512. He was received with lively
joy ; his presence soon removed all cause for disquietude, and estab-
lished the power of the Portuguese more firmly than ever. He
relaxed the king's dues, and gave every encouragement to commerce,
and Goa soon, became the most flourishing city of the Portuguese
dominions. It was observed, even then, that the king's revenue was
increased, instead of suffering, by the reduction of duties. Idalcan
and the Zainorin of Calicut, thinking further resistance hopeless, sued
for peace, and the Portuguese influence was effectually and surely
established along the Malabar coast from Cape Comorin to Goa.
The orders of the court were still urgent to prosecute the war in
the Red Sea; and seeing India quiet, he now, in 1513, directed his
efforts to the reduction of Aden, a considerable commercial town
of Arabia. Hia force, much larger than usual, consisted of 20 ships,
and 1000 Portuguese and 400 Malabar troops (Barros, 'Decad.'
II. lib. vii. cap. 9) ; but he reaped neither honour nor profit by this
voyage. Repulsed at Aden, he entered the lied Sea, leading the firs!
European fleet that ever sailed in its waters ; but ho experienced
much hardship and danger from heat, want, and difficulty of naviga-
tion, and returned to India without striking a blow.
His last enterprise was a second attempt upon Ormuz, in which he
succeeded (1507) without recourse to arms, by the effects of terror
and negociation ; and the place remained in the hands of the Portu
guese till it waa taken from them in 1622, by the English and Shah
Abbas. [ABBAS.]
Albuquerque, after his first failure, vowed never to cut his bean
till he had regained Ormuz, and it is said that he wore it till he couU
knot it to his girdle. Soon after the accomplishment of this favourite
wish he fell sick, and was obliged to return to Goa. At the mouth o
the Gulf he met a vessel bearing dispatches from Europe. They
signified his recall; that Lopez Soarez d'Albergaria was nominatec
his successor ; and that Diego Pereira and Diego Mendez de Vascon
cellos were appointed to high offices. His proud spirit was deepl;
hurt. " What ! " he said, " Soarez governor ! Vasconcelloa an<
I'ereira, whom I sent home as criminals, sent out again in posts o;
honour ! I have gained the hate of men for the love of the king
and am disgraced by the king for the love of men. To the grave
miserable old man ! to the grave, it is time I " He might have seei
something more in this a just return for his unworthy treatment o
Vasconcellos. His illness, aggravated by vexation, proved fatal. H
died December 16, 1515, in his sixty-third year. Hia body was con
veyed to Goa, and buried in the church of Our Lady, which he hat
built ; and in future years a touching testimony to the uprightnes
of his government Moors and Indians repaired to his tomb, as t
that of a father, to implore redress from the injustice and tyranny o
his successors. Hia bones, more than fifty years after his death
were transported to Portugal.
Albuquerque has undoubted claims to the name of a great man. A
a public servant he was scrupulously honest; as governor of a
obedient people, scrupulously just; though his temper was auster
and arbitrary, and bis punishments were awfully severe. His view
as a statesman were enlarged and judicious, his skill great as a
general, hia courage as a soldier daring to rashness. On the other
hand, where territory was to be gained to his country, or renown to
himself, he was stopped by no considerations of right or wrong.
The attack on Malacca admits of justification ; but the capture of
Ormuz and Ooa were provoked by no acta of hostility, and can be
auctioned by no law but that of the longest sword. His character
well exemplified in a scheme which he is said to have proposed to
le Emperor of Ethiopia for destroying the commerce of Egypt by
urning the course of the Nile into the Red Sea, and thus converting
hat fruitful land into a barren desert. The project is called grand
y historians : it is certainly great ; but the very idea of such an im-
ossible undertaking throws some discredit upon the General's know-
edge. And it seems never to have occurred either to them or to him,
bat there would have been any moral guilt in blotting out from the
arth a fertile, populous, and extensive country, to gratify the grasping
hirst for monopoly of a second-rate European kingdom.
(The second decade of Barros's History of the Portuguese Conquests
n the East is entirely occupied by the transactions of which we have
lere given a short sketch, from the sailing of Ua Cunha and Albu-
uerque to the death of Albuquerque. Those who do not read
'ortuguese may consult Maffei, Jfistoria, Indica ; Lafitau, Hist, des
2onquSte> del Portngais dans le Nouveau Monde; and the Modem
fntiersal History.)
ALC^EUS, one of the most celebrated lyric poets of Greece. Of
lis compositions, once so much admired, nothing but fragments
emain, consisting for the most part only of a few lines, or even words,
['hese have been preserved iu quotations by later authors. Horace
makes frequent mention of him, and always in terms of the highest
admiration. Alcaeus was a native of Mitylene, in Lesbos ; and wrote
.bout the forty-fourth Olympiad, or B.C. 600 ; being the contemporary
and countryman, and, it is said, the admirer also, of the celebrated
joetess Sappho. He is spoken of by ancient writers as a brave and
skilful warrior, although in a battle with the Athenians he sought
safety in flight, and he threw away his armour, which the victors
dedicated in the temple of Athene, at Sigeum. From Alcteus, the
Alcaic, one of the most beautiful of lyric metres, derives its name.
His poems, we learn from Quintilian and Horace, were more severo
and elevated in style and subject than those of most of the followers
of the lyric muse ; of the fragments preserved however, many are in
praise of wine. The most striking is one which has been finely
expanded by Sir W. Jones. Alcseus aspired to be the poet of liberty ;
and directed the full vigour of his genius against Pittacus, who had
raised his power above that of his fellow-citizens, or in Greek language
made himself tyrant of Mitylene. (The best collection of the frag-
ments of Alcaous is in the Cambridge Museum Criticum, vol. i. p. 421,
and in Gaisford's Minor Poets, Leipzig, 1823. For additional frag-
ments see the Rhenish Museum for 1829, 1833, and 1835; Jahn's
Jahrbiicli fur Philolog. for 1830; and Gamer's Anecdola OrcKa, vol. i.
Oxf. 1835.)
Other persons of the name of Alcams are named by ancient writers.
We shall only mention two a comic poet, also of Mitylene, who con-
tended with Aristophanes for the prize, when he produced the ' Plutus,'
01. 98-1, B.C. 388 ; and a Messeniau, the author of a number of
epigrams in the Greek anthology. He was contemporary with
Philip III. of Macedonia, against whom several of his epigrams are
directed.
ALC'A'MENES, a celebrated ancient sculptor, and a native of
Athens. He was the pupil of Phidias, and lived therefore in the
middle of the 5th century, B.C., and later. Phidias, Alcamenes, and
Polycletus, were the three greatest sculptors of ancient Greece ;
Alcamenes survived Phidias some time, as he was still living in the
95th Olympiad, according to Pausanias, about 400 B.C., for he made
two colossal statues of Minerva and Hercules, to commemorate the
victory of Thrasybulus over the thirty tyrants, which he dedicated
in the temple of Hercules at Thebes ; this victory took place in the
second year of the 94th Olympiad, or B.C. 403.
Alciinenea was sculptor in marble and statuary in bronze; his
most celebrated work was a Venus, known as the 'Venus in the
Gardens;' it was in the temple of Venus Urania at Athens. In thu
dialogue of the Portraits, Luciuu makes Polystratus term this statue
the noblest of all the works of Aloamenes. Many other ancient
writers -peak of this statue. Pliny says that Phidias finished it; by
which must be understood that he made a few alterations on the
finished statue of Alcamenes, which, according to his riper judgment,
it required; mere technical finishing is not the work of a great
master.
Alcamenes contended, according to Tzetzes, with Phidias; the
subject was a statue of Minerva ; and the work of Alcanieues was at
first, on account of its higher finish and proportions, preferred to the
work of his master, but when fixed in their destined places, the
superiority of the statue of Phidias was evident; the latter gained
effect, the former lost it. In this instance, Phidias gave Alcamenes
a lesson, from which modern artists might derive a benefit. The
great majority of the statues and works of sculpture in the modern
churches or other buildings of Europe, appear to have been made
without any allowances for either the elevation or the distance from
the eye, of the destined locality of the work : that a work iu which
this principle ia carried fully out is unfitted for auy but a similar
situation, is not a sufficient apology for its neglect, though it may
satisfy the artist's vanity.
Another celebrated statue by Alcamenes was one of Dionysus, of
ivory and gold, placed in a temple to that god in Athens. The
sculptures also of the posterior pediment of the temple of Jupiter at
AI.CEDO. ANTONIO DB.
of UM LapiUu. tad UM Oentaun.
beaidee a! Athens a suiu.
of MOT in Ik* temple of Mar*; a triple-bodied statue of Hecate oo
UM Acropolis. UM ftnt in that form ; and
lathe
mwhkhUW
of 0,.
of Procne and Itys,
There was also a Vulcan or Hephaestus at
aasnse* wa* expressed without dertroying UM
; U 1* noticed by Cicero and bv Valerius Maximo*.
BtitiiM t\\^* tut ^BsWdaWskM 4k jsUuitiiMsa- suvl I'lini
speaks of a broaie ifure at a psatethlete, or victor in the pentathlon,
or five athletic iisreb**. which was called Encrinomeno* ; these five
irames wer* Uapiag, running, UM diacu* or quoit, throwing the
(Pliny, Hat. As*, xxxiv. 8, xxxvi. 6 ; Lndan, /suyuw*, 4, 6 ; Pan
aaia*. L 8, 19. SO, 84, 33 ; v. 10 ; viU. 9; ix. 11 ; Cicero, A'<K. Dear. L
SO; Valerius Maxima*, viii. 11 ; Tastes*. CA* viii 13 ; Winckelmann
ITer**, voL vi ; Thiersea, Sfodu dtr hOdnda K***, Ac.)
ALCEIX). ANTONIO DE. Lent is known than could be desired
of the life of thi. deserving geographer. He wa* a native of Spanish
He published hk Dictionary of American Geography ' at
Madrid, 1784, afUr having bMO twenty yean engaged in compiling it
He was at the time of ita publication a colonel in the royal guard, and
states, in hit preface, that hi* rtudiee had been often interrupted by
hi* military avocation*. Tbi* brief account comprehend*' almoi't
everything that is known of him. Aloedo mention* that some of hi*
account* of place* were drawn from personal observation, but more
obtained from the library of printed and manuscript works relative to
America, and communications of a distinguished person who had filled
for forty years high office* in the ladies. He also ttates that he had
access to official document*, and bad received valuable original
information. The work is compiled with a good deal of critical
and fill* s_gap in tne history, a* well a* the geography, of
Spanish America. The jealousy of the Spanish government occa-
sioned UM (oppression of the work. There are two copies of the
Spanish Aloedo (1780) in the library of the British Museum. It ha*
been translated into English by Mr. O. A. Thompson, whose trans-
lation (with considerable addition* from more recent author*) wa*
published in London, in fire volumes, in 1812-15. An atlas to Aloedo
wa* published in 1810 by A. Arrowsmith.
ALCIBIADKS, son of Cleinias, an Athenian remarkable for hi*
ability as a soldier and statesman, for the great and varied influence
which be exercised over the fortune* of Greece, and for the versatility
aod splendour of bis talent*, was born about B.C. 453-50, when Athens
was rapidly rising to it* highest power. In early youth he seemed
marked out for distinction by the most brilliant endowments of per-
son, of station, and of intellect Though high ancestry conferred no
direct political privilege*, it was not indifferent in hi* own eyes, or
those of hi* fellow-citizen*. that he descended from the noblest
famOiae of Athens. By his father 1 * aide he traced his ancestry into
the heroic ages, through Ajax up to Jupiter ; and hi* mother, Deino-
maohe, wa* one of the Alcnueonidn. Be inherited one of the largest
fortunes in Athens, swelled by the savings of s long minority ; and
with his wife, Hipparete, daughter of Hipponicus, he received ton
talents, the largest dowry that had been given in Greece. His person
wa* remarkable for beauty, an advantage which he abused to licen-
tiousness. His powers of mind were extraordinary, and ho enjoyed
peculiar advantage* in their cultivation, being the ward of Pericles,
who wa* connected with him on the mother* aide, and the favourite
pupfl and companion of Socrates. But his great qualities were alloyed
by a frivolity of mind, shown in the importance which he attached to
preeminence and display, and in a childish love of notoriety, which
constantly led him into wanton and offensive excesses: and he i*
liable to UM graver charge of an intense selfishness, which postponed
truth, justice, sad patriotism to salf-aggrandisement, or to the gratifi
cation at a headstrong will. The advice which ha is said to have
given to rericlas, when at a loss in what palatable shape to render
hi. accounts to the state, may bo taken a* an index of his character :
- It would be better to study how to avoid rendering them at all."
The Uf of Alcibudc. by Plutarch begin* with a long series of very
amusing storks, to which we can only refer. At the age of 18,
according to the Athenian law, be attained his majority. In ac. 482
he served at the siege of PoUdjee, in company with Socntes, who
there saved hi* life in battle. On that occasion, the crown and suit of
snaour. the priae of the most distinguished combatant, was awarded
to Aldbhdsa, at the iosUoce of Socrates, to whom it appears to have
bets i more jnstiy due. Kight yean later, at the battle of Delium,
Alttbiadee in hi* turn aved U.. life of the philosopher. Their iuti-
MT IMS caused Aldotedes to fill a prominent place in the dialogue*
FUto. Tb*y sought each other society from widely different
OWM : "Socrates saw in him many elements of a noble character,
** .W* b *.**J perverted ; abilities which might greatly' serve
lally injure his country ; a strength of will capable of the moat
suler|>ri***, and the more dangerous if it took a wrong
; an ardent love of glory, which needed to be purified and
iiii; ad he endeavoured to win all these advantages for
TirtaM, aad UM public good. It wa* one of the be.t token* of
M*or* in Aldbiadea, that he could strongly rtluh the
Socrates, and deeply admire his exalted character, not-
whfcstaadlag U* repulsive exterior, and the wide diff.rruoc of station
and habit* by which they were parted But their intimacy
produced no lasting fruit*."
To keep himself before the eye* of the people suited both the
temper and the policy of Aloibiadea, Many of hi* eooenUicitie* seem
U> have been directed to this end. He served, like all Greek citizens,
hi UM army, and, a* ha* been stated, with credit. He had a powerful
and persuasive eloquence, which be used unscrupulously, " flattering
the people in the was*," say* Andocidea, "and deipitefully using any
individual" He lavished his wealth, sometime* in idle frolic or pro-
digal magnificence, sometimes in a more serious and well-considered
splendour. " He was not only liberal to profusion in the legal and
customary contribution* with which at Athens the affluent charged
themselves, as well to provide for certain parts of the naral service a*
to defray the expense of the public spectacles, but aspired to dazzle
all Greece at the national games. He contended at Olympia
with seven chariot* in the same race, and won the first, second, and
third or fourth crown success unexampled as the competition. }(e
afterwards feasted all the spectators ; and the entertainment was not
more remarkable for it* profusion, and for the multitude of the guests,
than for the new kind of homage paid to him by the subjects of
Athens. The Ephesian* pitched a splendid Persian tent for him ; the
Ctiians furnished provender for his bones ; the Cyzicenes, victim* for
the sacrifice; the Lesbians, wine and other requisites for the banquet.
.... Reflecting men could not but ask, whether any private fortune
could support such an expenditure, and whether such honours were in
harmony with a spirit of civic equality." (Thirlwall, 'History of
Greece.') And such a doubt might well be increased by his light and
fearless violations, not only of individual rights and persons, but of
the majesty of the public tribunals and of religion. "At these things,"
says Plutarch, " the best citizens of Athens were much offended, and
were afraid withal of his rashness and insolency ; " and be goes on to
quote a passage from ^Escbylua applied to Alcibiades by Aristophanes,
to the effect that a lion's whelp should not be brought up iu a city, but
that whosoever rears one must let him have his own way.
The family of Alcibiades had been connected with Sparta by the
respected tie of hereditary hospitality. That tie, which had been
broken by bis grandfather, Alcibiades wished to renew, and to consti- '
tuto himself the head of the Spartan party. But the Spartan govern-
ment, jealous probably of hi* temper and ignorant of his power,
preferred to retain their connection with Nk-ias, the recognised leader
of the aristocratic party ; and thereon Alcibiades went over to the
opposite extreme. Hi* first public measure seems to have been a
proposition for increasing the tribute paid by the Athenian allies,
which was doubled in amount, he being one of the commissioners
appointed to effect the change. This appears to have been before the
peace between Athens and Sparta, B.C. 421. Soon after that peace he
aune forward as the advocate of the democratic party against the
Spartan alliance; and by a clever and unscrupulous trick, in which he
outwitted the Spartan ministers, obtained the enactment of a treaty
of alliance with Argos, Elis, and Mantineia (B.C. 420). This meant
iittle less than a declaration of hostilities against Sparta, and toon led
to open war. In B.C. 419 Alcibiades was elected one of the board of
general* (itrategot), and he bore an active part in the complicated
rars and negocUtions carried on in Peloponnesus during the next
.hree years, a period unmarked by any leading events in his personal
lietory. He is however charged with having been a leading agent iu
irocuring the atrocious decree by which the male citizens of Melos
rere put to death by the Athenians, their lauds occupied by Athenian
settlers, and their families enslaved a transaction iufamous iu history
under the name of the Melian massacre.
At this time Alcibiades and Nicias were the unquestioned leaders of
the democratic and aristocratic, the war and peace parties ; the latter
desirous above all thing* to secure, by a good uuderstaudiug with
Sparta, that power and wealth which bad grown up so wonderfully iu
some sixty years ; the former eager to extend them, and open new
>rospects of conquests, gain, and glory to the young, the needy, aud
hat large class of citizen* who were in one way or another to be fed
at the public expense. The only man who could be formidable to
either was Hyperbolus, Cleou'i successor a* leader of the lowest class
of citizens. He had the boldness to threaten Alcibiades with ostra-
cism, but was himself banished under that strange law, through the
co-operation of the two leaden, of whom Nicias hated him on political
a* heartily a* Alcibiades on personal grounds. Soon after (n.r. 415),
the cardinal event of the war came under discussion, the interference
of Athens with the affair* of Sicily. That she did interfere was
principally due to Alcibiades, whose argument* are presumed to be
faithfully represented by Thucydides, in the ipeech ascribed to him
(vi. 16-18). A powerful armament wa* voted, in the command of
which he wa* joined with Nicias and Lamachu*; but before it sailed,
the general exultation was damped by a strange occurrence, never
clearly explained. One morning most of the Hennao (stone figures of
Mercury placed in the streets as guardian images) were found defaced.
This was a great sacrilege, and raised an extraordinary commotion.
Inquiry wa* made ; reward* were offered to wituessea and informers ;
and finally a charge of profaning the Kleusiuian mysteries, connected
with the mutilation of the HeruKc and the existence of a plot against
the democracy, wa* brought against Alcibiades. To the charge of
profanation the excesses of his youth gave colour ; the rest of it had
97
ALCIDIADE3.
ALCMAN.
not even plausibility. Alcibiades begged for a trial before he was sent
out in so high a command ; but his enemies had the ear of the people,
and it was not their object to give him a fair hearing; it was therefore
voted that he should proceed with the fleet, and return when sum-
moned to answer the things laid to his charge. On reaching Sicily,
those hopes of powerful support by which the expedition had been j
recommended were found to be futile. The commanders differed in
their views : finally, those of Alcibiades were adopted; but before his
talents could tell he was recalled to stand his trial, and trial, in the
then temper of the people, he held equivalent to condemnation. He
escaped on the voyage ; and, not appearing, was pronounced accursed,
and sentenced to death with confiscation of property.
Whether or not Alcibiades was capable of carrying to a prosperous
issue the great hopes with which the Sicilian expedition was under-
taken is doubtful, but his colleagues and successors proved unequal to
the task. [NICIAS; DEMOSTHENES.] He threw his talents into the
opposite scale, and appeared at Sparta as the enemy of his country.
(Thucyd., vi. 89-92.) By his advice, a Spartan was given to command
the Syracusans, a very sparing yet effectual aid; and a permanent
elation was fortified and garrisoned by the Spartans at Deceleia, a
town of Attica, about 15 miles from Athens, to the great inconvenience
and injury of that city. The total loss of the Sicilian armament
(DC. 413) gave new spirits both to the open enemies and the discon-
tented allies of Athens. By the ready agency of Alcibiades, the
islands and Ionia were urged into revolt ; and a treaty was concluded
between Sparta and Tissaphernes, satrap of Ionia, on terms more
favourable to the Persian interests than to tho honour of Greece
Hut about this time the cordiality and unity of purpose
of Alcibiades and tho Spartans declined. By the annual change of
magistrates, a party unfriendly to him came into office ; and the king,
Agia, hated him, believing him to have seduced his wife, Timoca.
This indeed Alcibiades is said to have avowed, intimating that he
was governed not so much by any preference for the lady as by
ambition that his posterity should fill the throne of Sparta; and it is
a remarkable but not solitary instance of the levity with which he
would let the indulgence of a whim cross deep schemes of policy. In
this, and in other respect?, he strikingly resembles a man much
inferior to himself, the second duke of Buckingham. According to
the secret and crafty policy of Sparta, the commander of the army in
Aeia was instructed to get rid of Alcibiades as a dangerous person ;
but he was warned of the danger, and took refuge with Tissaphernes,
the Persian satrap above named. *
Whatever party Alcibiades attached himself to, that party always
seems to have taken a start from that moment. Such had been the
case when he was driven from Athens ; such was now the case when
he was driven from Sparta. He soon estrauged Tissaphernes from
his new allies ; made him reduce their pay, upon which the Spartan
power of maintaining a fleet greatly depended ; and led him to see
that the policy of Persia was, not to substitute the ascendancy of
Sparta on the coasts of Asia Minor for that of Athens, but to preserve
the one to counterpoise the other. He fascinated Tissapherneg by
his unrivalled talents of social intercourse ; and the notoriety of his
favour, and belief in his power, goon reached and made a deep impres-
sion in the Athenian armament then quartered at Samos. Of tho
rich Athenians a large proportion was disgusted by the length of the
war, and by the pressure upon property which it occasioned. One
heavy burden was the obligation of acting as trierarch, or captain of
a ship, which involved a great expense for the equipment of the vessel,
and was compulsory upon men of a certain fortune. An influential
party in the Samian armament was therefore well disposed to embrace
the advantages consequent on tho restoration of Alcibiades, backed
by the wealth of Persia : and that he coupled his restoration with
the establishment of an oligarchy, professing that he could not feel
secure go long as the government rested in the party which had
banished him, was probably an additional inducement to further his
plans. A deputation was sent to Athens, headed by Pisander, who
speedily obtained a decree by which he with ten others was authorised
to negotiate with Tissaphernes and Alcibiades. But nothing was
effected, in consequence of the excessive demands of Alcibiades, who
appears to have resorted to that method of concealing the truth, that
hi* influence was not sufficient to induce the satrap to break abso-
lutely with the I'eloponnesians. Meanwhile that revolution at Athens
11 proceeded which lodged (B.C. 411) the sovereign power in the
council of Four Hundred. But the temper of the Samiim armament
is changed. Thrasybulus and Thrasyllus, officers of subordinate
rank, but men of talent, had gained a commanding influence in the
absence of the leading oligarchista. An oath to support the demo-
cracy was imposed upon persons suspected of favouring the new
;oyernment ; and Alcibiades was recalled by a vote of the soldier-
citizens, who, in the abeyance of the constitution, claimed the
sovereignty as vested in their assembly. His first action was an
important benefit to his country, inasmuch aa he prevented the army
from returning to Athens to restore the constitution by civil war.
And in the course of the same year which had witnessed the revolu-
tion, the Four Hundred were overthrown without the agency of the
army ; tho sovereign power was vested in a selected body of 5000
citizen* ; and Alcibiades and other exiles were recalled.
His promise* to bring the gold of Persia to relievo the Athenian
EIOO. IJIV. VOL. I.
exchequer proved vain : as Tissaphernes had deserted the Pelopou-
nesian, so now he deserted the Athenian interest. But under tho
command of Alcibiades a succession of brilliant victories at Cynos-
sema and Abydos (B.C. 411); at Cyzicus (B.C. 410); in the two
following years the acquisition of Cha'lcedou and Byzantium ; the
renewal of Athenian supremacy throughout the Hellespont and Pro-
pontis, whereby the control of the Euxine, and a lucrative revenue
derived from tolls levied on ships passing through the straits, wero
secured; all these successes testified the ability with which tho
affaire of Athens were now conducted. Four years after his recall
(B.C. 407), Alcibiades for the first time since his banishment returned
to Athens : he was enthusiastically received ; his property was
restored ; the records of the proceedings against him were sunk iu
the sea; the curse publicly laid on hira was as solemnly revoked, and
he was appointed commander-iu-chief of the forces by land and fea.
He signalised his abode in Athena, where he stayed four months, by
conducting the annual procession to celebrate the mysteries at Eleusis ;
a ceremony which had been discontinued since the occupation of
Deceleia. lleturning to the scene of war, his first action was an un-
successful attempt on the island of Andros. Soon after, while tho
fleet was quartered at Notium, near Ephesus, a general engagement
was brought ou, in his absence and against his express orders, by the
rashness of his lieutenant, Antiochus ; when the Peloponnesian fleet,
commanded by Lysauder, gained the advantage. This, though
attended with no material loss, was enough to disgust the Athenians,
who seem to have considered Alcibiades' past successes only as giving
them a claim on him for more brilliant exploits. It was urged that
the wealth of the state was squandered upon himself and his favourites ;
and the luxurious indulgence of his habits gave plausibility to tha
charge. He was superseded, and thereon retired to his estates in the
Thracian Chersonese, on which, in anticipation of such an event, he
had built a castle, thinking it unsafe to return to Athens. Formerly,
when he made his escape on being recalled from Sicily, he is reported
to have replied to the question, whether he did not dare trust his
country "> " In everything else ; but as to my life, not even my mother,
lest by mistake she should put in a black ball for a white."
Here ends the public life of Alcibiades. He held no further office ;
and the only thing recorded of him is that he endeavoured by his
advice, being then resident on the spot, to prevent the final defeat of
the Athenians at ^Egos-potami, B.C. 405. After the capture of Athena
and the establishment of the tyranny of the Thirty he was condemned
to banishment. Not thinking himself safe in Thrace, he passed into
Asia, and was honourably received by Pharnabazus. He was about
to visit the court of Persia, or probably had begun his journey,
apparently with the hope of gaining over Artaxerxes to help iu tha
enfranchisement of Athens, when the house in which he slept was
surrounded at night by a bund of men, who set it on fire, and wheu
he rushed out sword in hand (for no one, says Plutarch, awaited his
onset) despatched him with missiles, B.c. 404. The authors of this
deed are unknown: it is charged severally upon the jealousy of
Pharnabazus, the fear and hatred of the Spartan government, ami
the revenge of a noble family, one of whose sisters ha had seduced.
Alcibiades left a sou of the same name, of no repute or eminence, ami
a fortune which, contrary to public expectation, proved smaller than
his patrimony. From the terms of the statement we may infer that
his patrimony had not been greatly diminished, which is quite as
surprising. A speech in defence of the younger Alcibiades was written
for him by Isocrates. Two of the speeches of Lysias (xiv. and xv.) are
against him.
(Thucydides; Xenophon, IleUen. ; Plutarch, Alcibiadei ; Thirl wa'l,
Hiit. of Greece, vols. iii. and iv. ; Biographical Dictionary of the
Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.)
ALCMAN, the lyric poet of Sparta, was originally a Lydian of
Sardis, and for some time a slave iu tho house of Agesidas, a Spartan.
He was however subsequently emancipated, though it is not probable
that he gained the full rights of Spartan citizenship. In ono of the
fragments (No. 11) of his poetry, still extant, he makes a chorus of
virgins say of himself "that he was no man of rough and unpolished
manners, no Thessaliau or ^Etolian, but sprung from the lofty Sardis."
The statement of Suidas that he was of Messoa, one of the districts
of Sparta, is incorrect, or only means that the residence of his old
master was situated there. Accord ing to the ancient chronologists, by
some of whom he is called Alcmoeon, he lived about B.C. 671631,
and was a contemporary of the Lydian king Ardys. This period
agrees with the statement in Suidas, that he was older than Stesi-
chorus and the preceptor of Ariou ; and there are some allusions in
his extant poems which refer to the same age : consequently he lived
at ;i time when music had already been improved by the Spartan
poets Thaletas and Terpauder, and when, the Spartans themselves,
after the successful termination of the first Messenian war, had both
i leisure and inclination for the arts and refinements of life. From
1 some'of the fragments of his poetry it would appear that he devoted
' himself to the cultivation of poetic art, and invented some new
j metrical forms. According to the Latin metrical writers, several
! different forms of verses were known by the name of 'Alcmanica
inetra.' The poetry which he composed was generally choral, and
consisted of Parthenia, or songs sung by choruses of virgins, besides
hymns to the gods, paaiis, prosodia, or processional songg, and bridal
ALCUItf.
iflo
. Thes* were generally mag or ripteisnted by ebornesi of
MI or Midst* whobowwr> were not, u in UM choral ode.
of Pindar, invariably identified with the character of the port, nor
UM mere organ by which be expressed hb thought, and feelings.
I':.
y. many of Alcman's Psrtheoia contain a dialogn* between
rirgms nd tb. port, and in raort cases the virgins speak
in tkrtr own persona. Still be wu both the leader and teacher of
contrary,
torotot v
hbeharo.se; "and lOMrtimei we meet with addraeeei of the maidens
to UM poet, soBrtime* of the pert to UM maidens joined with him.
In oae beautiful fragment written in iambic, he thus addressee them :
- Mo more, ye boney-tongned holy-etnging virgins, are my limb* able
tobearme; would thatlwere a Cerylua, which with the halcyon*
akim* the foam of the wave, with fearless breast, the sea-bloe bird
of pring." Alcman wu also noted for erotic poems, of which be
wa. by some considered the flirt Greek writer, and to the licentious
spirit of which hb character wu said to correspond. (Athenvus,
xiii. COO, ed. IHnd.) Thee* were probably sung by a single performer
to the cithara. Another species of hb compositions wu the clepsi-
tabes, eombting partlv of singing and partly of common discourse,
the aooompaniment of which wu an inntrument similarly named.
(Hcwrrbitu, a v.) In thb, u well u in other forms of hi* poetry, he
b thought to hare imitated an older poet, Archilochus. The metre
of the peculiar aiiapnwtic verses t ung by the Spartans as they advanced
to battle, wu aUo attributed to Alcman ; but we cannot from thia
infer that he composed war-tongs, for there is no trace of it in any of
bis fragment*, nor anything corresponding in the general character of
his poetry ; and though he made use of the anapicstio metre, it woe
only in connection with other rhythms, and not in tho same way as
the war-port TyrUcua. It appear*, then, that the compositions of
Alcman were somewhat varied in metre and poetic character, as they
> in dialect
The extent fragments of Alcman, though some of them are very
beautiful, scarcely warrant tho admiration which the ancients have
erprsesid of him ; but this may be from their extreme shortness, or
beans* they are very unfavourable specimens. They are however
distinguished by lively conceptions of nature, and abound in those
personifications of the inanimate which characterised the earliest Greek
poetry : thus the dew (in Greek ' hersa') is called by him the daughter
of Zeus and Selene, of the god of heaven and the moon. Mullcr (' Lite-
rature of Greece,' p. 197) thus sneaks of him : " He is remarkable for
imple and cheerful views of human life, connected with an intense
enlhuaiaim for the beautiful in whatever age or sex, especially for the
grace of virgins. A corrupt, refined sensuality neither belong) to the
age in which he lived nor to the character of his poetry ; and although
perhaps he is chiefly conversant with sensual existence, yet indications
are not wanting of a quick and profound conception of the spirit tin)."
We may however observe, that the terms in which the undents spoke
of the licentiousness of Alcman s erotic poetry ore so strong that we
cannot well acquiesce in such a favourable representation of it,
According to Plutarch and other writer*, Alcman died of the same
kind of disease as Sulla, the morbus pedicularb. The Fragments of
Alcman were first printed in H. Stephens'! ' Collection of the Poems
of UM Nine Chief Lyric Poets,' Paris, 1650, 8vo. The lut edition is
by r. T. Welcker, Gieseen, 1815, 4 to.
(Vsoaantu, Ui. 15, S; Suida*, Alcman; Eusebius, Chron. Armm.
Oltmp., SO, 4; Pliny, ffiit. A'ot, xL 83 j Plutarch, Sulla, o, 36;
Clinton, Pa*. HdL, i. 189, 195.)
(From the /Hoyraphical Dictionary oflhe Society for the DifaMon of
A LCVIN, or, u he called himself in Latin, Placcia A Ibinu* A feutntu,
wu on* of the most learned perrons of the 8th century. Re appears
to have been born about the year 785, and probably in the city of
York or UM neighbourhood, though some authorities make him a
native of Scotland. H* tells us himself that he received his education
at York, when he had successively for his masters Egbert and Elbert,
who were afterwards successively archbishops of that see. He there
acquired a knowledge of the Latin language, and some acquaintance
aba, H would appear, with the Greek and tb* Hebrew. HTifterwards
Moan* himself muter of the-echoo], and taught with much reputation.
He wu l ~, appointed keeper of tb. library which Egbert had founded
*"** <* * ita of which he hu given us a minute
t* account in one of bb poms. Being equally eminent for
pJrty a* for learning, be wu likewbe ordained a deaoon of the cathe-
dral ; a*l we may mention her* Uu* frroufr modesty, u is stated,
' f!? "I A*"* 1 * ' " oc * tor Eanbalde, to Rome to procure
T Tr r*""*. Akwin 00 bb retarn paswd through Parma, where
S*^E2 Ck< ** llliB ** ll4!llWM - Atth invitation of thretnperor
SCBMUUJ, u soon u be should have executed hb mbsion, to come
i; and eeooriMvly In the me year (780) he proceeded to
loiusrj. Soon after hb arrival bb patron bertowed upon him
** * *"*** ' "> Oittoob and of 8t-Loup at Troyen, and
^^'^T * 8fJoK to Pootliicu ; btit tlip princlnul oom*
patioo of Alcuta wu u a public teacher of what wu tW caUed^
/" ^SJf^ 1 ^ , hamml1 tanih In *" ca P Ml *y he
w*M KTis0tli*i1KUir tnmAmrt mt him ' L_ i__ . i - .. .
emperor. The school thus established by Alcuin is considered by
French antiquaries u the germ from which the University of I'aris
originated ; and the example and exertions of this foreigner were
undoubtedly mainly instrumental in rekindling in the country of his
adoption the extinguished light of science and literature. Much of
Alcuin 's time wu also occupied In theological controversy and other
labours connected with hi* clerical calling. In 796, on the death of
Ithler, abbot of St. Martin of Tours, the emperor gave him that abbey
also ; and some time after, having obtained leave to retire from court,
he established a school here, which soon became greatly celebrated.
In hb old age Alcuin gave himself up almost exclusively to theological
studies; and besides composing many treatises in that department,
copied with hb own hand the whole of the Old and Now Testaments, in-
troducing numerous corrections u he proceeded. This edition came to
be looked upon u a standard, and many transcripts were made from it.
There b "till to be seen in the library of the Fathers of the Oratory
of St. Philip of Neri, at Rome, a Bible, which is believed to be, as
some verses written on it state, a copy given by Alcuin to Charlemagne.
Alcuin died on the 19th of May, SOi, and wu buried in the church
of St Martin.
Of the writings of Alcuin several have been printed separately, both
in Franco and Kngland ; but the first edition of his collected works
wu that published at Paris in 1617 by Andre" Duchesne (Andreas
Quercetanus), in one volume, folio. A much more complete edition
however appeared at Ratisbon, in two volumes, folio, in 1777, under
the superintendence of M. Froben, the prince-abbot of Ratisbon. It
contains many pieces which had never before been publbhed, but
which were found in manuscript in the libraries of France, England,
and Italy. The epistles of Alcuin in Froben's edition amount to 232,
among which are included a few epistles of Charlemagne in answer to
Alcuin. There U prefixed to them a ' Synopsis Epbtolorum,' which
gives a general view of the contents of each letter : the period which
they comprise extends from the year 787 to the beginning of the next
century. It is however certain that thb is not a complete collection
of Alcuin's epistles, and indeed Pertz hu since discovered others. Tho
correspondence of Alcuin generally relates to topics of business or to
ecclesiastical matters ; it never assumes the character of learned dis-
quisition or philosophical discussion. The letters are addressed, among
others, to popes Adrian L and Leo III. ; Ufla, king of the Mercians ;
and to various bishops and other ecclesiastical persons. In one of
them, addressed to Bishop Aginus, he respectfully reminds him of his
promise to give him some relics of saints (" aliquu sanctorum
rcliquias "). The letters to Charlemagne, thirty in number, are the
most interesting in the collection. The mild temper, the sincere piety,
and the unaffected humility of the man, arc apparent in all his cor-
respondence. Towards Charles his letters show the most profound
devotion and respect, and yet the correspondence between the great
king and his teacher is in the style of friendship. Alcuin addresses
Charles by hb assumed name of David, to which he sometimes adds
" mort beloved " (dilectusimus). Though hb Latin style is far from
being free from uuclassical expressions, it b flowing and perspicuous :
he wrote Latin with ease and perfect freedom from all affectation.
His letters are often concluded by some Latin verses. They are among
the best specimens of the Latinity of the middle ages.
Alcuin, the most learned man of hb age, wu the friend and adviser
of one of the most energetic and able princes that ever sat on a throne.
In hb enlarged schemes for the restoration and encouragement of
learning, Charles wu aided by the industry and knowledge of Alcuin.
Theology wu the principal pursuit of Alcuin, but with him it wu
practical rather than speculative : its object wu to secure a virtuous
life. From some ill-understood expressions of hb own, and from a
passage or two in the anonymous ' Life,' it hu been inferred that
Alcuiu wu unfavourable to secular studies. That the founder of
schools, the restorer of ancient learning, the diligent student of Roman
antiquity, should, even in hb old age, have condemned or discouraged
such pursuits, would require strong evidence. The fact b exactly the
reverse. He distinctly states that secular learning b the true founda-
tion on which the education of youth should rest ; grammar and dis-
cipline in other philosophical subtleties are recommended; and he
states, consistently enough, u any Christian may do at the present
day, that by certain steps of (human) wisdom the scholar may ascend
to the highest point of Christian (evangelical) perfection. With him.
everything is subordinate to religion ; and, when secular studies come
in comparison with theological, the superiority of the theological is
emphatically asserted. But thb does not lead to tho inference, and
hii writings dbtinctly contradict it, that he wu unfavourable to the
xtudies in which he excelled, and which he recommended by his pre-
cepts and his teaching. The activity of Alcuin wu the striking pai-t
of hb intellectual character. In originality, in large and comprehensive
views, he wu eminently deficient; he did not possess more than a
reasonable amount of dialectic skill ; abstruse speculation and philoso-
phical inquiry were beyond hb sphere. He was too good a sou of tho
Church to transgress toe limits which were prescribed to her children.
His learning and hb prodigious industry made him the first man of
hb age, and hb honesty of purpose and hb services to education entitle
him to our grateful remembrance.
A list of the editions of Alcuiu is given by Mr. Wright in his very
useful work entitled ' Uiograpbia Britannica Literaria,' London, 1842.
101
ALDAY, JOHN.
ALDROVANDUS, ULYSSES.
102
The latest life of Alcuin is by F. Lorenz, Halle, 1829, which was trans-
lated into English by Jane Mary Slee, London, 1837, 8vo. A particular
account of Alcuiu's works is given in the ' Biographical Dictionary of
the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,' from which passages
of this article have been taken.
ALDAY, JOHN. We know nothing of this writer except as the
translator of a French work that was highly popular in the middle of
the 16th century 'Theatrum Mundi; the Theatre or Rule of the
World, wherein may be seene the running Race and Course of every
Man's Life, as touching Miserie and Felicitie, &c., written in the French
and Latin Tongues by Peter Boaistuau,' &c. There were three editions
of tliis translation, the last and the most correct of which appeared at
London in 1581. Boaistuau' s work contains many passages of quaint
satire upon the manners of his age, which Alday has translated with con-
siderable spirit. (See extracts in Dibdin's edition of More's ' Utopia.')
There are also in Boaistuau's work several pieces in verse, which are
also translated by Alday with some elegance. (See Ritson's ' Biblio-
graphia Poetica,' also 'Bibliographical Memoranda,' Bristol, 1816.)
Dr. Dibdin is of opinion that there are resemblances between particular
passages in Burton's 'Anatomy of Melancholy' and Alday's translation
of Boaistuau ; and he gives a page or two in support of this opinion,
referring generally to Burton's ' Love Melancholy,' which occupies more
than two hundred pages of that remarkable work. Burton, the most
voracious of readers, was no doubt familiar with Alday's book. But
such supposed general resemblances are often more fanciful than real.
(Biographical Dictionary of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
K'Mti. ''/'..)
ALDEGRE'VER, HEINRICH, a celebrated German painter and
engraver of the 16th century, was born at Soest in Westphalia in
1502. He became the pupil of Albert Dvirer, being attracted to Nurn-
berg by the great fame of that artist ; and he imitated his style so
closely that he acquired the name of Albert, or Albrecht, of West-
phalia a circums f ance which has misled some writers to call him
Albert Aldegrever. There can be no doubt of his name having been
Hemrich, or Henry, as it is so engraved in two different portraits both
executed by himself. As a painter, Aldegrever executed little; he
was chiefly occupied in engraving his own designs. His plates are
generally small, and are executed in a very minute and laboured
manner, whence he is reckoned among the so-called little masters, of
whom he is one of the most distinguished. His prints are very nume-
rous, exceeding three hundred, and they bear dates between 1522 and
1562, which is supposed to have been the year of his death ; it is how-
ever a mere conjecture. His designs are conspicuous for the sharp and
angular lines of the gothic stylo ; but though hard and wiry, many of
his figures display good anatomical drawing. His subjects are sacred
and .profane. Thirteen plates of the Labours of Hercules are among
his very best works : they are very scarce. A print of the Count
D'Archainbaml, just before his death, killing his son lest he should
leave the paths of virtue for those of vice, is also a remarkably good
plate. Among the portraits engraved by Aldegrever are those of
Luther, dated 1540 ; Melancthou ; John of Leyden, king of the Ana-
baptists ; and the fanatic Bernard Knippcrdolling. He engraved also
many designs for silversmiths and for booksellers.
His paintings are in the same style of design as his engravings, but
they impress, still more than his prints, with the feeling of the pains
they cost him : his colouring is very high. In the gallery at Berlin
there is a small picture of the Last Judgment by him ; in the gallery
of Munich there is an excellent portrait of a man with a red beard ;
there are a few of hu works at Schlcissheim, at Vienna, and at
Nurnberg, and at Soest, in some churches.
In a print of Titus Manlius ordering the execution of his son,
Aldegrever has introduced au instrument very similar to the guillotine
used by the terrorists of the French revolution : it is dated 1533.
(Heineken, Dictionnaire da Artules dont nous avons des JEitampei ;
Bartech, Peintre-Gravcur.)
ALDI'NI, GIOVANNI, nephew of Galvaui, the discoverer of gal-
vanism, and brother of the Count Antonio Aldini, a distinguished
Italian statesman, was born at Bologna on the 10th of April, 1762.
From his earliest years he showed a predilection for the study of
natural philosophy. In 179S ho was appointed to succeed Canterzani,
who had been his own instructor in physics, in the university of
Bologna, He was one of the earliest and most active members of the
National Institute of Italy, to the foundation of which he contributed ;
and in 1807 he was made a knight of the Iron Crown, and a member
of the Council of State at Milan. Though thus in favour with Napo-
leon's government, ho preserved, like his brother, his credit with the
Austrians ; and continued in the enjoyment of their patronage aud
protection till his death on the 17th of January, 1834. He left his
philosophical instruments and a large sum in money to found a public
institution in Bologna for the instruction of artisans in physics and
chemistry.
The most conspicuous merit of Aldini was his activity in endea-
vouring to render public such discoveries either of himself or others
as he conceived likely to be of public use. He was well acquainted
with the modern languages, fond of travelling, and indefatigable in
conveying scientific intelligence from one cud of Europe to the other.
The three principal objects which engaged his attention at different
periods were the medical uses of galvanism, the discovery of his
illustrious uncle ; the utility of gas, particularly hi the illumination of
lighthouses ; and the advantages of a fire-proof dress for persons
engaged in extinguishing conflagrations. Several of his treatises were
published in English, and were derived from observations and experi-
ments made in England.
ALDRICH, HENRY, eminent as a scholar, a divine, and a musician,
the son of a gentleman of the same name in Westminster, was born
there in 1647, and educated in the collegiate school of that city under
Dr. Busby. He was admitted a student of Christ Church, Oxford, in
1662, and having been elected on the foundation, took his master of
arts degree in 1669. He soon afterwards took holy orders, and obtained
the living of Wem in Shropshire ; but he continued to reside in his
college, of which he became one of the most eminent tutors and dis-
tinguished ornaments. On the 15th of February, 1681, he was installed
a canon of Christ Church, and in the following May took the degrees
of bachelor and doctor in divinity. During the reign of James II. ho
was a consistent and able champion of Protestantism, both by preaching
and writing ; and when, on the accession of King William, Massey,
the Roman Catholic dean of Christ Church, fled his country, Dr. Aldrich
was appointed his successor, and was installed on June 17, 16S9. For
the remainder of his life he continued to discharge the duties of his
station in the university with dignity, urbanity, and assiduity ; he was
zealous to improve and adorn his college, to increase its usefulness, to
extend its resources, and to perpetuate its reputation. In 1702 he
was chosen prolocutor of the convocation, and closed his laborious
and exemplary career at Christ Church on the 14th of December,
1710.
Himself a sound and accomplished scholar, he endeavoured by
every means in his power to foster the lova of classical learning among
the students of his college, and presented them annually with an
edition of some Greek classic which he printed for this special purpose.
He also published a system of logic for their use, and at his death
bequeathed to his college his valuable classical library. Dr. Aldrich
was a proficient in more than one of the arts : three sides of what is
called Peckwater Quadrangle, in Christ Church College, and the
church and campanile of All Saints in the High-street, Oxford, were
designed by him; and he is also said to have furnished the plan, or
at least to have had a share in the design, of the chapel of Trinity
College, Oxford.
Dr. Aldrich, among other sciences, cultivated music with ardour
and success. As dean of a college and a cathedral he regarded it as a
duty, as it undoubtedly was in his case a pleasure, to advance the
study and progress of church music. His choir was well appointed,
and every vicar, clerical as well as lay, gave his daily and efficient aid
in it. He contributed also largely to its stock of sacred music ; and
some of his services and anthems, being preserved in the collections
of Boyce and Arnold, are known and sung in every cathedral in the
kingdom. His musical taste was founded on the best and purest
models of church writing those especially which Palestrina aud
Carissimi have bequeathed to the world ; and, in addition to his own
compositions, he adapted words from the English version of the
Scriptures to many movements from their masses and motets, a task
which he executed with consummate skill. Of these it is to be
regretted that a few only are in print or in use. Nor did Dr. Aldrich
disdain to employ his musical talents in the production of festive and
social harmony. Catch singing was much in fashion in his time ; and
the well-known catch, ' Hark, the bonny Christ Church Bells,' is his
production.
(Abridged from the Biographical Dictionary of the Society for the
Diffusion of Uieful Knowledge.)
ALDROVANDUS, ULYSSES (Aldrovandi), a great naturalist, was
born of a noble family at Bologna, on the llth of September, 1522.
He lost his father at the age of six years, and his mother placed him
out as page in the family of a bishop. He occupied this situation
only a short time, and when twelve years old was placed with a
merchant at Bresse. He was however soon tired of a mercantile life ;
and during his early years applied himself first to legal and subse-
quently to medical studies. He travelled much; and especially made
botanical collections. In 1553 he graduated in medicine, and in 1560
he was appointed lecturer on natural history in the chair that had
been occupied by Luca Ghino. In 1568 he succeeded in inducing the
senate of Bologna to establish a botanic garden.
Whilst Aldrovandus was thus publicly engaged, in private he was
pursuing natural history with an ardour that has been seldom
equalled, perhaps never surpassed. The great object of his life was
to obtain a knowledge of the external world, and to this object ha
devoted his time, his talents, and his fortune. He travelled much
himself in search of objects of natural history, and employed others
to collect for him. In this way he formed an extensive museum,
which to this day remains at Bologna, a monument to his industry
and perseverance. His dried plants alone occupied sixty large volumes.
He spared no expense in obtaining the first artists of the day to make
original drawings in natural history. Christopher Coriolanus and
his nephew of Numberg were employed as his engravers. By these
means he was prepared for the gigantic task of becoming the histo-
rian and illustrator of all external nature. The first work that he
published, in 1599, on natural history, was devoted to birds. His
next work was on insects, in 1603. A third work came out in 1606,
AI.F.MDERT, JEAN-LE-UOND D'.
lot
Thb wa* the hut work that wa* pnblUhed
<tar**C Mi lUMsm*. He, however, left abundance of materlilt for
further work*, and th* Mate of Bologna, who had liberally milts il
AWlrovatdu. whoa alive, appointed panon* to edit hit work*. Tb*
rabwqu.nl vuluroe* all appear in hi* name, with the addition of that
of UM editor : the only difteraw* (lOfritti in ityling Aldrovandu.
patrician in UM porthumou* volume*, where** be it called profeMor
in that* published in hi* lifetime.
Th* gnat meril of th* writing* of Aldrovandu* it their complete
a* ; their great fault i* UM credulity of the author. Cuvier any*
th* work* of Aldrovandu* might ho reduced to one tenth without
injury, and Buflbn ridicule* hi* eompnbeosiv* mod* of treating hit
Mbiecte in the following language: " In writing the hiitory of the
cook and th* ball," *y Buflon. - Aldrorand tell, you all that bat
>er been said of cock* and built ; all that the ancient* have thought
or imagined with regard to their virtue*, character, and courage ; all
UM thine* for which they bare been employed ; all the tale* that old
w oaten tall of then; all the miracle* that have been wrought upon
or by them in dim-rent religion* ; all th* superstition* regarding them ;
kll the comparison* that poeti have made with them ; all the attri-
bute* that certain nation* nave accorded them ; all the representations
that bar* been made of them by hieroglyphic* or in heraldry ; in a
word, all the historic* and all the fables with which we are acquainted
on UM subject of cook* and bulls." Thi* i* hardly an overdrawn
picture of th* manner in which Aldrovandu* treats each animal,
l-lant, and mineral in bit ponderous volume*. But these works must
not be criticised at if they wen something which they are not. They
an not manual*, outline*, or introduction* to natural history : they
prof*** to b* historic* of the subject* on which they treat, and as such
they an the mo*t precious >torehou*e of facts, references, and obser-
vation* in natural hiitory extant Nor an these work* mere compila-
tion*. They an illustrated with many hundred* of original drawing* ;
nftnoce* arc mad* to object* in the museum of Aldrorandu*, and he
ha* given the result of numerous dissection* made with his own
Aldrovandut regarded object* in nature more at individuals thin
in their relations to each other, and hence he made no progress in
(Titemitic arrangement ; and in thi* respect bit works are not supe-
rior to those of Aristotle or Gestner. He hot however supplied fact*,
and whatever may be the confusion in which they are arranged, on
account of the period at which they are recorded, they (till claim
the attention of every naturalist.
Aldrorandui died on the 10th of November, 1607, in his eighty-
fifth year. Nearly all hit biographers sUte that this event occurred
in the hospital at Bologna, when he was compelled to spend his last
dayi on account of the great expense he had been at in collecting his
museum and publishing his work*. The secret archives of the senate
of Bologna, a* quoted by Fantuzzi, proved that they assisted Aldro-
vandu in the mult liberal manner. They doubled hi* salary toon
after hi* appointment to the chair of natural history, and when he
wa* no longer able to lecture, they appointed a successor but con-
tinued hit (alary. At various times they granted him no lees than
40,000 crowns to carry on his researches and publish his works. He
wat buried with great pomp, at the public expense, in the church of
St. Stephen in Bologna; and all the works that appeared after his
death wen published under the direction and at the expense of the
teait* From these circumstance* we an inclined to think, that if
Aldrovandu* did die in sn hospital, it may have arisen from some-
thing peculiar in hi* case, and not from any want of public sympathy
or gratitude.
(FanUuri, ifcmorie delta Vila I'liui Aldrovandi; Jocher, Allgem.
GMrtm-Leximt, and Adelung, Supp. ; Carrore, Bibliothlqiie de la
MUlcnu; Byl, //utoricoi /He/./ Haller, BiUiolkeea liotanica.)
(Abridged from the Biographical Dictionary of the Society for Ike
Zfc/MK* of CMU A-noir/eV)
ALDUS. [MAKCTIC*.]
ALEX AN, MATEO. This celebrated Spanish writer was bom at
Neville, about the middle of th* 16lh century. Ho held an important
oOc* in tho financial department, under Philip II., which ho filled
with honour for a long period. Disgusted at last with tho broils of
Ue court, b* requested hi* diimiasal; and having obtained it, ho
retired to devote hjm**lf entirely to rtudy. In 1604 he published tho
I .if* of St. Antonio de Padua/ W* are ignorant of the motive or
jHect of hi* voy an to Mexico, and only know, that in 1609 he pub-
then an ' Ortognfia CaiUUana. 1 But the work which entitles
him to the notice of noeterity it hi* Guzman de Alfarache,' which he
publUMd at Madrid in ISM. Thi* amusing snd interesting work U
a bitter aaUn on UM com-*' *
.
with
cultivation of
. . > w win imuie were luw
Mb}* of prrrrviog the immrnM Mapin raised by him, and tho huge
ediftce began to fall already under bit ton. The nation wa. then
warming with a multitude of men, who, thinking it degrading to earn
an boo*** livelihood, did not acrupl* to live by cheating and iwindling.
TU* * UM origin of the multitude of tho** novel* called ' Picareeca.'
which from th. banning of th. 10th to the Utter end of the 17th
atari**, trpwrd in Spain, intended to describe the life and man-
'"ft Bin*, linnniiHtU^ WU(K IB
corrupted manner* of Spain at that period.
I aterprUog pate* of Cbarle* V. had inspired the Spanith youth
b ao ambition for military glory, and drawn them off from the
tivationof the o^ul arU uvf icUoce*. Hit luoeewor* wen inc.-
nert of rogue*, vagabond*, and boggart, bringing alto the other cluse*
of tociety upon the *tage, either a* their victim*, abettor*, or pro-
tector*. Aleman teem* in hi* retirement to have recurred to past
scene*, and to have aet down the vice*, the follies, and the hypocrisies
of th* more elevated chute* which he had witneated, wbUo at tlio
ame time be detail* with extraordinary minutoneni the trick* and
adventure* of rogue* of inferior degree. Guzman i* a worthy follower
of Lawillo de Tonne*, and a precursor of Oil lihu. The hero is of
doubtful detceut, with the pramomen of one of the proudest families
of Spain ; tenderly reared, be throw* hiintolf, a boy, upon thn v,
become* successively stable boy, beggar, porter, thief, man of fashion,
soldier iu Italy, valet to a cardinal, and pander to a French ambas-
sador; i* subsequently a merchant and becomes bankrupt, t
student at the university of Alcalo, marries, it deserted by hit w if.-,
commits a robbery, i* tent to the galley*, it liberated, and tli. u writes
an account of hi* life. The narrative is interwoven with shrewd
maxim* and acute observations. The author is classed by Mayan*
among the prose writers beat adapted for the formation of a good
Castiliau style, and i* named by him, which i* no small merit, with
Fray Luis de Leon, Hurtodo do Mendoza, Cervantes, Mariana, and
Herrera, the great master* of thi* rich, harmonious, and noble
language. The book was first printed iu 1599, went through five and-
twenty editions iu Spain, and wat translated into all the languages of
Kurope; it appeared in London, in 1C23, as from an anonymous
translator, for the Spanish name affixed, Don Diego Pucde-ser (M.iy-
be-so), is evidently assumed ; probably by the indefatigable liowoll,
who was at Madrid immediately prior to the date of its publication.
(Nieolao Antonio, liMiotheea Jlufana Aero.)
ALEHBEKT, JEAN-LE-ROND D'. On Nov. the 17th, 1717, a
new-born infant wot found exposed in a public market by tho church
of St-Jean-le-Rond, near the cathedral of Notre-Dame, at Paris.
This infant was the celebrated D'Alembert, and from the place of his
exposure he derived his Christian name. How he obtained his sur-
name is not mentioned. He was found by a commissary of police,
and instead of being conveyed to the hospital of Kufaos-Trouvcs, was
intrusted to tho wife of a poor glazier, on account of the care which
his apparently dying state required. It has been supposed that tho
discovery, as well as the exposure, was arranged beforehand, as iu a
few day* the father mode himself known, and settled an allowance of
1200 francs a-year for his support. Other accounts state that the
abandonment was the act of the mother, and that the father, upon
bearing it, came forward for the protection of his eon. This father
was M. Destouches, commissary of artillery ; the mother was Madame
or more properly Mademoiselle de Tenciu, a lady celebrated for her
talents and adventures, and authoress of several works, in one of
which, ' Les Malheurs de 1'Auiour,' she is supposed to have giveu a
sketch of her own life. She was sister of Peter Guerin de Teuciii,
Cardinal Archbishop of Lyons, and took the veil in the convent of
Montfleuri, near Grenoble, which place she afterwards quittc I, and
settled at Paris, where she became more celebrated for wit than
virtue. It is said that when D'Alembert began to exhibit proofs of
extraordinary talent, she scut for him, and acquainted him with the
relationship which existed between them; and that his reply was,
" You are only my step-mother ; the glazier's wife is my mother."
D'Alembert commenced his studies at the College des Quatre
Nations, at the age of twelve years. The professors were of the
Jansenist party, and were not long in discovering the talents of their
pupil. In the first year of his course of philosophy, he wrote a
commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, from which, as Condorcet
remarks, they imagined they had found a new Pascal ; and to make
the resemblance more complete, turned his attention to mathematics.
The attempted parallel probably never existed except in the ingenious
head of the author of the 'Eloge; ' for D'Alembert himself informs
us, that his professor* did their best to dissuade him both from
mathematics and poetry, alleging that the former, in particular, drird
up the heart, and recommending as to the latter, that he shoul.l
confine himself to the poem of St. Prosper upon Grace. They per-
mitted him, nevertheless, to study tho rudiments of mathematics, and
from that time he persisted in the pursuit. When he left college, he
returned to his foster-mother, with whom he lived altogether forty
yean, and continued hit studies. Not that she gave him much
encouragement, for when he told her of any work he had written, or
discovery which he had made, she generally replied, " Voua ne teroz
jamaii qu'un philosophe ; et qu'ost ce qu'un philosophe ? c'eat un fou
qui se tourmento pendant Ba vie, pour qu'on parle de lui lorsqu'il u'y
era plus ; " which we may English thus, " You will never bo anything
but a philosopher and what is that but a fool who plague* himself
idl his life, that he may be talked about after he it dead !"
With nothing but his income of 1200 francs, and tho resource of
the public libraries for obtaining those books which he could not
buy, he gave up all hope* of wealth or civil honours, that he might
devote himself entirely to his favourite studies. Hero ho wns
.ii-| ii it.'.l by finding that he hid been anticipated in most of what he
imagined to have been bis own discoveries. In the meanwhile bin
friends urged him to enter a profession, to which he at last agreed, and
chose the law. After being admitted an advocate, he abandoned this
profession and took to physic, a* more congenial to hit own pursuits.
Determined to persevere, ho lent all his mathematical books to a
ALEMBERT, JEAN-LE-ROND D*.
ALEMBERT, JEAK-LE-ROND D'.
106
friend, resolved that the latter should keep them till he was made
doctor ; but he soon found that he could not send his mathematical
genius with them. One book after another was begged back, to
refresh his memory upon something which he found he could not
keep out of his bead. At la.it. finding his taste too strong for any
prudential consideration, he gave up the contest, and resolved to
devote himself entirely to that which he liked best. The happiness
of his life, when he had made this resolution, is thus described by
himself. He says that he awoke every morning thinking with pleasure
on the studies of the preceding evening, and on the prospect of con-
tinuing them during the day. When his thoughts were called off for
a moment, they turned to the satisfaction he should have at the play
in the evening ; and between the acts of the piece he meditated on
the pleasures of the next morning's study.
Some memoirs which he wrote in the years 1739 and 1740, as well
as some corrections which he made in the ' Analyse De'montre'e ' of
Reynau, a work then much esteemed in France, procured him admis-
sion to the Academy of Sciences, in 1741, at the age of twenty-four.
From this time may be dated the career of honour which ranks him
among the greatest benefactors to science of the last century. We
will now interrupt the order of his life to specify his principal works.
In 17J3 appeared his 'Treatise of Dynamics,' founded upon a general
principle which afterwards received the name c-f ' D'Alembert's
Principle.' The deductions from this new and fertile source of
analytical discovery appeared in rapid succession. In 1744 he pub-
lished his ' Treatise on the Equilibrium and Motion of Fluids.' In
1746 hia ' Reflections on the General Causes of Winds' obtained the
prize of the Academy of Berlin. This treatise will always be remark-
able, as the first which contained the general equations of the motion
of fluids, as well as the first announcement and use of the calculus of
partial differences. In 1747 he gave the first analytical solution of
the problem of vibrating chords, and the motion of a column of air ;
in 1749 he did the tame for the precession of the equinoxes and the
nutation of the earth's axis, the latter of which had been just dis-
covered by Bradley. In 1752 he published bis ' Essay on the Resist-
ance of Fluids,' a treatise originally written in competition for a prize
proposed by the Academy of Berlin, but the decision of which was
postponed, and finally awarded to a production which has not since
gained any reputation for its author. A misunderstanding between
Euler and D'Alembert is asserted. by some French writers as the
ground of this rejection, which, resting on the well-known character
of Euler, we must be permitted to doubt. In the same year he also
edited Rameau's ' Elements of Music,' though his opinions did not
entirely coincide with that celebrated system. In 1747 he presented
to the Academy of Sciences his 'Essay on the Problem of Three
Bodies," and in 1754 and 1756 he published ' Researches on Various
1'ointii connected with the System of the Universe." We must com-
plete the list of hia mathematical works by mentioning his ' Opus-
cules,' collected and published towards the end of bis life, in eight
volumes. Though D'Alembert wrote no large system of pure analysis,
the various methods and hints which are so richly scattered in his
]>l>y-iuo-mathematical works have always been considered as rendering
them a mine of instruction for mathematicians.
We now turn to his philosophical productions. The French ' Ency-
clopddie,' as is well known, was commenced by Diderot and himself,
as editors; and it is needless to speak of his celebrated Introductory
Discourse, a work which, as Condorcet expresses it, there are only
two or three men in a century capable of writing. D'Alembert con-
tributed several literary articles ; but on the stoppage of the work by
the government, after the completion of the second volume, he
retired from the editorship, nor would he resume his functions when
permission to proceed was at length obtained. From that time he
confined himself entirely to the mathematical part of the work, and
hia expositions of the metaphysical difficulties of abstract science are
among the clearest and best on record. While engaged on this under-
taking, he wrote bis ' Melanges de Philosophic,' &c., ' Memoirs of
Christina of Sweden," ' Essay on the Servility of Men of Letters to
the Great,' ' Elements of Philosophy,' and a treatise on ' The De-
struction of the Jesuits.' He also published translations of several
parts of Tacitus, which are admitted by scholars to possess no small
degree of merit In 1772, when elected perpetual secretary of the
Academy, he wrote the ' Eloges ' of the members who had died from
1700 up to that ditc. His correspondence, and some additional
pieces, were published after his death. The whole of his works have
been collected in one edition by M. Bastion, in eighteen volumes,
octavo, Parin, 1805.
In 1752 Frederic of Prussia, who had conceived the highest esteem
for hia writings, endeavoured to attract him to Berlin. D'Alembert
refused the offer, but in 1754 he accepted a pension of 1200 francs,
lu 17S6, through the friendship of M. D'Argenson, then minister, he
obtained the same from Louis XV. In 1755, by the recommendation
of Benedict XIV., he was admitted into the Institute of Bologna. In
1762 Catharine of Russia requested him to undertake the education of
her son, with an income of 100,000 francs. On hia declining the
offer, she wrote again to presa him, and Bays in her letter, " I know
that your refusal arises from your desire to cultivate your studies and
your friendships in quiet. But this is of no consequence : bring all
your fricnda with you, and I promise you that both you and they
shall have every accommodation in my power." D'Alembert was too
much attached to his situation and hia income of 1501. a-year to accept
even this princely offer. The letter of Catharine it was unanimously
agreed to enter on the records of the Academy of Sciences. In 1759
Frederic again pressed his coining to Berlin, in a letter in which he
says, " I wait in silence the moment when the ingratitude of your own
country will oblige you to fly to a laud where you are already natu-
ralised in the minds of all who think." In 1763, when D'Alembert
visited Frederic, the latter again repeated his offer, which was again
declined ; the king assuring him that it was the only false calculation
he had ever made in his life.
We now come to relate the history of a connection which ended by
embittering the last years of the life of D'Alembert, and finally, it is
supposed, had no small share in sending him to his grave. At the
house of a common friend he was in the habit of meeting Mile, de
1'Espinasse, a young lady whose talents caused her society to be sought
by the elite of the literary world of Paris. Between her and D'Alem-
bert a mutual attachment grew up, which though, as appeared after-
wards, not very strong on her part, became the moving passion of his
future life. When, in 1765, he was attacked by a violent disorder,
she insisted on being his attendant, and after his recovery they lived
in the same house. It is said that friendship was their only bond of
union ; and this may be believed, since iu the then state of opinion,
the assertion, if untrue, wou!4 have been unnecessary. The friend-
ship, or love, of the lady however found other objects ; and though
D'Alembert still retained all his former affection for her, she treated
him with contempt and unkiudness. Her death left him inconsolable;
and his reflections upon her tomb, published in his posthumous work,
present the singular spectacle of a lover mourning for a mistress
whose regard for him, as he was obliged to admit to himself, had
entirely ceased before her death. After that event, he fell into a
profound melancholy, nor did he ever recover his former vivacity.
His death took place October 29, 1783. Not having received extreme
unction it was with great difficulty that a priest could be found to inter
him, and then only on condition that the funeral should be private.
The character of D'Alembert was one of great simplicity, carried
even to bluntness of speech, and of unusual benevolence, mixed with
a keen sense of the ridiculous, which exerted itself openly and without
scruple upon those who attempted the common species of flattpry.
He was the friend of Frederic of Prussia, because that monarch
exacted no servility ; and to him onlj-, and two disgraced ministers, of
all the great ones of the earth, did D'Alembert ever dedicate a work.
He was totally free from envy. Lagrange and Laplace owed some of
their first steps in life to him ; though the former had settled a
mathematical controversy in favour of Euler and against him. In his
dispute with Clairaut on the method of finding the orbit of a comet,
and with Rousseau on the article 'Calvin' in the ' Encyclopedic,' he
gave his friends no reason to blush for his want of temper. It was
his maxim, that a man should be very careful in his writings, careful
enough in his actions, and moderately careful in his words ; his
observance of the last part of the maxim sometimes made him enemies.
The Due de Choiseul, when minister, refused the united solicitations
in his favour of the Academy of Sciences for a pension vacant by the
death of Clairaut, for more than six months, because he had said, in
a letter to Voltaire which was opened at the post-office, " Your
protector, or rather your prote'ge', M. de ChoiseuL" He cared nothing
for those iu power, at a time when the latter exacted and obtained
deference in very small matters. Madame de Pompadour, who hated
all the friends of Frederic, refused the request of Marmontel that she
would employ her influence with the king in favour of D'Alembivt
on one occasion, alleging that the latter had put himself at the head
of the Italian party in music. It was his maxim that no man ought
to spend money in superfluities while others were in want ; and a
friend, who knew him well, declared to the editor of his works, that
when hia income amounted to 8200 francs, he gave away the half.
His attentions to his foster-mother, to the end of her life, were those
of a son. In his account of his own character, a singular mixture of
vanity and candour, written in the third person, he speaks as follows :
" Devoted to study and privacy till the age of twenty-five, he entered
late into the world, and was never much pleased with it. He could
never bend himself to learn its usages and language, and perhaps even
indulged a sort of petty vanity in despising them. He is never rude,
because he is neither brutal nor severe ; but he is sometimes blunt,
through inattention or ignorance. Compliments embarrass him,
because he never can find a suitable answer immediately ; when he
says flattering things, it is always because he thinks them. The basis
of hia character is frankness and truth, often rather blunt, but never
disgusting. He is impatient and angry, even to violence, when any-
thing goes wrong, but it all evaporates in words. He is soon satisfied
and easily governed, provided he does not see what you are at ; for
his love of independence amounts to fanaticism, so that he often
denies himself things which would bo agreeable to him, because he is
afraid they would put him under some restraint; which makes some
of his friends call him, justly enough, the slave of his liberty." This
account agrees very well with that of his friends.
D'Alembert has been held up to reprobation in this country on
account of his religious opinions. But on this point we must observe,
that there is a wide line of distinction between him and some of his
ALEXA11
ALEXANDER III.
... ___ > 'Ei*rlopeVlK > s& as Diderot and VolUiro. When
we blame the two latter. it ie not for the opinion* they held (for which
they are not answerable to any nun*. but for their offensive manner
/xpresalnc "". and th odious intolerance of ell opinion* except
Umr owtTwLch run* through their writings. Men of the best and of
Uw wont lirr. appeared to be equally offensive to than, if they pro-
fc*dChri^;rTb. publiaW writing. of D-AlembsTt contain
no rxpc~in. ooVnaive to religion ; th.yli.To ncrer been forbidden
on that account, a* La llarpa observes, in any country of Euro]*.
Had it Dot been for hi* private oorrespondeuoe with Voltaire and
D^fctn which wa* published after hi* death, the world would nut
bar* known, except by implication, what the opinion* of D'Alembert
wmi On this pourt we will oiU two respectable Catholic authorities
The Bi*hop of Limoges aaid, during the life of D'Alembert, " I do not
know him personal!* ; but I hare alway* heard that hi* manner* are
simple, and hi* conduct without a stain. A* to hi* work*, I read them
over and over again, and I find nothing there except plenty of talent,
great information, and a good ystm of moral*. If hi* opinions are
not a* aound a* hi* writing*, ho it to be pitied, but no one ha* a right
to interrogate hi* wiffifi^i" La Harpe *ay of him, " I do not
fhUfc that he ever printed a sentence which mark* either hatred or
contempt of religion ; bnt we may cite a great many passages where,
apparently drawn into enthusiasm by the heroes of Christianity, he
ipeak* of them with dignity, and, what in him is even more strange,
with sentiment," " I knew D'Alembert well enough to be able to
ty, that be wa* sceptical in everything except mathematics. He
would no more bare said poaitirely that there was no religion thau
that there mi a God: he only thought the probabilities were in
favour of theism, and against revelation. On this subject he tolerated
ail opinion*, and thia disposition made him think the intolerant
arrogance of the alheuU odiou* and unbearable." " Ho has praised
MaasilloD, Fcnc'lon, liuuuet, Flechier, and Fleury, not only as writers,
but a* priests. He was ju*t enough to be struck with the constant
and tHmir*"* connection which exiited between their faith and their
practice, between their priestly character and their virtues." To these
terliirmnit* we need add nothing, except to desire the reader to turn
to the part of the letter of the Empress Catharine which we have
quoted, and then to recollect that it was the same Empress Catharine
who refused a visit from Voltaire, saying, " that she had no Parnassus
in her dominions for those who (poke disrespectfully of religion."
The ctyle of D'Alembert a* a writer is agreeable, but he is not placed
by the French in the first rank. His mathematical works show that
be wrote a* bo thought, without taking much trouble to finish. His
expression was, " Let u* find out the thing, there will be plenty of
people to pot it into ahape ;" an assertion abundantly verified since
his time. He aaid of himself that he had "some talent and great
facility." He liked the mathematical part of natural philosophy
better than any other, and took but little interest in purely experi-
mental reeesrcbe*. Hence he remained in ignorance of some of the
most striking frets discovered in his day ; and when laughed at on
the subject, be alway* laid, " I (hall have plenty of time to learn all
these pretty thing*." The time however, a* Boesuct remarks, never
Those readers who would know more of D'Alembert should consult
the ftnt volume of Butien'i edition of hi* works.
ALEXANDER. [PARIS,]
ALEXANDER L, son of Amyntai L, aaid to be the tenth king of
Macedon, wa* alive at the time of the great Fenian invasion of Greece,
aux 480. Hi* history, a* far a* it is known, and his share in the
troubUe of the Persian wan, are contained in the last five books of
Herodotus.
ALEXANDER IL, the sixteenth king of Macedonia, was tho son
of Amyntai IL, and ascended the throne about B.C. 370.
ALEXANDER III., lumamed the -Great, king of Macedonia, wa*
the son of Philip and Olympias, and born at Pella in the autumn of
the year B.C. 3i. On hi* father's side he wa* descended from
Cannu* the Heraclid, who was tho first king of Macedonia; his
other belonged to the royal house of Epirui, which traced iU
pedigree up to Achilles, the most celebrated hero of the Trojan War.
Hbe wa* the daughter of Neoptoleiuus, prince of the Moloesiana. and
the aider of Alexander of Epirus, who lost hi* life in Italy. The
historians of Alexander regard it a* a significant coincidence that
Philip on the same day received the intelligence of tho birth of his
son, of the victory of Us General Parmenio over the Illyriaus, and of
hi* own victory at the Olympic games; on the same day also the
magnificent temple of Diana at Epbesus was burnt down. Occur-
like then were afterwards thought to bo indications of the
of Alexander, and various marvellous stories were
Ubrioaud, which were believed and eagerly spread by the flattery
the upentition of the Greeks, and readily listened to by Alexand
hiOMelf a the midst of hi* wonderful career of conquest Ma
or
Alexander
conquest Many
in the early education of Alexander, but the
: was minuted to Leonid**, a relation of Olympias,
character. Lysimachus, an Aoamanian, appears
himself into the favour of the royal family of
taod of bis pupil by vulgar flattery; be is reported to have
osader always by tie name of Achilles, and Philip by that
of Pelem About the time when Alexander had reached his thirteenth
year, Philip thought it advisable to procure for hi* son the best
tnitrnctor of tho age, and hi* choice fell upon Aristotle, A letter
which Philip is said to have written to this philosopher on the occa-
sion is preserved in Gelliu*. Under the instruction of such a master
the powerful mind of Alexander was rapidly developed, and enriched
with store* of practical and useful knowledge. With the view of
preparing hi* pupil for his high station, Aristotle wrote a work on
the art of government, which i* no longer extant. No royal pupil
ever had the advantage of such a muter. His short life was spent in
gigantic undertakings, and in the midst of war; but the results of
Aristotle's teaching are apparent in all Alexander's plans for consoli-
dating his empire : his love of knowledge manifested itself to tho
last months of his life and in the midst of all his labours. His
physical education also was not neglected. In horsemanship he is
said to have excelled all his contemporaries ; and it is a well-known
story, that when tho celebrated horse Bucephalus was brought to the
Macedonian capital, no one but young Alexander was able to manage
him. His alleged descent from Achilles, and tho flattery of those by
whom ho was surrounded, made a deep and lasting impression upon
his youthful mind ; tho ' Iliad ' become his favourite book, and its
hero, Achilles, his great model. Ambition was his ruling passion;
ererything which appeared to limit the sphere within which he hoped
to gain distinction, seemed to him an encroachment upon his own
rights. When intelligence was brought of his father's victories, he
would lament that nothing would be left for him to do : he refused
to contend for the prize at the Olympic games because he could not
have kings for his competitors. In the same spirit he regretted that
Aristotle published one of his profound works, because the wisdom
which he wished "to possess alone was thus communicated to many.
He would always pardon and honour on enemy whose resistance had
added to his own glory, but a cowardly opponent was the object of
his contempt
Head of Alexander tbo Great, enlarged, from a coin In the Bodleian Library,
Oxford. The head is repeated beneath, with the reverse, showing the size of
the coin.
When Alexander had reached his sixteenth year, Philip was obliged
to leave his kingdom to carry on a campaign against Byzantium ; and
as his son had already shown extraordinary judgment in public affairs,
I'hilip intrusted him with the administration of Macedonia. During
the absence of his father, he is said to have led an army against
some revolted tribe, and to have made himself master of their town.
The first occasion on which he specially signalised himself was two
rear* later, in the battle of Chnronea (ao. 338), and the victory on
;hat day i* mainly ascribed to his courage ; he broke the lines of the
enemy, and .crushed the sacred band of the Thebans. Philip was
iroud of such a son, and was even pleased to hear the Macedonians
call him their king, while they called Philip their general. But the
food understanding between him and his father was disturbed during
.he last years of Philip's life, owing to his father repudiating Olym-
>ias, and giving his band to Cleopatra, the niece of Attalus. A
conciliation took place, but on the very day that it was to be sealed
>y the marriage of Philip's daughter with a brother of Olympias,
i'hilip was assassinated (B.C. 336), and it was even reported that
Altifndtr was compromised in the conspiracy. There is however no
evidence to prove the truth of this report, though it is possible that
Alexander at least knew of the plot, notwithstanding tho severe
lunishinent which he inflicted on most of the guilty persons.
109
ALEXANDER III.
ALEXANDER III.
no
At the age of twenty Alexander was thus suddenly called to the
throne of Macedonia. But while the attachment of the people of
Macedonia, who had always been accustomed to look up to him with
admiration, was secured by a reduction of taxes and other politic
measures, dangers were threatening on all sides, and he had to secure
by wars the throne which was his lawful inheritance. His father had
during the last years of his life made extensive preparations for
invading Persia, and Attains and Parmenio had already been sent into
Asia with a force. The realisation of these plans, in the midst of which
Alexander had grown up to manhood, and in which he had taken a
most lively interest, now devolved upon him ; but before he could
carry them into effect it was necessary to secure his own dominions.
Attalus, the uncle of Cleopatra, aimed at usurping the crown of
Macedonia, under the pretext of securing it to Philip's son by Cleo-
patra ; Greece was stirred up by Demosthenes against Macedonia, and
the barbarians in the north and west were ready to take up arms for
their independence. Everything depended upon quick and decisive
action. Alexander was well aware of this, and at the same time he
was determined not to surrender any part of his dominions, as some
of his timid or cautious friends advised him. His first measure was
to send his general, Hecatseus, with a force to Asia, with instructions
to bring Attalus back to Macedonia either dead or alive. All the
professions of attachment and fidelity that Attalus made were of no
avail ; he was put to death, and his army joined that of Parmenio,
who had remained faithful. While this took place in Asia, Aloxauder
marched with an army into Greece. Thessaly submitted without
resistance, and transferred to him the supreme command in the pro-
jected expedition against Persia. After having marched through the
pass of Thermopylae, he assembled the Delphic Amphictyons, and
was received a member of their confederacy, and the decree of the
Thessalians was confirmed by a similar one of the Amphictyons.
Advancing into Boeotia, he pitched his camp in the neighbourhood of
the C'admea, the citadel of Thebes. His sudden appearance struck
terror into the Thebans, who had been indulging in dreams of recover-
ing their liberty. The Athenians also, who, pretending to despise
young Alexander, had talked much about war, but as usual had made
no preparations for it, were greatly alarmed when they heard of his
sudden arrival before the gates of Thebes. They immediately des-
patched an embassy to beg his pardon for not having sent ambassadors
to the assembly of the Delphic Amphictyons, and for not having
conferred upon him the supreme command against Persia in their
name also. Alexander received their ambassadors kindly, and only
required the Athenians to send deputies to a general council of the
Greeks which was to be held at Corinth. At this meeting all the
states of Greece, with the exception of Sparta, transferred to the
Macedonian king the command of all their forces against Persia, an
office which they had before conferred upon his father. The Greeks
overwhelmed the young king with assurances of attachment, marks
of honour, and the meanest flattery. The refusal of the Spartans to
join the other Greeks did not make Alexander in the least uneasy ; he
knew that he had nothing to fear from them, and that they were
without the power to give effect to then: wishes.
After having thus settled the affairs of Greece, he returned in the
spring of B.C. 335 to Macedonia, to put down an insurrection of the
northern barbarians. Ho marched from Amphipolis towards Mount
Hremus (Balkan), which he reached in ten days. He forced his way
across the mountains, penetrated into the country of the Triballians,
and pursued their king Syrmus as far aa the Danube, where the
barbarians took refuge in a strongly fortified island in the river.
Before Alexander attacked them there, he wished to subdue the
Getcc who occupied the north bank of tho river. A fleet which had
been sent up the Danube from Byzantium enabled him to cross the
river. The Geta), terrified at seeing the enemy thus unexpectedly
invading their territory, left their homes and fled northward. Laden
with booty, Alexander and his army returned to the south bank of
the Danube, where he received embassies from the tribes which
inhabited the plains of the Danube, and from king Syrmus, suing
for peace and alliance. After having secured this frontier of his
kingdom he hastened against Clitus and Glaucias, the chiefs of the
lllyrians and Taulantians, who were threatening an attack upon
Macedonia, while another tribe was to engage the army of Alexander
on his return from the north. This plan however was thwarted, and
Alexander compelled the barbarians to recognise the Macedonian
supremacy.
While he was thus successfully engaged with the barbarians to the
north and west of Macedonia, new dangers threatened in the south.
The spirit of insurrection, stirred up by Demosthenes and other
friends of the independence of Greece, had revived, especially at
Thebes, which perhaps suffered more than any other Greek city from
its Macedonian garrison ; and on the arrival of a report that Alex-
ander had lost bis life in his Illyrian campaign, some of the Greek
slat's resorted to hostile measures. The Thebans expelled their
Macedonian garrison and sent envoys to other Greek states to invite
them to aid in recovering their independence. Tlicir summons was
favourably received by most of the Greeks, but they were slow in
carrying their resolutions into effect; and before a force was assembled,
ami oven fieforc tlie intelligence of Alexander being still alive reached
% he WM with Ins army at Onchestus in Bcootia. He immedi-
ately marched against Thebes, and attempted a peaceful reconciliation;
but the Thebans answered him with insult. Perdiccas, one of
Alexander's generals, availed himself, without his master's command,
of a favourable opportunity for an attack with his own detachment,
out of which a general engagement arose. Notwithstanding the
brave resistance of the Thebans the city was taken, and thia event
was followed by one of the most bloody massacres iu ancient history.
The city, with the exception of the citadel, the temples, and the
seven ancient gates, was razed to the ground ; 6000 Thebans, men,
women, and children, were put to the sword ; and 30,000 others were
sold as slaves. The priests, the friends of the Macedonians, and the
descendants of Pindar alone retained their liberty. Of the private
dwellings none was spared except the house of Pindar.
The other Greek states which had been willing to joiu Thebes, and
more especially Athens, sought and obtained pardon from the con-
queror, who afterwards showed on several occasions in his behaviour
towards some of the surviving Thebans that he had not destroyed
their city out of wanton cruelty. Convinced that the fearful fate of
Thebes was a sufficient warning to the rest of Greece, Alexander
returned to Macedonia to devote all his energy to preparations for the
war against Persia. His friends advised him, before setting out for
Asia, to marry, and give an heir to the throne of Macedonia ; but he
had already been too long prevented from carrying his Asiatic expe-
dition into effect, and he thirsted for the possession of Asia. Before
setting out he lavished nearly all his private possessions among his
friends, and when Perdiccas asked him what he meant to retain for
himself, he answered, " Hopes." Antipater was appointed regent of
Macedonia during his absence, with a force of 12,000 foot and 1500
horse. Alexander set out for Asia in the beginning of the spring,
B.C. 334, with an army of about 30,000 foot and 5000 horse, which
mainly consisted of Macedonians and Thessalians, while the infantry
consisted of 7000 allied Greeks, Thraciaus, Agrianians, and a number
of mercenaries. His financial means were very small. The army
advanced along the coast of Thrace, and after a march of twenty
days reached Sestos on the Hellespont, where the Macedonian fleet
lay at anchor ready to convey the army to the coast of Asia. This
fleet consisted of 160 or, according to others, of 180 triremes, and a
number of transports. While the greater part of tho army landed at
Abydos and encamped near Arisbe, Alexander, accompanied by his
friend Hephcestion, paid a visit to the mound which was believed to
contain the remains of Achilles, whose successor it was his ambition
to be considered by his soldiers. As soon as he had joined his army
again, he began his march against the Persians, who, although they
had long been acquainted with the plans of the Macedonians, were
not fully prepared, and had a force of about 20,000 horse and as
many Greek mercenaries stationed near Zeleia. There was in the
Persian army a Rhodian Greek, of the name of Memnon, whose
military talent might have made him a formidable opponent to Alex-
ander ; but his advice to retreat before the Macedonians, who were
scantily supplied with provisions, and to lay waste the country, was
rejected by the Persians, and they advanced as far as the river
Granicus, in order to cheek the progress of the invader. Alexander
found the Persians drawn up in order of battle on the east bank of
the river, and without listening to the advice of his cautious friend
Parmenio, he boldly forced a passage in the face of tho enemy with
his cavalry, which kept the enemy engaged until the infantry came
up. The discipline of the Macedonians, and the impetuosity of their
attack, broke the line of the Persians, who were completely beaten,
although the number of their dead was not very great : they arc said
to have lost about 1000 horsemen ; but the mercenaries, who, as lon^
as the Persians were engaged had, by the command of the Persians,
been obliged to remain inactive, were for the most part cut down, and
2000 of them were made prisoners and sent to Macedonia to be em-
ployed as public slaves for having engaged in the service of the
Persians against then: own countrymen. Alexander had himself been
active in the contest, and killed two Persians of the highest rank ;
after the victory he visited his soldiers who had been wounded. The
parents and children of those who had fallen in the battle were
honoured with privileges and immunities. In the first assault twenty
of the king's horse-guard (iraipoi) had fallen, and he honoured their
valour by ordering Lysippus to execute their figures in bronze, which
were erected in the Macedonian town of Dium, whence they were
afterwards carried to Rome.
Before advancing into the interior of Asia Minor, Alexander wished
to make himself master of the western and southern coasts of the
peninsula. As he proceeded southward, nearly all the towns on tho
coast opened their gates to him; and to show that he had really
come as their liberator, he established in all the cities a democratical
form of government. Miletus was taken by storm. In the mean
time a Persian fleet, consisting principally of Phoenician ships, lay off
Mycale. The king, contrary to the advice of his generals, would not
engage in a sea-fight, but kept his fleet quiet near the coast of Miletus ;
he thus prevented the Persians from landing and taking in water and
provisions, the want of which compelled them to retreat to Samos.
It was now late in the autumn of tho year n.c. 334, and Alexander
wanted to take possession of Caria and the capital Halicarnassus.
The occupation of the country was easy enough : a princess of the
name of Ada surrendered it to him without resistance, for which she
ALRZANDP.R III.
AI.KXANDKH III.
Ill
was rewarded with the liUe of
thootsge of wbwh is the meet
Md out to the la* under the c
As the winter wa* approaching,
of having to eeooor another 1
familie* in Macedonia, oo cooditt.
with the muforeem*
detachment oft
of rariag
dottta. A
Oarla ; but Haliearoasras,
U event of this campaign,
of Mwnnon, bat wa* taken,
ander bad DO apprehension
my during UiU sissnn, he
spend the winter with their
r returning at the beginning
were to be levied in Maee-
rlei of the army, which had
reek*, WM allowed under
er* in the pUius of Lydia,
t of Lyoia, From Pbawlii
oast to Painphylia, took the
ng hi* way through tho
ben grrally increased by the Asi
Parowaio to Uke up their winter
Abxander bimwlf marched along U
b* cboM U>* road along thi* danger
towns of Perga, Side, tod Aspondu*,
mountains of PWdfa, which were inhabited by"harbarou* tribes, into
Phrygia, be pitched hi* camp near Oordium, on the river Sangarius.
Here he dexterously availed himself of a prophecy which in the eyes
of tbo credulous made him appear as the man called by the Deity u
rule over Asia. The acrorolia of Gordium contained the Gordian
knot by which the yoke and collars of the horses were fastened to the
pole of the chariot. Tho sovereignty of Asia was promised to him
who should be able to untie this complicated knot. After vainly
attempting to untie the knot, Alexander relieved himself from his
difficulty by cutting it, according to one account ; but the particulars
of the story vary. It was considered however that he had fulfilled
tho oracle, and the general opinion was confirmed by a storm of
thunder and lightning.
In tho spring of the year B.C. 338, the various detachments
assembled at GorJium. Together with those who returned from
their visit to their homes, there came from Macedonia and Greece
3000 foot, 300 horse, and 200 ThessalUns, and ISO allies from Elis.
Alexander led his army along the southern foot of the Paphlagouian
Mountains to Ancyra, received the assurance of the submission of the
Paphlagonians, and crossing the river Halys entered Cappodocia.
Satisfied with making himself master of the south-western part of
thu province, be directed his march southward to the Cilician Gates,
or one of the mountain panes which led over Taurus from Cappadocia
into Cilicia, and proceeded as far as Tarsus on the Cydnus. Here his
life wa* endangered by a fever which attacked him cither in conse-
quence of his great exertions, or, according to other accounts, in
consequence of having bathed in the cold water of the river Cydnus ;
but the skill of bis physician Philip, an Acarnanian, soon restored
him to health. The possession of Cilicia was of the greatest import-
ance to him on account of the communication with Asia Minor.
While therefore Parmenio occupied tho Syrian Gates or pass in the
south-eastern corner of Cilicia, Alexander compelled the western parts
of tho country to submission. About the time that bis conquests in
thu part were completed, he received intelligence of king Darius
having a si am bled an immense force near the Syrian town of Sochi.
The Persian king had now lost the ablest msn in hit service. Mem-
non, who after the taking of Halicarnaaius had fled to Cos, and with
bis powerful fleet had gained possession of nearly the whole of the
<Kgrn, died at the moment when he was on the point of sailing to !
Euocca ; a movement by which Alexander would perhaps have been
compelled to give up for the present all thoughts of Eastern conquests. i
Darius had levied all the force* that his extensive empire could fur- ,
nisli, hoping to crush the invaders by his numerical superiority. ,
Though be posoeased no military talent, he commanded his own army, '
which U said to have consisted of 00,000 or 600,000 men, among
dus in Syria. Darius left his favourable position in tbo wide plain of
Sochi, contrary to the advice of Amyntas, a Greek deserter, and
entered tho narrow plain of Issus, east of the little river Pinarus.
By this movement he was in the rear of Alexander's army, who had
left behind him at Issus those who were unfit for further K.
Darius had probably been led to this unfortunate step by tho U-li.-f
that the long stay of Alexander in Cilicia was the result of fear.
The Macedonians at Issus foil into the hands of the Persians, and
were treated cruelly. Darius now hastened to attack Alexander,
apprehending that be might make his escape; but Alexander, without
waiting for the approach of Darius, returned by the same road by
which he had come. The armies met in tho narrow and uneven plain
of the river Pinarus a position most unfavourable to the unv.
mtsocs of the Persians. The contest began at day-break, in the
autumn of the year B.C. 833. Notwithstanding the groat resistance of
the enemy, especially of tho 30,000 Greek mercenaries, Alexander,
towards the end of the day, gained a complete victory. The number
of the slain on the part of the Persians was prodigious ; the loss of
the Macedonians is stated to have been very small As soon as
Darius saw bis left wing routed he took to flight, and was followed by
the whole army. The Fenian king escaped across tho Euphrates by
the ford at Thapsacus. His chariot, cloak, shield, and bow were after-
wards found in a narrow defile through which he bad fled; hU
mother, Sisygambis, his wife Stutira, and her children, fell into the
hnnds of Alexander, who treated them with the utmost respect and
delicacy. The booty which Alexander made after this victory was
very great, but yet was insignificant compared with the treasures
which Parmenio found at Damascus, whither they had bean carried by
the Persians before they left the plain of .Sochi.
The Persian army was now dispersed, the Greek mercenaries had
fled, and Asia was thrown open to the invader. For the present
Alexander did not think it necessary to penetrate into the interior :
ho wished first to make himself complete master of tho coasts of the
Mediterranean. He therefore advanced into Phoenicia, where all the
towns opened their gates. Tyre alone, which was situated on an island
about half a mile from the main land, and was strongly fortified by
lofty walls, for some time checked his progress, and it was not till after
the lapse of seven mouths (about August of the year B.c. 332) that he
succeeded in taking the city by constructing a causeway to connect
the island with the continent, and by tho use of a fleet which had been
furnished him by other Phoenician towns and by Cyprus. The cause-
way of Alexander still remains, and Tyre is now part of the main land.
The obstinacy of the Tynans, the immense exertion and expense which
their resistance rendered necessary, and the cruelty with wlu'ch they
had treated the Macedonians who full into their hands, were followed
by the most fearful revenge : 8000 Tyrious were put to death, and all
the rest of the population sold into slavery ; the highest magistrates
alone and some Carthaginian ambassadors were spared, who hod taken
refuge iu the temple of Hercules. The city itself was not destroyed,
but received a new population consisting of Phoenicians and Cypn.m* ;
and Alexander, who knew the importance of the place, encouraged
the revival of its commerce and prosperity.
During the siege of Tyre, Darius had sent to Alexander with pro-
posals of peace, but the humiliation of the Persian king only convinced
Alexander of his weakness. All the proposals of Darius were rejected
with the declaration that the Persian king must petition and app.- u-
in person if he wished to ask for favour. During the siego of Tyre,
Alexander had also mode excursions with separate detachments of his
army against other towns of Syria and some Arab tribes about the
I iom s Mosaic found it Pompeii, rappowd to rcprcicnt the Battle of !.
Own wtre about 80,000 Greek mercenaries. Alexander I southern foot of Lebanon. In the autumn he proceeded with his army
from Tanu* aloof the Bey of IMUS to the town of Myrian- | southward along the coast of Palestine, and, according to Josephus, he
113
ALEXANDER III.
ALEXANDER III.
Ill
paid a visit to Jerusalem, where he worshipped and sacrificed in the
Temple, and was made acquainted with an ancient prophecy, that a
king of Greece should conquer the king of Persia. But this long
episode in Josephus is not supported by any other testimony. In
the same autumn Alexander besieged the strong town of Gaza, near
the southern frontier of Syria. It was vigorously defended for two
months by the Persian commander Batis, and did not surrender until
nearly all the garrison had fallen. Alexander, who had himself been
severely wounded during the siege, sold the inhabitants as slaves, and
repeopled the town with Syrians from the neighbouring country.
The last province of Persia on the coasts of the Mediterranean that
now remained was Egypt. In seven days Alexander marched with his
army from Gaza through the desert to the gates of Pelusium, on the
north-eastern frontier of Egypt, where he found the fleet at anchor,
with which Phoenicia and Cyprus had supplied him. The Persian
satrap of Egypt, having no means of defence, surrendered to Alex-
ander without striking a blow. The Egyptians themselves, who had
always hated the oppressive rule of the intolerant Persians, were little
inclined to take up arms, and gladly surrendered to the invader, who
justified their confidence in him by the restoration of several of their
civil and religious institutions which the Persians had suppressed.
The Greeks, of whom great numbers resided in Egypt, may also have
helped the matter. After having paid visits to Heliopolis and Memphis,
he sailed down the Canopic, or most western branch of the Nile, to
the Lake of Marea, and here he founded, on a strip of barren land,
the city of Alexandria, which still exists as a flourishing place of trade.
The place was judiciously selected for the purpose of the Mediter-
ranean trade on the one side, and the communication with the Red
Sea through the Nile ou the other. After the foundations of the new
city were laid, Alexander marched along the coast to Panctonium, and
thence in a southern direction, and through the desert to the renowned
oracle of Jupiter Ammon in the oasis now called Siwah. What may
have induced him to visit this sacred island of the desert is only matter
of conjecture ; but it is not improbable that it was the desire to see
his wishes respecting the sovereignty of the world sanctioned by the
oracle of Jupiter Ammon, and thus to inspire his soldiers with con-
fidence ; or it may be that the visit was connected with the foundation
of Alexandria, and had a commercial object, aa Ammonium was the
centre of a considerable inland trade. Whatever his wishes may have
been, Alexander was perfectly satisfied with the results of his visit :
there was a report that the oracle had declared him the son of Jupiter
Ammon, and promised him the sovereignty of the world ; a report
which mutt have been of incalculable advantage to Alexander with
his soldiers and the inhabitants of Asia. After having richly rewarded
the temple and its priests, he returned to Memphis, according to Aris-
tobulus, by the same road by which he had gone ; but according to
Ptolemicua he took the shortest way across the desert.
In the spring of the year B.C. 331, after having received fresh rein-
forcemenU from Macedonia and Greece, Alexander set out on his
march towards the interior of Asia. He visited Tyre, from whence
he marched to the Euphrates, which he crossed at the ford of Thap-
sacus. From Thapsacus his march was in an eastern direction, across
the plain of Mesopotamia towards the river Tigris, in the direction of
Gaugamela, a distance of no less than 800 miles from Memphis.
Darius had again assembled an immense army, the amount of which
is stated at 1,000,000 infantry, 40,000 horse, 200 chariots with scythes,
and about 1"< elephants. He had chosen a favourable position in the
plains of Gaugamela, east of the Tigris, on the banks of the small
river Bumadus. After having allowed his soldiers four days' rest,
Alexander moved in the night against the enemy, whom he found
drawn up in battle array. On a morning of the month of October,
in the year n.c. 331, the battle which put an end to the Persian
monarchy began. Some parts of the Persian army fought courage-
ously, and the Macedonians sustained some loss : but when Alexander,
by an impetuous attack, succeeded in breaking the centre of the Persian
army, which was commanded by Darius himself, the king took to
flight, and wns followed by his army in utter confusion. Alexander
pursued the fugitives as far as Arbela (Erbil), about fifty miles east
of Gaugamela, where he found the treasures of the king, and got an
immense booty. Darius fled through the mountainous country to
Ecbatana (Hamadan). The loss of the Persians on this day is said to
have been enormous : that of the Macedonians is stated to have been
very inconsiderable. It now only remained for Alexander to subdue
the Persian satraps whose provinces had not yet been conquered, and
who continued faithful to their king. In accomplishing this he was
greatly assisted by the policy that he adopted ; he promised to leave
the satraps who would submit in possession of their former power,
with the exception of the military command, which was given to
Macedonians. The attachment of the people was gained in another
way. Alexander, elated by his success, began to surround himself
with all the pomp and splendour of an eastern king ; ho respected
the religion and customs of his new subjects, and protected them from
the oppression to which they had long been subjected. From this time
a great change is manifest in the character and conduct of Alexander.
ll-j exercised no control over his passions; he commited acts of
cruelty and excess such as are common with eastern despots. But he
did not sink into indolence : active occupation, both mental and physical,
remained now as before the only element in which he cotdd exist.
Bioa DIV. VOL. i.
From Arbela, Alexander marched southward to the ancient city of
Babylon, which opened its gates without resistance ; and he gained
the good-will of the people by ordering the temple of Belus, which
had been damaged by the Persians, to be restored, and by sacrificing
to the god according to the rites of the Chaldtcans. After a short stay
there he set out for Susa (Sus) on the Choaspes (Kerah, or more pro-
perly Kerkhah), which he reached after a march of twenty days, and
where he found immense treasures, which had been accumulated in
this ancient capital. The Macedonians, following the example of their
master, plunged into the enjoyment of the pleasures of this wealthy
city ; and the more readily, as they had hitherto been exposed to all
kinds of hardship, with scarcely any interval of repose. Towards the
end of the year Alexander left Susa for Persepolis, the original seat of
the Persian kings, and where many of them were buried. The road
which he took is described thus : He first marched towards the river
Pasitigris (Karoon), and thence along the valley of Ram-Hormuz to
the mountain pass now called Kala-i-Sifid, which forms the entrance
into Persia Proper. After having met with some resistance at this
spot, he took Persepolis by surprise, so that none of the treasures were
carried away before his arrival. To avenge the destruction of the
Greek temples by the Persians, Alexander, contrary to the advice of
his friend Parmenio, set fire to the palace of Persepolis, and part of
it was burnt down. According to another account he was instigated
to this act of madness by Thais, an Athenian courtezan, duriug tho
revelry of a banquet. Immense ruins (Tchil-Minar) still point out
the site of this ancient city ; but its complete destruction, which is
usually ascribed to Alexander, belongs most probably to a much later
period. After a stay of four months, during which he subdued Persis
and several of the neighbouring mountain tribes, he left, as he had
done at Babylon and Susa, the country under the administration of
a Persian satrap. Early in the year B.C. 330 he began his march on
Ecbatana, where Darius, on seeing that Alexander after the battle of
Gaugamela turned to the south, had collected a new force with which
he hoped to maintain himself in Media. But while he was expecting
reinforcements from the Scythians and Cadusians, he was surprised by
the tidings of Alexander's arrival on the frontiers of Media. Unable
to maintain his ground, Darius fled through Rhagse (Rey, near Tehran),
and the mountain pass, called the Caspian gates (the Elburz moun-
tains), to his Bactrian provinces. After a short stay at Ecbatana,
where he dismissed his Thessalian horse and other allies who had
served their time, with rich presents, Alexander hastened after the
fugitive king ; but on reaching the Caspian gates he was informed that
Darius had been made a prisoner by his own satrap, Bessus. Tho
Macedonians continued their pursuit with great rapidity through tho
arid deserts of Parthia, and when they were near upon Bessus and his
associates, who were unable either to make a stand against Alexander
or to carry their victim any further, the traitors wounded the king
mortally, left him near a place called Hecatompylos, and dispersed in
various directions. Darius died before Alexander came up to the spot.
Moved by the misfortunes of the Persian king, Alexander covered the
body with his own cloak, and sent it to Persepolis to be buried in the
tomb of his ancestors.
From this moment Alexander was in the undisputed possession of
the Persian empire : all the satraps, who had hitherto been faithful to
their king, now seeing that resistance had become hopeless, submitted
to Alexander, who knew how to value their fidelity, and he rewarded
them for it. Bessus, who had escaped to Bactria, assumed under the
name of Artaxerxes the title of king, and endeavoured to get together
an army. Alexander marched into Hyrcania, where the Greeks who
had served in the army of Darius were assembled. After some nego-
ciation Alexander induced them to surrender ; he pardoned them for
what was past, and engaged a great number of them in his service ;
but some Lacedccmonians who had been sent as ambassadors to Darius
by their government were put into chains. At Zadracarta, tho capital
of the Piirthians, the site of which is unknown, Alexander spent fifteen
days; after which he proceeded along the northern extremity of tho
great salt desert towards the frontier of Aria, which submitted to him.
He left this province in the hands of its former satrap, Satibarzaues,
and marched farther east towards Bactria; but he was soon called
back by the news that Satibarznnes had revolted, had formed an alli-
ance with Bessus, and had destroyed the Macedonians who had been
left in his province. In order to secure his rear, Alexander hastened
back with almost incredible speed, and in two days surprised the
faithless rebel in his capital of Artacoana. The satrap took to flight,
and Alexander, after having appointed a new governor, instead of
returning on his former road to Bactria, thought it more expedient to
secure the south-eastern part of Aria. After a march through an
almost impassable country to ascertain the precise road is impossible
he took possession of the countries of the Zarangje, Drangto, Dragogic,
and other tribes on the banks of the river Etymandrus (Helmuud),
which flows into the Lake of Aria (Zerrah). During his stay at
Prophthasia, the capital of the Drangso, things occurred which showed
the altered character of Alexander in the light in which we are only
accustomed to see" an oriental despot. Philotas, the son of Alexander's
friend Parmenio, was charged with having formed a conspiracy against
the life of the king. He wns accused by Alexander before a court of
Macedonians : distinct proof was not produced, though circumstantial
evidence seemed to warrant tho truth of the charge. Philotas was.
Ill
ALEXANDER III.
ALEXANDER IIL
116
id the crim*. and was put to death. So far all mi-lit
U just : but PwtMoio, who wmi UMO with a put of the army t
fnhslMi to guard the treasure* eonrtyad thither from Persis, was
Unwise pot to dath by UM command of Alexander, apparently only
blMMi Alexander feared Urt the fath*r might avenge tb* death of
hkaoB. 8anM atlMr aUwdooiMM ohumd with haTing Ukto put in
Ik* cowpirwy of Phflotae, tad Alexander, MO of Aeropus, were !
put to dmtk TDM* oooumoces also thow tho state of feeling that
began to spread among to* Macedonian* in the army. They must
have Mt gri.rrd at their king abandoning the custom* of their native
bod. and their grief was increased by envy and jealousy ae they law
UM PssaiiDi of rank placed by Alexander on the tame footing with
am ProphthasU tb* army advanced probably up the river Etyman-
dros through the country of the Ariaspians into that of the Arachoti,
who** oooqneet completed that of Aria. The detail of this campaign
is unknown, but it is evident that Alexander must have bad to contend
with extraordinary difficulties. On his march towards the mountains
in tb* north be founded a town, Alexandria, which is supposed to be
ar. He was now separated from Baotria by the
of the Paropamisus, the western ranges of the
Hindoo Cooah. Alexander crossed these lofty mountains, which were
oov*red with deep snow, and did not even supply his army with fire-
wood. After fourteen days of great exertions and sufferings the army
reached Drapsaca, or Adrapaa, the first Bactrion town on the northern
aid* of tb* Paropamisus. Bactria submitted to the conqueror without
resistance, for a* soon as Bessras bad heard of the approach of Alex-
ander be had fltd across the Oxus to Nautaca in Sogdiana. Here he
wa* overtaken and mad* prisoner by Ptolemscns, the son of Lagus, and
was brought by Alexander before a Persian court, which condemned
him to death as a remade.
In the month of May or June, B.C. 329, Alexander with his whole
army rroasej tb* river Oxus, which teems to have been swelled by the
melted snow of the mountain*, a* Arrian states that its breadth was
about six stadia. Boat* or rafts could not be constructed for want of
materials, and the passage was effected in the space of five days by
means of float* made of the tent-skins of the soldiers, filled with light
materials. Previous to crossing this river, Alexander sent home those
Macedonians and Thessslian horsemen who were no longer fit for
service. When be reached the northern bank of the Oxus he directed
hi* course to Mararands, the modern Samarcand, then the capital of
Sogdiana. After several engagements with the warlike inhabitants of
that province, he advanced as far as the river Jaxartes (Sir), which he
meant to make the frontier of his empire against the Scythians.
Cyropolis on the Jaxartes was taken by storm ; and, to strike terror
into the Scythians, he crossed the river, defeated the Scythian cavalry,
and pursued the enemy until his own army became exhausted in
those dry iteppe*, and began to suffer from thirst and the unwhole-
some water of the country. After founding a town, Alexandria, on
the Jaxartes, which was to be a frontier fortress against Scythia, he
returned to Zariaspa, where he spent the winter of 329 and 328.
During the winter months be received various embassies from distant
tribes, and reinforcements for his army, which had been somewhat
diminished by the garrisons which he had been obliged to leave in
several place*. During this some winter Alexander gave another
proof of his ungovernable passion by the murder of Clitus. Arrian
remarks that, among other Asiatic customs, the king had adopted the
Persian fashion of hard drinking, while the miserable flatterers, by
whom he was surrounded, encouraged his vanity by exalting him
above the demigods and heroes of Greece. Clitus, who was drunk
himself, bad the boldness and imprudence to deny Alexander's claim
to such extravagant honours, and the furious king, whom bis attend-
ant* were unable to restrain, pierced his friend through with a javelin
on the spot. Unavailing honours to the dead, and bitter remorse on
be part of the murderer, were the natural termination of this tragical
In the spring of B.C. 828 Alexander again marched into Sogdiana
acroa* th* river Oxus, near a spot which was marked by a fountain of
waUr and a fountain of oil Sogdiana abounded in mountain fortresses,
sad Alexander had to take them before he could be said to have pos-
oo < tb* country. As tho winter in those regions is too cold for
Irtarv operations, be took up his winter quarters at Nautaca. In
jwta* spring be renewed bin attacks upon the mountain for-
of them, which wa* situated upon a steep and almost
rock, and wa* compelled, or rather frightened, into a
rarrsoder, Alexander ,0,4. Oxyartc*, a Bactrian prince, and his
Uaatiful daughter Koxana, his prisoners. Alexander was captivated
5 * *"t7 of lloxana, and made her his wife, to the great delight
C bis eastern subject*. After having reduced all the strongholds iu
h Bactria and aero*, the Hindoo Cooh
M reached after a march, it i* said, of
; winter new symptoms of the dinatis-
ih their king showed themselves. While
S'u??*?! P!"*"*' 00 * 'or an expedition to India, the plan of
_ TLr?? 1 m *** rin '{ * * !* two years, a conspiracy was
formed *minet him, in wfaioh even those iodividulu took part who
" 000 " n P ti W natters, a* UUluthenes of
was at the bead of it, and in conjunction with
a number of the royal pages a plan was formed for murdering tho
king. But the conspiracy wa* discovered, and Callisthenes and
Hermolans with his young associates were put to death.
The time for his Indian expedition had now come, as all the con-
quered countries continued obedient to their new master. Late in
the spring of B.C. 327, he set out from Alexandria in Aria with an
army of about 120,000 men, of whom about 40,000 Macedonians
formed the nucleus. Ptolemoma and Hephaestion were sent a-hea-1 with
a strong detachment to make a bridge of boat* across the river Indus.
Alexander and his army marched to a place called Cabura, which was
henceforth called Nicies, crossed the rivers Choaspes and Oynoua, and
on his road took Aornos, another mountain fortress, notwithstanding
the obstinate resistance of the besieged. He then crossed the Indus,
probably a little north of the modern place called Attock, where the
river is very deep, and about a thousand feet wide. It must have
been early in the year 326 when Alexander entered India, or rather
that part of it which U now called the Punjab, that is, tho Five
Hirers.
His march towards the Indue had not been accomplished without
various struggles with the mountain tribes ; while on the other hand
several Indian chiefs, such as Taxiles of Taxila, welcomed him with
rich presents and surrendered their cities. In this manner Alexander
got possession of Taxila, the largest place between the Indus and the
Hydaspes. Alexander proceeded from Taxila to the river Hydaspes
(now Hehut, or Beilusta), whither the boats which had been used on
the Indus had been conveyed by taking them in pieces. On tho
Hydaspes he met a most resolute enemy in the Indian king Porus, who
possessed the whole country between the Hydaspes aud Aceaiues, and
was hostile to Taxiles, which circumstance seems to have induced
Taxiles to surrender to Alexander and moke him his friend. On
reaching the Hydaspes, Alexander perceived the immense army of
Porus drawn up in battle array on the opposite bank. The river was
much swollen, and there seemed to be no possibility of crossing it.
But Alexander contrived to cross it unobserved with a detachment
of his troops and with his invincible cavalry in a place somewhat above
the part where Porus was posted. Porus began the attack with his
best troops, 200 elephants and 300 war chariots. But Alexander, who
was superior in cavalry, drove back upon their infantry the Indian
cavalry, which, as well as the elephant?, had been placed in front of
their lines ; and these were thrown into utter confusion. After a hard
struggle Alexander gained a complete victory, in which the Indians are
said to have lost 23,000 men, and among them their best generals and
two sons of Porus. The war chariots were destroyed, and the elephants
partly killed and partly taken. The loss of the Macedonians is esti-
mated by Arrian so low that it is scarcely credible, and we are probably
justified in preferring the statement of Diodorus, according to whom
the Macedonians lost upwards of 1200 foot and 300 horsemen. Porus
was among the lost who fled from the field : he was token by tho
soldiers of Alexander, who, full of admiration at his courage, not ouly
restored to him his kingdom, but increased it considerably afterwards,
in order to make him a faithful vassal But by this means he excited
a jealousy between Taxiles and Porus.
After this victory Alexander stayed thirty days on tho Hydaspes,
where he celebrated sacrifices and games, and founded two towns, one
on each bank of the Hydaspes ; that on the western bank was called
Bucephala, in honour of his famous war-horse, and the other Niciea,
to commemorate the victory over Porus. Hereupon the army adv.
towards the third river of the Panjab, the Acesines (Chenaub), which
was crossed in boats and on skins. Alexander then traversed the barren
plain between the Acesines and Hydraotes (Ilavee), the latter of which
rivers he likewise crossed to attack a new enemy. But the second
Porus, who ruled over the country between these two rivers, hod fled
across the Hydraotes on the approach of Alexander, and his dominions
were given to the first Porus. Alexander thus met with no obstacle
until he reached tho eastern bank of the Hydraotes. Here the Cathioi,
the most warlike of the Indian tribes, made a most resolute resistance.
Their army was stationed on an eminence in their capital Songalo,
which was surrounded by walls and a triple liue of waggons; but
this fortress was token, and the power of this brave tribe, whose
descendant* some modern travellers have supposed that they have
discovered in the modern Kattin, was broken, and their territory
was divided among those Indian tribes which had submitted without
resistance. Alexander hod now pressed forward as far as the river
Hyphasis (Qarra), and the reports of a rich country beyond it offered
n temptation to cross this river also. But his exhausted army did not
feel the strength of the temptation. The troops had suffered so much
from tho incessant toil and marches through barren and hostile coun-
tries, and their hopes and expectations had so frequently been dis-
appointed, that they were determined to proceed no farther, and neither
persuasion nor threats could induce them to move. Alexander at last,
advised, as he said, by the signs of the sacrifices, determined not to
lead his army farther. Twelve gigantic towers wore erected on !!'<
banks of the Hyphasis to mark tho limits of his adventure-
n tnnii d across the rivers which he had passed before in a western
direction as far as the Hydanpes, and the whole country between this
river and the Hyphasi* was given to the brave Porus, who thus bcuaiuo
tb* most powerful prince of India.
On reaching the Uydaspos the army did not march farther west, as
117
ALEXANDER III.
ALEXANDER III.
118
Alexander wished to conquer the country around the Indus and to
explore the course of the river down to its mouth. This had been
his plan when he crossed the Hydaspes for the first time, and he had
accordingly given orders to buUd a fleet on the Hydaspes, for which
there were then, as there are now, abundant materials. On his arrival
a great number of ships were ready for sailing, and after a short time
their number was increased to 1800, or, according to others, to 2000.
In the beginning of November, B.C. 326, the army began to move.
Alexander himself embarked in the fleet with about 8000 men, under
the admiral Nearchus, who commanded the ship in which the king
sailed. The remainder of the army was divided between Craterus
and Hephaestion, the former of whom led his forces along the right,
and the latter on the left bank of the river. The tribes through
whose territory the army passed submitted without resistance, except
the Malli, whom Alexander hastened to attack before they were fully
prepared. Their greatest and best fortified place perhaps the modem
Moultan, or Malli-than was taken by an assault, in which Alexander
himself was severely wounded. This accident threw the army into
the greatest consternation ; but he was soon restored, and the rest of
the Malli sent envoys with offers to recognise his sovereignty. The
submission of the Indian tribes south of the Malli took place without
any difficulty. When the army reached the point where the four
united rivers join the Indus, he ordered a town, Alexandria, and
dockyards to be built, which were garrisoned by some Thracians under
the satrap Philip, to keep the country in subjection. After having
reinforced his fleet, he sailed down the Indus, and visited Sogdi, where
he likewise ordered dockyards to be built. All the Indian chiefs on
both aides of the river submitted. Musicanus, one of them, was
seduced by the Brahmins to revolt, but he was taken and put to death.
All the important towns that fell into the conqueror's hands received
garrisons.
Before Alexander reached the territory of the Prince of Pattala,
who submitted without a blow, about the third part of the army was
Bent, under the command of Craterus, westward through the country
of the Arrachoti and Drangae into Carmania. At Pattala, the apex
of the Indian delta, Alexander built a naval station, and then sailed
down the western branch of the river into the Indian Ocean, a
voyage which wag not without danger on account of the rapid changes
of the tides. He then also explored the eastern branch of the river
as well as the delta inclosed by 'the two arms. The end he had in
view was the establishment of a commercial communication by sea
between India and the Persian Gulf. For this purpose he ordered
dockyards to be built, wells to be dug, and the land round Pattala to
be cultivated. Pattala itself was garrisoned. Nearchus now received
orders to sail with the fleet from the mouth of the Indus through the
unknown ocean to the Persian Gulf [NEARCHUS], while Alexander
moved from Pattala, in the autumn of 325, and took the nearest road
to Persia through the country of the Arabitoe and Onto;, whose prin-
cipal town, Kaiubacia, he extended and fortified. After having
appointed a governor he proceeded towards Gedrosia (Mekran). As
the army advanced, the country became more barren and desolate, and
the roads were almost impassable. The march through the arid and
sandy desert of Qedrosia in the burning heat of the sun, while water
and provisions were wanting, surpassed all the difficulties and suffer-
ings which the army had hitherto experienced. Alexander did every-
thing in his power to alleviate the Bufferings of his men, but during
sixty days of exhaustion and disease a considerable part of the army
perished. After unspeakable sufferings they at last reached Pura.
Here the soldiers were allowed a short rest, and then proceeded with-
out any difficulty to Carmana (Kirman), the capital of Carmania,
where Alexander was joined by Craterus with his detachment and
the elephants. Soon after Nearchus also landed on the coast of
Carmania near Harmozia (Ormuz). The king, delighted with the
success of his bold enterprises, offered thanks and sacrifices to the
gods, and rewarded his men by festivities and amusements.
After a short stay Nearchus continued his voyage along the coast
to the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates; Kephxstion led the
greater part of the army, the beasts of burden, and the elephants
along the sea-coast to Persia ; and Alexander, with his light infantry
and his horseguards, took the nearest road across the mountains to
Pasargadx, the burial-place of the great Cyrus. His tomb had been
plundered by robbers, and the body thrown out of the golden coffin.
Alexander ordered the body to be restored to its place of rest, and
the damage of the tomb to be repaired by skilful artists. After
having paid this honour to the dead, he went to PersepolLt, where he
is said to have felt bitter remorse at seeing the destruction which
he had caused. As few had expected that Alexander would return
from his Indian expedition, some of the Persian satraps had during
his absence oppressed their provinces. The Persian governor at
Peraepolis was put to death, and the Macedonian, Pcucestas, was
appointed hi bis stead, who, by adopting the manners of the Persians,
gave great satisfaction to the people. From Persepolis Alexander
marched to Susa on the Choaspea, in ac. 324. Here the army was at
length allowed to rest and recover from their fatigues, which the king
mad') them forget by brilliant festivities. All the governors who had
<nducted themselves during bis absence were severely punished,
ami after this was over, he began the great work of consolidating the
union between the Western and Eastern world by intermarriages.
The king himself set the example, and took a second wife, Barsine,
the eldest daughter of Darius, and according to some authorities, a
third, Parysatis, the daughter of Ochus. About eighty of his generals
also received each an Asiatic wife, who was assigned by the king, and
Hephsestion, the dearest friend of Alexander, received another daughter
of Darius, that their children might be of the same blood. About
10,000 other Macedonians chose Persian women for their wives, with
whom they received rich dowries from the king. These marriages
were celebrated with the most brilliant festivities and amusements
that Greek taste, and ingenuity could devise. Another stap was also
taken towards establishing a union between Europeans and Asiatics.
The Asiatics, who had hitherto been regarded as an inferior race, and
only served as auxiliary troops in the army of Alexander, were now
trained and armed in the European fashion : they were organised in
separate regiments, and partly incorporated with those of the Mace-
donians, and placed on an equality with them. This policy was wise
and necessary ; for, not to mention more obvious reasons, Macedonia
must at that time have been nearly exhausted by the frequent rein-
forcements sent into Asia. While he was thus engaged in Persia,
Alexander did not neglect his plans for the extension of commerce ;
he made the rivers Eulacus and Tigris more suitable for navigation by
removing the bunds, or masses of masonry, by which the current of
the water was impeded, for the purpose of irrigation. To carry his
plans into effect, and to gain' a clear view of the matter himself, ho
sailed down the Eulacus and returned up the Tigris as far as Opis.
The Macedonians were dissatisfied with the new arrangements
which Alexander had made in the army, and also with his conduct :
he seemed to despise the customs of his forefathers. They only
waited for an opportunity to break out in open rebellion. This
opportunity was offered in 324, during a review of the troops at Opis,
when Alexander expressed his intention to dismiss the Macedonians
who had become unfit for further service, which they took as an
insult. He succeeded however in quelling the mutiny, partly by
severity and partly by prudence, and at last a solemn reconciliation
took place, and 10,000 Macedonian veterans were honourably seut
home under the command of Craterus, who at the same time was to
take the place of Autipater as governor of Macedonia, while Autipater
was to come to Asia with fresh reinforcements. Soon after the
departure of these veterans Alexander paid a visit to Ecbatana, and
while in the autumn the festival of Dionysus (Bacchus) was cele-
brated there, his friend Hephaestion died : an event which caused
Alexander the deepest grief, and is said to have thrown him into a
state of melancholy from which he never recovered. HephoDstion's
body was conveyed to Babylon, and buried there in a manner worthy
of the friend of Alexander. Soon after the king with his army like-
wise marched to Babylon, and on his way thither he endeavoured to
dissipate his grief by warring with the Cossaei, a race of mountaineers,
whom he nearly extirpated. Before he reached Babylon, there
appeared before him ambassadors from the remotest parts of the
world to do homage to the conqueror of Asia. Among other nations
of Western Europe the Romans also are said to have honoured him
with an embassy : and there is indeed nothing surprising in this, for
at that time the name of Alexander must have been familiar to all
nations from the shores of the Atlantic to the borders of China.
On the arrival of Alexander at Babylon vast plans of conquest, and
the establishment of useful institutions in his new dominions, occu-
pied him, and he 'seems now more than ever to have required active
occupation. His next object waa the conquest of Arabia ; and to
open the navigation from the Persian Gulf round the Peninsula of
Arabia into the Red Sea. This conquest, according to some accounts,
was to be followed by expeditions against Africa, Sicily, Italy, and
Iberia. Babylon, as the centre between the Western and Eastern
world, was chosen for the capital of this gigantic empire, and prepara-
tions were made to restore the ancient splendour of the city. But
Alexander's body sank under the exertions which were required for
the superintendence of his great preparations, combined with excesses
in whicL he is said to have endeavoured to forget his grief. At the
end of May B.C. 323, he was attacked by a fever which terminated
his life in the course of eleven days. Alexander died at the early age
of thirty-two years, after a reigu of twelve years and eight months,
during which he had extended his empire from the coasts of the
Mediterranean to the eastern tributaries of the Indus. Ho died
without having declared his successor, which was probably owing to his
having lost the power of speech during the last days of his illness.
He gave his seal-ring to Perdiccas ; but this may have meant no more
than that Perdiccas should be regent during the minority of tho
lawful heir ; Roxaua was pregnant at the time of Alexander's death.
His body was embalmed, and in B.C. 321 it was conveyed to Memphis,
and theuco to Alexandria. A sarcophagus now in the British Museum,
which was brought over from Alexandria, has been called tho sarco-
phagus of Alexander, but without sufficient evidence.
Alexander belongs not to the history of Macedonia only. From tho
borders of Chiua to the British islands in the West, his name appears
in the history of tho early poetry of every country. In Asia he is
still the hero of ancient times ; and the tales of the great exploits of
Iskander are even now listened to with delight by tho people of Asia.
As a military commander he had great merit. His movements wero
rapid and well directed. He knew what might bo neglected, and
11*
ALEXANDER I.
ALKX VNMEK J
l.'O
bfj :.
, before b* eould safoly advance. Wl.ru
i of the army of Darius were once broken, con-
i tuu*t follow; and oeor.lingly in bis campaigns he wade great
owof hi* WflsfaUbli cavalry, that arm to which b* I
mainly owed all
He could adapt himself to all circumstances, be wai
io resource*, and always ready to anil hiuwlf of every
opportunity. HU eooqueaU made a lasting impression upon Ada
and Africa; and although hi* empire wai dismembered after bU
deal*. Ibe Greek colonie* be bad founded long survived him. From
the ruin* of bii empire Greek kingdom* were formed as far ai India,
for centuric*. New fleldi were opened to
_T ; and to him it is owing that Eastern Asia became
accessible to European 'tei !<*-
Tbere U eearody an ancient writer after the time of Alexander
from whom auuie information respecting him may not be collected.
Many of U* eontompoiaries and companions wrote of hi* life and
exploit*, but all theee original work* are lost. The biographic of
Alexander, a* that by Plutarch. Arrian, Cur^ju*. and what is told of
bint in DiodonM and Justin, are compilations derived from earlier
source*. Toe most important and most trustworthy work for the life
of Alexander U the ' Expedition of Alexander,' by Arrian, who pro-
fsassi to follow the accounts of Ptolemeos, the son of Lagus, and of
ArMobulu* of Cassacdria, and who is himself a careful and judicious
(Prom the Bioyrafkical Dictionary of the Society for the Difution
ef l'/ml Kmowltdgt.)
ALEXANDER I., surnamed BALAS, or Bax\r,,, reigned as king of
Syria from B.C. 150 to 145. According to some authorities, Alex-
ander took bis suiname from bis mother Bala or Balle. Others regard
Alexander B>1.
it as a title tignifjing lord or king. The governor of Babylon,
Hcrsclides, being exiled to Rhodes by Demetrius I., penuaded Alex-
ander, who was of low birth, to feign himself a son of Antiochus
Epiphan**, and to claim as such the right of succeeding him. The
Roman senate, to revenge themselves on Demetrius, acknowledged
the pretender on bis appearing at Rome. The edict in his favour
induced Ariaratbes, king of Cappadocia, Ptolemteus, and Attalua
II.. kins; of Pergamus, to tend troops to assist him. Many dis-
contented Syrians joined his army. Demetrius I., as well as
Alexander lialaa, endeavoured to obtain the support of Jonathan,
the Maecabe*. who headed at that time the Jewish patriots. Jona-
than embraced the party of Alexander, who conferred upon him the
high priesthood, styled him friend of the king, and presented him
with a purple rob* and a diadem. Alexander Balas having been
defeated in the first battle, 152, received reinforcements and gained
decisive victory in the year 150. Demetrius I., who was wounded
by an arrow, perished in a swamp. Alexander Balas then mounted
the throne of Syria, and married, at Ptolcmais, Cleopatra, a daughter
of PtolemsM* Pbilometor. When Balas considered bis government
nffieiently established, be left the cares of administration to his
f.rouriu Ammoniiu, in order to enjoy without restraint a luxurious
life. Ammonias put to death those members of the royal family of
UM flilendJn whom b* could get into bis power, but there still lived
in tbe island of Cnidus two sous of the last king, the elder of whom,
Demetrius II.. landed in Cilicia, whilst the governor of Ccelesyria,
ApoUonins, rebelled against Balas in tbe year B.& 148. Apollonius
was beaten by Jonathan, but Balas himself was obliged to march
against LtaneUiu* IL Ptolemaus, who had apparently oomo to assist
: -.
Us f^Uvlaw, roddnly embraced the oanse of Demetrius, after
MMbfBaU'of an inUntiio to murder him. Balas, being defeated
by PtolouUDua, escaped into Arabia, where he was murdered by an
Arabian chieftain, in the town of Abas, which was afterwards called
Motho ('his death'). Demetrius II, surnamed Nike-tor, then ascended
the throne of Syria.
Justin (xxxv. 12) sUtas that Balai was tbe original name by which
Alexander was known during the period of his private life. He is
called by Strabo Balas Alexandras ; where the word Balas appears to
be used by him as synonymous with king. In the British Museum
there are many silver and copper coins of Alexander Balas. On some
coins the head of Alexander Balas is associated with that of Cleopatra,
who occupies tbe foreground with a modius on her head, an indica-
tion of his subordination to this proud woman.
ALEXANDER II., ZKBINAS, or ZEBIN.EUS, reigned over a
part of the kingdom of Syria from B.C. 128 to 122. The inhabitants of
Apaniea, Autiocheia, and some other cities, disgusted with the tyranny
of Demetrius II., requested Ptoleinious Physcon to appoint another
king. PtolemiBus sent them the son of a broker, Prot&rchos of Alex-
andria, whom he represented as having been adopted by Autiochu*
Sidetes. The pretender took tbo name Alexander; but the people
called him Zebiuos, the ' bought one,' from a report that he had been
purchased by Ptolemams as a slave. Demetrius being defeated near
Damascus, fled to Tyre, where he was murdered. Zebinas thinking his
kingdom firmly established, refused the annual tribute to Ptolemxus,
who now encouraged Autiocbus VIII., the son of Demetrius II.
Zebinas was in his turn defeated by the Egyptian aiuiy, and retreated
to Antiooh ; where, being unable to pay his troops, he permitted them
to pillage the temple of Victory, and took for himself the golden statue
of Jupiter. Expelled by the people of Autioch from their city, and
deserted by his troops, ho endeavoured to escape on board a small
vessel into Greece, but was taken by a pirate, and delivered into the
hands of Ptolemxus, who put him to death. The British Museum
contains rilver and copper coins of Alexander Zebinas.
Alexander Zebinu.
ALEXANDER JANN^IUS, third eon of Johannes Hyrcanus, suc-
ceeded his brother Aristobulus I., as king of the Jews, and as high-
priest, in B.C. 104, having put to death a brother who claimed the
crown. Taking advantage of the disturbances in Syria, ho attacked
Ptolemais (Acre), which, with some other cities, had made itself imlr-
peudeut The inhabitants called Itolcmxus Lathyrus, of Cyprus, to
their assistance, by whom Alexander JannmuB was beaten on the banks
of the Jordan, and Palestine horribly ravaged, until, by the aid of
Cleopatra, the mother of Lathyrua, Alexander was enabled to repel
his enemy. Alexander then conquered Gaza, burned the city, and
massacred the inhabitant* who had joined the party of Lathyrus.
Jannams embraced the party of the Sadducees ; and, of course, was
hated by the Pharisee* and by the people. On the Feast of Taber-
nacle*, after being pelted by the people with lemons, and insulted by
their opprobrious language, he caused 6000 men to be cut down, and
in future protected himself by a body-guard of Libyans and Pisidians.
Having lost his army in an unfortunate expedition against the Ara-
bians, the Pharisees made an insurrection, and carried on for six yean
a civil war against the king, in which 50,000 Jews ore said to havo
perished. The rebels, supported by the Arabians, the Moabites, and
by Demetrius Eukicros, compelled Alexander to escape into the moun-
tains. But a part of the auxiliaries coming over to the king's party,
he was now enabled to crush the rebels ; and to gratify his vengeance,
he crucified on one day 800 of the most distinguished captives. Their
wives and children were massacred before their eyes ; whilst the king
dined with his wires in sight of the victims. On account of this
cruelty he was surnamed 'the Thracinn.'
Alexander Janntcui.
Alexander after this engaged in several wars, by which he enlarged
bin dominions. Desirous to reconcile his subjects, he asked them what
121
ALEXANDER.
ALEXANDER I.
123
he should do to make them quite content ? " Die," they replied. He
did die at the siege of Ragaba, in Gerasena, in consequence of his
gluttony, in the 27th year of his reign. He had two sons ; but left
the government to his widow. (Joseph., ' Archaeolog.,' xiii. c. 12-15.)
There is a small copper coin of Jannseus in the Britiah Museum, but
the Samaritan inscription between the rays of the stars, mentioned by
others, ia not discernible. (Compare Bayeri ' Vindiciae Num. Hebr.,'
plate, fig. 5.) There is another coin extant, which shows that Jona-
than was his Hebrew name, and that Alexander was the name assumed
by him according to the prevalent custom.
ALEXANDER, a son of king Aristobulus II., ^ud gramlson of
Jannseus, was taken captive in Judaea by Pompseus, who. intended to
exhibit him with his father and brother in his triumph at Rome.
Alexander escaped on the journey, and returned to Judaea, where he
raised an army of 10,000 foot and 1500 horse to attack Hyrcanus, who
had been appointed by I'ompicus to govern Judaea. Alexander took
several castles in the mountains; but Uyrcauus imploring the assist-
ance of the Romans, Marcus Autouius, who was sent by Gabinius,
governor of Syria, defeated Alexander near Jerusalem, B.C. 57, and
besieged him in Alexandrion, a small town with a fine castle, about
six miles south of Tyre, where he capitulated. After his father Aris-
tobulus had escaped from Rome to Jud;ea, and been again defeated
and put into prison, Alexander once more took up arms, conquered
Judaea, put many Romans to death, and besieged the rest in Garizin.
But his army of 30,000 men was finally defeated by Gabinius, in a
battle near Mount Tabor, in which 10,000 Jews perished. Alexander
at last fell Into the hands of Metellus Scipio, and was beheaded at
Antioch. in the year B.C. 49.
ALEXANDER POLYHISTOR. [POLYHISTOR.]
ALEXANDER SEVERUS. [SEVERUS.]
ALEXANDER I., one of the earliest bishops of Rome, succeeded
Evaristus about the beginning of the 2nd century of our era, but the
precise epoch is not well ascertained.
ALEXANDER II., a Milanese, succeeded Nicholas II. in 1061.
This was at the beginning of the dispute between the see of Rome and
the emperors of Germany, concerning the investitures. The imperial
party assembled a conclave at Basle, where they elected Cadalous,
bishop of Parma, who took the name of Honorius II. Cadalous was
taken prisoner, and confined in the castle of St. Angelo at Rome, and
Alexander was generally acknowledged as pope. He died in 1073, and
was succeeded by Gregory VII.
ALEXANDER III., Cardinal Rinaldo of Siena, succeeded Adrian IV.
in 1159. Hia long pontificate of twenty-one years was agitated by
wars against the emperor Frederick I., and by a schi.-m in the church,
during which three successive antipopes were raised in opposition to
Alexander. The latter took part with the Lombard cities in their
struggle against Frederick. [FREDERICK I., BARBAROSSA.] At last
peace was made, and Alexander was universally acknowledged as pope.
He held a great council in the Lateran palace in 1180, when a decretal
was passed, that two-thirds of the cardinals should be requisite to
make an election valid. He died at Rome in 1181, and was succeeded
by Lucius II. Alexander took part with Thomas a Becket in his
contest with King Henry II., and canonised him after he had been
murdered.
ALEXANDER IV., of Anagnj, succeeded Innocent IV. in 1254.
He inherited the ambition, but not the talents of his predecessor.
He manifested the same inveterate hostility against the house of
Suabia, and its representative Manfred, king of the Two Sicilies, but
did not succeed in his attempt at overthrowing the latter, which
became the work of his two immediate successors. Alexander died hi
1261, and was succeeded by Urban IV.
ALEXANDER V., a native of Candia, and monk of the Franciscan
order, was elected in 1409, and died the following year. He was suc-
ceeded by John XXIII.
ALEXANDER VI., Roderic Borgia, of Valencia in Spain, a man of
great personal wealth, and of some ability, but of loose conduct. He
had been made a cardinal by bis uncle Calixtus III., and was elected
pope in 1492, after the death of Innocent VIII. At the time of his
election, he had four children by his mistress Vanozia ; and, during
his reign, he made no scruple at employing every means in his power
to confer on them honour and riches. The politics of the pope were
capricious and faithless in the extreme. At first he was hostile to the
house of Aragon then reigning at Naples, and showed himself favour-
able to the French, who were at that time attempting to invade Italy,
but afterwards his younger son, Gioffredo, having married a daughter
of Alfonso II. of Naples, Alexander allied himself with the latter, for
the purpose of arresting the progress of the invaders. As, however,
Charles VIII., at the head of his army, advanced upon Rome, the
pope received him with honour, and promised him his support for the
conquest of Naples, and even gave him his son, Cardinal Caesar, as a
hostage. But the cardinal found means to escape ; and Alexander
joined the league formed in the north by the Venetians and Sforza
against the French, which led to the expulsion of the latter. He
afterwards allied himself to Lewis XII. of France, successor of
Charles VIII., who wanted the pope's sanction for divorcing his first
wife : he was also a party to the double treachery by which Ferdinand
of Spaib first betrayed the cause of his relative, Frederic of Naples,
partitioning that kingdom between Lewis XII. and himself; and tben,
breaking his engagement with the French, he seized upon the whole of
the conquest by means of his general, Gonsalvo. Alexander's internal
policy was, if possible, still more perfidious. He was bent upon the
destruction of the great Roman families of Colonna, Oraini, and
Savelli ; and either by treachery or open violence he succeeded in
putting most of them to death, and seizing on their extensive pos-
sessions. He sent his son, the Duke Valentine, into the Romagna,
where, by means of similar practices, the latter made himself master
of that country. Alexander gave his only daughter, Lucretia Borgia,
in marriage, first, to Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro, whom she after-
wards divorced ; then to a prince of the house of Aragon, who was
murdered by her brother Caesar. She was married a third time, in
1501, to Alfonso d'Este, son of Hercules, duke of Ferrara, to whom
she brought as a dowry 100,000 golden pistoles, besides jewels. Alex-
ander's eldest son, John, duke of Gandia, was murdered one night
while returning from a debauch, by unknown assassins, and thrown
into the Tiber. (Roscoe's ' Leo X.,' vol. i.) At last Alexander himself
died on the 18th of August, 1503, being 74 years of age. It was
said, and several historians have repeated the assertion, that he died
of poison which was intended for his guest, the Cardinal of Corneto.
This crime however is not clearly proved. He was succeeded nomi-
nally by Pius III., who died twenty-six days after his election, and
then by the famous Julius II. The pontificate of Alexander VI. is
certainly the blackest page jn the history of modern Rome. The
general demoralisation of that period, of which abundant details are
found in John Burchard's ' Diarium," as well as in Panvinius, Mura-
tori, Fabre's continuation of Fleury's 'Ecclesiastical History," and
other writers, Catholic aa well as Protestant, appears in our times
almost incredible.
Alexander VI.
ALEXANDER VII., Fabio Chigi of Siena, succeeded Innocent X.
in 1 655. He embellished Rome, and protected learning, but was accused
of favouring too much his relatives and connexions. He was embroiled
in a dispute with the imperious Louis XIV. of France, in consequence
of some insult which had been offered by the populace to the Duke of
Crequi, French ambassador at Rome. He died in May, 1667, and was
succeeded by Clement IX.
ALEXANDER VIII., Cardinal Ottoboni of Venice, succeeded
Innocent XI. in 1689. He assisted his native country in its wars
against the Turks. He died in February, 1691, at the age of eighty-
two, and was succeeded by Innocent XII.
ALEXANDER I., king of Scotland, was a younger son of
Malcolm III. (Canmore), and succeeded his eldest brother Edgar, who
died without issue, on the 8th of January, 1107. In those times, iu
Scotland, aa well as in other countries, the succession to the throne
was frequently regulated, at least to a certain extent, by the will of
the reigning king ; and Edgar, at his death, left part of his dominions
to his younger brother David. Lord Hailes thinks that David's share
was ouly the Scottish portion of Cumberland ; but it probably included
the whole territory that was considered subject to the Scottish crowu
to the south of the Forth, except the Lothians. Alexander eventually
acquiesced in this apportionment. The instructions of his mother,
Margaret, the sister of Edgar Atheling, and the advantages which he
enjoyed from the society of the English exiles, who crowded, after the
Conquest, to his father's court, had given to Alexander a degree of
literary cultivation which none of his predecessors had possessed.
His natural talents seem also to have been of a superior order ; while)
he possessed in an eminent degree the energy of character suited to
the times in which he governed. His reign was agitated by successive
insurrections ; every one of which, however, he promptly put down.
One of the most serious was that excited in the district of Moray, in
1120, by Angus, the grandson of Lulach, son of the wife of Macbeth,
and the occupant of the throne for a few months after the death of
that usurper. Angus claimed the crown in virtue of this descent ;
but Alexander speedily quelled the attempt. From his energy on
ALEXANDER JAKOSLAWITZ NEVSKOJ.
Uu. ntmrian. be derived the epiUM or surname by which he i* known
ia SeoMish kMtory. The oU esuoicl.r, Wyuton. says
*> Fra that 4ar fceta hi. nets* ill
r4 hun Alnaader the Plere* to call."
Alsisaitst (how*! equal spirit In resisting foreign encroachment*
pea the ladepeadsna* of hi* kingdom. During hii niga the arch-
bhbmn of Osaterbury and York claimed episcopal jurisdiction in
BealUid ; but Ih. determination of the Scottish king at length coin-
pelted the Kafluh prelaUe to give up the contest. St Andrew's, and
amral of Uw otbr innlisllilicil foundation! of Sootland, were Urgely
ladiH.J to the booaty of Alexander. He founded a church, in 1128.
n the Me of iDcboolm, in tb* Krith of Korth, in the neighbourhood
f whicb. bo bad aearly perished in a tempest. He died at Stirling,
without tearing ; legitimate iwue, on the S7th of April, 1124, and
wm* meeeeded by hi* brother David I. Alexander had married
Sibilto, taw natural daughter of Heury I. of England. She died sud-
denly, at Loohtev, on the IStb of June, 1182.
ALtXANDKK II.. king of Scotland, wa* born at Haddington on
the Sllh of August (St Bartholomew'* Day), 1198. He succeeded
hi* father, William UM Lion, on the 4th of December, 1214, and was
orowiKd at Soooe on the following day. He began hi* reign by enter-
ing into a leaiue with th* English baron* who were confederated
agauwt King John engaging to aid them in their insurrection, on
m of befog put in possession of the northern counties of
bis led to several devastating i
aafstao. TBSJ led to several devastating incursion* into each other's
dnnininsM by the two kings. Tho death of John, in October, 1216,
pat an sad to their hostilities ; and the following year Alexander con-
cluded a treaty of peace with Henry III., one of the conditions being
that Alexander should espouse Henry'* eldest sister, the Princes*
Joan. Tbi* marriage accordingly took place on the 25th of June, 1221.
In the course of the following thirteen yean Scotland was disturbed
by asumctions which broke out successively in Argyle, in Caithness,
in Murray, and in Galloway; ail of which, however, Alexander put
down. Hi* connexion with the royal family of England preserved
peso* between the two countries, and led to considerable intercourse
between the SoottUh king and his brother-in-law, whom he repeatedly
visited at London. The death of Queen Joan without issue, on the
4th of March, 1288, and the marriage of Alexander, on the 15th of
May in the following year, with Mary, daughter of a French nobleman,
Ingelram de Conei, broke this bond of amity ; and after some years of
mutual dissatisfaction and complaint, the two kings -prepared to decide
their differences by arms in 1244. By the intervention however of
some of the English nobility, bloodshed was prevented, after Alex-
ander had approached the border with an army, it is eaid, of 100,000
men ; and a peace was concluded at Newcastle in August of that year.
In 1-J47 another insurrection broke out in Galloway, which Alexander
BOOB suppressed. In the summer of 1249 he had set out at the head
of an army to repress a rebellion raised by Angus, Lord of Argyle,
when he wa* tak.n ill at Kerarry, a small island off the coast of
ArjryU, sad died there on the 8th of July. By hi* second marriage
he Uft an only son, bis successor, Alexander IIL Alexander II. bears
a high character in the page* of the ancient historians and chroniclers
of Scotland j and be appear, to have been a prince endowed with many
great qualities. Besides the ability with which he preserved both the
independence and the internal order of his kingdom, he is particularly
oslsbratid for bis regard to justice, and the wisdom and impartiality
wbiob be secured In the administration of the laws among all classes
of bis subject*. Thi* virtue in a king or governor never fails to attract
I>opularatUcbmeot and respect j accordingly, we are told by a con-
" B1 l l J***J_niisn writer, Matthew Paris, that Alexander was descrv-
loMd, not only by his own subjects, but by the people of
Eafland likewise. He b usually characterised as altogether one of
the ablest and beat of the Scottish kings.
ALKXANDKR III., king of Scotland, the son and successor of
Alsmaader II., was born at Roxburgh on the 4th of September, 1241.
Jthoogh only eight yean old st his father's death, he was crowned at
*?**.V. ^ "' Mrn> h n. biahop of St Andrew's, on the 18th of
t. having previous to that ceremony been knighted by the
He bad already, when only a year old, been betrothed
Manarrt, the eldest daughter of the English king, Henry III. ; and
itaf the youth of both parties, the celebration of the mar-
ork on the 2Mb of December, 1251. The con-
-ther with the minority of his son in-law, gave
I for interfering, as he was anxious to do, in
_.,,! as. _ 1 1 _ . i
. - > reduce the Soottiab kings to the condition
of ~U. Tb. .Btetat talents however which Alexander begw to
t^^L^^^'f^^^^'^'^ Wio
JoBrfaioos, .effectually thwarted the 8 further
ftl^Stn " l !T^K b * ke|li " i 1 **"" wlth
Wbsria-iaw. fa 12*0 be vWted London with hi* queen. In
February, 1261, the queen WM delivered at Windsor of a daughter,
who wan named Margaret
On the 1st of October, 1264, Haoo, king of Norway, after having
ravaged the Western Islands, approached the coast of Ayrshire at the
head of a numerous fleet Every preparation had been made by the
Scottish king to meet this formidable armament ; but when only a
small portion of the Norwegian troop* had landed, a tempest of unu-
sual fury suddenly arose, aud drove nearly all the ships on ihore or
otherwise destroyed them. The attack of the Scottish soldiers and
peasantry completed the destruction of the invading force ; and Haco
with difficulty mada his escape, only to die of a broken heart a few
month* afterwards. Next year, Magnus, Haco'a successor, agreed to
relinquish to the king of Scotland the Hebrides and the Isle of Man
for the sum of 4000 mark*, and a small yearly quit-rent. In U
peaoe between the two kingdoms was further consolidated by tho
marriage of Alexander's daughter, Margaret, to the Norwegian" king
Krir, then a youth of fourteen. Margaret died in 1288, but left a
daughter of the same name, commonly designated the ' Maiden of
Norway,' who eventually became the successor of hor grandfather on
the Scottish throne.
The successful resistance which, seconded by his clergy, ho offered
to an attempt of the Pope to levy certain new imposts in his dominion",
is almost the only other act in Alexander's reign which history has
commemorated. Under hi* sway, Scotland appears to have enjoyed
a tranquillity to which she had long been a stranger, and which she
did not regain for many year* after his decease. The death of hi*
daughter Margaret however was the first of a succession of calamities.
Soon after her nuptials, Alexander, the prince of Scotland, the king's
only *on, who was born in 1203. had isponsed Margaret, daughter of
Guy, earl of Flanders ; but he also died without issue on the 28th of
January, 1284. On the 16th of April, 1285, tho king, having sonic
time before lost his fiwt wife, married Joletta, daughter of the Count
de Dreux, in the hope of leaving a male heir. But on the 1
March, 1286, as he was riding in a dark night between Burnt
and Kinghorn, on the banks of the Krith of Forth in Fifeshire, he was
thrown with his horse over a precipice, at a turn of the road about a
mile west from Kiughorn, and killed on the spot Tho place, which is
called the King's \Vud End, is still pointed out A cross was erected
upon tho spot, but it has long since disappeared. The death of Alex-
ander, followed as it wa* in a few years by that of the Maiden of
Norway, left Scotland to contend at once with the internal distractions
arising from a disputed succession, and with all the art and force
employed by a powerful neighbour to effect its subjugation. Alex-
ander was also lamented by his subjects on account of his own wisdom
and virtues. The country had never before enjoyed such prosperity,
and Scotland may be said, during this reign, to have passed from semi-
barbarism to civilisation. It was then that its intercourse with England
first became considerable, and that it began to acquire an acquaintance
with the arts and manners of what we may call European life. Alex-
ander also improved and completed the system for the dispensation of
justice which had been introduced by hia father; he divided the
country into four districts for that purpose, and made an annual pro-
gress through it in person for hearing appeals from the decisions of
the ordinary judges. He was long affectionately remembered in Scot-
land ; and the old chronicler Wynton has preserved tho following
verse* respecting him, which are extremely interesting, as being tho
most ancient specimen of the Scottish dialect now extant :
" Quhrn Alexander ouro King was dcde,
Dat Scotland led in luwc (lore) and Ic (law),
Away WM soni of ale and brcdo,
Of wyne and wax, of gamrn (gamboling) and gle.
Core gold was changed into lede.
ChiUt, born into rlrgvnj-te,
Succour Scotland, and rrroede,
Dat itad (placed) i In perplezytu."
ALEXANDER JAROSLAtt'ITZ NEVSKOJ enjoyed a high renown
among his countrymen for bravery, prudence, and religious zeal : ho
has been celebrated in many a Russian ballad, and is still venerated
by tho present generation. He was the second son of the Grand Duke
Jaroslaw II. Wscladowitz, and was born at Vladimir in 1219. At the
period when his father ruled over Novogorod (in 123"), the Tartarc,
with a very largo army, under the command of the Khan of Kaptshak,
a grandson of Gengis Khan, invaded Russia, desolated the country in
the most cruel manner, overran it oven to the Upper Volga, and
exacted the most degrading submission from the Russian prince*.
Jaroslaw, though not immediately attacked by the Tartars in his own
Principality of Novogorod, found it advisable to repair to tho great
Tartar horde stationed at that time in the region of the modern city
of Kasau, to pay homage to Batu-Khan. From this khan he r
the grand duchy of Vla.litnir, to be held as a fief, made Pvrjaslawl his
reddencc, and as his elder *on Feodor had died in 1232, he entrusted
Alexander the younger with the government of Novogorod. Returning
a second time to the great horde, and there remonstrating against
certain unreasonable Tartarian commands, he nut with ill tre:n
and ili. d on hi* homeward journey, in the month of September, 1245.
Alexander succeeded hi* father in tho fief uf Vladimir, the pos-
session of which was confirmed to him by Batii-Klmn. Alex
while his father wa still alive, had distinguished himself I
125
ALEXANDER.
ALEXANDER.
126
victories one over the Swedes, and another over the united order of
the Livonian and Teutonic Knights of the Sword. A crusade against
the Russians had been instigated by Pope Gregory IX., who, by a bull
of 1229, enjoined the bishops of Lvibeck, Linkjbping, and Livlond, to
prohibit all intercourse and commerce with the schismatic Russians,
as long as they should resist the conversion of the apostate Finlanders.
This however was only a negative measure ; but the bull of the 14th
of May, 1237, by which the Livonian and Esthonian Knights of the
Sword were united to the Teutonic order, evidently by way of strength-
ening them for a Russian crusade, tended in a more direct and positive
manner towards the destruction of the Greek Church in the north-east
of Europe. The Roman Court also opened negociations with Eric XI.,
king of Sweden, who, at the Pope's instigation, gladly sent an army
ntrainst the Finlanders, which landed near the mouth of the Neva, on
the spot where St. Petersburg has since been built. Alexander marched
against this army, and, on the 15th of July, 1240, totally defeated it
at the confluence of the Ishora and the Neva. By this victory he
obtained the honourable surname of Nevgkoj, or Alexander of the
Neva. While he was thus engaged, the Knights of the Sword, com-
manded by their chief, Hermann von Balk, had taken Pleskow. Early
in the year 1241, Alexander marched against them from Novogorod,
and drove them out of Pleskow ; but having allowed his army to dis-
perse iu the autumn, he next winter saw the enemy again in the
field. The Knights of the Sword had advanced within thirty versts of
the city of Novogorod. With great speed Alexander again collected
his army, pursued the retreating enemy, and on the 5th of April, 1242,
fought them on the ice of the lake of Peipus, where he gained a deci-
sive victory : four hundred Teutonic Knights were slain, and fifty
were taken prisoners ; those of the prisoners who were Germans were
pardoned, but the Esthonians Alexander ordered to be hanged, con-
sidering them as Russian rebels. Alexander returned in triumph to
Pleskow, having liberated that city and its commerce, which at that
time was considerable, from the yoke of foreigners.
Arms proving unavailing, the Roman Court had recourse to diplo-
macy OB a surer means for converting Alexander. Several attempts
of this kind had been made in vain with his predecessors, by the popes
Innocent III., Honorius III., and Gregory IX. Innocent IV. made a
new trial, and in the year 1251 sent two cardinals, who in Russian
chronicles are called Gald and Gemont, as ambassadors to Alexander
Nevskoj ; they brought a letter from this pope, dated January 23, 1248,
probably so long antedated in order to show how long his Holiness had
been big with the scheme of the embassy, but Alexander remained
inflexible, and the cardinals returned without effecting anything for
the Church of Rome.
Though Alexander was successful against the Pope, he continued a
vassal of the Tartars as long as he lived. It does not however appear
that Russia was, during his reign, actually invaded or plundered by
them.
He repaired to the great horde three times, and died on his return
from tho last of these journeys at Kassimcow in 1263; from that
place his body was removed to Vladimir, and there interred. It is a
tradition that shortly before his death he took holy orders ; but it
probably has no good foundation. Alexander's wife was a daughter
of Wrateslaw, Prince of Polotsk, by whom he had four sons Vassilj,
Dmitrij, Andrej, and Danilo. It is uncertain whether the valiant
Jueje (George) who ruled over Novogorod till 1270, was also his son.
The foundation of St. Petersburg in 1703, on the very spot where the
national hero had gained such an important victory, naturally recalled
the memory of Alexander Nevskoj in a lively manner. The Czar
Peter on this occasion instituted St. Alexander Nevskoj's Order of
Knighthood, but did not himself give that decoration to any man ;
this was first done after his death by his consort Catharine. There is
also in 8k Petersburg a St. Alexander-Nevskoj Monastery, which is well
endowed, to which is attached a seminary for the education of young
divines, called St. Alexander-Nevskoj's Academy.
ALEXANDER, Emperor of Russia, called by his countrymen
Alexander Paulowitsch (that is, the son of Paul), was born on the 23rd
of December, 1777. He was the son of the emperor Paul and of Maria,
daughter of Prince Eugene of Wiirtemberg. From his infancy he was
distinguished for a gentle and affectionate disposition, and a superior
capacity. His education was directed not by his parents, but by his
grandmother the reigning empress, Catharine II., who lived until he
had attained his nineteenth year. Under her superintendence he was
carefully instructed by La Harpe and other able tutors in tho different
branches of a liberal education, and in the accomplishments of a
gentleman.
Catharine was succeeded, in 1796, by her son Paul, whose mad reign
was put an end to by his assassination on the 24th of March, 1801.
No doubt can be entertained tliat Alexander, as well as his younger
brother Constantino, was privy to the preparations which were made
for the dethronement of his father, whicli had indeed become almost a
measure of necessity ; but all the facts tend to make it highly impro-
bable that he contemplated the fatal issue of the attempt. The imme-
diate sequel of this tragedy was a slight domestic dispute, occasioned
by a claim being advanced by the widow of the murdered emperor to
the vacant throne, who had not been admitted into the conspiracy.
After a short altercation she was prevailed upon to relinquish her
pretensions ; and the Grand Duke Alexander waa forthwith proclaimed
Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias. This collision docs not
seem to have left any unpleasant traces on the mind either of Alex-
ander or his mother, to whom during his life he always continued to
show respect and attachment. The Empress Maria survived her sou
about three years.
The history of tho reign of Alexander is the history of Europe for
the first quarter of the present century. We can here only attempt a
slight outline of the course of events during that busy time, with a
reference to the movements of the Russian emperor. When Alexander
came to the throne he found himself engaged in a war with England,
which had broken out in the course of the preceding year. He imme-
diately indicated the pacific character of his policy by taking steps to
bring about a termination of this state ^)f things, which was already
seriously distressing the commerce of Russia ; and a convention was
accordingly concluded between the two powers, and signed at St.
Petersburg on the 17th of June, 1801. The general peace followed on
the 1st of October, and lasted till the declaration of war by England
against France on the 18th of May, 1803. Meanwhile Georgia, hitherto
under the protection of Persia and Turkey, had been occupied, on the
invitation of the people themselves, by the troops of Russia, and incor-
porated with that empire. Alexander also, during this interval, showed
his disposition to extend the influence of Russia iu another direction,
by entering into a uegociation with France respecting the compensa-
tion to be granted to certain of the minor powers of Germany, with
which country he was connected both through his mother and through
his father, who was born head of the house of Holsteiu-Gottorp. It
was in the course of these negociations that he had his first interview
with the king of Prussia, which is understood to have laid the founda-
tion of an intimate friendship between the two sovereigns, and to have
established a concurrence of views which powerfully influenced the
future policy of each. In a dispute with Sweden, with regard to the
frontier of Finland, although hostilities were averted by the con-
cession of the Swedish king, the extensive military preparations which
were immediately made by Russia, showed how little that power waa
disposed to allow the invasion of any of her rights.
Alexander did not immediately join England in the war against
France; but even in the early part of 1804 symptoms began to appear
of an approaching breach between Russia and the latter country. On
the llth of April, '1805, a treaty of alliance with England was con-
cluded at St Petersburg, to which Austria became a party on tho
9th of August, and Sweden on the 3rd of October following. This
league, commonly called the third coalition, speedily led to actual
hostilities. The campaign was eminently disastrous to the allifd
powers. A succession of battles, fought between the 6th and the 1 8th
of October, almost annihilated the Austrian army before any of the
Russian troops arrived. Alexander made his appearance at Berlin on
the 25th, and there, in a few days after, concluded a secret convention
with the king of Prussia, by which that prince, who had hitherto pro-
fessed neutrality, bound himself to join the coalition. Before leaving
the Prussian capital, Alexander, in company with the king and queen,
visited a* midnight the tomb of the great Frederick, and, after having
kissed the coffin, is said to have solemnly joined hands with his brother
sovereign, and pledged himself that nothing should ever break their
friendship. He then hastened by way of Leipzig and Weimar to
Dresden, from whence he proceeded to Olmutz, and there, on tlie 18th
of November, joined the emperor of Austria. On the 2nd of the fol-
lowing month, the Austrian and Russian troops, commanded by the
two emperors in person, were beaten hi the memorable and decisive
battle of Austerlitz. The immediate consequences of this great defeat
were the conclusion of a convention between France and Austria, and
Alexander's departure to Russia with the remains of his army.
Although Alexander did not accede either to the convention between
France and Austria, or to the treaty of Presburg, by which it waa
followed, he thought proper, after a short time, to profess a disposition
to make peace with France, and negociations were commenced at Paria
for that object. But after a treaty had been signed on the 20th of
July, 1806, he refused to ratify it, on the pretence that his minister
had departed from his instructions. The true motive of his refusal
no doubt was, that by this time arrangementa were completed with
Prussia and England for a fourth coalition ; and it is even far from
improbable that the negociations which led to the signature of tho
treaty had from the first no other object beyond gaining time for
\ANDKK,
ALEXANDER.
On the 8th of February hostilities recommenced, and
of Jen*, gained by Bonaparte a few day* after, laid the
i monarchy at hi. feet. Wbn this great battle was fought,
lor aad his Rusaian* had scaraaly reached the frontier, of Oer-
aay ; oa receiving the new* they immediately retreated aoroes the
Vistula. HHher they were punned by Bonaparte, and bavin* been
Maed by the remnant of the Prussian army, were beaten on the 8th
of February. 1807, in the destructive battle of Eylau. Finally, on the
Ilia of June, the united annie* were again defeated in the great battle
of FriedUnd, aad compelled to retreat behind the Niemen. This
crowniae; dwuter terminated the campaign. An armistice was arranged
on the Slit; aad five day* after, Alexander and Napoleon met in a
tent erected on a raft in the middle of the Niemen ; and at that inter-
view not only arranged their difference*, but, if we may trust tho
ubwqoeot professions of both, were converted from enemies into
warmly-attached Meads. A treaty of peaoe was signed between the
two at Tilsit on the 7th of July, by a secret article of which Alexander
engaged to join France against England. Ha accordingly declared
war arauwt hi* late ally on the 26th of October following. The treaty
of Tilait indeed converted the Russian emperor into the enemy of
Imoet all hi* former friend*, and the friend of all his former enemies.
Turkey, though supported by France, had for some time been hard
iinsssl by the united military and naval operations of England and
Russia; but upon Alexander's coalition with the French emperor, a
trace was concluded between Turkey and Russia at Slobosia, August
2 1 th, and the Turkish empire was saved from the rain which threatened
it. A war with Persia, commenced in 1802, continued to be carried
on with varying snocaes The meeting of the emperors of France and
P.n*rl at Tilsit is an important event not only in the life of Alex-
ander, but in the history of Europe. It produced a total change in
the policy of Russia, as well as in the personal sentiments of the two
emperors, who from deadly enemie* became to all appearance cordial
friend*. At their first interview, on the 25th of June, 1807, each left
the bank, of the Niemen in a boat attended by hi* suite. The boat
of Napoleon cleared the distance first ; and Napoleon, stepping on the
raft appointed for the conference, passed over, and receiving Alexander
oo the opposite side, embraced him in the night of both armies. The
first words of Alexander were directed to flatter the ruling passion of
Napoleuo. " I hate the EnglUh," he exclaimed, " as much as you do :
whatever you take in band against them, I will be your second."
" In that case,*' replied Napoleon, " everything can be easily settled,
aad peace is already made. In the first conference they remained
together two hours ; the next day they met a/am, and Alexander pre-
sented to Napoleon the King of Prussia, who was soon after joined
by hi* queen. During the remainder of the conferences, which lasted
twenty days, the two emperors were daily in the habit of meeting and
conversing on term* of intimacy ; while the King of Prussia was
treated by Napoleon with haughtiness, and the queen with rudeness,
aad Alexander appeared almost ashamed to make any exertion in their
favour with his new friend. He even concluded a separate treaty with
Napoleon to the bitter mortification of Frederick William, the treaty
made with whom soon after was of a very different character from
that between the two emperor*.
Oa th* 24 tli of February, 1808, Alexander, in obedience to the plan
arranged with Napoleon, declared war against Sweden ; and followed
up thi* declaration by dispatching an army to Swedish Finland, which,
after a great deal of fighting, succeeded in obtaining complete possession
of that country. On the 27th of September the Russian and Frencli
am perms met again at Erfurt Many of the German princes, with
fepveeeuUlliM of the King of Prussia and the Emperor of Austria,
also attended the Conferees, which continued to sit till the 15th of
October. On thi* occasion a proposal for peace was made to England
in UM united name* of N*poUon and Alexander, but the negociations
wen broken off after a few week*.
Th* friendly relations of Alexander with France continued for nearly
6r* yean ; but, notwithstanding fair appearance*, various causes were
in the meanwhile at work which could not fail at last to bring about
a rupture. The Russian autocrat having failed in the plan of policy
with which he had begun his reign, aad which seem* to have contem-
plated the avoidance of war, but at the same time the exercice of a
powerful foreign influence, appear* to have resolved to try another
game, and to see what be could gain by entering into confederacy
with the gnat conqueror of nations. But th* peaoe of Tilait, and the
new rrUUoos into which Kuaaia was thrown, however much they may
have beea to the mind of the sovereign, entailed such privation and
umuisicsal suflering on th* people of that country, by severing the
rosjisrtiou with England, a* made it at length impossible to persist
in thi* course of policy. In the meanwhile however the treaty of
Urmaa, eigned on the 14th of October, 1809, which, following the
battle* of Kalio. sad Wajrram, diswlved the fifth coalition against
Franc., iaanawd the Roasian dominion by the annexation of Eastern
OalUcia, c*dd by Auatiia. The war with Turkey also, which had
" naflmmeBeed, continued to be prosecuted with aucoes*. But by
the rod of the year 1811 the duputee with the court* of Pan*, which
""jfc'r * t of UM scUure by Bonaparte of the dominion* of
the Duke of Oldenburg, had aesumed such a height a* left it no longer
doubtful th.t war would follow. A treaty of alliance having been
pmipwJj signed with Sweden, oa the 10th of March 1812 Alexander
declared war against France; and on the 24th of April he lea St.
Petersburg to join hi* army on the western frontier of Lithuania. Un
the 28th of May peace was concluded at Bucharest on advantageous
term* with Turkey, which relinquished everything to the left of the
Prutb. The immense army of France, led by Napoleon, entered the
Ruwian territory on the 25th of June. A* they advanced tho inha-
bitant* fled as one man. and left the invaders to march through a
silent desert. In thin manner the French reached \Vilna. On the 1 Ith
of July Alexander had repaired to Moscow, whence he proceeded to
Finland, where he had an interview with Bernadotte, then crown prince
of Sweden. Hera he learned the entry of the French into Smolensk.
He immediately declared that he never would sign a treaty of peace
with Napoleon while he was on Russian ground. " Should St. Peters-
burg be taken," he added, " I will retire into Siberia. I will then
resume our ancient customs, and, like our long-bearded ancestors, will
return anew to conquer the empire." " This resolution," exclaimed
Bernadotte, " will liberate Europe."
On the 7th of September took place the first serious encounter
between the two armies, the battle of Borodino, in which 25,000 men
perished on each aide. On the 14th the French entered Moscow. In
a few hour* the city was a smoking ruin. Napoleon's homeward march
then commenced, and terminated in the destruction of his mag:
army. Not fewer than 300,000 Frenchmen perished in this campaign.
The remnant, which wai above 150,000, repassed the Niemen on the
16th of December.
In the early part of the following year Prussia and Austria succes-
sively became parties to the alliance against France. Alexander, who
had joined his army while in pursuit of Bonaparte nt Wilna, continued
to accompany the allied troops throughout the campaign of this
summer. On the 26th and 27th of August he wa^ present at the battle
of Dresden, and on the 18th of October at tho still more sanguinary
conflict of Leipzig. On the 24th of February, 1814, he met the Kin;
of Prussia at Chaumont, where the two sovereigns signed a treaty
binding themselves to prosecute the war against France to a successful
conclusion, even at the cost of all the resources of their dominion)'.
On the 30th of March 150,000 of the troops of the allies were before
the walls of Paris, and on the following day at noon Alexander and
William Frederick entered that capital.
We shall not enter into the detail of the transactions which followed
this event. Alexander, owing in a great measure to his engaging
affability, as well as to the liberal sentiments which he made a practice
of professing, was a great favourite with the Parisians. The conquerors
having determined upon the deposition of Bonaparte, and the restora-
tion of the Bourbons, Alexander spent the remainder of the time he
stayed in inspecting the different objects of interest in the city and its
viciuity, as if he had visited it in the course of a tour. He left the
French capital about the 1st of June, and proceeding to Boulogne, was
there, along with the King of Prussia, taken on board an English
ship-of-war, commanded by the Duke of Clarence, and conveyed to
Calais, from which port the royal yachts brought over the two sove-
reigns to this country. They landed at Dover on the evening of the
7th, and next day came to London. They remained in this country
for about three weeks, during which time they visited Oxfor.l and
Portsmouth, and wherever they went, ns well as in the metropolis,
were received with honours and festivities of unexampled magnificence,
amidst the tumultuous rejoicings of the people. From Knglaud Alex-
ander proceeded to Holland, and thence, after a short stay, to Carlsruhe,
where he was joined by the Empress. On the 25th of July he arrived
at his own capital St. Petersburg, where bis appearance was greeted
by illuminations and other testimonies of popular joy.
The Congress of European sovereigns at Vienna opened on the 3rd
of November, 1814. In the political arrangements made by this
assembly Alexander obtained at least his fair share of advantages,
having been recognised as King of Poland, which country was at tho
same time annexed to the Russian empire. Before the members of the
Congress separated however news arrived of Bonaparte's escape from
Elba. They remained together till after the battle of Waterloo ; win n
Alexander, with tho Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia,
proceeded to Paris, where they arrived in the beginning of July, 1815.
Un tho 20th of the following September, tho three sovereigns signed
an agreement, professedly for the preservation of universal peace on
the principles of Christianity, to which, with some presumption, if not
impiety, they gave tho name of the Holy Alliance. Un l.'.-ivin.
Alexander proceeded to Brussels, to arrange tho marriage of his sinter,
the Orand Duchess Anne, with the Prince of Orange ; and thence, by
the way of Dijon and Zurich, to Berlin, where ho concluded another
family alliance, by the marriage of his brother Nicholas, aftfrwnrds
emperor, with the Princess Charlotte, daughter of the King of Prussia.
On the 12th of November he arrived at Warsaw, and after publi
the heads of a constitution for Poland, he left this city on the 3rd of
December, and on the l.'ith reached St. Petersburg.
No great event* mark tho next years of tho reign of Alexander.
On the 27th of March, 1818, he opened in person the first Polish <li' t
at Warsaw, on the close of which he set out on a journey through the
southern province* of hi* empire, visiting Odessa, the Crimea, and
Moscow. The congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, at which ho was present
with tho Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia, met in Septem-
ber, aud on the 15th of the following month promulgated a declaration,
129
ALEXANDER II.
ALEXANDER, EARL OP STIRLING.
130
threatening, in reference to the then state of Spain, the suppression of
all insurrection ary movements wherever they might take place. The
congresses held in 1820 and 1821 at Troppau and Laybach, on the
affairs of Naples and Piedmont, and that of Verona in 1822, were also
mainly directed by the Russian autocrat. Meanwhile the insurrection
of the Greeks in 1820, although publicly condemned by Alexander,
was attributed by Turkey to the secret encouragement of Russia, and
seemed to threaten a renewal of hostilities between the two countries;
but for the present Alexander determined to persevere in his pacific
policy. In 1823 several tribes of the Kalmucks, who had formerly
acknowledged the sovereignty of China, exchanged it for that of
Russia.
In the beginning of the winter of 1825 Alexander left St. Petersburg
on a journey to the southern provinces, and on the 25th of September
arrived at Taganrog on the Sea of Azof. From this town he some
time after set out on a tour to the Crimea, and returned to Taganrog
about the middle of November. Up to nearly the close of this latter
excursion, he had enjoyed the highest health and spirits. But he was
then suddenly attacked by the common intermittent fever of the
country, and when he arrived at Taganrog he was very ill. Trusting
however to the strength of his constitution, he long refused to submit
to the remedies which his physicians prescribed. When he at length
consented to allow leeches to be applied, it was too late. During the
last few days that he continued to breathe, he was insensible; and on
the morning of the 1st of December he expired.
It was for some time rumoured in foreign countries that Alexander
bad been carried off by poison ; but it is now well ascertained that
there a no ground whatever for this suspicion. It appears however
that hia last days were embittered by the information of an extensive
conspiracy of many of the nobility and officers of the army to subvert
the government, and even to take away his life ; and it is not improbable
that this news, which is said to have been brought to him by a courier
during the middle of the night of the 8th, which he spent at Alupta,
may have contributed to hasten the fever by which he wag two or
three days after attacked. For full details upon this subject, and a
translation of the Report of the Commission appointed to inquire
into the affair by the Emperor Nicholas, we refer the reader to vol. ii.
pp. 333-435 of Webster's ' Travels in the Crimea, Turkey, and Egypt,'
London, 1830.
The death of Alexander took place exactly a century after that of
Peter the Great, under whom the civilisation of Russia may be said to
have commenced. The state of the empire did not change so com-
pletely during Alexander's reign as it did during that of Peter ; but
still the advancement of almost every branch of the national pros-
perity in the course of the quarter of a century during which Alexan-
der filled the throne was probably, with that one exception, greater
than had ever been exhibited in any other country. He founded or
reorganised seven universities, and established 204 gymnasia, and
above 2000 schools of an inferior order. The literature of Russia was
also greatly indebted to his liberal encouragement, although he con-
tinued the censorship of the press in a modified form. He greatly
promoted among his subjects a knowledge of and taste for science and
the fine arts by his munificent purchases of paintings, and anatomical
and other collections. The agriculture, the manufactures, and the
commerce of Russia were all immensely extended during his reign.
Finally, to Alexander the people of Russia were indebted for many
political reforms of great value. Certain checks were applied to the
arbitrary authority of the monarch, by rights granted to or recognised
in the senate; the provincial governors were subjected to more effective
control ; the laws were improved by a mitigation of the severity of the
old punishments, and in various other respects ; personal slavery was
entirely abolished ; and even of the serfs attached to the soil, great
numbers were emancipated, and arrangements made for the eventual
elevation of all of them to a state of freedom. Under Alexander also
both the extent and the population of the Rtusian dominions were
greatly augmented ; the military strength of the nation was developed
and organised ; and the country, from holding but a subordinate rank,
took its place as one of the leading powers of Europe.
Alexander was married on the 9th of October, 1793, to the Princess
Louisa Maria Augusta of Baden, who, on becoming a member of the
Imperial family, assumed the name of Elizabeth Alexiewna. By her
however he had no issue. On his death, his next brother, the Grand
Duke Constantine, was proclaimed king at Warsaw ; but he imme-
diately surrendered the throne to hia younger brother, the late Emperor
Nicolas, according to an agreement made with Alexander during his
lifetime.
'ALEXANDER II., surnamed NICOLAEWITCH, the present
Emperor of all the Russias, was the eldest son of the late Emperor Nico-
las and the Empress Alexandra Feodorowna. This name his mother
assumed on her marriage, as it is the custom with females on marrying
into the Imperial family to change their names with their religion on
being admitted into the Greek Church ; before marriage she was the
Princess Frederica Louisa Charlotte Wilhelmina, sister to the present
Frederick William IV., king of Prussia. Alexander was born on the 29th
of April, 1818, was educated with great care, and entered very early into
the military service, in which of course during his father's lifetime he
was invented with a numerous variety of honorary commands, but is
aid not to have evinced any remarkable military aptitude, though by
BICKJ. DIV. VOL. I.
no means destitute of talent or intelligence. On the 28th of April,
1841, he married Maximilienne Wilhelmina Augusta Sophia Maria
(now Marie Alexandrowna), daughter of Louis II., Grand-Duke of
Hesse, by whom he has had four sons and a daughter ; the eldest son,
Nicolas Alexandrowitch, now the Czarowitch, or Crown Prince, was
born on September 20, 1843. On the death of the Emperor Nicolas, on
March 2, 1855, Alexander succeeded to the throne, and to the conduct
of the war against the united forces of Turkey, France, England, and
Sardinia. As Crown Prince he had been represented as opposed to
the warlike policy of the late Emperor ; but almost his first step after
his accession was to issue a proclamation expressing his determination
to carry out completely the plans and intentions of his predecessor,
and to this determination he has hitherto held with great firmness.
On September 8, 1855, the allies obtained possession of Sebastopol, as
they had somewhat earlier of Kertch and Yenikale, and somewhat
later of Kinburn. In October and November following he in person
visited the scene of the most active hostilities, Nieolaieff, Odessa, and
the Crimea, encouraging the soldiery to renewed efforts, and at other
times has made progresses through various parts of his dominions,
endeavouring to lessen as much as possible the unpopularity of the
contest with a great portion of his subjects, occasioned by the enor-
mous conscriptions levied upon them in order to supply the terrible
losses experienced by his armies.
ALEXANDER, WILLIAM, EARL OF STIRLING, was the son
of Alexander Alexander of Menstrie. The date of his birth is not very
satisfactorily fixed. His father died in 1594. An engraved portrait
of the Earl of Stirling found in a few copies of the collected edition of
his poems published in 1637, bears the inscription " setatis suoo 57."
According to this very imperfect evidence, he would have been bora
in 1580. But the print is of extreme rarity and very high value, being
considered the finest production of William Marshall, the celebrated
engraver of that day. The probability therefore is, that it was not
originally attached to the edition of 1637, andf bearing no date itself,
does not fix the age of the person represented. William Alexander,
having succeeded to his father's landed property in the counties of
Clackmannan and Perth, travelled for some time with Archibald the
seventh Earl of Argyle. After his return to Scotland, he published
in 1603 ' The Tragedy of Darius;' which was followed in 1604 by two
other tragedies, 'Julius Ciesar" and 'Croesus.' In 1604 he published
' A Partcnesis to the Prince," the object of which was " to speak of
princely things," and especially to enforce the choice of patriotic aud
disinterested councillors. In the same year he also printed 'Aurora,
containing the first Fancies of the Author's Youth, William Alexander
of Menstrie.' A collected edition of his plays, including a fourth, called
' The Alexandraeau Tragedy,' was published in London in 1607, under
the title of ' The Monarchicke Tragedies.' These were reprinted ill
1616, and again in J637, when they appeared with 'Doomsday,' a
poem (originally published in 1614), containing something more than
ten thousand lines ; the ' Paracnesis ; ' and ' Jonathan," an unfinished
poem. This collection was entitled 'Recreations with the Muses.'
In these successive editions of his works, Alexander took very com-
mendable pains to free them from those Scotticisms with which they
originally abounded. Langbaine, speaking of the ' Darius,' says : " It
was first composed in a mixed dialect of English and Scotch, and even
then was commended by two copies of verses. The author hag since
polished aud corrected much of his native language." In the last
collected edition of these plays it is almost impossible to detect any
of this dialect, which Langbaiue seems to have considered as another
tongue.
The poems of Alexander can scarcely now be regarded in a higher
light than as literary curiosities. The quantity of verse which this
author poured out in the course of ten years is remarkable enough ;
and this apparent facility is more remarkable, when it is considered
that he was composing in a language which in many respects was to
him a foreign one. But to this circumstance may be attributed not
only what the critics of a later generation would have called the
correctness of his versification, but the circumstance that the author
is always labouring to express the commonest thoughts in the most
high-sounding words, and by the moat wearisome circumlocutions. It
is in vain that we turn over his pages to (iud a single natural image
expressed with force and simplicity. His genius, if genius it can be
called, was exclusively of the didactic character. All his productions,
whatever form they assume, are a succession of the most cumbersome
preachments, unenlivened by any variety of illustration ; without
adaptation, when they take the dramatic form, to the character of his
speakers, and altogether wanting in applicability to the habits and
feelings of mankind, and the practical business of human life. It is
almost incomprehensible how such productions as the ' Four Monarch-
icke Tragedies ' could have appeared in the ago of Shakespeare and
his great dramatic contemporaries. Their author must undoubtedly
have fancied that he was doing a higher and a better thing than
presenting a poetical view of real life, when he produced such a tragedy
as his ' Julius Csesar," where the great interest of the action is utterly
lost in the tumid dialogues and iuterminable soliloquies, aud the
personages talk, not only unlike Romans, but unlike men. Oldys, who
has written his life in the ' Biographia Britannica," says of his plays :
" Ho calculated them not for the amusement of spectators, or to be
theatrically acted, so much as for readers of the highest rank ; who,
K
At.KK \\-liKB. KARL OF STIUI.IXO.
ALEXEI MICH.ULOWITZ.
of the Ul
that could b* drawn from th*
. . i 1
r, .*..' b* taught to amend their own
own paaaion* and their power over all in
aulil i>ln to them ; and if they have bat this end with such readers
M torn them historical dialogue*, or anything el**, can b* no discredit
to them." Alesander WM evidently composing UMM tragedies up ...
n totally fob* theory of art; bat it WM on* .ulwd to hi. natur*!
power* satd hi* aequir*SM>nta. Th* oharaoter of a poet, with which he
eh**, to BW***bhn**lf, had in bis vi*w no mjord to the highest
Meets at poetry. Vem WM for him a conventional thing, suited M
h* tnonght for the delivery of a sorie* of lecture* upon state policy
and th* moral virta**, in which th* introduction of historical name*
M Uw speakers of th* .aid lecture* might give the *entenoM a greater
authority than if they appeared to oom* wholly from the month of
William Alxandnr. In oar great ag* of dramatic poetry, these
therefore, on*r a remarkable contrast to the living spirit
I th* acting piny* of even tho humblest of Alexander s
A singular notion h* prevailed, nevertheless, that
owed from Alexander, particularly in bis own 'Julius
this, although he has th* good sense to
tnrdie*.
whtok (a
i that what he call* the parallel pMiagee " mixht perhaps have
nroeaoded only from the two authors drawing from the aame source."
Another critic, of whom it would be difficult to aay whether hU
prsMiaaptioB or hi* ignorance U the meet conspicuous, affirms tha
uieuililiiia more 4ggr'f t '~l 1 y : " There U a great similarity between
the ' Julius CaMar* of Shakospeare and that of Lord Stirling. Which
WM written the first I In other words, which of these writers borrowed
front the other f This, we fear, cannot be ascertained The
probability U, that Shikaspmre borrowed from the northern poet"
(Lardn*r*s 'Cyclopoli. : < Literary and ScientiBc Men,' vol. ii.)
The poems of Alexander were sufficiently bepraised in his own day.
OM calls him "the monarch-tragic of this ule;" another compares
ate with Sophocles, Euripides, and yEtcbylus. Ercn Drumuioud
i him with-
" Thj n<r :i lx muse, itill ing'd with wonder*, flic*."
John Davis of Hereford, in bis Epigrams pubUshed about 1611, thinks
that Alexander th* Oreat had not won more glory by hi* (word than
this AUiander with bis pen. Yet iu less than forty years after his
flrs^n hi* poem* were forgotten. Edward Phillips, the nephew of
Milton, doe* not even mention him in his ' Theatrum Poetarum,'
although Drummond is spoken of M writing in a style " sufficiently
month and delightful."
Alexander began to pay to King James the homage of verse adula-
tion at the exact moment when the king WM in a condition to confer
uUtaatial benefit* in return. In 1604 he addressed two poems to
ifsmr*. which have not been reprinted in his collected works : the
Monarehickc Tragedie*' are dedicated to bis Majesty iu a poem of
> ttancu, in which the king is toll
* Tb* world lent'd for thj- birth three hundrt th j-car. J1
and substantial offices were bestowed by James on the
he called "his philosophical poet" Alexander became
in 1613, to Prince Charles; and in the same year
WM knighted, and nude Master of tbe Requests. Tbe subsequent
;.ublic career of Kir William Alexander is altogether very singular,
n I Ml. King Jame*, by charter, granted to him the whole territory
of Nova Scotia, coupled with the famous icheme of extending the
connection with
during tho last
ami Sir William
-- adventurers In hi*
pamphlet, publuhed In 1625, entitled 'An Encouragement to Colonies.'
In th* trst year of hie reign Charles created Sir William Alexander
Ueatenamt gsnsisJ of New Scotland. In a few yean afterward* be
had th* namkabl* prirUcg* granted him of coining small copper
on*?. IB 16. h* WM appointed secretary of state for Scotland.
In 16*0 b* WM created Viscount Stirling, and in 1633 Karl of Stirling.
In addition to hi* grant of Nova Scotia, b* ree*ive<l a charter of the
lord-kip of Canada in 1828 and obtained from tbe council of New
nt of a Urge tract of country, including Long
th* island of Stirling. H* applied himself with
.. in concert with hi* tldest ton, to colonise this island,
to foond a KtUrarat on th* St Lawrence. But he doe* not
to have derived any permanent advantag* from these project*,
and tb* labour* of hi* son brought on a di*ta*e which terminated in
hi* death. Nova Scotia WM told by Sir William to th* French, and
Hi bnjnuiil hnrunsta lent tb* torritotial grant* which were to have
hem cttocned loth. Hinitv. Aa mM>t b. .u.r
,
A aaotber grant
then called th*
toshed to th. dignity. A* might be mspected, a good deal of
WM attached to the lohimis of Alexander. In a very extra-
7 book wriiun by Sir TbomM Urqubart, th* tran.fator of
the
to hare bad a notion that
conducive to the
art of money-making. HU bate copper ooiut were called ' turners,
and Douglat in bit ' Peerage' tells us that the favourite of James and
Charles having built a large house in Stirling on which he inscribed
" Per mare, per terras," hi* motto, it was whimsically read " Per
metre, et turners." He certainly obtained very substantial tokens of
th* royal favour, for, besides the American grants, tho baronies of
Menstriea, of Largis and Tullibody, of Tullicultre and of Uartmoro
were uoosasively conferred upon him ; and in addition to his office
of secretary of state, he was keeper of the signet, oommiut
exchequer, and an extraordinary lord of session. Yet after his death,
which took place in 1640, hi* family estate* were given up t his
creditors by his third son, Anthony. By his wife Janet, the daughter
of Sir William Enkine, the Earl of Stirling had seven sons and two
daughter*. The eldest son, William, died in the lifetime of his father,
and the grandson succeeded to the earldom, but died about a month
after the subject of this article. The second sou, Henry, became than
Karl of Stirling. The title is now extinct; the last of the male
descendant* died in 1730.
(Recreation* vith the Mum, 1637 ; Encouragement to Colonies. 1025 ;
Map and Delineation of .\*-u> Eayland, 1630; Urquhart, Viicotery of
a mott tf</ui/f Jewel, Ac., lOJ'J ; Lungb.iino, Dramatic Pott* ; Kippi*,
Biographia Britan
ALEXKI M1CI1AII.OWITZ, born at Moscow in the year 1630, WM
a sou of the Czar Michrfilo Keodorowiti llomanow, the fint of the
house of Romanow that held the sceptre of Russia, aod of his second
consort, Eudoki* Lukianowna Streshnew. At the death of his father,
July 12th, 1645, ho succeeded to the crown, and M he was atill very
young, he was mainly guided by the advice of his councillors, Moroeow,
his tutor and brother-in-law; Miloalawskoj ; and Pleasow, a judge in
one of the high courts at Moscow. The excessive avarice and dos*
potum of these men caused an insurrection in Moscow, in 1648, in
which Plessow and several of their creatures were murdered. Tim
Czar's intercession with difficulty saved Morosow from the people'*
fury.
The reign of Alexei was disturbed by two pretenders to the throne,
of whom one was the celebrated Demetrius ; the other was Aukudi-
now ; and the support of their pretended claim? by Poland led to a
war with that country, in which the Polish comiuamier-in-chief, John
Radzivil, was completely defeated at Sklovo; the Russians took
Suiolensko in 1654, and almost the whole of Lithuania WM conquered
and devastated by them. The Poles, being at this time severely
pressed l>y the Swedes, found it advisable, -after two years' war, to
agree to an armistice, which was concluded at Nienietz, iu November,
1656, Austria being on this Decision the mediator. The Poles agreed
to cede the provinces of Smolcusko, T&hernigow, and Seweria to the
Russians, for a sum of money.
Alexei's second war was against Charles Giistav of Sweden, which
commenced before the armistice with Poland was concluded. The
cause of complaint on the part of the Russians was, that liu-tiv hod
hindered the operations of their army in Lithuania. The war wan
long and destructive, but inconclusive, and Alexei at length agreed
to an armistice with Sweden, which was signed on the 23rd of April,
1658, and three yean after, on the 21st of June, 1661, was converted
into a treaty of peace at K mlix, by which their former possession*
were mutually secured to each party. A peace had also been con-
cluded between Poland and Sweden, in 1G6U, at Oliva; but before its
conclusion, tho war between Russia and Poland had been renewed;
this war WM occasioned by the Cossaks on the Dnieper, who had
revolted from Russia, and sought protection from tho Poles. It lasted
till 1667, and by an armistice concluded at Andruseow, Russaia gained,
in addition to former conquests, that part of the Ukraine on the other
side of the Dnieper of which she had already got possession.
Immediately after the conclusion of the Polish war a formidable
insurrection broke out among the Don Cossaks. Steuko Ra/.uii, a
Coesak, resented the death of Ins brother, who had been executed by
order of a Russian general, and seduced his countrymen to revolt ;
they burnt and devastated the country from the lower Wolga to Joik,
took Astrakhan in 1670 (whore Stenko ordered the Woiewod Proso-
rowskny to be thrown over the wall*), and several other cities.
Hopes were held out to Steuko which prevailed on him to present
himself at Moscow, where he WM executed M a traitor and rebel ;
after this, tranquillity WM easily restored among the Cossaks. Alexei'a
last war WM against the Turks. Led by their hetman Dorosensky,
the Saparogian Cowaks had revolted against the Poles, and made a
treaty of alliance with Mohammed IV., receiving from him the pro-
vince of Ukraine in fief. From this cause naturally arose a war
between the Poles and the Turks; and Russia WM not slow in inter-
fering, and demanded that Azow, which originally belonged to Russia,
and in 1642 bad been taken from the Cossak* by the Turks, nlmnM
again be ceded to Russia. But Mohammed's success did not dispose
him to listen to the demands of Ruatia : he took the Polish frontier
fortress Kaminieck, conquered the whole of Poilolia in lers than two
months, and alarmed the Russian* by the rapidity snd success of bis
operations. The King of Poland, Michael, drew no advantage from
the victory over the Tartars gained by Sobiesky at Kalusxo on the
18th of October, 1672, but made a hasty peace which was disgraceful
to his country. But the King of Poland's peace WM rejected by the
Polish diet, and Alexei was glad to assist even a constitutional power
133
ALEXEI PETROWITZ.
ALFIERI, VITTORIO.
131
in renewing hostilities against the formidable Turks ; but finding his
expected advantages not so great as he anticipated, his zeal abated,
and he died before a peace with the Turks was concluded, on the 10th
of February, 1676, in his forty-sixth year.
Alexei Michitilowitz did much for the improvement of Russia ;
agriculture and manufactures were constant objects of his solicitude :
he invited many foreigners to Russia, especially mechanics, artists,
and military men, whom he treated liberally. He ordered many
works, particularly on applied mathematics, military science, tactics,
fortification, geography, &c., to be translated into Russian ; he enlarged
the city of Moscow, and built two of its suburbs. He likewise com-
pletely reformed the Russian laws. He moreover commenced and
partly effected an extensive ecclesiastical reform, chiefly in matters
concerning the liturgy. Alexei was twice married : his first wife
was Maria Iljiniahna Miloslawskoy, by whom he had five sons (two of
whom, Feodor Alexeiewitz and Iwhu Alexeiewitz, were his successors
on the throne of Russia), and seven daughters. His second wife was
Natalia Kirillowna Narishkiu, by whom he had one son, Peter Alexeie-
witz (Peter the Great), and one daughter, Natalia Alexeiewna.
ALEXEI PET11OWITZ, the eldest son of Peter the Great of
Russia, and of Eudoxia the first wife of that monarch. He was born
at .Moscow, in 1695. From his boyhood Alexis showed a headstrong
disposition, and an inclination for low pleasures, which, as lie grew up,
assumed the character of a decided aversion and opposition to that
reformation of the ancient manners of the country wiiich it was the
object of Peter's life to effect. It was in 171<i however, while the
Czar wa absent on his second tour through Europe, that the Prince
may be said to have first thrown off hia allegiance, by secretly quitting
Russia, and taking flight to Vienna, whence he some time after retired
to Naples. Peter, having returned from abroad, foresaw the confu-
sion and mixcli'.f which this conduct in the heir apparent might
eventually occasion, and went to work with his usual energy to
counteract and defeat a plan which threatened the destruction of
whatever he had done for the improvement of Russia. It was some
time before he succeeded in discovering his son's retreat; but having
at length learned where he was, he gave instructions to some noble-
men, who proceeded to Naples, and induced the prince to return to
Russia, and to solicit his father's forgiveness. The determined
character of Peter's extraordinary mind now displayed itself with
fearful sternness. As soon as he had secured the person of his son,
he proceeded to treat him as a criminal. Being deprived of his sword,
he was brought before an assembly of the clergy and nobility, and
there compelled to execute a formal resignation of his pretensions to
the crown. At the same time, effectually to crush the sedition of
which he was the head, bis principal partisans were all arrested, and
some of them put to death. His mother was shut np in a monastery.
But all this was not deemed enough. The prince himself was finally
brought to trial, and condemned to suffer death. This was in the
year 1718. The day after he was informed of his sentence, Alexis
was found dead in prison, and it was given out that he had been
catri"! off by some natural illness; but suspicions have been naturally
enough entertained that a private execution accomplished the end,
without incurring the risks or inconveniences of a public one. The
Prince, whose unhappy career was thus terminated, left a son, a child
of three years old, who in 1727, on the death of Catharine I., became
emperor under the title of Peter II. He only reigned for three years.
After the death of Alexis, Peter declared his second son his heir, but
he also died soon after, to the great grief of his father. These events
opened the succession to the Empress, who, on the death of her
illustrious husband in 1725, assumed the title of Catharine I.
ALEXIS COMNENUS I., Emperor of Constantinople, ascended
the throne in 1081. The Coruneni were a family of Italian origin
transplanted into Asia Minor. Isaac Comneuus I., whose father
Manuel had served the empire with distinction, was elected Emperor
in 10J7 by the troops, in opposition to Michael VI. Isaac having
abdicated two years after, and his brother John having declined to
succeed him, the imperial purple was assumed by Constantino Ducas,
a friend of the Comneni. After several reigns interrupted by revolts,
Altxi.*, the third son of John Comnenus, was raised by the soldiers
to the throne, from which his predecessor, Nicephorus Botaniatea,
If a usurper, was hurled down, and forced to retire into a
monastery.
Alexi* assumed the reins of the empire at a critical moment. The
Turks had spread from Per.'ia to the Hellespont ; the frontiers of the
Danube were threatened by swarms of barbarians; the Normans, who
were masters of Apulia ami Sicily, attacked the provinces on the
Adriatic; and, to crown the whole, the first crusade came with its
countless multitudes, threatening to sweep away the eastern empire,
and Constantinople itself, in their passage. " Yet, in the midst of
these tempest*, Alexis steered the imperial vessel with dexterity and
courage. At the head of his armies be was bold in action, skilful in
stratagem, patient of fatigue, ready to improve his advantages, and
rising from his defeat with inexhaustible vigour. The discipline of
the camp was revived, and a new generation of men and soldiers was
created by the example and the precepts of their leader. In a long
rty-scvcn years he subdued and pardoned the envy of his
; the laws of public and private order were restored ; the arts
of wealth and science were cultivated ; the limit* of the empire were
enlarged in Europe and Asia, and the Comueniau sceptre was trans-
mitted to his children of the third and fourth generation." (Gibbon's
' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,' ch. xlviii.)
The most important event of Alexis's reign is the passage of the
Crusaders through his dominions. His conduct ou that occasion has
given rise to the most conflicting statements by various historians.
Alexis had solicited some assistance from the western princes against
the invading Turks ; but he was alarmed at the approach of hundreds
of thousands of undiscipliued and riotous fanatics led by Peter the
Hermit, who ravaged the Christian countries on their way with as
little scruple as if they had been Mohammedan. This promiscuous
multitude however was safely passed by Alexis's care across the
Bosporus into Asia, where they were drawn by the Turks into the
plains of Nicea, and there destroyed in 1096. The regular part of the
expedition came after in several divisions, under the command of Godfrey
of Bouillon, of several French princes, and of Bohemoud and Tancred,
son and nephew to Robert Guiscard, the Norman conqueror of Sicily.
After a long and painful march the Crusaders encamped under tho
walls of Constantinople. Alexis supplied them with provisions, but
carefully guarded the city against any surprise on thi-ir part. Fre-
quent affrays however took place between the Franks and the Greeks,
who looked upon their unwelcome guests with as much fear and
aversion as they did on the Turks. The leaders of the crusaders were
admitted to the imperial presence, where they paid homage to Alexis,
who found means to tame and to conciliate the rude chiefs by gifts, and
by promises of assistance in their expedition to the Holy Laud, while
he induced them one after the other to pass quietly over to Asia. This
being accomplished, Alexis assisted them in the capture of Nicea from
the Turks, which conquest however he kept for himself. In the same
manner he profited by the progress of the Crusaders, following as it
were hi their wake, and reconquering from the Turks all tho coasts of
Asia Minor and the neighbouring islands, and driving the Turkish
sultans into the interior to the foot of Mount Taurus. While intent
upon this, Alexis neglected or forgot to lend any further succour to
the Crusaders, who were fighting on their own account in Syria and
Palestine. The Latin historians therefore accuse him of bad faith,
whilst his daughter, Anna Comneua, who wrote her father's life, extols
his wise policy, dwelling with haughty indignation on the insolence
and rapacity of the western barbarians. The Byzantine Greeks were
a refined, but effeminate and corrupt race ; cunning, suspicion, and
dissimulation were their principal weapons of defence against the
headlong violence of the feudal semi-barbarous Franks. Alexis died
in 1118, and was succeeded by his son John Comnenus, a good and
wise prince. His other son, Isaac, was the father of another John,
who apostatised to the Turks, and married their sultan's daughter,
ami through whom, apparently, Mahomet II., centuries after, boasted
of his Comnenian descent; and of the famous Audronicus, who, after
a most adventurous career, usurped the throne in 1183, causing his
relative, the youthful heir Alexis Conmenus II., to be strangled,
together .with his mother Maria, the Emperor Manuel's widow.
Andronicus was himself overthrown and put to a cruel djath three
years after, and in him ended the Imperial line of the Comneni on the
throne of Constantinople. Andronicus's posterity reigned afterwards
over the province of Trebizond, with the pompous title of Emperor.
(See the various tfittoriet of the Crusades, and the collection of tho
Byzantine llistoriant ; and particularly the History of Anna Cumnena.)
[ANNA COM.NEMA.]
ALFENUS VARUS, one of the Roman jurists whose Excerpts arc
contained in the 'Digest.' He was one of the most distinguished
pupils of the great jurist Servins Sulpicius, the friend of Cicero.
Pomponius (' Dig." i. tit. 2) states that he became consul, and it h
generally assumed that he is the P. Alphinius who was consul A.D. 2,
and the same person as the P. Alfinius, or Alfenus Varus, of Dion
Cassius (lib. Iv. Index). But as Sulpicius, the master of Varus, was
born B.C. 106 and died B.C. 43, it is not probable that Alfenus the
jurist could be consul so late as A.D. 2.
Acron, the scholiast (Horatius, 'Sat.,' i. 3., v. 130), has a story that
Alfenus was a shoemaker at Cremona, who came to Rome, where he
became the pupil of Servius Sulpicius, and attained such distiuctiou
for his legal knowledge that he was made consul and had a public
funeral. The passage of Horace and the remark of the schuliast
have occasioned much discussion. (Wioland, 'Horazens Satiron ubcr-
setzt,' note on ' Sat.,' i. 3., v. 130 ; Heindorf, 'Des. Q. Horatius Satirun
crkliirt.') It is very difficult to form any conclusion from the passage
of Horace, though it may perhaps be assumed that he does refer to
tlie jurist Alt'cnus ; but this will not determine whether the story of
his early life as given by Acron and alluded to by Horace is true,
Alfenus wrote a work entitled 'Digesta,' in forty books. He is
often cited by other jurists. The Excerpts in the ' Digest' show that
his style was clear.
ALFIERI, VITTORIO, was born at Asti, in Piedmont, Jan. 17,
1749, of a noble and wealthy family. He lost his father when a child,
and his mother having married again, young Vittorio and his sister
Julia were placed under the guardianship of their uncle, Pellegrino
Alfieri. Vittorio at 9 years of age was sent as a boarder to the
Academia, or College of tho Nobles, at Turin. At tho age of 13 ho
was admitted to study philosophy in the university of Turin. At
tho age of 14, by the laws of Piedmont, he was master of his own
ALFIKRI. VlTTORia
ALFON'SO VI.
1M
nnt
MBM*, ma v*uf ujiii v "-""- ~ . '
alMoato bis property. Ha tb*n *ntar*d the army, as all young noble-
mesi were bosnd to do, with the rank of ensign in provincial
HflsaasH. which in time of peace only assembled for a few days twice
In *sV-~. **aMt>
At the apt of 17 h* obtained th* king's leave to travel under the
ami of an g "g"* t ' Roman Catholic tutor. He went fint through
Italy, and, baring got rid o/ UM tator. next prooeeded to France,
where he we. introduced at UM levee of Look XV. at Versailles.
B* ws struck with - the Jopiter-like superciliousness of that
monarch, who stared at the parsons introduced to him without con-
dasemrting to say a word to them." Alfieri's prid* was evidently
hurt. From Franc* b* cam* to England, with which country he was
iJeased from th* fint. After spending in England the winter of 1768,
be DTGsnil over to Holland, which country be liked beat next to
Taassml Ha attributed th* advantage* of both to their institutions,
and UM long babit of rational freedom. His life was for several yean
after liitliii and dissipated.
In 1773 be returned to Turin, and began to write gome scenes of a
drama on the subject of Cleopatra. This was his first essay in Italian
versification. In 1777- be went fint to Siena and then to Florence,
where be applied himsrlf seriously to dramatic composition. He there
also made the acquaintance of a lady who fixed his heart for ever.
This was the wife of Charles Edward Stuart, called the Young
Pretender [ALBAM, COUNTESS or], at whose bouse most foreigners
Tisited. The lady afterwards separated from her husband, and retired
into a eonrent at Home. Alfieri continued attached to her, and
followed her to sereral places; at last, after her husband's death in
1788, it appaan that they were privately married, although the
marriage was never made public, and by some is doubted.
In 1782 Alfieri had completed fourteen tragedies, ton of which were
printed at Siena. In 1785, the Countess of Albany having gone to
live in France, Alfieri also repaired thither, and resided fint at a villa
near Colmar, and afterwards in Paris, where he superintended the
edition of his tragedies by Didot. Soon after he published his other
mweeUancous works at KehL Alfieri and the countess were living
quietly at Paris, when the French revolution drove them away.
Alfieri and bis companion hastened through Belgium and Germany
back to Florence, from which city he never stirred after. Here he
wrote his 'Misogallo/ a collection of satirical sonnets, letters, and
epigram*, in which he has embodied all his early prejudices and his
more recant feelings of dislike to the French people. At 46 years of
age be began studying Greek, and by his own unassisted application
ba was enabled in two yean to understand and translate the Greek
writers. He lived quietly at Florence, seeing nobody except the
countess and his old friend the Abbate Calnso, till 1808, when an
attack of th* gout, to which be was subject, added to his constant
application and an extremely sparing diet, terminated his life on the
Jctober, at the age of M. He expired without much pain, his
r?****' 1 **? 1 b if eriientiy worn out The Countess of Albany was
by his aide in his last moments. He was buried in the church of
^ U 9^1 **" H**""* Putheon, where many yean before the
Bight of Michel Angelo mausoleum bad inspired him with a desire
tttarary fame. The Countess of Albany caused a fine monument
by Canon to ba erected to his memory.
Wan gave to Italy th* first tragedies deserving the name. The
W* are strictly preserved, the characten are few, the action one,
by-pUr or subordinate incidents ; and yet, notwithstanding all this
there b so much power in the sentiments, so much
the language, such a condensation of single passion,
mane* of on* of Alfieri's tragedies keeps the audience
Basil at least is UM effect they produce upon an Italian
^ZlST*J\$fi *?**. * Alfi6ri>i P U y i * olhor " imp-rtrf
bil.Ucal colouring to UM language and the situations of
.? iJT^SE!:'!^' ^ u " r ^^ * * 'y* p-"* 8 * p"^ve
li^!!!. 1 ^ 8 ^***"^ U-rtson, give a>ecSiar and epic
* ~J P^- Tb* -Filippo' is considered as the next in
,". "' " Ofk and Roman subjects. Two
ara^iaMa^irom Ua Uatory of Florae*. Alfieri's clasalo drama is very
T UM Fraucb (tag* ; it is chiefly distinguished by
it* extreme simplicity, the absence of all superfluous declamation and
tedious narrative, and the exciting abruptness of his blank verse. This
arrangement of words, which has been called harsh, was by him
purposely studied, to supply the deficiencies of the measure.
Alfieri a abhorrence of the excesses of the French during the fint
revolution, and of their subsequent servility under military despotism,
has caused some to imagine that be bad renounced all his liberal ideas
before bis death. Alfieri' s idea of liberty was inseparably connected
with that of order and security for persons and property, and he saw
the latter violated every day both in France and in Italy. His violent
temper led him sometimes into paradox and seeming contradictions ;
but ho was, upon the whole, an independent, candid, honest-hearted
writer, and his example and his precepts gave a temper to the Italian
mind which has not been lost.
( Vita ill Vittorio Alfieri Ja Atti, terilta da Sao.)
ALFONSO is the name of several kings of Spain and Portugal, and
of some kings of Naples and Sicily. This name is written by the
Spaniards, Ildefonso, Alphonso, Alfonso, and Alonso ; and by the
Portuguese, Affonso. We have chosen the form Alfonso, as being
that in most common use.
ALFONSO I., surnamed the Catholic, was chosen King of Asturias
and Leon in 739. He waa the son-in-law of Pelayo, and a descendant
of King Leovigild. He wrested from the Moon Lara and Saldafia in
Castile, extended his empire over nearly one-fourth of Spain, and
inflicted a severe retribution on the descendants of the sanguinary
hordes of Tarik and Muza. Alfonso founded new churches in the
towns which he conquered, and rebuilt or repaired the old ; it is
owing to his zeal for religion, that the epithet of Catholic was given
him. He died in 757, and was succeeded by his son, Frucla I.
(Mariana, vii. 6.)
ALFONSO II., called the Chaste, elected King of Asturias and
Leon in 791, was the nephew of Bermudo the Deacon. His reign
was a continual scene of warfare both against the Moors and agninst
his rebellious subjects. To this king is attributed the abolition of the
disgraceful tribute of a hundred maidens, which the Spaniards were
bound from the time of Mauregato to pay to the Moors. The amours
of his sister Donna Ximena with the Count of Soldana the wonderful
exploits of Bernardo del Carpio, who was the offspring of this love,
against the no less famous French hero Roland also belong to this
period. All this history however is considered by the best critics as
belonging to the region of fable and romance. Alfonso died about
the year 843 ; he was succeeded by Ramiro I., son of Bermudo the
Deacon. (Mariana, vil 8, 12.)
ALFONSO III., surnamed El Magno (the Great), king of Asturias
and Leon, succeeded bis father Ordofio I. in 866, at the age of four-
teen. Successful against his rebellious subjects and his Christian
enemies in the beginning of his reign, Alfonso next turned his attention
to the Mohammedans, and in thirty years of continual warfare his
arms were always crowned with victory. He extended the boundaries
of his empire to the banks of the Uuadiona. But his son Garcia,
aided by the ever-rebellious barons, by his father-in-law the Count of
Castile, by his brother Ordofio, governor of Galicia, and even by his
own mother, attempted to dethrone the aged monarch. Alfonso suc-
ceeding in crushing the rebellion and taking his son prisoner; but
fearing the evils of a civil war, he called a junta in 010, and abdi-
cated the crown in favour of Garcia. After his abdication, he led the
troops of his son against the Moslems, and gained a brilliant victory,
shortly after which he died at Zamora, in 910. (Mariana, vii. 17-20.)
ALFONSO IV., called El Mouge, the Monk, king of Leon, suc-
ceeded Fruela II. in 921. Six yean after his accession to the throne,
he abdicated in favour of his brother Ramiro, and retired to the
monastery of Sahagun. Within two years he attempted to regain his
kingdom, but was defeated by his brother, who consigned him to a
monastery, and sentenced him to the loss of his eyes. He died ten
years afterward?. (Mariana, viii. 5.)
ALFONSO V. succeeded his father Bermudo on the throne of Leon
in 999, being only five yean of age. The government, during his
minority, was intrusted to a regency, which was a very eventful one.
During it, the great Al-Mansur was defeated, and this success led to
the conquest of Cordova. Alfonso V. rebuilt and repcopled the city
of Leon, and made some salutary laws iu the Cortes at Oviedo in
1020. He was killed at the siege of Viscu in 1028 ; his sou Ber-
mudo III. succeeded him. (Mariana, viii. 10, 11.)
ALFONSO VI. was the son of Fernando I. He was crowned king
of Leon in 1066. Fernando had committed the same fault as his
father in dividing his states among bis children. He left Leon to
Alfonso, Castile to Sancho, Galicia to Garcia, aud the cities of Toro
and Zamora to Urraca and Elvira, his two daughters. Alfonso and
Sancho lived in peace with each other only two years. In 1068
Sancho invaded the states of his brother, took him prisoner after
some vicissitudes, and confined him iu the monastery of Sahagun,
from which he escaped, aud sought a refuge at the Moorish court of
Toledo. In 1072 Sancho was assassinated while besieging Zamora,
and Alfonso hastened from his exile to take possession of the vacant
throne. Asturias, Leon, and Castile acknowledged his authority. He
invited his brother Garcia to his court, and shut him up in the castle
f Luna, where he remained until his death, and Galicia was thus
added to the states of Alfonso.
137
ALFONSO VIL
ALFONSO II.
138
Having remained undisputed lord of BO large a portion of the
peninsula, Alfonso turned his arms against the Saracens. He invaded
Portugal, and made most of the Moorish petty chiefs his tributaries.
He afterwards took Coria, and then attacked Toledo ; and had not
the Altnoravides with a powerful army invaded Spain, he would have
expelled the Moors from the peninsula. He gave his illegitimate
daughter, Theresa, in marriage to Henry, count of Besanjon, with his
conquests in Portugal, and the title of count. During his reign the
famous hero Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, surnamed the Cid or Sidi, the
Moorish word for Lord, performed those exploits which have fur-
nished abundance of materials to romance-writers.
King Alfonso died in 1109, at Toledo, in the seventy-ninth year of
hia age. His son tiancho having fallen in a battle against the Moors,
the crowns of Leon and Castile fell to his eldest daughter Urraoa.
(Mariana, ix., x., ch. 8-20 ; 1-8.)
ALFONSO VII. [ALFONSO I., of Aragon.]
ALFONSO VIIL, king of Castile and Leon, styled the Emperor.
At the death of his mother, Queen Urraca, he became king in 1126.
The misrule of that princess's government, and the wars which had
devastated Castile during the latter part of the preceding reign} ren-
dered the beginning of his own very stormy. Several places were
held by his step-father, Alfonso VII., until they were subdued, but
at last the two princes were reconciled, and Alfonso VIII. remained
sovereign lord of Castile and Leon. About the year 1137 he was
obliged to march an army into Galicia against the Count of Portugal,
Alfonso Henriquez. Though the Portuguese had the advantage,
Henriquez sued for peace, which Alfonso readily granted.
In 1140 he attempted to conquer Navarre, but failed. In his wars
with the infidels, Alfonso was more successful. He obtained many
signal victories over them, and advanced the Castilian frontiers to
Andalusia. His last battle against the Almohades was undecisive ;
after which he returned towards Toledo, and died in his tent in
August, 1157. At the close of hig reign, the military order of Alain-
tara, to which Christian Spain owed so much, was instituted. He
was succeeded in Castile by Sancho III., and in Leon by Fernando II.
(Mariana, x., xL, 8-20; 1-7.)
ALFONSO IX., king of Leon, succeeded his father Fernando in
1188. He was dubbed a knight by his cousin, Alfonso III. of
Castile. For a short time the two relatives lived on good terms ; but
in 1189, a dispute about the possession of some territory in Eatrema-
dura led to repeated wars. Alfonso first married the Princess
Theresa of Portugal, from whom he was forced to separate by Pope
Celestine III. ; he then married the daughter of his cousin of Castile,
and the marriage was again annulled by the Pope on the same plea
of relationship. Alfonso then conquered Merida, Caceres, and other
important places in Estremadura, and while on his road to Santiago,
he died at Villanueva de Sarria, in 1230. His son Fernando HI.
succeeded to the crowns of both Leon and Castile. (Mariana, xi, xil,
16-22; 1, 2 ; Chronicle of A If onto el Sabio.)
ALFONSO X. of Castile and Leon, surnamed 'El Sabio' (the
Learned), owing to hia legislative, scientific, and literary labours, was
the son of Ferdinand IIL, whom he succeeded in 1252. One of the
first acts of his reign was so dishonourable that it throws an indelible
spot on his character. Ueing discontented with his queen, Dona
Violante of Aragon, because she had no children, he sent his ambas-
sadors to the King of Denmark, stating that he was about to divorce
his wife, and requesting him to send him one of his daughters as a
bride. The Princess Christina accordingly set out from her father's
court, and having traversed France and Germany arrived at Valla-
dolid. By this time the queen had a daughter, and Alfonso was
reconciled to her, and the Princess of Denmark, mortified and dis-
appointed in her hopes of an honourable marriage, died a few months
after. In 1253 Edward, the son of Henry III. of England, paid him
a visit. He was magnificently entertained by that prince, who con-
ferred on him the honour of knighthood, and married him to his
daughter, LeontSr, commonly called Eleonor. In 1256 he became a
competitor for the imperial crown, but Kichard, earl of Cornwall, was
elected by a small majority of the Diet On the death of Kichard in
1271, Alfonso renewed his application, but Rudolph of Habsburg was
elected. In vain did Alfonso, who had assumed the title of emperor,
protest against the validity of this new election; in vain did he
lavish his wealth to form a party in his own favour ; his pretensions
only served to involve him in perpetual dispute with the secular
princes of the empire, as well as with the Pope, who, weary of his
importunities, went so far as to excommunicate his adherents. The
enormous expense which the ambitious projects of Alfonso entailed
upon him, and the adulteration of the coin, to which he is known to
have resorted in order to raise money, made him unpopular with his
subjects, who began loudly to complain of hia expensive follies.
This state of things was taken advantage of by a few discontented
barons who formed a league against Alfonso, at the head of which
was his own brother the Infante Don Felipe. Having obtained the
assistance of Mohammed I., sultan of Granada, who promised to make
a diversion in their favour on the frontiers of Castile, they rose in
arms in 1270 ; but upon Alfonso promising them that their grievances
should b redressed, they dispersed, and tha most turbulent retired
to Granada, where they were kindly received by the Moorish king.
In 1275, during the absence of Alfonso on a fruitless visit to Pope
Gregory, then at Beaucaire in France, respecting his pretensions to
the empire, his eldest son, the Infante Fernando de la Cerda, died.
This was the cause of fresh disturbances, for a question now arose
whether the offspring of the lufante, who had left two sons by a
French princess, was to be preferred to the second son, Don Sancho.
This led to a series of distressing civil wars. Sancho was disinherited
by a junta at Seville and was solemnly cursed by his father, but he
succeeded in reducing Alfonso to such extremity that he applied to
Abu Yusuf, sultan of Marocco, and requested his aid in money and
troops, offering to pawn him his crown. The African crossed the
straits at the head of considerable forces; Sancho, on the other hand,
concluded an alliance with Mohammed II. of Granada, and the civil
war which now raged was rendered more than usually destructive
and atrocious by the interference on both sides of foreign powers
professing a hostile religion. Both parties ravaged the country
without gaining any decisive advantage, until at length Alfonso was
prevailed upon to pardon his rebellious son, and to restore him to his
favour. He died shortly after, in 1284, in the eighty-first year of his
age. The character of Alfonso was a curious compound of weakness
and vindictiveness, and of the best as well as of the worst qualities
of human nature. Upon the whole, fickleness rather than incapacity
seems to have been his leading fault. That in the midst of such
troubles Alfonso should have been able not only to devote himself to
the cultivation of science and literature, but to acquire learning so
extensive for the age in which he lived, is really wonderful. Not-
withstanding the few moments of rest which his immoderate ambition
and the revolt of his subjects allowed him, he conferred such services
both upon his own country aud upon the world at large, as few royal
persons have done. Spain owes to him not only her earliest national
history, aud a translation of the Scriptures, but the restoration of her
principal university, that of Salamanca, the introduction of the ver-
nacular tongue in public proceedings, and the promulgation of an
admirable code of laws. Science is greatly indebted to him for the
celebrated astronomical tables known by his name, which were still
universally used in Europe at the beginning of the 16th century. It
is probable that Alfonso employed in their construction several
Moorish astronomers of Granada, who visited his court for the express
purpose of superintending, if not of making them. Their epoch is
the 30th of May, 1252, the day of his accession to the throne. They
were printed for the first time at Venice, 1492, 4to, and went subse-
quently through several editions. It has been asserted by Salazar
(' Origen de his Dignidades Soculares de Castilla y Leon,' p. 105) that
in the promulgation of the body of laws known as ' Las Siete
Partidas,' because it is divided into seven sections or parts, Alfonso
had only a small share, that code having been begun in the reign of
his father Ferdinand III. But this has since been discovered to be
an error. Ferdinand perceived, no doubt, the defects of the Visigothic
code, but he never attempted to remedy them, and the task was
reserved for his son. The revival of the study of Roman law, which
was then taught in the Italian universities, and his wish to appear as
a legislator in the hope of obtaining the imperial crown, the favourite
object of his ambition, urged him on to the arduous task of legis-
lating for a warlike and chivalrous nation. How cautiously he pro-
ceeded in his great design will appear from the fact that his first
compilation for actual use was the ' Fuero Real,' which consisted of
ordinances or laws taken from the local ' fueros ' or charters, with a
few monarchical axioms from the Justinian code, and that neither
Alfonso nor his immediate successors, Don Sancho el Bravo and
Fernando IV., attempted to enforce them as the law of the laud.
ALFONSO XI., king of Castile and Leon, succeeded his father
Fernando IV. in 1312, being only n few months old. A long series
of convulsions attended his minority. When ho came of aje he
quieted the intestine disturbances, and seriously pursued the wars
against the Infidels. He took Tarifa and Algeciras from them, but
died of the plague while besieging Gibraltar, in 1350. He was suc-
ceeded by his son Pedro the Cruel. (Villasau, Cronica del Key Don
Alfonso el Onceno; Mariana, xv.)
ALFONSO I., king of Aragon, surnamed El Batallado'r, ' the
Battler,' succeeded his brother Pedro in 1 1 04, and marrying Queen
Urraca of Castile and Leon, was styled king of those provinces also.
This marriage was annulled iu 1114. In a succession of victories he
rescued from the Mohammedans almost all the territory south of the
Ebro. He laid siege to Saragossa, aud after four years of struggle he
entered it by capitulation in 1118, and made it the capital of Aragon.
In 1120 he defeated a numerous army of the Almoravides near
Daroca. Tarragona, Meguinenza, and Calatayud were also among his
conquests ; and he carried his victorious arms even to Andalusia.
In 1134 he invested Fraga, when the wall of Valencia, Abeu Gama,
advanced with a considerable force to relieve the town. A battle
took place, in which the Christians were defeated and Alfonso killed.
He was succeeded by his brother Ramiro II.
(Florez, Eipana Kagrada ; Chronica Adefonai Imperotorit, vol. xi. ;
Rodericus Toletanus, De fiebui Hitpanids ; Mariana, x. 8.)
ALFONSO II. succeeded his mother Petronila on the throne of
Aragon when he was only eleven years of age. He extended the
frontiers of his kingdom on the side of the Mohammedans, penetrated
into the territory of Valencia, and aided Alfonso IX. of Castile in
investing Cuenca. For this important service Aragon was made
ALFONSO IIL
ALFONSO V.
. to Castile. AUonwdUdinllM; tod
I 10 hit Arajroo and kU Spanish dominions \>j his eldest
no, Pwlro II. (Kodwfen Toletanu. ; Man.na, xt S-13.)
ALK).N>0 III. was tbe sou of Pedro lit, king of Aragon. At
Uw dssua of bil f.U^r in 1S8S, be wmi at Majoro*, where be bad
tea MB by his father to dethrone hit uncle Jaime, who bad usurped
the sovereignty of that ulsnd. Having succeeded in bin expedition,
be iibminiTtn Aragon. ami found the Cortes assembled at Saragossa,
Tkia bod* sent a deputation to meet him at Valencia, to express
r tonriM at hi* baring aeeumed the title of king previous to hu
the ooetonuunr oath before the Cortei of tbe realm. Not
ifieulty, and after many tnmultaoui debate*, Alfun<o
was acknowledged king, upon submitting to all the conditions
required by that body. His reign wa occupied with wan against
Franc* the Pope, and the dethroned King of Majorca, productive of
oo other result than the distress of the people. He died at Barcelona
in 1191, aad was soceeedrd by his brother, Jaime II. (Zurits, AnaUt
dt Arayom,.; Mariana, xiv.)
Al.rUNSO IV., son of Jaime II., ascended the throne of Aragon
in 1327. The Genoese not only fomented distension in his new
(jmximaU of Sardinia, but ereo dared to attack him iu Ms own king-
dom. They made various descents on Catalonia and Valencia, but
were repulsed. At boioe, his son and successor Pedro mised the
standard of revolt against him, because his father had given some
peaMtsioo* to bis half-brother Alfonso. These dissensions were in a
great msmrare the cause of his death, which took place in Barcelona
in 1536. He was succeeded by his ton, Pedro IV. (Zurita, Analet,
TIL ; Mariana, xvi.)
ALFONSO V. of Aragon, and I. of Sicily, succeeded, in 1416, his
lather, Ferdinand L, who had annexed the crown of Sicily to that of
Aragon. To these two Alfonso added that of Naples. Queen
Joanna II. baring adopted him for her heir and successor, Alfonso
repaired to Naples, but was driven away by the party of the Angevin*,
tadtrl by tbe fsmous Sfona Attendolo, and the Queen was compelled,
in 1423, to name as her successor Louis III. of Anjou. At the death
of Joanna, in 1435, Alfonso renewed his claims, but was opposed by
Reno' of Anjou, who after Louis's death had been called to the throne
by the last will of the Queen. The court of Rome declared for Ken<5.
Alfonso's fleet was attacked near the island of Ponza by the Genoese,
who had taken Rene"* part, and was totally defeated, Alfonso him-
self being taken prisoner. The Genoese sent him to Philip Maria
Viaconti, duke of Milan, who was then also lord of Genoa. Alfonso
found favour with his keeper, who was pleased with his acuteness of
mind and bit superior address, and who, being also jealous of the
French dominion at Naples, not only restored him to liberty, but
made an alliance with him. Alfonso repaired to Gaeta, which his
fleet bad taken by surprise, and thence he went into the Abruzzi and
Poglia, where he found partisans among the nobility. The war
between him and Hun 1 was carried on in those remote provinces for
several yean, till at last the treachery of the younger Caldora, a con-
doUieri chief, rained the affairs of Rend, and Alfonso advanced
against Naples in 1442. Hit soldiers entered the city through an old
aqueduct, and Ren<! scaped by sea to Provence, where he reigned till
hi> death, tbe last king of the house of Anjou. Alfonso now fixed his
residence at Naples, and for the first time since the Sicilian Vespers,
Sicily and Naples were united under the same monarch. Alfonso
applied himself to re-establish order and justice throughout the king-
dom, which hod long bn a prey to misgovernment and confusion
under tbe weak and corrupt reign of Joanna 1 1. In order to strengthen
linsslf with the noble*, whose power was very great, he extended
their feudal privileges, and he also increased Urgely the number of
the feudatories of the crown. In return he obtained of them parlia-
mentary grants of money, or gifts, as they were called, and fresh taxes
to supply his expenditure.
Alfonso was engaged in frequent disputes with the Popes, which
were terminated by the treaty of Terracina in 1443, when he joined
the Papal troops against Francesco Sforxa, the son of bis old anta-
gonist, and di]>ostessed him of the Marches. Sfona having after-
wards become, nnt, general, and then Duke of Milan, Alfonso joined
tbe Venetians against him and bin allies, the Florentine". The most
fcvourabts feature of Alfonso's reign is his patronage of letters. He
alto was fond of the arts, and to him Naples owed teveral embellish-
Alfonso bad no legitimate children, having early separated from
Ms wife. For bis natural son, Ferdinand, be procured the Pope's
ball of legitimacy, and left him as bis successor to the throne of
Kin Its; hii brother John remaining heir to the crowns of Aragon,
ValsBtta, Hardmla, and Hicily. This John was afterward, succeeded
by Ferdinand, called tho Catholic, who reconquered the kingdom of
Naples, which continued to be a dependency of Spain for several
omturUa.
In 1 467 Alfonso tent a fleet against Genoa, to favour the party of
th Adorai faction, whieh l.ad bt*n exiled ; tlie city w hard preated
by tiM titltgin, when Alfunso died at Naples, on the 17th June,
ONS<> III . of Castile (previous to the union of Castile and
LSOB) WM only three yars of age at the death of his father, Sancho III.,
in 1IM. Hit Minority WM a Ttry stormy one. The two families of
Castros and Laras quarrelled for the guardianship of the young king,
and caused much blood to be shed. Alfonso married Eleanor, daughter
of Henry II. of England, in 1170, and from that time he exercised
the regal authority without control In 1195 he was defeated by the
Altnobadet at Alarcos, but he avenged this affront iu the famous
battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, where he destroyed the most nume-
rous army that ever crossed the Strait of Gibraltar, after the fir.-t
invasion. [ALMOHADKS.] Shortly after this memorable victory, be
died at Garci Muhoz, in 1214 ; he was succeeded by his son Knr.
(Mariana. XL, xii.)
ALFONSO 1., king of Portugal, was the ton of Honry, count of
Besanron, who held 1'ortugal in fief with the title of count. .'
fathers death, in 1006, Alfonso being only two years old, his mother
governed the state in his minority, and he was forced to apply to arms
before he could wrest the sovereignty from her.
After a short war with Castile, he assembled his army at Coimbro,
with a view to attack the InfideU. The King of Badajoz and four
other Moorish chieftains also mustered an army, far superior iu num-
bers to that of the Portuguese. The struggle was severe on both
sides,' and at hut victory declared for the Christians. An incredible
multitude of Africans remained dead on the field, the uumber of
which is estimated by the Portuguese historians at 200,000. 1
exultation of victory, the Count was proclaimed King by his followers,
which title be assumed from that day. This battle was fought in the
plains of Ourique, in the province of Alemtejo, in the year 1139.
In 1146 Alfonso took by assault the fortress of Santurem from tbe
Saracens, and put to the sword all its inhabitants without distinction
of age or sex. In the next year he took Lisbon, when the fleet of
Euglixh crusaders, who were going to the Holy Land, rendered him
very effectual assistance. He afterwards reduced Cintra, crossed the
Tagus, and possessed himself of several towns in Kstremadura and
Alemtejo. In 1158 he reduced Alcazar-do-Sal after a siege of two
months. In abort, Alfonso almost freed all Portugal from the yoke of
the Saracens.
This king, the founder of the Portuguese monarchy, was not a
warrior only he was also a legislator. Under his reign a code of
laws was promulgated at the Cortes of Lamego. These laws chiefly
treated on the succession to the crown, the duties of the nobles oiid
the people, and the independence of the kingdom.
Alfonso died in 1185, at Coimbra. He was succeeded by his son
Sancho I.
(Braudaon, Monarchic Lueitana; Chrmicm Lutitanvm ; Mariana,
x., xi. ; Lemoa, ix.)
ALFONSO II. ascended the throne of Portugal in 1211, on tho
death of his father Sancho I. The principal event of his reign was
his dispute with the church by attempting to subject tho clergy to
personal military service, and their possessions to contribute the
same as the laity towards the support of the state. The consequence
of these measures was that Pope Honorius III. placed the kingdom
under an interdict. Alfonso was forced to yield, and was pardoned on
his promise of making ample satisfaction for his past offences. Before
he could fulfil his promise he died, in 1223, and was succeeded by his
son, Sancho II. (Kodericus Toletanus, viii. ; Letnos, xii.)
ALFONSO III. succeeded his brother Sancho II.. in 12(8. )
his accession, he was a poor exile in France. His brother having
been deprived by a decree of the Pope, Alfonso railed for Lisbon, and
on his arrival was received with enthusiasm by all classes of the
nation. Sancbo finding himself deserted by his subjects, reth
Toledo, where he died in 1248. Alfonso made some few conquests
from the Mohammedans, and died in 1279; he was succeeded by hb
MMI 1 Minis. (Ckronicon Conimbrieciuc ; Mariano, xiii. ; Lemos, xiii.)
ALFONSO IV., surnamed the Brave, asci-nded thu throne of
Portugal on the death of his father Dennis iu 1325, against whom he
had been in rebellion several times. Through the intrigues of the
Infante Juan Manuel, he became embroiled with his son -iu-luw
Alfonso XI. of Castile ; and scarcely was his dispute with the Castiliaii
settled, when he had to encounter disturbances of a more serious
nature, in the unlawful intercourse of his son Pedro with li
Castro his mistress. His own weakness, and a mistaken zeal fir the
welfare of his kingdom, induced him to give his con
barbarous murder of that unfortunate lady, which plunged the state
into a civil war. Pedro raised thu standard of rebellion again t IIH
father, and possessed himself of almost all the north of Portugal.
After much bloodshed a reconciliation was i If.-cted b-twuen father and
son, and not long after Alfonso died, tormented by tho remembrance
of his murderous deed. His death took place in 1 X>7, and he was suc-
ceeded by his son, Pedro 1. (C'Anmicon C'onimbrtccnic ; Lemos, xvii.)
ALFONSO V. was tho son of Duarte. At tho death of his father
in 1488 he was only six years of ngi>. His minority was very disturbed
and eventful. In 1446, Alfonso baring reached his fourteenth year,
seized the reins of govcrmin-nt, and suppressed a rebellion raised by
bis uncle Pedro the late regent In 1457 Alfonso fitted out an expe-
dition against the Moors. He landed in Africa with 20,000 mm
took Alcazar, Reguer, and Tangier. II" a].-o engaged man unfortunate
war with Castile; and not long after, having concluded a peace with
that nation, died of the plagu in it 7!'. Ho was succeeded !>y hi.
son Joao II. (Kuiz de Pino, Ckronica do Scnhor Jtey Don A/onto V. ;
Mariana, xxl ; Lemos, xxvi.)
141
ALFONSO I.
ALFRED.
ALFONSO I., of Naples. [ALFONSO V., of Aragon.]
ALFONSO IL, of Naples, son of Ferdinand I., and grandson of
Alfonso I., was the chief cause of the famous revolt of the barons
under his father's reign, and of the cruelties that followed. On the
death of Ferdinand in 1494, he succeeded to the throne ; but the
approach of the French under Charles VIII. frightened him, and he
ran away before he had completed one year of his reign. He retired
to a convent at Messina, and died soon after. Ferdinand II., his son,
succeeded him, and, with the assistance of the Spaniards, drove away
the French ; but dying in 1496, was succeeded by his uncle Frederic,
Alfonso II.'s brother. (Guicciardini, Storia d' Italia ; Porzio, La Can-
giura dei Baroni.)
ALFRAGANIUS, properly AL-FARGANI, or with his complete
name, Ahmed-ben-Kothair-Al-Faiycmi, was a celebrated astronomer,
who flourished under the reign of the Abbaside Kalif Mamun, in the
earlier part of the 9th century of the Christian era. He was called
Al-Fargani from his native place, Fargana, a town and province in
Transoxiana. \Ve possess an elementary treatise on Astronomy by
him, chiefly founded on the system of Ptoletnseus, which was printed
with a Latin translation and notes by Golius in 1669.
ALFRED, AELFBED, ELFRED, or ALURED, surnamed the
Great, king of the West Saxons ia England, was born in 848 or 849,
at Wanading, or Wannating, in Berkshire, generally supposed to be
the village now called Wantage, which was then a royal town, and
had been originally a Roman station. His father was King Ethcl-
wulf, the son and successor of Egbert the Great; his mother was
Osburga, or Osbcrga, daughter of Oslac the Goth, who held the high
office of rnyal cupbearer (famosus pincerna), and was of the race of
the sub-kings of the Isle of Wight, who were sprung from a nephew
of Cerdic, the founder of the West Saxon kingdom. Ethelwulf, who
had been brought up as a monk, had come to the throne above twelve
years before the birth of Alfred, who was the youngest of his four
sons. The favourite of both his parents, Alfred is supposed to have
been from the first designed by Ethelwulf to succeed him on the
throne ; and it was probably with this view that the boy was sent to
Rome with a splendid retinue in 853, when, we are told by his bio-
grapher Asser, the Pope Leo IV. bestowed upon him the royal unction,
and adopted him as his son ; and that two years after Ethelwulf him-
self took him a second time to Rome, and remained with him there a
whole year. It was in returning through France from this visit that
Ethelwulf fell in love with Judith, the young and beautiful daughter
of Charles the Bald, king of that country, and was married to her in
October 856, after a courtship of three months. It is natural to sup-
pose that his former wife, Osberga, must have been dead when he
contracted this new alliance. Yet Asser tells a story of Alfred having
been first induced to learn his letters in his twelfth year by his
mother (mater sua) tempting him and his brothers with the promise
of a Saxon book of poetry, which she said she would give to the one
who should first learn to understand ami recite its contents. At this
date Judith had ceased to be even Alfred's step-mother; Ethelwulf
had died not long after his return home, and she had become the
wife of Ethelbald, his eldest son. In 868, in his twentieth year, Alfred
married Alswitha, Elswitha, or Ealswitha, the daughter of Ethelred,
surnamed Hucil (that is, the ' large '), a nobleman of Mercia. Alswitha' s
mother, Eadburb, was of the blood of the Mercian kings. During
the festivities at the celebration of his marriage, Alfred, as Asser tells
us, was suddenly stized before the assembled multitude with a dis-
tressing malady for which the physicians had neither name nor cure,
and the attacks of which continued to torment him daily down to the
time at which the biography professes to be written, when Alfred was
in his forty-fifth year.
King Ethelbald had been succeeded in 860 by his next brother
Eth-jlbert; and Ethelbert having also died in 866, the throne at the
time of Alfred's marriage was filled by Ethelwulf 's third surviving son,
Ethelred, or Ethered (notwithstanding that Ethelbert appears to have
left at least one son). At the time of his marriage, Alfred, Asser tells
us, held the rank of Secundarius, whatever that may mean. This
title or rank, which he retained till he became king, he appears to
have enjoyed even before Ethelred came to the throne; for a little
lower down he ia spoken of as having been Secundarius while his
brothers lived. During the reign of Ethelred he probably took a
more active part than the king himself in the direction of public
affairs ; Agser's narration at least represents him as associated with
his brother on all occasions, both in war and negotiation. Ever since
the last years of the reign of Egbert, who died in 836, the Scandi-
navian sea-rovers, or Danes, ag they were called, had harassed England
with one descent after another; on some occasions wintering in the
country, and holding the district where they settled iu complete
subjection. Indeed it is probable that the effect of these invasions had
already been to intermix a considerable number of foreigners with
the native population of the eastern and northern counties. But the
first year of the reign of Ethelred saw a hostile armament approach
the coasts so formidable as to be evidently designed for nothing less
than the entire conquest of the island. It was under the command of
three of the sons of the celebrated Ragnar Lodbrog, twenty-eight
others of whose relations and associates, styling themselves kings and
earls, were captains in the fleet. Disembarking in East Anglia, the
foreigners passed the winter in that kingdom ; in the spring of the
next year marched into and overran Northumbria ; and in 868 crossed
the Humber, and occupied part of Mercia. Both llercia and East
Anglia, the only other kingdoms of the old Heptarchy, with the excep-
tion of Northumbria, that still subsisted, had ever since the reign of
Egbert been accustomed to look up to Wessex as, if not actually their
superior iu the feudal sense, at least the leading member of the Anglo-
Saxon confederacy of states ; and in this emergency Burrhed the
Mercian king and his nobles immediately sent messengers to King
Ethelred and his brother Alfred to supplicate their assistance in
repelling the invaders. The two brothers thereupon collected an army,
with which they advanced as far as the towu of Nottingham (Scnoten-
gaham), where the Danes lay ; but the pagans, to use Asser's terms,
refused to come out to battle, and the Christians were not strong
enough to force their entry into the town ; so that the latter found
themselves obliged to return home without effecting anything, and
the Mercians made the best peace they could with their enemy. The
flaues now retired to York, in the dominion of tho Northumbrians,
and remained there a whole year. In the spring of 870, embarking
on the Humber, they landed at Hutnberstau in Lincolnshire, devastated
all the eastern part of Mercia, and then passed into East Anglia, where
they in like manner carried everything before them, and having seized
and put to death King Edmund (the St. Edmund of the calendar),
set Godrun, or Guthrun, one of their own leaders, on the vacant
throne. After wintering in Thetford, their army, iu the spring of
871, advanced into the dominions of the West Saxons, aud taking
possession of the royal town of Reading (Raedigam), on the third
day after their arrival, sent out pirt of their force mounted to plunder
in the neighbourhood, while another band employed themselves in
erecting a defensive rampart on the right (that is, the west) side of
tho town from the Thames to the Kenuet (Cynetan). The latter were
attacked by Ethelwulf, earl of Berkshire, near the village of Ingles-
field, and after a sharp conflict defeated, with the loss of one of their
captains. Four days after, Ethelred and Alfred appeared with their
forces before Reading, when another engagement took place, which
ended in the defeat of the Christiana, Earl Ethelwulf being among
the slain. After four days more the two armies met again at a place
called Aeacesdun (probably Aston, near Wallingford), when the iiapo-
tuoaity of Alfred, who commanded one of the two divisions of the
Saxon force, and who, Asser says, on the relation of an eyewitness,
led his men to the attack with the courage of a wild boar, nearly
lost the day ; but, Ethelred coming up (after saying his prayers with
unusual deliberation), the Saxons recovered themselves, and in the
end the fon-igners were defeated with great slaughter, and pursued
back into Reading. A fortnight afterwards however, in another
battle fought at Basing in Hampshire, the victory fell to the Danes ;
and soon after this they were joined by another body of their country-
men from beyond seas. Another battle, not noticed by As^er, but
mentioned botli in the Saxon Chronicle aud the Chronicle of Mailros,
took place about two months after at Mertune (probably Morton, to
the north-west of Reading), in which the Danes were again successful ;
and iu this conflict King Ethelred received a wound, of which he died
soon after Easter 871. Upon this Alfred was immediately declared
king, with the universal consent of all ranks of the people. Asser
intimates that he accepted the crown with some reluctance, as dread-
ing that he should never be ablo alone to sustain the hostility of the
pagans.
The first seven years of Alfred's reign abundantly justified this
apprehension. The events of this space, as far as they are to be
collected from Aeser, the Saxon chronicler, and other early authorities,
whose narratives however are iu many particulars very confused and
indistinct, are as follows : In the course of the year in which Alfred
ascended the throne (including apparently the portion of it that had
elapsed before the death of Ethelred) eight or nine great battles,
besides innumerable skirmishes, were fought between the Saxons and
the Danes, in most or all of which the Saxons seem to have been
worsted. All that we are told is, that, after this course of ill success,
Alfred made a peace with the invaders, on condition that they should
leave \Vessex : it is probable that he bought them off by a payment
in money, or at least engaged to stand aloof while they fought out
their quarnls with the other states. We know, at any rate, that they
now overran the rest of the country without any further attempt on
his part to interfere with them. Having collected their forces at
London, and wintered there, they waited for another year, till their
strength had grown by accessions from their native north, and then
sallying forth, they soon reduced both Mercia and Northumbria,
pushing their conquests iu the latter direction as far as to the British
kingdom of Strathclyde, in the heart of what is now called Scotland.
Alfred appears to have remained quiet till tho year 875, when we are
in ALFRF.D.
told by Acr be engaged six of the ships of the pagaae at sea, and took
on. of thceB. the others making their escape. This seem, to have brought
them down again upon Wewrx. The nut year, issuing from Uivir
winter qnarurs at Cambridge (GranUbrycge) by night, a powerful
body of them. Uking to sea and sailing along the sonth coast, sur-
prised UM tilth of Wareham in Dorsetshire, and Alfred was obliged
to bribe them by a sum of money to leave his domiuiona They did
ot however keep their oaths, though be had sworn them both in the
pagan and UM Christian fashion, but soon after, attacking him in the
iljfca, they slew all his cavalry, and seising the horses, rode away on
them to Exeter, where they settled for the winter. Encouraged by
his late naval .nooses, Alfred ordered boats and galleys to be built
la different ports, and manning them. Asser tclb) us, with pirates,
ctetimisil them to guard the sea, while, in the spring of 877, he
at the bead of a land force to Exeter, to expel the intruders.
to Asser, the fleet attacked 120 chips of the Danes which
to the eesertsncc of their countrymen, and drove them
, . _sn all on board perished ; but it does not appear that the
. king ventured to besiege those who had taken possession of
; all that is stated is, that another treaty was concluded, and
mtrther promise given by them on oath that they would coon take
thrfr departure ; and in fact in the month of August they removed
into MrrcU. But they returned in the beginning of the next year,
878, in augmented numbers ; and now they appear to have met with
BO iie'l.nr<i Marching to Chippenbam, they took possession of that
royal town, and making it their head-quarters, cent out thence they:
marauding bands over all the surrounding country. Of the natives
come fled beyond seas ; those who remained behind universally sub-
mitted to the invaders, and Alfred himself, at first attended only by a
lew of hie nobility and soldiers, afterwards without any followers,
wandered about in the woods and marshes, till at last be found what
proved a secure hiding-place in the hut of a poor peasant, who with
his wife tended a few cows on a small elevated piece of ground rising
among the marshes on the north bank of the Tone in Somersetshire,
end still known by the name of Athelney; that in, Atheling-Eye,
meaning the island of the nobles, or the royal island. He is said to
have represented himself to the cowherd as one of the king's thanes,
ccccpsil from a rout of bis countrymen.
Statement* are found in various old writers which distinctly impute
to Alfred up to this time of his life a character and conduct in some
respects very different from what he afterwards displayed. Mr. Sharon
Turner, who was the first among the modern biographers of Alfred to
notice this circumstance, has, in bis ' History of the Anglo-Saxons,'
collected and exhibited the concurring testimonies in question with
diligence and clearness, and with a good sense and right feeling, very
unlike the spirit in which his discoveries have been seized upon, and
absurdly produced as a proof that all the so-called greatness of the
Anglo-Saxon king is the mere creation of modern ignorance and
bombast. It is conjectured by Mr. Turner that the facility with
which the Danes appear to have at hut obtained complete possession
of Weesex may be accounted for on the supposition that Alfred
had lost the attachment of his subjects through his uiisgovernment
ead hi* immoralities; and he rests this upon the belief that Asser
says that be believed this adversity which befel the king happened
to him not undeservedly, " because," he goes on, " in the first part
of hie reign, when he was a young man, and governed by a youthful
mind, when the men of his kingdom and his subjects came to him and
besought his aid in their necessities, when they who were depressed
by the powerful implored his aid and patronage, he would not hear
them, nor afford them any assistance, but treated them as of no esti-
mation." This part of the proof may be set aside ; it having been
ascertained that the paseage is an interpolation of a later period. (See
Preface to ' Monuments HUtorica Britanoica.') The well-known story
of hie being scolded one day by the cowherd's wife for allowing some
loarra, or cakes, to burn which she bad left him to watch, is told in the
ancient Saxon and Latin Lives of St Neot, which are in the Cotton
Library. According to William of Malmesbury and other biter chro-
BieUrs, the cowherd, whose name was Denulf, having afterwards, on
Alfred' recommendation, applied himself to letters, was made by
him Bishop of Winchester, >nd was the same Denulf who died occupant
of that cec in 909. After some time Alfred appears to have discovered
himself to come of hie friends, or to have been discovered by them ;
end be wee also joined in his retreat by his wife, if another story be
true which is told by KUielward, Ingulfus, and Simeon of Durham,
about bis one day ordering their scanty store of breid to be divided
1o came hungry to the door, although they had no
ALFRED.
lit
with a brggar who
of a further supply ; an act of kind-heartedne
which, as might be expected, the monkish narrators make to have been
forthwith bountifully recompensed by Heaven, beiides embellishing
rith uodry other miraculous circum.tances. It is cal-
UM Incident wi
I that Alfred remained at Athelney about five months; but
UM letter part of his time he had an armed body of his sub-
jeeto with him, and UM place bad been converted into a well-defended
from which incursions were frequently made into the
f country, the beeves end granaries of Dane or recreant
differently, we are told, to replenish the royal larder.
, , .
At bet Alfred resolved to attack their main army, which was encamped
CO c*4 erwmd Brattoo Hill, between Bddiogtoo and Westbury in Wilt-
shire. Iliii principal adherents having gathered on his summons at n
place known by the name of Egbert's Stone in Selwood Forest, he led
his united forces to a hill at a short distance from that occupied by
the Danes, encamped n it for the night, and next morning conducted
them to the attack. Tho Northmen were defeated with great sin
and those who escaped were beleaguered in a neighbouring f .
place in which they had shut themselves up, and after a short time
were compelled to surrender at discretion. The romantic adventure,
mentioned by several of the old historians, of Alfred making bis way
into the Danish camp, and into the tent of the king, Qorin, Quthruu,
or Qodrun, in the disguise of a harper, is said to have happened the
day before this victory of Kddington, or Klhaudune, gained early iu
May 878, which restored him to hia throne, and compelled the
foreigners to quit Wossex without another blow. Godrun even
consented to Alfred's proposition that he and his followers should
become Christians ; he himself was baptised by the name of Athelstan,
Alfred standing as his godfather ; and it was thereupon agreed that
the converted Danes should occupy in peace the whole of the country
called East Anglia, including the modern counties of Norfolk, Suffolk,
Cambridge, and perhaps Essex, with the small portions of Huntingdon,
Bedford, and Hertford, that might lie to the eastward of the old
Roman road called Watling-atreet. A formal treaty to that effect, the
terms of which have been preserved, was concluded between the two
parties.
The effect of this arrangement was, that the Danes, no longer
regarded as foreigners, were established in the dominion of a consider-
able portion of England, and in the occupation of the country to a
much greater extent ; for the population both of the northern counties
constituting the kingdom, or the two kingdoms, of North uinbria, and
of the midland districts forming the kingdom of Mercia, waa also by
this time in great part Danish as well as that of East Auglia, The
only part of the country that remained purely Saxon waa the kingdom
of Wessex (with which Kent and Sussex had long been incorporated),
comprehending the region to the south of the Thames, or the modern
counties of Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Hants, Berks, Wilts, Dorset, Somerset,
Devon, and so much of Cornwall, as had been wrested from the Britons.
It has however been held by some that even iu East Auglia Alfred was
understood to have reserved to himself the supreme dominion ; and
it appears that, at least within a few years from this time, the whole
or nearly the whole of Mercia fell under his power, and was given by
him to be ruled by Ethelred, to whom he afterwards gave his daughter
Ethelfleda in marriage. In Northumbria also he exercised a predo-
minant influence ; and in 893, after the death of Quthred, whom he
had appointed king ten years before, he took the government of the
country into his own hands. Meanwhile Guthrun had continued to
reign in East Auglia till his death iu 890, when, according to the Danish
historians, he was succeeded by another prince of the same name ; but,
a few years after this kingdom also appears to have returned under the
sway of Alfred, who may therefore bo regarded as having been from
about the year 894 king of all England. In the interval between his
restoration to bis ancestral throne of Wessex and this date he had been
unremitting in his exertions both to re-establish order within his king-
dom, and to strengthen it against external enemies. Ingulfus states
that he divided it into hundreds and tithiugs, with a view both to
police and to military defence ; and that he not only restored the
cities and castles which had been destroyed or hod fallen into ruin
during the recent wars and confusions, but constructed additions
fortifications wherever they were required. He also engaged with
ardour in the building of ships, BO that he was in a few years master
of a respectable navy ; and, if wo may rely on the accounts of Asser,
the Saxon chronicler, and other ancient authorities Alfred may bo
regarded as the true founder of this great English arm of war.
In 894 a new invasion of Northmen, uuder a leader, Hastin. .
had already made his name terrible by various descents on the coast
and incursions into the heart of France, once more involved England
in a war, which was protracted over more than three yours, and in the
course of which nearly every part of the country, of the interior oa
well as of the coasts, waa at one time or other the scene of bloodshed
and devastation. The Northmen made their appearance in two fleets ;
one consisting of 250 vessels, which landed its armed multitude on
the south-west coast of Kent, near Uomuey Marsh ; the other of
80 ships, under the conduct of Hastings himself, who, leading them
up the Thames, and thence into the East Swale, disembarked his
forces at Milton, near Sittingbourue. Alfred immediately threw him-
self between the two armies; and when, after confining itself for
some time to its encampment, the one which had landed on the south
coast suddenly plunged into the interior, and attempted to cut across
the country and effect a junction with the other by a route to the
west of where he was stationed, he pursued and overtook it at Farn-
httin, in Surrey, where an engagement took place, which soon eiicli-.l in
the defeat and flight of the Danes. The pursuit was continued across
the Thames, and then across the whole of Essex, till the foreigners
took refuge in the small Isle of Mersey, at the mouth of the Coluc.
While Alfred lay blockading them here, an armament of a hundred
ships, fitted out by the revolted Danish colonists of Esat Anglia,
passed the North Foreland, and, sailing along the southern coast as
far as Exeter, attacked that city ; and another fleet of forty vessels,
which bad set sail from Northumbria, hod made its way round by
145
ALFRED.
ALFRED.
146
the northern extremity of the island, and reached the Bristol Channel.
On receiving this intelligence, Alfred immediately marched across the
country to Exeter ; and he soon rid that city of its assailants, who,
sailing away to the east, attacked Chichester, but were there driven
off by the inhabitants. Meanwhile, Hastings had got out of the
Swale, and, having been joined by his countrymen from the Isle of
Mersey, had sailed up the Thames, and was devastating Mercia ; but
Alfred was soon after them, and pursued them till they threw them-
selves into a fortress at Buttington on the Severn, whence, after being
penned up Tor some weeks and reduced to extremities, they endea-
voured to cut their way out by a desperate sally, in which some
thousands were slain and driven into the river. Hastings however and
a small number escaped to the coast of Essex, where they were joined
by a large force of East Anglians and Northumbrians, and whence
they soon after marched across the island in a new direction, and took
possession of the town of Chester ; but to this point too they were
followed by Alfred, and, after ravaging part of North Wales, they
returned by a circuitous route through Northumbria and East .Anglia
to the Isle of Mersey, where they wintered. Here also they appear
to have lain quiet during the whole of the year 895, watched by
Alfred, who, by digging new canals for the river, is said to have
drawn off the water from their ships, which were moored in the Lea,
so that they were left iinmoveable, and had to be abandoned. But in
the summer of 896 they again suddenly left the east coast, and, taking
their way through Mercia, fixed themselves at Bridgenorth in Shrop-
shire, and, though blockaded by Alfred, maintained their ground there
throughout the following winter. The strength and hopes of the
invaders however were now nearly worn out Their leader Hastings
indeed appears to have withdrawn to France before this time, and the
long contest which Alfred had to sustain was terminated in 897 by the
dispersion of some and the capture of others of a number of Danish
vessels which attempted to plunder the coast of Wessex. He sent out
against them, the Sr.xon Chronicle tells us, ships of war of a new con-
struction, neither like those of the Danes nor the Frisians, but twice
as long, and also higher, some of them holding sixty rowera or more.
Those of the Danish sailors, it is said, that fell into his hands he
treated as pirates, sending them to instant execution.
After the Danes were thus got rid of, a depopulating pestilence
ravaged the country for three years ; and the lapse of this space,
unmarked by any other memorable events, also brought the life of
Alfred to a close. He died on the 28th of October, most probably jn
the year 901, although one account gives 900 and another 899 as the
year ; nor is there any documentary or other evidence by which the
matter can be absolutely determined. By his queen Alswitba he is
said to have had four sons: Edmund, who died in the lifetime of his
father ; Edward, who succeeded him on the throne ; Athelstan, of
whom little or nothing is known ; and Ethelward, who became a
scholar : and three daughters : Ethelfleda, married to Ethelred, earl
of Mercia ; Ethelgora, who became abbe.-s of the monastery of Athel-
ney, founded by her father ; and Elfreda or Ethelawitha, who married
Baldwin the Bald, earl of Flanders.
Putting out of view the imputations already noticed, which refer
exclusively to the first few years of his reign, and, rightly considered,
rather set off and enhance the conquest over himself which he after-
wards achieved, the lustre of Alfred's character, both as a man and as
a king, is without spot or shade. He is charged with no vice ; and,
besides the cheerful and unpretending exhibition of all the ordinary
virtues in his every-day life, the untoward circumstances in which he
was placed, and the afflictions with which he was tried, were con-
tinually striking out from his happy nature sparks and flashes of the
heroic and sublime. He triumphed over pain as he had triumphed over
passion ; his active exertions in arms, and his unintermitted labours
of every other kiud, were carried on while he was suffering under the
torment and debility of a disease which never left him, and which
probably at last brought him to hi* grave. The field in which he
acted was limited and obscure ; but that too makes part of his glory ;
for of all the rulers who have been styled ' the Great,' there is no one
to whom the epithet has been given with more general acclamation
than to this king of the West Saxons. His fame transcends that of
inn-t conquerors, although he won it all by what he did for his own
subjects and within his own petty principality ; but probably no king
ever did more for his country than Alfred, at least if we measure
what he accomplished by his means and his difficulties. His preserva-
tion of it from conquest by the Northmen in the latter part of his
reign was perhaps as great an achievement as his previous recovery of
its independence when all seemed to be lost, and the foreigner had
actually acquired the possession of the soil ; the latter contest at least
was much the more protracted one, and appears to have called for and
brought out more of Alfred's high qualities his activity, his vigilance,
his various military talent, his indomitable patience and endurance,
his spirit of hope that nothing could quench, as well as his mere
valour. That contest with Hastings too was marked by several
generous actions on the part of Alfred, not admitting of notice in a
brief outline, which displayed the magnanimity of his character in
the strongest light. Nor let it be said that Alfred's heroic efforts
after all proved ineffectual, inasmuch as Englnnd notwithstanding was
at last subjugated by those Danish invaders whom he twice drove off :
this did not happen till after more than a century of independence
Bioo. DIV. VOL. I.
and freedom obtained by his exertions ; and at any rate his success,
even if the Anglo-Saxons had preserved their liberties for a much
shorter time, would still have given to the history of the world one
of its most precious possessions, another example of persevering
courage and strength of heart winning the battle over the darkest and
most disastrous circumstances. This was a lesson of hope and encou-
ragement which those who came after him could never lose by any
change of fortune. The actual improvements in the department of
the national defence for which his country was indebted to Alfred
were the already mentioned commencement of the royal navy, various
improvements in the building of ships, the protection of the coast by
(it is said) no fewer than fifty forts or castles erected in the course of
his reign on the most exposed or otherwise important points, and the
establishment of a regular order of military service, according to
which one half of the male population of the proper age was called
to the field and the other allowed to remain at home in turns, instead
of the whole, as formerly, being obliged to serve for a limited time.
In this way the demands both of war and of agriculture were pro-
perly provided for. Alfred has been commonly represented as a great
innovator in the civil institutions of the Anglo-Saxons ; bat it is
probable that he attempted little, if anything, more in this depart-
ment than the restoration of the old laws and establishments of police,
which had fallen into inefficiency in the confusions and troubles that
preceded his reign. The body of laws which professes to be of his
enactment consists almost entirely of a selection from those of Ethel-
bert of Kent, Ina of Wessex, Offa of Mercia, and other preceding
kings, with the addition of some portions of the Mosaic code.
Ingulfus and other later writers attribute to him the division of the
country into shires, hundreds, and tithings, and the establishment of
a system which made every man in some degree responsible for the
peace of his district and for the conduct of every other inhabitant ;
but it is in the highest degree probable that all this, in so far as it
does or ever did actually exist, is of much earlier origin. We may
however believe that Alfred maintained a strict and efficient police in
his dominions, without taking literally what is asserted by William of
Malrnesbury, that a purse of money or a pair of golden bracelets
would in the time of this king remain for weeks exposed in the high-
way without risk of depredation. It may also bo true, as Ingulfus
relates, that he first appointed a justiciary, or special officer for the
hearing of causes in every shire ; dividing the authority which had
formerly resided in a single governor between that functionary and
the viscount or sheriff. But that Alfred, as has often been said, was
the founder or inventor of trial by jury, is certainly an erroneous
notion ; the jury trial of the Anglo-Saxons was altogether a different
thing from what is now known by that name, and was also undoubtedly
much more ancient than the time of Alfred. The most important of
Alfred's patriotic services, and those at the same time of which we
have the best evidence, consist in what he did for the literature of his
country, and the intellectual improvement of his subjects. In addition
to the establishment of schools in all the 'principal towns, having him-
self at the late age of 39 began the study of Latin under the direction
of some of the learned men whom he invited to his court from all
parts Grimbold or Qrimbald of St. Omer and John of Corvei from
the continent, as well as Asser from St. David's in Wales, and Pleg-
mund, \Verferth, and others from Mercia he did not rest satisfied
till he had turned his new acquirements to account by translating into
the popular tongue such treatises as he conceived to be best suited for
his countrymen. The following translations by Alfred have come
down to us : 1. The Pastorale, or Liber Pastoralia Curse, of Pope
Gregory the Great, a directory or manual of instruction for bishops
and other clergymen. Of this all that has been printed is Alfred's
highly curious and interesting preface. It is given in Latin in various
editions of Asser, and in other works ; and, with an English trans-
lation, in Mr. Wright's 'Biographia Britannica,' 8vo, London, 1842.
" When I thought," says Alfred, in the conclusion of this preface (to
adopt Mr. Wright's rendering), "how the learning of the Latin
language before this was decayed through the English people, though
many could read English writing, then I began, among other divers
and manifold affairs of this kingdom, to translate into English the
book which is named in Latin Pastoralis, and in English Herdsman's
Book, sometimes word for word, sometimes meaning for meaning, as
I learnt it of Plegmund my archbishop, and of Asser my bishop, and
of Grimbold my presbyter, and of John my presbyter. After I had
thus learnt it so that I understood it as well as my understanding
could allow me, I translated it into English ; and I will send ono copy
to each bishop's see in my kingdom," &c. 2. Tue treatise of Boethius,
entitled ' Do Consolatioue Philosophise.' Alfred's translation of this
work is throughout very free, and contains many additions to tho
original a fact which, we believe, was first noticed by Mr. Turner,
who has given an ample analysis of the performance in his ' History
of the Anglo-Saxons.' The following is the proo3mium or preface to
the Boethius, as translated by Mr. Cardale : " Alfred, king, was
translator of this book, and turned it from book Lathi into English,
as it now is done. Sometimes he set word by word, sometimes
meaning of meaning, as he the most plainly and most clearly could
render it, for the various and manifold worldly occupations which
often busied him both in mind and in body. The occupations are to
us very difficult to be numbered which in his days came upon, (jh
L
ii:
ALFlll''.
ALQAKIU, ALKSSANDRO.
whloh b* bad nadrrUkeo ; ant nevertiwl***. hen bo had
tl.i. look. an! turned lit] from Latin into th. English
It in
_ , b* aftrrvani* ompoed it in versa, M it it now don*. And
the] BOW pray*, and for God * take implore* every on* of tho** whom
it list* to rred 0,i. book, that be wouM pray for him, and not blam*
ham if b* man rightly understand it tl.an he rouM. For every man
mod, ceordinc to th* meacure of hi* understanding, and according
.k that which be (peak*, and do ih.t which b* doe*."
Notwiih.landig what i. here mid. th* version niiblwbed by Mr. Car-
1*1* exhibit* no verao; and Mr. Wright ha* stated *om* oonodcrationa,
from hkh he conclude* that the wne translations of the metrical
pa****** ia th* original, which are given in Kawlinsun'* edition, cannot
have been compoer.1 by Alfred. 5. The Geoeral Hutory of Orosius,
pablb*d by th* Hon. lain Barrington, under tlie title of ' The
Anglo-Saxon Version from the Hi-torian Oro-iun, by Aelfred the
Otvat . . ith an English Translation from the Anglo-Saxon,'
'. This translati'in is rrmarkable as containing, in
a idiu-in to the original text, a sketch of the geography of Germany in
Alfr d's own day, and a curious relation of two voyages made in the
north- rn a- M, a* given to Alfred by the navigators themselves, Ohtbere
and WulftUa. Thrae voyage* had been previously printed more than
once. . Th* EcoUaiattiol History of the Knglish by Bed*. This is
alo a vrry free translation, but it* deviations from the original con-
ai*t more frequently of abridgement* than of addition*. 5. A trans-
lation of a election from the Soliloquir* of St. Auguttine, mentioned
by Mr. Turner M extant in the Cottoninn manuscript Vitellius, A 15.
Of other works which have been attributed to Alfred, some, if they
ever existed, are lost, and other*, such as the metrical venion of the
Ps*lm-, tran-lationa of other part* of Scripture, and the collection of
Terse, entitled ' Alfred'* Proverb*,' are not believed to be genuine.
Alfred'* will wa* published in 4 to, at Oxford, in 17S8, with a trans-
lation and notrs by the Rev. Owen Manning. Alfred's Laws are in
th* collection published by Wdkinn, fol., London, 1721 ; and also in
the new Record Commi**ion edition by Mr. Benjamin Thorpe, foL
(A**rus, Dt Atifrtdi Ktbnt OtKit ; Chronictm Saionicun : Ingul-
pbus. 7/iona Jfowucern Croyl-iudeiait ; Will Malmsburiensis Dt
i.sfu Xeyum Axylorum ; Lift of Jilfred, by Sir John Spelman, 8vo,
ixford, 1 70 . Turner, llittory of the A nglo-Saxoni ; Wright, Biograph ia,
JlrHnrnira Lilrrana ; Paulli, Life of Alfred.)
ALFUIC, AKI.KIUC, or ELFRIU, tyled Abbot, or the Abbot, and
alfo Grammatical, or the Grammarian, is the author, or supposed
author, of more of the Anglo-Saxon literature that has come down to
n* than any other writer. Eighteen distinct works have been attributed
to him. It U not quit* certain however that all even of the work*
that bear the name of Alfrio are by the same writer. In the greater
number of them the author call* himself Alfrio the Abbot (in Saxon,
A booth; in Utin, Abba*); in others, Alfric the Monk (Monachus or
Moouc); in a few, Alfrio the Bishop (Episcopu* or BUcop). The
biography of the Alfric whom these several designations have com-
monly bean all supposed to' indicate i* extremely obscure, and has
beca th* subject of much controversy. He was probably born before
th* middle of the lOtli century; and, if we may believe Matthew
Paricv b* wa* of very noble descent, hi* father being ealderman or
earl of Kent In hi* Preface to Grnesi* he speaks of having once had
a secular or ma** priest for his teacher, who scarcely understood Latin ;
bat h afterwards became one of the scholars of the learned Kthel-
woll, a* be has himself mentioned, both in a I-atin preface to his
Homilies and in another to hi* Grammar. He probably rtudied under
Etuelwold both at Abingdoo, and afterwards in the more famou*
wool which that penoa up*rintended at Winchester, of which see
he became bubop in MS. Th. next fact regarding him that i* cer-
tainly known i* that about the year 988 he was sent by the then
"hop * Winchester, Alf heh, to take charge of the abbey of Cerne
ia DoTMtohir*, at the request of it* founder, Ethelmer, earl of Corn-
wall Thi be tell* n. himself, in a Saxon preface to hi* Homilies.
II* ia aUo supposed to have been the Alfric who wa bishop of
I'ilton (now SalMbury), and then arclibwhop of Canterbury, and who
tad in 100; while other* suppose he wa* the Alfric, archbi.hop of
*, who died in 1041. The latc*t investigation of the hi.tory of
Alfric the Grammarian, and the mot complete account that has been
firm of hi* work., i* contained in Mr. Wright'. 'Uiograpliia llritannioa
JJJ""* 1 ' Tnl ' PP- <8<M94 - un <ler the head of Alfrio of Canterbury.'
The writing* of Alfric attracted the attention of the reformer, in
the 16th century, by tome pa**oge* (in hi* Puobal Srmon and else-
where) which art opposed to the Roman Catholic doctrine of traosub-
MMUaUon ; and Ih. dwcovrry of the** paoages appear* to have had a
Mia influence in reviving the study of the Anglo^jaxon language and
The author of th* Preface to Arobbiahop Parker's edition
ehl Smnoa,' .tat** some curious fact*, making it probable
**P***e5** hi qnntion owed thir preservation to the circuin-
?2ST "* no * tb * Varaaa> Conquest having been unable to
ic writing* also contain many notice* of the manner*
*> in which he lived ; and *om* of them are of
Hi* Hoailie*,' Mr. Wright observe^ "are* written Tn vel^easy Anglo^
'ho i*
chiefly distinguished however aa a sculptor. Ha wai tha son of a stlk-
t>f Bologna, where he wa* born about 1600, or even earlier, but
the dat. s given !> th various writer* who have written notices of him
are so oontra/liotory, that it is impossible to give a preference with any
degree of certainty. He entered the celebrated tchool of the Carraoci,
but finding that sculpture was more suitable to hi* taste than pni
he became the pupil of Oiulio Cesare Convent!, a sculptor of oelul>ritv
in hii day. * At the age of twenty," says Bcllori, " he accompanied
Oabriello Bertauuoli, the architect, to Mantua, and was intro'luced to
the Duke Ferdinand, with whom be apparently became a fav
from him fo
a* h* received many MIM!! couiuii^'ioua from him for mo loin, anM -.:.>
aftarwaril* sent by him to Rome with an introduction to the pope'K
nephew, Cardinal Ludovisj : he arrived in Rome in 1625.
mil employed him chiefly in the restoration of ancient stntues; nn<l ho
received some employment from the Koman jeweller*. 1 1
original productions in Koine were two statues in stucco, for the
Capella Bondiui in the church of San Silrestro on Monte Cavallo. ![
obtained these commiasions through the iuteroeasion of his :
iJomenichino : they were a John the Baptist, and a Magdalen, and
obtained for Algardi a considerable reputation ; he had however Mill
to depend upon the jewellers for support. His patron I'Vi-iliirmd,
duke of Mantua, died shortly after his arrival in Rome ; he qmu
with Domeuichiuo, and for many years he hod no other occup >' :
a sculptor than that of restoring ancient fragment*, liut about, 1640
bin prospect* changed; he was chosen by Pietro Buoncomp
execute the statue of San Filippo Neri for the eacrUty of th'-
dell' Oratorio of Rome ; he made a group in marble of two coloenl
figure*, the saint, and an angel kneeling by his side presenting him a
book ; and he displayed so much judgment and taste in working the
marble, that he raUed himself to an equality with the most tV.
of his contemporaries ; and the Cardinal Benardino Spada, in conse-
quence of the success of this group, gave him a commission to execute
a colossal group in marble of two figures representing the decapitation
of St. Paul, for the church of the Padri Bernabiti at Bologna. St. Paul
was represented kneeling, with his hands bound together before him ;
the executioner, entirely naked, wag behind the saint, with his sword
raised ready to strike. The success of this group was complete ; it ia
technically a work of very great excellence, but in the attitudes it is
forced or affected ; it however established for Algardi the reputation
of the greatest sculptor of his age. He now produced many works in
rapid succession, chiefly in metal, both for Bologna and Rome. Tho
principal of these were the monument of Leo XL in St. Peter's, and
Attila checked by St. Leo, an alto rilievo of enormous size, for one of
the altars of the same church.
Algardi's prosperity increased after the accession of Innocent X.
in 1614, whose niece, Costanza Panfili, was married to Algardi' .-
aud patron, Prince Nicolo Ludovisi, the nephew of Gregory \ V.,
and himself a Bolognese. Don Camillo Panfili, another of the pope's
nephews, entrusted to Algardi the erection of a villa without the gate
of San Pancrazio, now well known as the Villa Panfili. As an archi-
tectural design it is a work of little merit, though it i
most successful effort in architecture : it is richly ornamented with
sculpture.
Algardi executed also the bronze statue of Innocent X., which was
decreed by the Roman people or senate in consideration of hi-
completed the CapitoL Innocent built the north-cost wing, or Xuovo
Palazzo di>' Conservator!. The senate had voted the execution of the
work to Francesco Mochi : why it was not executed by Mochi does
not appear ; Innocent probably interfered in Algardi's favour. The
first casting failed; the second howevor was completely successful
Innocent is represented sitting, giving the papal benediction, and i*
placed in that part of the Capitol which was built by him. When the
statue was completed, tha pope was so well satisfied with it that he
placed with his own bauds a cross aud chain of gold upou Alg.tnli'n
neck, and created him a Cavaliere dell' Abito di Ci-isto.
The Attila, or La Fuega d' Attila, as it is called, is the largest alto-
rilievo in the world ; the two principal figures of St. l.co and
are about ten fvct high. The design contains many other :
is treated pictorially, which treatment however involves many disa-
greeable effects, us the parts in high relief catt their shadows ii|n>n
those in low relief, which an intended to be at a greatw distant-
the spectator, aud destroy their tfluct entirely; the high light also of
the principal figures coming in immediate contrast with their deep
shadows, gives an insignificant and mottled effect to the accessory
part*. In addition to these objections, there ia another still more
detrimental to pictorial effect, that is, the fact of the shadows being
vertical a* well a* horizontal, for they fall upou the ground to which
the figures are attached, aa well as upon that on which they stand.
This alto-rilievo, however, which ia in in trl'le, i nf itself a work of
great merit, though it may not de*ervo all the praises it has obt
nor perhaps, on the other hand, does it merit all the censure it ban
received. Count Cicognara has severely criticised it.
Algardi received for it 10,000 scudi, a sum probably equivalent at
that time to 60002. sterling now, and more than two hundred times a*
much a* hi* old friend L>omenicbino received a few yean before for
hi* ' Communion of St. Jerome,' one of tbe finest pictures in Home.
The rilievo was executed in great part by Domenico Guidi of Naples,
and was finished in 1650.
119
ALGAROTTI, FRANCESCO.
ALT PASHA.
150
Algardi died of a fever in 1654. His biographers speak of his cha-
racter as generally good, though when he became rich he became also
avaricious ; he was never married, and in his youth he was very dissi-
pated. The bulk of his property was inherited by a sister, whose
marriage against Algardi's consent was partly or perhaps chiefly the
cause of his death. Algardi's reputation is nearly exclusively that of
a sculptor, and as such he ranks amongst the greatest of the moderns.
His de-ign is vigorous and natural, and his draperies are well studied ;
but his style, when compared with the antique, is somewhat vulgar
and affected. He excelled in representing infants. His architectural
designs, of which there are not many, are purely ornamental; the
design itself is subservient to its ornaments; they want mass and
feature.
(Passeri, Vite tie' Pittori, &c. ; Bellori, Vite de' Pittori, &c. ; Cicog-
nara, Storia delta Scvltura ; Milizia, Opere.)
ALGAROTTI, FRANCESCO, was bora at Venice in 1712. His
father was a wealthy merchant. He studied at Rome and Bologna, in
which latter place he had for instructors Eustachio Manfredi and
Francesco Zanotti, who afterwards continued his friends and corre-
spondents. Algarotti made great progress in the study of languages,
the mathematics, astronomy, and anatomy. Being at Paris at the age
of twenty-one, he there wrote hia ' Neutonianismo per le Dame,' or
explanation of the system of Newton, adapted to the taste and under-
standing of female students. This is still considered as his best work.
He n-xt proceeded to London, whence he accompanied Lord Balti-
more to St. Petersburg. He gave an account of this journey in his
' Letters on Russia,' a country then comparatively little known. From
Russia he went to Germany, where he became acquainted with Frederic,
then Crown Prince of Prussia, who was living in philosophical retire-
ment at Kheinsberg. The prince was so much pleased with his society,
that four days after his accession to the throne, he wrote to Algarotti,
who was thru in Kngland, inviting him in the most pressing manner
to come to Berlin. Algarotti accepted the invitation, and remained
afterwards in the Prussian capital or at Potsdam the greater part of
his life, not as a servile courtier, but as the friend and confidant of
Frederic. The king gave him the title of count, made him his cham-
berlain, and employed him occasionally in diplomatic affairs. He waa
also commissioned by the Elector of Saxony to collect objects of art
throughout Italy for the gallery of Dresden. For five-and-twenty
years from Algarotti's first acquaintance with Frederic to the moment
of his death, their mutual friendship aud confidence were never inter-
rupted. Towards the latter part of his life, Algarotti, finding the
climate of Prussia too cold for his declining health, returned to Italy,
where he lived first in his own house in Venice, afterwards at Bologna,
among his literary friends, and lastly at Pisa, where the mildness of
the air induced him to remain, as he was evidently sinking under con-
sumption of the lungs. There he corrected the edition of his works
then publishing at Leghorn ; the study of the fine arts and music filled
up the remainder of his time. In this calm retirement he waited for
death, which came on the 3rd of Hay, 1764, in his fifty second year.
Frederic, to whom Algarotti had bequeathed a fine painting, ordered a
monument to be raised to him in the Campo Santo, or great cemetery
of Pisa, where it is to be seen. It is asserted by Ugoni, in his biogra-
phy of Algarotti, that Frederic forgot to pay Count Bonomo the
expense of this mausoleum. Algarotti was an honorary member of
many universities and academies of Italy, Germany, and England.
He na* the friend and correspondent of most of the literary men and
women of his time, among others, of Voltaire, Maupertuis, Metastasio,
Bettinelli, Lord Chesterfield, Lady Wortley Montague, Madame du
Bocage, &c. Besides the two works above mentioned, he wrote
' Letters on Painting,' in which he has described several frescoes which
are now lost ; he also wrote a number of essays on various subjects.
His works have been swell-d, by the insertion of his extensive corre-
spondence, into seventeen volumes, octavo, Venice, 1791. Algarotti's
style seldom rises above mediocrity ; his chief merit is that of having
rendered science and literature fashionable among the upper classes of
his time and country. He was a man of much information and con-
siderable taste, but of a cold imagination, and not profound in any
particular branch of learning.
ALUAZEX, or ALLACEN, properly Al-Hatan, or, with his com-
plete name, Abu AH al-ffatan ben al-IIasan ben Haitam, a distinguished
mathematician, who lived during the earlier part of the llth century.
He waa a native of Basra. Having boasted that he could construct a
machine by means of which the inundations of the Nile could be
predicted and regulated, the Fatimide kalif, Hakim biamr-allah, sent
for him, in order to carry his plan into effect. But Al-Hasan soon
found that he had undertaken an impossibility, and in order to avoid
the consequences of Hakim's anger at his disappointment, he feigned
insanity till Hakim died (A.D. 1020). He lived at Cairo, where he
supported himself by copying books, and devoted his leisure hours to
itudy and original composition. He died in 1038. A long list of his
works may be found in Casiri's ' Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana Kscu-
rialensis,' voL i. p. 415. A treatise on optics, by Al-Hasan, was trans-
l..t,.-d into Latin by Risuer, and printed at Basil, under the title of
' Opticu: Thesaurus,' in 1572.
ALI BEN ABI TALEB, surnamed by the Arabs Aiad Allah, and
by the Persians Nhir-i-Jfhoda, that is, the Lion of God, was the fourth
kalif or successor of Mohammed in the government founded by him,
aud occupied the throne during the years 35-10 after the Hegira,
A.D. 655-660. He was the cousin-german of Mohammed, lived from
childhood under his care, and when ten or eleven years old, was,
according to tradition, the first to acknowledge him as a prophet.
From these circumstances, and also on account of his marriage with
Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed, AH appeared to have strong
claims to the command ership over the Faithful, when the Prophet
died, in 632, without leaving male issue. Three other associates of
the Prophet, Abu Bekr, Omar, and Othman, were however successively
appointed kalifs, before Ali came to the throne in 655. The contro-
versy concerning the respective rights of Abu Bekr, Omar, and Othman,
on the one side, and of Ali ben Abi Taleb and his lineal descendants
on the other, gave rise to the schism of the Suunites aud Shiites in the
Mohammedan community. [Asu BBKB.] Othman had been killed
during a revolt at Medina, where a number of malcontents from dif-
ferent parts of the empire were assembled; those from Egypt succeeded
in elevating Ali to the kalifate. Two of his competitors, Zobair and
Talha, at first acknowledged him as sovereign ; but when Ali refused
to appoint them governors of the important towns of Basra and Kufa,
by the inhabitants of which their claims to the kalifate had been
chiefly supported, both deserted him, and in common with Ayeshah,
the widow of Mohammed, formed a strong party against Ali. They
had already made themselves masters of Basra, when Ali, at the head
of an army of 30,000 men, defeated them in a battle near Khoraiba in
656. Talha and Zobair were killed : Ayeshah, who had been present
at the conflict, was taken prisoner, aud sent to Mecca.
New disturbances soon arose at Damascus, where Moawia, a near
relative of Othman, had by a strong party been appointed Amir, or
chief. Ali encountered him near Saffein in 657, iu the neighbourhood
of which place nearly a whole year was consumed in skirmishes
between the two armies, but no decisive battle ensued. At last the
two opponents agreed to withdraw, appointing each a delegate to
arrange the controversy in a peaceable convention. This measure
excited much dissatisfaction among the adherents of Ali, many of
whom seceded, and assembled at Naharvan under the command of
Abdallah ben Waheb. They were however dispersed after a decisive
battle in 658, in which Ali was victorious.
The caution with which the governor of Egypt, Saad ben Kais, had
conducted himself during these disputes rendered him suspected by
the kalif. Ali removed him in 658, and appointed Mohammed, the
son of Abu Bekr, who behaved with such rigour towards the adherents
of Moawia, that much discontent was excited in Egypt. Moawia
availed himself of this opportunity to send an army into Egypt under
the command of Amru ben al-As, who vanquished aud killed Moham-
med. Soon afterwards Moawia took possession also of Basra, which
Ali's governor, Zayyad, made but a feeble effort to defend. Abdallah
ben Abbas however reconquered that town fur the kalif.
In 660 Moawia sent an army under the command of Bosr ben Artha
into Hejaz, who took possession of the two sacred cities, Mecc:i and
Medina, and on his return defeated aud killed Abdallah ben Abbas,
the governor of Basra.
About this time three of the zealots of Naharvan, with the design
of restoring unity, entered into a conspiracy to murder Amru ben
al-As, the kalif Ali, and Moawia. Amru ben al-As and Moawia escaped,
but Ali was struck with a poisoned sword in his residence at Kufa,
and died after three days, in 660, at the age of fifty-nine, or according
to others, sixty-five years.
Ali had by Fatima three sons, Hassan, Hossain, and Mohsen. Hassan
succeeded his father for a short time in the government, and witli him
terminated, according to Arabic historians, the legitimate kalifate, that
is, the succession of those kalifs who had been appointed by tho free
choice of the Faithful.
ALI, HYDER. [HYDER ALL]
ALI PASHA, a celebrated Albanian chief, was born about 1750, in
tho little town of Tepelen, in the pashalic of Berat, on the left bank of
the river Voioussa, the ancient Aoua, at the foot of the Klissoura
Mountains. Ali's, family was distinguished by the name of Hissas,
and had been for ages settled in the country; it belonged to the
Albanian tribe or clan of the Toske or Toxide, who boast of being old
Mussulmans. One of Ali's ancestors, after being for somo time a
klephtis, or highwaj^robber, made himself master of Tepelen, and
assumed the title of Bey, holding it as a fief of the pacha of Berat.
Ali's grandfather distinguished himself in the Ottoman service by his
bravery, and was killed at the siege of Corfu against the Venetians, in
the beginning of the 18th century. Hia son, Vehli Bey, the father of
Ali Pasha, was a good, quiet, liberal-minded man, very partial towards
the Greeks. The neighbouring beys or feudal Albanian chiefs com-
bined against him, and deprived him of the greater part of his estates;
but the mother of Ali was a woman of masculine courage, though of
cruel disposition, and, on her husband's death, secured the succession
to her own son Ali, then fourteen years of age, by the adoption of the
most unscrupulous queans.
The early life of Ali was passed in the usual vicissitudes of predatory
warfare, and sufficiently varied by a succession of adventures possessing
the interest of romance, though marked by ferocity, treachery, and most
other atrocities. His power however continued to become gradually
consolidated, and several of the surrounding districts submitted to
him, until at length hia riches gave him the means of intriguing at
AU PASHA.
ALISON, SIR ARCHIBALD.
lei
UM Port* He thm obUioed UM i
commission of executing the
___i of death ' against Selim Pasha of Delvino. In reward for
this service he wo* appointed lieutenant to the new Dorwend Pasha
of Roomili, in which office be enriched himself by sharing with the
kWphtis UM produce of their spoils. In consequence of this traffic
the road* soon (warmed with robbers ; repeated complaints reached
UM PorU, and the Dcrwend Pasha was recalled and beheaded. The
it~rt^...t alto, being rimnvMvH, instead of appearing, sent present*
to several members of the divan, and thus evaded punishment
Alt's reputation for bravery and decision WM however established
at Constantinople, and when the war broke out in 1787, between the
PorU and the two courts of Austria and Russia, he was appointed to
a command in the arniy under the viiier Jussuf. Having distinguished
himself in the field, be was next appointed to the poshalic of Tricala
in Thsssslj. and WM moreover named Derwend Pasha of RoumilL
He now raised a body of 4000 men, all Albanians and old klephtis,
with whom he soon cleared the roads of robbers, and thus won merit
with UM PorU. He now turned his views towards Jannina, the
capital of southern Albania, or Epirus, where utter anarchy prevailed.
flufateil by his friends in the town, he entered it and took possession
of UM citadel. He then, by bribery and other means, got himself
led in the pasiulic which he had usurped ; and by a rigorous
sm extinguished all factions, restored tranquillity, and the people
ti-fied with the change. The Porte, seeing this so long turbu-
lent province reduced to subjection, forgave Ali for a deception of
which UM divan had been apprised only when it was too late.
Ali extended his dominion over all Epirus, and also into Acaruania
and JStolia, or western Greece, by successfully attacking the revolted
Armatoles or Greek militias who, under the corrupt and supine Turkish
government, infested instead of protecting the country. He attacked
the Suliotes, a people inhabiting a mountainous district about 30
miles S.S.W. from Jannina. After a brave and protracted resistance
of more than ten years, the Suliotes agreed to evacuate their country
in December, 1803, but on attempting to retreat, in order to embark
at Parga, All's soldiers fell upon them, and the scenes that followed
were dreadful. None of the Suliotes surrendered ; almost all perished.
In one instance, a small party, being completely surrounded, retreated
towards a precipice, the women leading the way ; being arrived on the
brink, they first threw their children into the abyss below, after which
they all, husbands and wives, fathers and sons, brothers and sisters,
linked band in hand, ran down the declivity, and mutually impelled
each other into the precipice, in sight of their disappointed enemies.
Only a few, who escaped before the attack, managed to reach Parga,
and thence embarked for Corfu, at that time occupied by the Russians.
A remnant of these unfortunate exiles were subsequently, under the
auspices of England, restored to their native country. But Ali was
shackled on the sea-side of his dominions : he therefore attacked and
reduced in succession the fortress towns on the coast of the Adriatic
and the Gulf of Art*, which, formerly dependencies of Venice, were
then in the hands of the French, of which Prevesa and Parga were
the most eminent Their capture was attended with almost every
circumstance of ferocity and cruelty that am make war revolting.
Ali extended his dominions to the north into Albania Proper, by the
conquest of the pastiche of Berat, which he effected more by intrigue
than by force. He likewiie occupied the government of Ochrida in
Upper Albania, by joining in the attack ordered by the Porte against
the rebellious pasha of Skodra, or Scutari, and then kept it for himself.
The Porte was obliged to wink at these usurpations. Ali was even
appointed for a twelvemonth Roumili-Valicy, or supreme inspector of
th principal division of the empire, and he went to reside at Monastir,
at the head of 24,000 men. His extortions in Roumelia were very
great His own dominions in the latter part of his life extended over
all Epirus, one half of Albania Proper, port of Thessaly, and the whole
of western Greece, from the Lake of Ochrida on the north, to the
Gulf of Leponto on the south, and from Mount Pindus to the Adriatic.
Ali was now vizier or pasha of three toils : his second on, Vehli, was
made pe>ha of the Morea ; and his elder son, Mouktar, a thorough
soldier, distinguished himsrlf in the service of the Sultan during the
campaign of 1809 gainst the Russians. The youngest of all, Sslih
Bey, who was his father's favourite, and destined to succeed him, was
bronchi up with particular care under good tutors and teachers.
AU Pasha, although hated by the Porte, might have ended bis days in
praos; his power mode him feared, and his advanced age was on
inducement to the Sultan to wait patiently for bis natural death. But
an attempt to procure UM assassination of one of his confidants who
bad abandoned him, and obtained an appointment in the seraglio at
Constantinople, aroused the ire of the SulUn. Ali WM excommuni-
cated, sod all the pashas of Europe were ordered to march against
him. This was at the beginning of 1820, and at length Ali WM com-
prlled to abandon Janniua, and to surrender himself on being promised
the Sultan's pardon. His own perfidy WM now retorted on himself.
He WM mnrdrred ; his bead WM cut off, and sent to Constantinople,
where it WM exhibited before the gate of the nenglio. His sons
shared their father's fate. Thus AU Pasha, at sevcnty-two years of
sg, closed his Kuilty but extraordinary career, in February, 1822.
The character of such a man is easily ascertained from the account
of bis life. The cruelty of bis revenge WM even fiendi.h. His
administration rested upon the principles of terror ; he certainly cxtir-
pated the robbers and other criminals, and rendered his territories
perfecUy secure from all depredations but his own. This necurity, in
i country like Turkey, was full as a boon, and oommerco improved in
some meaxure by it. Jaunina became one of the most flourishing
towns of Turkey, and its population bail increased to 40,000 inhabit-
ants. Ali was a Mussulman only by name : lie fully protected the
Greeks, and other Christians, in the exercise of their religion, and
allowed them to have schools, and even a lyceum and a library. Ali
treated all his subjects, Albanians, Turks, or Greeks, alike, and without
partiality ; the Turks were perhaps those who liked him the least,
because he did not allow them to ill-use tho rest of the people, as in
other ports of Turkey.
AL1MENTDS, CINCIUS. [Ciscius ALIMEKTUS.]
ALISON, REV. ARCHIBALD, was born in 1757 in Edinburgh, of
which city his father, Andrew Alison, was a magistrate. In 1772
Archibald was sent to the University of Glasgow, whence he proceeded
with an exhibition to Balliol College, Oxford, where he matriculated,
November 9th, 1775. He took the degree of A.M. aud that of LL.R.
March 23rd, 1784, in which year he entered into holy order*, and
married the daughter of Dr. John Gregory of Edinburgh. He was
soon afterwards appointed to the curacy of Brnnoepeth, Durham. Ho
obtained the perpetual curacy of Kenley in Shropshire in 1790, n
prebendal utall in Salisbury Cathedral in 1791, the vicarage of I
In Shropshire in 1794, and the living of Roddington in Shropshire in
1797. In 1800 he was invited to become senior minister of the epis-
copal chapel, Cowgate, Edinburgh. Ho accepted the invitation, and
continued to officiate for the congregation, which afterwards removed
to St. Paul's chapel, a handsome new gothic building in York-place,
till 1831, when severe illness compelled him to withdraw from the
performance of his public duties. He died in 1839, at the age of 82.
The Rev. Mr. Alison was the author of ' Essays on the Nature and
Principles of Taste ;' ' Sermons, chiefly on Particular Occasions,' 2 vols.
8vo., 1814, 1815, and several editions since ; and ' A Memoir on the
Life and Writings of the Hon. Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Wood-
houselee,' in the ' Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh,'
1818.
His literary reputation chiefly depends on his ' Essays on Taste,'
which were first published in 1790, but which made little iinpi
on the public till the second edition, with additions, came out in 1811,
when the work became the subject of an encomiastic article by J> iiVey
in the ' Edinburgh Review,' and it then became popular ; its popularity
however was but evanescent. Tho work consists of two essays; the
first ' Of the Nature of the Emotions of Sublimity and Beauty,' the
second ' Of the Sublimity and Beauty of the Material World ;' the
whole work is divided into chapters, sections, and parts, with much
appearance of philosophical accuracy, but with little either of conijire-
henaireness or precision in the treatment of the subjects. His notion
of sublimity is vague; sometimes he seems to understand the word in
the common acceptation, as super-eminent grandeur of any kind ;
sometimes in the sense in which it is used by Longinus, as anything
calculated to produce a powerful emotion. The vagueness of his
notion of beauty may be more easily excused, since, as the term is
generally applied to any object of nature or art calculated to produce
a pleasing feeling in the mind, the causes of the emotion of beauty are
necessarily multifarious, and subject to no general rule. Alison does
not treat of taste as an appreciating and discriminating faculty of the
mind depending on the judgment, or as the judgment applied to the
fine arts and to the objects and scenes of nature about which those
arts are conversant ; hut aa an emotion caused by objects or I
calculated to excite certain associations of ideas and trains of thought,
which, according to him, are the real causes of the emotion. His
views are indeed little better than a series of opinions formed with
little power of thought, and falsified in many parts by the application
of the doctrine of association, which, however true aa applied to parti-
cular cases, is not true when applied as the primary cause of the
emotions of sublimity and beauty, or as the leading principle of ta*te
itelf. His style is not unpleasing, but it is diffuse, aud deficient in
distinctness and precision.
ALISON, SIR ARCHIBALD, Bart, son of the precc.liu-, w:u
born December 29, 1792, at Kenley, Shropshire, of which pla
father was then vicar. His father removed to Edinburgh iu 1800,
and carried his Bon with him. In the schools and univeraiiy of that
city the future historian received his education ; and there, in 1M 1.
he was called as on advocate to the Scottish bar. Ilia earliest literary
appearance was as a writer on the criminal law of Scotland, and as a
contributor to the periodical publications. But the work on which
his literary reputation depends is the ' History of Europe, from the
Commencement of the French Revolution in 1789 to the Restoration
of the Bourbons in 1815,' the first volume of which appeared in 1839.
This work supplied a want in contemporary historical literature, and
achieved a great success. It has already passed through numerous
editions, the latest being a library edition (the eighth), in fourteen
volumes, an edition of smaller size, in twenty volumes, bc-
choap edition ; and it has been translated into most of the Euro]" .111
and more than one of the Eastern languages. The history is written
with a strong party bias, is singularly verbose and perplexed in style,
and is deficient in many of the qualities of a historical work of a high
class ; but it is full of matter, the result of great and comprehensive
163
ALKMAK, HENRY VAN.
ALLAN, DAVID.
l.vt
industry displays constant animation, and an evident desire to deal
fairly with all parties and persons concerned in the events described.
No other English history of the period can be turned to with equal
confidence for information, and the tendency to enforce a pre-conceived
theory is counterbalanced by free quotations or fair statements of the
views of opposing parties, and full references to original authorities.
In 1852 Sir Archibald published the first volume of a continuation of
his history, to the accession of Louis Napoleon, and four more volumes
have since appeared. But the continuation has little chance of obtain-
ing the popularity of the earlier work, of which it possesses all the
faults with scarce any of the merits. In describing the conflict of
opinions, Sir Archibald loses the animation which sustains him in
narrating the more exciting events of the revolutionary war ; and the
history becomes a series of heavy disquisitions, which tax the patience
of the most persevering reader, yet add little to the knowledge of the
least instructed. The other more important of Sir Archibald's works
are a ' Life of Marlborough," in two volumes, which has reached a
third edition ; ' Essays : Historical, Political, and Miscellaneous,' origi-
nally published in 'Blackwood's Magazine,' in three volumes; and
the * Principles of Population,' in two volumes.
Mr. Alison was created a Baronet soon after the formation of the
Derby administration in 1852. In 1828 he was appointed Sheriff of
Lanarkshire. In 1851 he was elected Rector of Glasgow University ;
and he has received the honorary degree of D.C.L. from the
University of Oxford.
ALKMAR, HENRY VAN, or, as he himself wrote his name, ffinrek
van Alkmar, is the person to whom Germany owes the first edition and
translation of the celebrated poem, 'Reynard the Fox.' He lived
during the latter half of the 15th century, but of his circumstances
we know no more than what he himself states in the preface to his
' Reineke Voss ' that he was a schoolmaster and teacher of virtue in
the service of the Duke of Lorraine, and that he translated the poem
from the Walsch (probably the Wallon) and French into German at
the request of his master. He further divided the whole poem into
four parts and into chapters, each of which is preceded by a sort of
commentary explaining the poet's meaning and the moral of the tale.
This first German edition of ' Reynard the Fox ' is in Low German,
and embellished with woodcuts. It was printed at Lu'beck in 1498 in
small quarto. The only copy which is known to exist of this edition
is in the library of Wolfenbiittel. A reprint of it was edited by F. A.
Von Hakemann, Wolfenbiittel, 1711. The second edition, which was
perhaps made in the life of Alkmar himself, is that published at
Rostock, 1517, 4to., of which also there exists only one copy in the
library of Dresden. The woodcuts of this edition are somewhat better
than those in the Liibeck edition.
As to the faithfulness of the translation we are unable to judge, as
the original which Alkmar used is unknown ; but it is certain that
Alkmar produced one of the most spirited and beautiful poems that
exiat in the German language.
The version printed in 1498 at Liibeck bears the title of 'Reineke
Voss.' It is written in the Frisian dialect, which is only a modification
of that spoken in Lower Saxony, and it consists of four books, each
of which is subdivided into chapters. The verses consist of iambics
mixed with numerous spondees and anapaests. The poem consists of
the picture of a court of animals, of which Nobel, the Lion, is king,
aud at which many animals complain of the injuries suffered from the
intrigues aud rapacity of Reineke the Fox. He is summoned to
Court, and after exercising his ingenuity in punishing the messengers
he appears, is sentenced to be hung, but gets released by promising to
discover a concealed treasure to the king. On the deception being
discovered he is again summoned, appears, defends himself by an
ingenious series of falsehoods, and ultimately undertakes a single
combat against his principal opponent, the Wolf, whom he conquers
by a vile trick, and is restored to the king's favour, with which the
poem ends. The moral conveyed is of a low character, that cunning
and fraud constitute the true wisdom ; but an interest is raised for
Reineke as he acts a sort of retributive part, the sufferings of bis
victims being as much the consequence of their own evil dispositions
as of his tricks, except in the cases of Lampe the hare and Bellin the
ram, towards whom his excuse is that they were " stupid." His
apology for his own conduct usually rests upon the bad example set
by others, particularly by priests. The great number of editions which
appeared iu Germany after the first publication of it, and still more
the numerous bad paraphrases in prose, which were sold by thousands
at every fair, show the immense popularity which the story had in
Germany.
The best edition was edited by Hoffmann von Fallersleben (Breslau,
1834), with an introduction, glossary, and commentary. The text is
a correct reprint of the first edition. Gothe has made a most beautiful
translation of ' Reineke Fuchs ' into modern High German, in hexa-
meters (Berlin, 1794) ; D. W. Soltau has made another in doggrel verse
(Berlin, 1803), a much improved edition of which appeared at Braun-
schweig, 1823. It has also been translated into Latin by Hartmann
Schopper, under the title, ' Opus Poeticum de Admirabili Fallacia et
Astutia Vulpeculffi Heinekes,' Ac., Frankfort, 1574 ; this translation
has often beeu reprinted. In 1706 there appeared in London a
metrical F.nglish translation from the Latin of Schopper.
The German version of ' Reineke ' was, notwithstanding the state-
ment of its author, formerly thought to be an original composition ;
but the subject was known for many centuries and iu several countries
under the title ' Die Historic va Reiuaert de Vos.' The author of tLis
Dutch version, which is in many respects superior to the German, and
has probably served as the source from which the German poet drew
his materials, calls himself William Matok, and also refers to a French
work which had served him as his model. But oven this Dutch version
cannot have been the first; for Caxtou (1481), in his English trans-
lation, states that he kept closely to a Dutch original. It may be
inferred from the various subsequent corrected aud enlarged editions
of this poem, as well as from the allusions of our early dramatists, that
it gained considerable popularity iu England also. The Flemish like-
wise possess an excellent metrical version, which was published in 1836
at Ghent by Willems, with a very valuable introduction. The early
French literature, however, is the richest in poems founded on the
story of Reynard. Mekm, in his 'Roman du Renard ' (Paris, 1820),
has shown that most of these poeins belong to the 13th century, and
more modern researches have proved that the story was known as
early as the 9th century. The subject is one which so readily presents
itself to the imagination, that it would be impossible with any proba-
bility to assign its invention to any particular time or nation. When-
ever a work of fiction of commanding interest appears, uupoetical
minds are always ready to seek some real history disguised under it ;
and this has been the case with this poem ever since its publication,
until Jacob Grimm, in his ' Reinhart Fuchs ' (Berlin, 1834), showed
that there is no ground whatever for such a supposition.
(Hbgel, Geachichte der Komischen Literatur ; Jordens, Lexikon
Deuticher Dichter und Prosaiaten; Carlyle, Miscellanies, vol. iii. p
197, Ac.)
ALLAN, DAVID, called the Scottish Hogarth, was born at Alloa
in Clackmannanshire in 1744, where his father was shore-master. The
choice of his profession was partly owing to an accident : he burnt his
foot, and while he was being nursed at home, having nothing else to
do, he amused himself with drawing with a piece of chalk upon the
floor; an amusement he got so much attached to, that when he
recovered he had a very great objection to going to school. But he
soon obtained a happy release from this obligation, for hia old school-
master turned him away from the school for making a caricature of
him punishing a refractory boy. Mr. Stuart, collector of the customs
at Alloa, was so much struck with the caricature that he recommended
Allan's father to send him to the academy of Robert and Andrew
Foulis at Glasgow to learn to become a painter. He was accordingly
apprenticed in 1755 to Robert Foulis. Allan remained at this academy
nine years, and when he returned home he had the good fortune to be
introduced by Lord Cathcart as a native prodigy to Erskine of Mar,
on whose estate he was born, aud by whom he was generously sent as
a pensioner to prosecute his studies at Rome. Here he obtained first
a silver medal for a drawing in the academy of St. Luke, and after-
wards the gold medal for a painting. The subject was the legend of
the Corinthian maid who drew the profile of her lover around his
shadow cast by a lamp upon the wall. The picture was well painted,
and a good engraving of it by Cunego spread Allan's reputation
throughout Italy ; and his praises reached even his own countrymen :
it was however the first and last good picture he ever painted. His
subsequent works were distinguished for humour and feeling, but in
execution, whether as paintings or engravings, they are very inferior.
He painted two other pictures at Rome, the ' Prodigal Son' for Lord
Cathcart, and ' Hercules and Omphale ' for Erskine of Mar; aud he
made also four humorous designs illustrating the Roman Carnival,
which through Paul Sandby's prints of them became popular, aud
gained Allan a considerable reputation for broad humour. But he no
more deserved the title of the ' Scottish Hogarth,' which for tlieee and
a few other similar designs he obtained in Scotland, than his historical
pictures would warrant his being called the Scottish Raphael. " He
is union,, 1 painters," says Allan Cunningham, " what Allan Ramsay is
among poets a fellow of iufiuite humour, and excelling in all manner
of rustic drollery, but deficient in fine sensibility of conception, aud
little acquainted with lofty emotion or high imagination."
In 1777 Allan visited London, which however he left for Edinburgh,
after practising there for a short time as a portrait-painter. After tho
death of Ruuciman in 1786, Allan succeeded him as master of the
Trustees' Academy, which office he held for ten years until his death
in 1796. Ha left a son and daughter; the former went in 1806 as a
cadet to India.
Allan's most popular designs are his twelve illustrations of Ramsay's
' Gentle Shepherd,' which he engraved himself in aquatinta, aud pub-
lished with an edition of the poem* with some prefatory remarks as a
sort of apology for tho humbleness of the style of his designs. He
made also some designs for tho lyric poems of Burns, who compli-
mented the painter, in his letters to his i'riend Thomson on more than
one occasion. Burns however found fault with Allan's ' stock and
horn,' a rude musical instrument which he put into the hands of some
of his characters. Burns offered to send him a real one, such as the
shepherds used in the braes of Athol. " If Mr. Allan chooses," says
Burns, " I will send him a sight of mine, as I look on myself to be a
: '
ALLAH, SIR WILLIAM.
ALLEN, JOSEPH W.
1M
kind of brother hmeh with him. ' Pride in poets U n*e sin ;' and I
will aay it, thai I look on Mr. A Hun n.l Mr. Burnt to bo the only
(mine Ji.l rral |intrr..f Scottish costume in tho v.orl.1
AIU did not think thmt Ilurns's ' stock n.l horn ' were any improve
irat apoa hi* own ; be aid it wu only fit for " routing *n<l roaring."
<Cniiiinoam. Lira o/ ffriluk Painlert, Ac )
ALIAS, Sll WILLIAM, wu bom in Edinburgh in 17*i After
receiving hi* early education at the High School, ha wai placed with
coach-painter ; but displaying itrong attachment to art, he wan
tared an a pupil in the Trustees' Academy, where Wilkie w bil
fellow-student. When hi* term expired he proceeded to London, and
bfoame a student of the Royal Academy. In 1805 hi* fint picture
of a ' Qipty Boy and AM* appeared at the exhibition of that initiation.
Not succeeding in at once attracting publio attention, Allnn retched
to try hi* fortune abroad, and selected St Petersburg for the scene of
hi* experiment ; incited partly, it U mid, by the expectation of finding
novel and picturesque object* for the exercise of hi* pencil. He
"""l-*"* in Rank nearly ten yean, making occasional journeys to
duunt part* of the country, to Turkey, Tartary, the shore* of the
BUek Sea. 4c., and everywhere industriously employing himself in
gathering material* for hi* art
On his return to Scotland in 18 H, he made a public exhibition of
hi* (ketches and finished pictures of Ruraian, Tartarian, and Circassian
so HIM and costume. Among the pictures was a Urge one of 'Circassian
Captive*,' which at the toggwtion of Sir Walter Scott was purchased
by one hundred gentlemen, who subscribed ten guineas each ; it fell
to the lot of the Earl of Wemyss, in whose possession it now is. From
this time Allan settled in his native city, sending regularly some of bis
work* to the exhibition of the Royal Academy. For a while his pencil
WM chiefly employed on picture* suggested by the countries in which
he had travelled ; he then turned to the annals of his native land, and
for several years wu mostly engaged in illustrating the history or the
romance of Scotland. To this period belong the ' Murder of Arch-
bishop Sharpe,' 'Parting of Prince Charles Stuart and Flora Macdonatil,'
' Knox admonishing Mary Queen of Scots,' ' Murder of the Regent
Murray,' and others of hi* best works. In consequence of a disease
in the eyes be was compelled for a year or two to cease from painting,
and being advised to try a change of climate, he visited Italy, Asia
Minor, and Greece. On resuming bis pencil, his 'Slave Market at
Constantinople,' and pictures of a like kind, showed that he bad
profited by his travels.
Meanwhile he had been gaining the distinctions awarded to success
in his profession. In 1825 he was elected associate of the lloyal
Academy. In 1835 he became It A. In 18.18 he was chosen, on the
death of Mr. Wataon, to be president of the Scottish Academy. On
the death of Wilkie in 1840 Allan was appointed to succeed him as
her Majesty'* Limner for Scotland ; and in 1842 he received the honour
of knighthood. Sir William Allan was best known by his Russian and
Circassian osnrt pieces, and by his Scottish historical works. In all of
them there is much akill and refinement, but in none any very evident
marks of a high order of genius. But he was also a very successful
painter of a peciil class of portraits, such, for instance, as his ' Scott
in his Study Writing,' and its companion, 'Scott in his Study Reading;'
and in his later years he essayed with success the more laborious task
of depicting scene* of actual warfare. Of these the most important
w*t two picture* of the ' Battle of Waterloo,' which met with the
marked approval of the Duke of Wellington, and one of which his
irrao* purchased ; the ' Buttle of Preston Pans ;' ' Nelson Boarding tho
Han Nicolas ;' and the ' Battle of Bannockburn,' a large painting, on
which be was engaged at the time of his death. One of his hist con-
siderable works, ' Peter the Great teaching his Subjects the Art of
Ship-building,' was a commission from the Emperor of ItusMo.
Sir William Allan died on the 23rd of February, 1S50. As a painter
be was generally acknowledged by his countrymen to be at the bead
of Scottish art, by right of his talent as well as of hi* office.
ALLATIU8, LEO, an eminent literary man of the 17th century.
He was a Greek, born hi the island of Chio* in 1586. Being carried
orer to Italy at an early age, he was taken under the protection of a
powerful family in Calabria, and educated in the Greek college at
Boo*. He revisited his native country, but soon returned to Rome,
where, altar a succession of litemry employments, he was appointed
librarian to the Vatican. For this post he wu well fitted by great
industry and a retentive memory ; and, in a long life, be edited in.mii-
cripto, translated Greek authors, and published many original works,
which display more learning and power of collecting materials than
ts-te or jodfOMOt A Greek by birth, he wu one of the most
strenuous and bicoted upholder* of the Roman Church and of papal
UUUHbUity, and hesitated not to invoke fire and sword u tho legiti-
BMte mean* of converting obstinate heretics. (See hi* treatise De
a
*isi.
OeeWeoUllsetOrlenUUs
la the Ule of
OrlenUlis wrpstua Coneasioue,') Ho founded
Chios, and died at Rome in the year 1669,
ALLECTCT8, OM of the officers of Carausius, king of Britain, in
Ike KSJM of Diocletian. Cootantia* Chlorus (whom Diocletian and
pie MaximUn had raised to the dignity of Cnsar, and
to the command of Gaul and the conduct of the war
gumrt Canaaiw), bavins; attempted to cross over to Britain (A.D.
W), bad been obllgr*), by stow* of vraatber, to return. During the
ti..
interval which succeeded this attempt, Carausins wu murdered by
Allectui (A I). 293), who was afraid of l im: puniabed with death for
Home crime* of which he wax now awiuuifl <li-
sovereignty, and stationed his fleet near the Islo of Wight to prevent
the enemy from crossing; but Conatantius sent forward And.
lus, pnctorian prafecl, with a portion of his fleet and army, who,
undi-r cover of a dense fog, effected n landing. All
arrival of that part of the expedition which wu under Coin-'.
himself, leaving his fleet and the harbour near which he was encn
marched against Asclepiodotus, who had burned his fleet immediately
after landing, that his men might have no resource but in victory.
Allectus did not attempt to draw up his forces in regular ..i-, '.
rushed at once to the encounter, and wu defeated and slain witli a
great number of his men. He bad laid aside his imperial robes, so
that his body wu recognised with some difficulty. .my of
Asclepiodotus's soldier* fell. If the statement of Kutropius and
Orosius be correct, that Allectus held the sovereignty of the island
for three years, we may place his death in the year 29G. CousUntiu*
landed shortly after the fall of Allectu*, and was received with great
demonstrations of joy; and the imperial authority was fully re-
established in the island. (Eutropius, JIutoriic Jtomana Breviaritun ;
Orosius, 2/ittoria.)
ALLEGRI, C. ANTONIO. [CoRREOOio.]
ALLEN, JOHN, M.D., a writer on subjects connected with meta-
physics, history, and physiology, wai born in January, 1770, t
fnrl, iu the parish of Colinton, near Edinburgh. The domain of
Redford, situated on the slope of the Pentlaud Hills, wu his paternal
property, and the mansion-house still attests the moderate but sub-
stantial wealth of his ancestors, lie studied at Edinburgh, where he
took a degree in medicine in 1791. He soon afterwards connected
himself with the movements in Scotland for the furtherance of
parliamentary reform. In 1795 be published 'Illustrations of Mr.
Hume's Essay concerning Liberty and Necessity, in answer to Dr.
Gregory of Edinburgh, by a Necessitarian.' This small tract is iu
many respects characteristic of his subsequent more distinguished
works, in the felicity with which it adopts a broad and comprehensive
view, as Well as in the clearness with which it adheres to one unbroken
line of reasoning, and keeps clear of divergencies and incidental
questions. In 1SOI he translated from Cuvier, whose friendship ho
enjoyed, 'An Introduction to the Study of the Animal Economy.'
It appears to have been about tho commencement of this century tlmt
he formed an intimacy with Lord Holland, with whom he continued
to reside until that nobleman's death. After the peace of Amiens,
Dr. Allen accompanied Lord and Lady Holland through France and
Spain, and resided with them in the hitter country until the year
1805. He made large collections relating to the past history of Spain,
and to its social and political position. He became an extensive
contributor to the ' Edinburgh Review,' on subjects chiefly connected
with the British constitution, and with French and Spanish history.
Forty-one articles iu that periodical are attributed to him, and his
researches in a great measure served to establish and characterise its
opinions on constitutional questions. His earliest papers were on
Spanish and South American subjects. The earliest article on con-
stitutional subjects attributed to him is that on the Kegency question,
May, 1811. In the number for June, 1816, an elaborate essay on tin-
constitution of parliament, full of original investigation, is believed
to have been from his pen. He wrote in the same periodical some
papers on the ' History of England ' by Lingard, which occasioned a
pamphlet controversy with that author, chiefly relating to the massacre
of St, Bartholomew, tho authorities for which ho charged Lingard
with having referred to at second hand. The latest article which he
is supposed to have contributed to the Review is that on Church
Rates, October, 1839. He wrote the History of Europe in tint
'Annual Register' for 1806; and in 1820 a 'Biographical Sketch of
Mr. Fox.' In 1830 he published a small but valuable coustitut.in:il
work, called an 'Inquiry into the Rise and Growth of the Royal
Prerogative in England,' which has been republished, with his final
revisions, since his death. Dr. Allen published several other pam-
phlets, some of them on subjects of comparatively temporary interest.
For some years before his death he held the lucrative appointment of
Muter of Dulwich College. He was a member of the Record Com-
mission; and he held the office of under-secretary of the com-
missioners for treating with America in 1806. He died April 3,
1843. His character has been eloquently drawn by his friend Lord
Brougham, in the third series of the 'Historical Sketches of the
Statesmen of the Time of George III.," pp. 342-348.
ALLEN, JOSEPH W., a landscape painter of considerable repu-
tation, wu born at Lambeth, Surrey, in 1803. His father wu a
schoolmuter, and the son wu designed to follow the same profession.
Having completed his education at St. Paul's school, ho for a time
practised u an usher at Taunton, but he soon threw aside the pen
nd the ferula, and returned to London iu the hope of maintaining
uimself by the pencil While acquiring the tcchniculitics of bin art
lie was often reduced to great straits. At first he was constrained to
paint signs and transparencies for blind-makers ; and when ho wu
more advanced he had for a long period to manufacture paintings for
picture-dealers. Under the necessity of producing many showy
picture* at low prices he noon acquired considerable mechanical
167
ALLEN, WILLIAM.
ALLEYN, EDWARD.
168
dexterity, and he was led not unnaturally to turn his attention to
scene-painting for theatres then a very popular branch of art After
working for a while as assistant to Stanfield and others, he obtained
the situation of principal scene-painter at the Olympic Theatre, when
that establishment firot came under the management of Madame
Vestris ; and his clear style and vigorous pencil did much to secure
the success of the brilliant spectacles which formed the distinguishing
feature of the management. Allen's early oil-paintings were gene-
rally of small size, and represent quiet, homely, pastoral scenery,
which was rendered with great delicacy and a nice appreciation of
the freshness of natural colour. But though they found purchasers !
amou;; well-known patrons of art, his reputation extended slowly,
and he attributed his tanly progress to the placing of his pictures at !
the annual exhibition of the Koyal Academy. He joined himself i
therefore to the newly-founded Society of British Artists, and became ;
one of its most ardent supporters. All his more important works
were thenceforward exhibited in the first instance on its walls ; and
he eventually became its secretary.
Allen did not attain the position his early pictures promised. His
inclination and his forte lay towards pastoral scenery. He loved and
he could well depict those fresh, open, country scenes, so characteristic
of our ' home counties,' which Milton describes as affording constant
delight to the city dweller. For these Allen had all a Londoner's
relish, and while he painted them with continual reference to the
reality, his pictures commanded the sympathy of all who enjoy this
style of art. But when he had obtained skill in producing those
" brilliant effects," which are BO attractive in conjunction with gas-
light and theatrical ' properties,' he be^au to employ them in his
pictures, and though he succeeded by such means in sparing himself
much thought and labour, while he rendered his pictures more
attractive in the exhibition-room, it was at the expense of those
higher qualities of truth and propriety which are essential to lasting
fame. And the evil was fostered and strengthened by another influ-
ence under which he Ml, when he appeared to be about to escape from
that of the theatre. From the first establishment of the Art-Union
his landscapes won the f.ivour of the prize holders. Seldom possess-
ing any knowledge of art, their taste is commonly caught by glare
and glitter ; and Allen permitted himself to be driven by the pressure
of bis circuiustanct s to paint mor and more with a special regard
to them. HU earlier pictures have many admirable qualities, and
his latest display great technical and manipulative skill ; but his life
was not one of artistic progress, and his is not a name that can
pei-manently take a high place among the artists of England.
Allen died August 26, 1852, of disease of the heart, at the early
age of 49 ; leaving a widow and eight children, for whom unhappily
he had not b"en able to secure a sufficient provision.
ALLEN, WILLIAM, was born August 29, 1770. His father was
a silk-manufacturer in Spitalfields, and a member of the Society of
Friends. Having at an early period shown a predilection for chemical
and other pursuits connected with medicine, William was placed in
the establishment of Mr. Joseph Gurney Bevan, in Plough-court,
Lombard-street, London, where he acquired a practical knowledge of
chemistry. He eventually succeeded to the business, which he carried
on in connection with Mr. Luke Howard, and acquired great reputa-
tion ai a pharmaceutical chemist. About the year 1804 Mr. Allen
was appointed lecturer at Guy's Hospital on chemistry and experi-
mental philosophy, and he did not wholly retire from this institution
until 1827. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1807,
and the Society's ' Philosophical Transactions ' contain accounts of
several of the more important of his chemical investigations, which
were carried on in conjunction with bis friend Mr. Pepys. They
established the proportion of carbon in carbonic acid, which was
different from that adopted at the time in all systems of chemistry;
and they also demonstrated that the diamond was pure carbon. The
'Philosophical Transactions' for 1829 contain a paper by Mr. Allen,
baaed on elaborate experiments and calculations which he had made
on the changes produced on atmospheric air and other gases by
tion. .Mr. Allen was mainly instrumental in establishing the
Pharmaceutical Society, of which he was president at the time of his
death. Besides his public labours as a practical chemist, he pursued
with much de.ight in his hours of relaxation the study of astronomy.
Many years before his death, Mr. Allen purchased an estate near
Linrl field, Sussex, and withdrew from business. Here, while still
zealously engaging in public schemes of usefulness and benevolence,
ho carried out various philanthropic plans for the improvement of
his immediate dependants and poorer neighbours. He erected com-
modious cottages on his property, with an ample allotment of land
attached to each cottage; and he established schools at Lindfield for
boys, girls, and infants, with workshops, out-houses, and play-grounds.
About three acres of land were cultivated on the most approved
system by the boarders, who also took a part in household work.
The subjects taught were land-surveying, mapping, the elements of
botany, the use oi' the barometer, rain-gauge, &c., and there was a
library with various scientiGc and useful apparatus. Mr. Allen
died at his house near Lindfield, December 30, 1843. (Pharmaceutical
Journal and Transactions for February, 1844; Memoirt i.f William
>itei of Committee of Privy Council, 1842-3, 'Lindfield
>1, {> 551.)
ALLEYN, EDWARD. The lives of actors are seldom associated
with any circumstances of permanent interest. They strut and fret
their little hour, ara applauded, and are forgotten. It is of small
consequence to us now, that Niisho, in 1593, says that "the name of
Ned Alleyn on the common stago was able to make an ill matter
goad;" that Ben Jonson compares Alleyn with the great actors o
Rome, and Thomas Heywood pronounces him
" Proteus for shapes, and Roscius for a tongue ; "
that a grave chronicler, Sir Richard Baker, says of Burbage and
Alleyn, " They were two such actors as no age must ever look to see
the like;" and that Fuller writes, "He was the Roscius of our age,
so acting to the life that he made any part, especially a majestic one]
to become him." Strong as these testimonies are to the professional
merits of Alleyo, they would scarcely warrant any lengthened notice
of him, were there not circumstances connected with his public
history and his private character which lend an interest and import-
ance to his career rarely attaching even to the most celebrated of his
cla^s.
Alleyn was born in 1566, in the parish of St. Botolph without
Bishopsgate, London. The register of this parish shows the day of
his birth, Sept. 1, which corresponds with entries iu his own Diary.
His father, Edward Alleyn, was a citizen and inn-holder in this parish,
as we learn from his will, dated the 10th of September, 1570, and
proved on the 22nd of the same month. He bequeathed to his wife
a life interest in all his lands and tenements, and afterwards to his
three children. Mrs. Alleyu, who was of a good family in Lanca-
shire, married a second time. Her husband, whose name was Brown,
is described as a haberdasher, but he was also an actor ; and thus
Fuller was no doubt correct when he states that Edward Alleyn was
bred a stage-player. Born only two years later than his great con-
temporary Shakspere, and labouring in the same vocation with him
for nearly thirty years, the career of Alleyn must offer many parallel
circumstances with the career of Shakspere ; and it thus acquires a
secondary interest of no inconsiderable value. John Alleyn, the elder
brother of Edward, was, like his father, an inn-holder, as we learn
from a document bearing the date of 1588-89, in which Edward
Alleyn purchases of one Richard Jones, for the sum of thirty-seven
pounds ten shillings, his share of "playing apparels, play books,
instruments," &c., which Richard Jones has jointly with the brother
and step-father of Edward. Mr. Collier conjectures, with great
probability, from the circumstance of John being mentioned as an
inn-holder whilst he was evidently engaged in a theatrical specula-
tion, that " the old practice of employing inn-yards as theatres had
not then been entirely abandoned ; and it is not at all impossible that
in the time of their father, the yard of his inn had been converted to
that purpose, and was so continued by his son John, who succeeded
him." John Alleyn however became a distiller in 1594 ; and before
this his brother is celebrated by Nashe (iu another passage besides
that just quoted) as "famous Ned Alleyn." It is established that
he was famous in Greene's ' Orlando Furioso ' and Marlowe's ' Jew of
Malta,' both of which belong to the early period of the drama. In
1592 he married Joan Woodward, the daughter of Agues Woodward,
a widow, who previous to this period had become the wife of Philip
Henalowe, one of the principal theatrical managers of that day.
Alleyn and Henslowe DOW entered into partnership in their stage
concerns. Within six months after his marriage the plague broke
out in London, and all the theatrical houses being as usual closed, to
prevent the spread of infection, Alleyn and his company, then known
as Lord Strange's players, went upon a strolling expedition into the
provinces. In the collection of papers in Dulwich College there are
letters to and from Alleyn at this period, which are printed in Mr.
Collier's 'Memoirs.' Alleyn left his wife and his father-in-law behind
him during this temporary emigration, and it is not improbable that
Henslowe, who appears to be an ignorant and rapacious person, had
infringed the order against dramatic exhibitions, for Alleyn writes to
his wife : "Mouse, I little thought to hear that which I now hear
by you, for it is well known, they say, that you were by my lord
mayor's officer made to ride iu a cart, you and all your fellows, which
I am sorry to hear." At this period the players were in constant
dispute with the corporation, aud this was probably some petty exer-
cise of tyranny from which the company of Henslowe and Alleyn
were not protected. Even the queen's players, of whom Shakspere
was one, supported as they were by the highest authority, had often
to contend with the municipal love of power. And yet at this period,
leading a life which was denominated vagabond as far as his pro-
vincial excursions were concerned, Edward Alleyn was a man of
property, derived either from marriage or inheritance, or from both.
In 1596 he sells "the lease of the parsonage of Firle," near Bedding-
ham in Sussex, for the large sum of 3000^., to be received iu
twenty annual payments of l&Ol. He was probably the lay impro-
priator. Here alone was an ample provision for Alleyn and his
family, according to the value of money in those days, yet for many
years he continued an actor and theatrical manager. The theatre
which he and Heuslowe owned from the period of his marriage was
the Rose on the Bankaide; but in 1600 they built a new theatre, the
Fortune, in Cripplegate, near Red Cross-street. The inhabitants of
the neighbourhood petitioned the Privy Council to sanction this
I
ALI.KTK. EDWARD.
ALLKYN, KDWARD.
1W
DO ne aau previously acquired 01
particularly by a large purchase in
which Mr. Collier auppoeoi wu Shai
ntirrment from London. There is, ho
and UM parochial favour seem* to hare been rrry akUfully
. The hnejebolden approred the sebeine "because the
of UM (aid house are contenteil to gire a very liberal portion
of money weekly towards the relief of our poor," and " because our
pariah Is not able to relieve them.- We may thus form some idea of
UM profit* of UM <arly dramatic performance* when audience* wen
contented to be delighted and instructed with the words of a play
without the aid of costly decorations. But AUeyn and his father-in-
law had othrr sources of profit : they were the owners of the dog*
and bear* which were exhibited at Pans Garden, snd in time Henslowe
and AUeyn became patentee* of UM office of " the mutenhip of His
Majesty's (runes of bean, bulb, and dog*." In 1603 the plague again
drore AUryn and his company out of London, and a letter from bis
wife to him at this period bring* u* cloarr to Sbaksprre than any
other contemporary record. The good lady say*, in this torn and
mutilated paper, " About* a werke a goe there came a youthe who
aid he wu Mr. Frauncis Cbalouer, who would hare borrowed x"- to
hare bought thing* for .... snd said he r>u known unto you, and
Mr. 8hakr*ptan of th* Globe, who came said be knewe bym
not, onely he horde of bym that he wu a roge so he wu
(lade we did not lend him the monney." After the accession of
James, Aileyn'* company became 'the Prince's Players,' u Shaks-
pere's wu the Kings; and baring purchased the patent office of
aster of the king's game*, Hrnslowe and Alleyn, in 1606, rebuilt
Paris Garden for those disgusting exhibitions in which the court and
the populace equally delighted. The patentee* bad the right of
ending bear-wards into the country ; and account* at Dulwich exhibit
the expense and profits of such exhibitions. Thus accumulating
property in various way*, Alleyn wu so thriring a man in 1606 u
to bare purchased the manor of Dulwich from Sir Francis Calton.
Upon the death of Henslowe in 1616, and of bis wife in the following
year, Alleyn succeeded to the greater part of their theatrical property ;
and be had previously acquired other property of the same nature,
' in the Blackfriars Theatre in 1612,
i Shakspere's share, sold by him on bis
There is, however, no distinct evidence for this
assumption. It i* nowhere stated to whom the money, being a total of
59M. 6*. Sol, wu paid for this portion of the lease and other property.
AUeyn commenced the building of Dulwich College in 1613.
Preriou* to thi* he appears to hare discontinued appearing on the
stage u an actor ; but Aubrey, in hi* ' Miscellanies,' connects the
foundation of Dulwich College 'the college of God's Gift,' u
AUeyn called it with a circumstance which strongly recommend*
itself to the imagination of the credulous antiquarian : " The tradition
was, that playing a demon with six othen in one of Shakspere's plays,
he wu in the midst of the play surprised by an apparition of the
deril, which so worked on bis fancy that he made a TOW which he
performed at this place " (Dulwich). This is clearly an adaptation of
the story told wiih great solemnity by Pryune, in his 'Histrio-Mastix,'
in his reciul of the judgment* against players and play-haunters:
Nor yet to recite the sudden fearful burning, even to the ground,
both ol the Globe and Fortune playhouse*, no man perceiving bow
the** fire* came : together with the risible apparition of the deril on
the stage at the Bel Savage playhouse, in Queen Elizabeth's days (to
the grot smstenxmt both of the actors and spectators), whiles they
were there profanely playing the History of Fauntus (the truth of which
I bare beard from many now alive, who well remember it), there being
some distracted with that fearful night" It is evident that Alleyn,
having oonaiderablo riches and no family, had, before be resolved
upon the particular appropriation of hi* wealth, not only acquir .1 .-i
reputation for bmerolenoe, but intimated an intention to make an
endowment for seme charitable institution. Samuel Jeynens, pro-
bably a clergyman, applies to AUeyn to render come assistance for the
completion of Chelsea College, by letter, in the beginning of which
be says, " Blessed be God, who hu stirred up your heart to do so
many gracious and good deeds to God's glory." The object of Chelsea
ColUfe wu "that learned men might there hare maintenance to
newer all the adversaries of religion." The ume writer adds, " Or,
if I might move another project to yourself, that it would please you
to build some half a score lodging rooms, more or less, near unto
you, if it b no more but to give lodging to diren scholars that come
from the university." Allsyn took hi* own course. In 1616 he had
nearly completed hi* establishment at Dulwich, and in the autumn of
that year the Earl of Arundtl writes to him with a familiarity which
show* UM narwct entertained for Alleyn's character, and the know-
ledf* amoorst UM higher ranks of hi* benevolent purposes. The earl
tfnmn the player u hi* " loving friend," and says, Whereu
I am given to understand that you are in hand with an hospital for
the succouring of poor old people and the maintenance and education
of you*, and bare now almost perfected your charitable work, 1 am
at the instant request of this bearer to desire you to accept of a poor
fatherless boy to be one of your number." The incumbent of St
Betalpha. the parish In which Allsyn waa born, wu at this period
then Gossan, who six and thirty years before wu the furious adver-
sary of posts and players, and " such like caterpillars of a common-
wealth. The pipers of Dulwich College show that Alleyn wu
to give a pnfereoos to the poor of his native parish in
the inmate* of hi* hospital; and that Goeton wu j-erticu.
larly diligent in recommending individuals to his farour. There
were leiral difficulties in the establishment of ' God's Gift College ' u
a foundation ; and no less a person than the Chancellor Bacon thought
it his duty to resist the completion of Aileyn ' wishes. The chan-
cellor thus write* to the Marquis of Buckingham : " I now write to
give the king an account of the patent I bare stayed at the seal : it
u of license to give in mortmain eight hundred pounds land, though
it be of tenure in chief, to Allen that was the player, for an hospital.
I like well that Allen playeth the lut act of hia life so well, but if
His Majesty gire way thus to amortize his tenures, the Court of
Wards will decay, which I had well hoped should Improrr. But that
which moved me chiefly is, that His Maje-ty now lately did abso-
lutely deny Sir Henry Sarille for two hundred pounds, and Sir Edward
Sandys for one hundred pounds, to the perpetuating of two lectures,
the one in Oxford, the other in Cambridge, foundations of singulsr
honour to His Majesty, and of which there i* great wsnt; whereas
hospitals abound, and beggars abound never a whit less. If His
Majesty do like to pas* the book at all, yet if he would be pleased to
abridge the eight hundred pounds to fire hundred pound*, and then
gire way to the other two books for the universities, it were a princely
work, and I would make an humble suit to the king, and desire your
lordship to join in it, that it might be so." The opposition of the
chancellor wu however overruled, and Aileyn was allowed to dispose
of hi* munificent endowment of eight hundred pounds a year according
to his own wishes. The college was for the support and maintenance
of one master, one warden, and four fellows, three of whom were to
be ecclesiastics, and the other a skilful organist ; also six poor men, six
women, and twelve boys to be educated in pood literature. The
patent pawed the great seal on the 21st of June, 1619; aud on the
13th of the following September Aileyn formally and publicly dispos-
sessed himself of this the greater part of his property, and thence-
forward he and his wife lived in this foundation upon a footing of
equality with those whom they had raised into comfort and compara-
tive opulence. Thomas Hey wood, in his ' Vindication of Actors ' (a
remodelling of his 'Apology for Actors '), says, "When thii college
was finished, this famous man wu so equally mingled with humility
and charity that he became his own pensioner, humbly submitting
himself to that pro|>ortion of diet aud clothes which he had bestowed
on others." Aileyn appears to have had a full and earnest enjoyment
in his rare munificence. In his diary, under the date of Hay 26,
1620, is this passage : " My wife aud I acknowledge the fine at the
Common Pleas' bar of all my lands to the college : blessed be God
that has lent us life to do it." He had property enough to bestow on
other charitable objects. In 1620 we find him fouuding almshouses
in Finsbury. His diary gives us a curious picture of his habits after
his retirement to Dulwich. He wu still master of the king's games ;
and thus we find him on one day baiting before the king at Green-
wich; on another, giving the twelve brothers aud sisters of the
college their new gowns ; and on another, going to Croydou fair to
sell his brown mare. His property still went on accumulating. In
1620 he bought the manor of Lewisham. In 1621 the Fortune
Theatre, of which he was the chief proprietor, was burnt. He enters
the fact in bis diary, without a single observation, and quietly sets
about rebuilding it His wife Joan died in 1623. He was very soon
married again, to a lady whose Christian name wu Constance, and
who is supposed to have been a daughter of the celebrated Dr. Donne.
Aileyn lived with, his second wife only about two years. His will,
dated November 13, 1626, states that he was sick in body; and on
the 25th of the same month he died, and was buried in the chapel of
his college, called Christ Chapel, in a plain manner, according to his
special direction. By hia will he endowed twenty almshouses, ten in
the parish of St Botolph, aud ten in St Saviour's, Southwork ; and
he left considerable legacies to his wife and other relations. Fuller,
some forty years after the death of Aileyn, when the opinions of the
Puritans had thrown discredit upon the noblest u well as the most
innocent actions of those who had been connected with the theatre,
thus writes of the founder of Dnlwich College : " He got a very great
estate, and in his old age, following Christ's counsel (on what forcible
notice belongs not to me to inquire), ' be made friends of bis un-
righteous mammon,' building therewith a fair college, at Dulwich in
Kent, for the relief of poor people. Some, I confess, count it built
on a foundered foundation, seeing in a spiritual SCUM none is good aud
lawful money save what is honestly and industriously gotten lint per-
chance such who condemn Muter Aileyn herein hare as bad shillings
in the bottom of their own bags, if search were made tin i
The founder of Dulwich College had a singular partiality for persons
bearing his own name. Advantage wu probably taken of this
peculiarity, which we must call a weakness. Dckker writes to him to
introduce the sou of a Kentish yeoman : " He is a young man loving
you, being of your name, and desires no greater happiness than to
depend upon you." Howes, the continuator of Stow's 'Chronicle,'
mentions about 1614, that Aileyn wai building his college, and that
he intended the master always to be of the name of Allen, or Aileyn.
This limitation continues to exist Dulwich College now possesses
very large revenues ; and the situation of master especially is one of
great value. Aileyn left a collection of pictures there, to which,
additions were gradually made ; but in 1810 Sir Francis Bourgeois
bequeathed to the college his valuable collection, which bo had pre-
181
ALLINGHAM, JOHN TILL.
ALMAGRO, DIEGO DE.
182
viously offered, but without success, to the government, upon the con
dition of building a gallery for its reception. This collection is easily
accessible to the public, without fee.
Within the last few years considerable discussion has arisen with
refereuce to the proper distribution of the funds of the college, and
at the beginning of 1856 a scheme was recommended by the Charity
Commissioners, with consent of the college authorities, for the future
management of the charity. The present members are to be paid
annually as follows: Master, 1015^.; Warden, 855. (to be raised to
10151. should he survive the master) ; First and Second Fellows, 5001. ;
Third and Fourth Fellows, 4661; poor brethren and sisters, 1501.
from Michaelmas next for their respective lives. Twelve governors
are to be appointed : an upper, or classical, school to be constituted,
the head-master with a salary of 3501. a year, and 30s. half-yearly for
each scholar over fifty, to have the general superintendence of the
charity, subject to the governors ; the under-master to have 2501.,
with 10*. half-yearly for each boy above fifty, in addition to his own
pupils. Day scholars and boarders to be admitted to this school.
Foundation scholars, not to exceed twenty-four in number, may be
maintained at the expense of the charity. Scholarships, not exceed-
ing eight in number, at lOOi. a year each, tenable for four years, may
be provided for scholars (not private boarders) in the upper school. A
lower school, for foundation scholars and day boys, is to be carried on
at Dulwich, the master to receive 1501. a year, and 10*. half-yearly
for every boy exceeding fifty. Twelve boys may be allowed exhibi-
tions, or scholarships, not exceeding 30. a year each, for four years.
The number of alms-people not to exceed twenty-four in the first
instance, half to be brethren, and the other half to be sisters; who
are to have residences and a weekly stipend not exceeding 20*. Out-
pensioners may be appointed, not exceeding sixteen, with stipends of
not more than 10*. weekly.
The paper* at Dulwich College, whether in the writing of Alleyn or
hU partner Henslo-ve, throw some light upon the literary history of
the drama. Alleyn appears to have taken much of the management
with regard to the authors who wrote for the theatres in which he
was so deeply interested. For example, there is an entry in Henslowe's
papers, " Lent unto my sonne E. Alleyu, the 7th of November, 1602, to
give unto Thomas Deckers for mending of the play of Tnsso, the
some of xxxx*. : "' and again, " Lent unto Mr. Alleyn, the 25th of
September, 1601, to lend unto Benjamin Johnson, upon his writing of
bis adycions in Jerouymo, xxxxi." Henslowe again lends unto " Ben-
geiny Jolmsone, at the apoyntment of E. Alleyn and William Birde,"
in earnest for plays undertaken, "the some of x/." The caution with
which the elder partner makes his son-in-law a sort of security for
needy authors is very curious. Alleyn appears to have been a man of
a kindly heart towards those with whom he was brought in contact ;
and all these documents show that the theatrical writers men who
have earned their immortality were for the most part poor and
wretched. The partners however in all probability screwed their
authors very hard. There is a letter from Robert Daborne to Henslowe,
in which he earnestly begs for twenty shillings, saying, " Oood sir, con-
sider how for your sake 1 have put myself out of the assured way to get
money, and from twenty pounds a play am come to twelve." There
is a hearc-rending document also from Field, Daborne, and Massinger,
iu which they earnestly beg for five pounds to deliver them from prison.
The number of eminent men who were associated with Henslowe and
Alleyn in producing dramatic novelties was very great, including
Muu<lay, Drayton, Dekker, Chettle, Massinger, Jonson, Rowley, Hey-
wood, Porter, and Chapman. These men were dependent upon the
players for the small gratuities which they received for works of high
genius and laborious art. Yet Alleyn is not to be blamed for this
penurious reward of authors. The writers for the theatres were
almost innumerable ; and excellence up to a certain point was very
generally attainable by them. Perhaps some of the higher excellence
of Shakspere may be attributable to the fact that he was at ease in
pecuniary matters; that almost alone he could produce the most
attractive novelties for his own theatres ; that he was not dependent
upon managerial caprice ; that in fact he was making a fortune, as
Alluyu himself was making it, by his property in a species of enter-
prise which had universal supporters, and which iu his case had the
;pt cial support of the wealthiest and best educated of the com-
munity. The details of the life of Alleyu ought to be attentively
studied by those who desire to form a competent notion of that
unequalled chapter in literary history, the annals of the English
stage during the half century of its greatness.
(Fuller, Wui-lklei of England; Kippis, Biographia Krilannica ;
Collier, Memoirs of Alleyn, published by the Shakespeare Society;
Miilone, Hiitorieal Account of the Enyliih Stage.)
ALLINGHAM, JUHN TILL, a very successful dramatic writer,
xouie of whose farces especially were what is called stock pieces at
the beginning of the 19th century. They have no great pretensions
to wit or humour ; but they are full of liveliness and bustle, and were
adapted to the peculiar talents of the most popular comedians of the
tiiiiH. ' The Weathercock ' and ' Fortune's Frolic ' are th best known
of hi* productions. Allingham was the son of a wine-merchant in
London, and was brought up to the legal profession. We neither can
ascertain the date of his birth nor the exact period of his death. In
an edition of ' Fortune's Frolic,' forming one of the series of dramatic
BIOO. MV. VOL. I.
pieces published by a bookseller named Cumberland, about twelve
years ago, we find this notice of Allingham : " We remember him
some twenty years since in the busy throng about "Change, in the
capacity, we believe, of a stock-broker. He has been dead some
years."
ALLORI, the name of two distinguished Italian painters, father
and son. The father, Alessandro, was born at Florence in 1535, and
was brought up by his uucle Angelo Bronzino, likewise a very dis-
tinguished painter. Allori, from his connection with his uncle, was
also frequently called Bronzino, and he sometimes wrote the name
upon his pictures. He was one of the most distinguished painters of
the anatomical school, and was a devoted admirer of Michel Angelo ;
but he appropriated nothing more of that great master than his
affected display of anatomy, which Allori seems to have considered
the greatest quality in art. In 1590 he published a treatise upon
anatomy for the use of artists. He died in 1607, and his portrait by
himself was placed in the Florentine gallery of painters' portraits.
Allori's works, both in oil and fresco, are numerous, and many on a
large scale. His greate.-t work is the Montaguti Chapel in the church
of the Aununciata, painted in oil in 1582. He has painted there, a
Last Judgment, Christ disputing with the Doctors, and Christ driving
the Money Changers from the Temple. In the second he has intro-
duced the portraits of Michel Angelo and Giacomo da Pontormo in
their own costume, besides several other portraits of his contem-
poraries. He was an excellent portrait- painter, and he constantly
introduced portraits of his friends into his historical pieces.
The son, Crutofano Allori, born at Florence in 1577, was a better
painter than his father, whose style he abominated ; he used to call
him a heretic. He studied with Gregorio Pagaui, and rivalled that
painter in richness of colour, and surpassed him in delicacy of execu-
tion. But he was idle and fastidious, and his works are scarce. In
execution he was equal to anything, and he had of course a corre-
sponding skill in copying. He is said to have made some copies of
Correggio's Magdalen with some slight alterations in the background,
which now pass as duplicates by Correggio ; he generally made a slight
variation in the background ; the original of this work is at Dresden.
Cristofano was an excellent landscape-painter. His master-pieces are
considered the Miracle of San Giuliano, in the Pitti gallery ; San
Manetto, in the church de'Servi; Judith and Holopherues; and a
Magdalen, which was the portrait of his own mistress, a very beauti-
ful woman. The Judith is also her portrait, and the Holophernes was
painted from himself : it was engraved by Gondolfi for the ' Muse"e
Napoleon.' He died in 1621 ; his portrait is likewise in the Floren-
tine portrait gallery.
(Baldiuucci, Notizie dc Professori del Disegno, &c. ; Lanzi, Storia
PUtorica, 4c.)
ALLSTON, WASHINGTON, a distinguished American historical
and landscape painter, was born in South Carolina in 1779, and was
educated at Harvard College, which he entered in 1796, having spent
a preparatory term, by the advice of his physicians, at Newport,
Rhode Island. Having determined to follow painting as a profession,
he resolved to visit England for that purpose ; he accordingly set out
in 1801 with another artist for London, and entered the Royal Academy
of Arts of London as a student, in which he remained three years,
during the presidency of West.
In 1801 be went with a friend to Paris, and thence to Rome, where
lie remained four years. In 1805 he attracted considerable notice
there by a picture of 'Jacob's Vision.' He excelled chiefly in colouring,
and is said to have created, considerable sensation among the painters
in Rome, by the peculiar effects which he accomplished, through a
great use of asphaltum after the manner of Rembrandt. He paiuted
several pictures at Rome, which were admired for their colour and
chiaroscuro ; among them a portrait of himself, and several landscapes.
In 1809 Allston returned to America, and at Boston married the
sister of Dr. Channing. In 1811 he again visited England, where he
obtained the 200 guineas' prize from tho British Institution for a
jicture of the ' Dead Man raised by Elisha's Bones,' which was after-
wards bought by the Peunsylvauian Academy of the Arts for 3500
dollars. In 1813 he had the misfortune to lose his wife, at a time
when he was himself in a very weak state of health. In 1814 ho pub-
ished a book entitled ' Hints to Youug Practitioners in the Study of
Landscape Painting.' In 1817 he paid a second visit to Paris, with
Leslie the Academician; and he returned in the following year to
America, to Cambridijeport, a village in Massachusetts, where he
resided until his death in July, 1843. He was an Associate of tho
itoyal Academy of London ; bis election took place in 1819.
Allston waa regarded with deep affection by friends iu England.
Of him Coleridge said he was " gifted with an artistic and poetic
jenius unsurpassed by any man of his age." His residence was not
'ar removed from Boston or from Harvard University ; but Allston
ived iu much seclusion. The American writers notice that, although
somewhat neglected by his countrymen, Lord Morpeth (Earl of Carlisle),
Ur. Labouchera, anJ M. de Tocqueville, sought him in his retreat to
offer their tribute of respect.
ALMAQRO, DIEGO DE, one of the adventurers who weut from
Spain to the conquest of America. He was a foundling and brought
up by a clergyman of Alinagro, according to Gomara ; but according
to Zarate, of Malagon. When the success of Columbus'a voyagu
AL-MAMUN.
ALMEIDA, KRANCISCO.
in Spain, number* of adventurers, prompted either by
reikriow* Mai. or by ambition for military gtury. or the desire of gain,
iaafced to the new world ; and many remained in obscurity until an
opportunity WM offered to them to become known. Of Almagro
_ to procure the supplies of men, arms, provision*,
*e. ; and I.uqoe WM to maaa at Panama, to forward, with the gover-
nor of that place, the intrreete of the company. Pizarro set out first,
aad AUnagro afterwards joined him. Some time after the execution
or murder of tbe Peruvian Auhualpa, Franeieoo Pizarro WM informed
of the arrival uf Pedro de Alvarado with *ome troops to undertake
the eoaqncet of Peru, end sent Almagro to them to ascertain their
hrtaaHnai, Almacro met them on the coast, near the present port of
Calleo. After some nagoniatlon. tbe greater part of the troops of
Alrarado being from Eatremadnra. and tempted with the offer of
100.000 gold crowns to be divided among them, joined their Mlow-
eueatijium, aad saerched together to Cnzoo.
Almagro WM informed by one of hi* party that he bad been
amputated governor of Nueva Toledo. He Interpreted this to mean
thai Cuzco also WM part of hi* governorship, and assembling the
Ayaotamieato, openly declared to them his views. The two brothers
of Pumrro, Juan and Qonzelo, refused to obey the self-made governor,
and wrc put under arrest. Francisco Pizarro, upon bearing this
news, l.-fl Truxillo, where he then was, and proceeded to Cuzco in
great haste ; when Almagro acknowledged his fault, and Pizarro not
only pardoned him, but even lent him a considerable sum of money.
Pizarro and Almagro entered now into an agreement by which the
latter promised upon hi* solemn oath to leave Cuzco, and never to
return within thirty leagues of it, even though the Emperor Charles
ebouU order him to do so. In 1585 be WM sent to the conquest of
Chili, which be partially effected, after having suffered much fatigue
and privation ; and it is said that be WM presented by several caciques
with 000,000 ducat* in piece* of gold.
Five month* after, Juan de Rada and Rui Diaz, whom he had left
at Cuzeo to recruit men for hi* army, brought him the intelligence
that Fernando Pizarro, whom hi* brother Francisco had sent to Spain
to solicit honours and titles for the discoverers, had returned from
theais, bringing tbe title of Marquis of Peru for Pizarro, Governor of
Kueva Toledo for Almsgro, snd Bishop of Peru for Luque. Some of
Ahnagro's friends advised him to return to Cuzco. On his way thither
he met Koguera, an officer who had been sent by Pizarro to ascertain
whether be wu in want of any assistance to pursue hi* conquests,
Pizarro himself being then employed in building Lima. Almagro
availed himself of this opportunity to get full information of tbe state
of affairs at Cnzoo, the safety of which, at that time, wu much endan-
I by a revolt of tbe Indians; and having ascertained that he might
easily obtain pnessssion of that city, be immediately proceeded thither.
Having subdued the Indiana, he entered Cuzco without opposition ;
{prisoned Qonzalo and Fernando Pizarro, and pillaged their house.
Francisco Pizarro, upon hearing of these event*, sent from Lima two
IB outlive detachments against Almagro ; and after having obtained
the liberty of his two brothers, joined the army with tbe rest of
hi* forces; snoeeeafnlly attacked Cuzoo; and, having token Almagro
prisoner, caused him to be tried by a court-martial, which condemned
him to death for having rebelled against his general and abandoned
hie post. This sentence WM executed at Cuzco on the 25th April,
1584, Almagro being then in the seventy-fifth year of hi* age.
Almagro is described both by Oomora and Zarate u a brave, liberal,
and open character. He never married, but left a son by an Indian
woman, who WM also called Diego de Almagro, and had u eventful
a life and M tragical an end M bis father.
(Oomara, Hatoria (fewrW, Ice., oh. 125-128; Zarate, llittoria, de
U OMfMeta Ad Pint, b. iii. ; Pizarro, Koroma lliutra del
Jfawie.)
AL-MAMUN. [AzBAZiDza.)
ALMANHOR, properly Al-Mu*nr, or, with hi* complete name,
Ak* Sa/ar AMiflak oZ-Afaiwar, the second kalif of the Abbuide
dynasty [AMUaion], WM bora at Homaima in Syria, A.D. 718, and
'""> bi* brother and predecessor Al-Sanah, in 758. His reign
w>>oe *^P* > J kW'y w "* 8on*ezto for tbe throne, and in repressing
insurrections, some of which were of a sectarian character. From one
of tboM he took a dislike to his residence at Kufa, and laid the founda-
tion of th. town of Baghdad, which became from this time the abode
of the kalif*.
Al-Maaenr died, September, 774, at Bir Maimuna, on a pilgrimage
to Mere*, HI* son Al-Mohdi sneeesdsJ him in the kalif.t AI-Mansur
rat showed that predilection for literature which for several centuries
"**_ disttogv&hiag feature in the character of the Mohammedan
eovetrlfu*. Itoriac bis reign translations into Arabic were commenced
of the work* of ancient Urcek writer* on meUphysics, mathematics,
astronom v. and mediein*.
* Ik. *p Fl ' OM S?-' _** T * Bth on f tho Co" d de Abrante*,
I '. Hhfll fSSf < \i:< ' >::. '
be Bishop of Coimbra, he WM sent for by King Manoel, or Eiuauuel,
:i.| intrusted with the important office of viceroy of the recently
acquired possessions in India. On the 25th of March, 1605, he set
Mil fr.>m Lisbon. " His embarkation," asyi Karros, " WM the nio-t
irilliant that had ever taken place in Portugal. Hi* force consisted
of 1600 men, all belonging to very respectable families; many of them
noblemen of the king'a household, ail anxious to serve under so
distinguished a leader."
After a prosperous voyage Almeida arrived at Quiloa, on the 22nd
if July. The Moorish king of that city Habraemo, or Ibrahim, was
not friendly to the Portuguese. Almeida complained of his not having
tail) due respect to the Portuguese nag, when Ibrahim apologised, and
iromiaed to vuit the viceroy on the morrow. But instead of the king,
i messenger from him came to make a fresh apology. Almeida told the
messenger to inform bis muter that he himself would pay him a visit
at hi* own house. At the approach of the Portuguese, Ibrahim lid.
and Almeida gave the crown of Quiloa to Mohammed Ancoui, a worthy
man, and a great friend of the Portuguese. Almeida received the
lomoge of the new king in the name of his muter, built a fortress to
leep the inhabitants in subjection, and then proceeded to the town of
ilombsz*, which he destroyed. On his arrival at Cananor, on the
tfalabar coast, he received an embassy from the King of liisnagur,
who wu desirous to form an alliance with the Portuguese. Almeida
erected here another fortress to protect the factories, or commercial
.tablihineiit*, of Cananor, Cochin, and Coulan, and loaded eight
Meals with spicery, which he sent to Portugal. This squadron on its
sy to Europe discovered the island of Madagascar.
The governor of Cochin, Trimumpara, had resigned in favour of one
of his relations, and the viceroy went to that town with the object of
renewing the alliance with tlie new king. Almeida sent his son
Liorenzo against the King of Cajicut, who had offered some injuries to
.he Portuguese merchants. Lorenzo, after having taken ample satisfac-
tion for the insult, went to moke an establishment at Ceylon, and also
look tbe Haldive islands. At the same time, four vessels, which had
come from Portugal, formed a commercial alliance with tbe King of
Malacca, and established two factories in the island of Sumatra.
The Soldan, or kalif of Egypt, with the aid of the republic of Venice,
which always looked with an envious eye on the success of tbe Portu-
guese, had fitted out a naval expedition, and given the command of it
;o an experienced Persian, named Mir Hocem. The King of Calicut,
expecting this assistance, made preparations for war, upon which the
viceroy sent his son against him. When Lorenzo was in the port of
"ihaul, the Egyptian fleet, which had been reinforced with twenty-four
vessels of the governor of Diu, appeared. Lorenzo at first mistook
ihem for the squadron of Albuquerque, which ho was expecting.
The fire of Mir Hocem however soon made him discover his error.
The two squadrons fought till night-fall without any considerable
advantage on. either side. Some of his officers advised Lorenzo to
avail himself of the obscurity of night in order to cross the bar, and
jet out into the sea ; but the gallant young man, though severely
wounded, said, that to go away at night wu nothing else tban to run
away, and that was a thing which he never would do. As the Portu-
guese squadron was sailing out in the morning, the Egyptians opened
a brisk tire upon it. Lorenzo's vessel was the last, and the enemy
directed their principal Ore against her. At last she wu separated
From the rest of the vessels in a very sandy aud rocky place. As the
tide wu running out with great rapidity, the other vessels could not
render her any assistance, and the enemy showered their fire upon her
with a sure aim. Lorenzo wu requested by bis men to save himself
in the boat, but he would not consent to abandon them. A shot
carried off one of his legs. He caused himself to be tied to the mast,
where he continued to animate hia men until another shot carried off
the left side of hi* chest The galley wu by this time upon a sand-
bank ; it was boarded without difficulty, and twenty four men, who
remained in it, were carried away captives. The rest of the vessel*
proceeded to Cananor, and informed Almeida of the disaster. He bore
it with fortitude, and wu making preparations to revenge his loss,
when Alfonso de Albuquerque, who was appointed governor of India
in his place, arrived. Almeida received him very coolly, and a qn.irn'l
ensuing, Albuquerque wu sent to Cochin, where he was kept three
mouths under arrest. [ALBUQUERQUE.]
Almeida, whose only object now wu to gratify his vengeance, sailed
to Onor, where he burnt some vessel* of the king of Calicut, entered
the port of Dubai, or Dubul, belonging to the king of Una, on the 13th
of December, 1S08, took the town, and after having plundered it
reduced it to ashes. He then wont in search of the Egyptian fleet,
and found it near Diu in the kingdom of Cambay, and obtained a
complete victory over it. Mir Hocem, with only twenty-four men,
escaped : eight of his vessels were taken, and the rest sunk.
Almeida, having thus punished his enemies, returned to Cochin,
where Marshal Coutiuho, who had arrived from Portugal, urged liini
to return home. The viceroy released Albuquerque, surrendered his
government, and sailed from Cochin on the 13th of November, 1509.
On his way to Portugal, after having doubled the Cape of <;.>"
he stopped at Haldanha Bay to procure a supply of fresh water. J I is
soldiers had a dispute with the natives, and an affray ensued. One of
his officers, Mcllo, seeing tbe venerable old man alone in the midst of
Inhospitable country, observed to him in a sarcastic manner,
165
ALMOHADES.
ALMOHADES.
166
" Here I should wish to see by your side one of those whom you
favoured in India." Almeida very composedly answered, " This is not
the time to think of that ; think rather how to save the royal standard ;
as for me, I am old enough, both in years and in sins, to die here, if
that be the will of the Lord." From this moment Mello never aban-
doned either the standard or his general, until Almeida fell pierced by
a lance.
" That the man who had trampled over countless thousands of the
Asiatics," says a contemporary writer, " who had humbled their sove-
reign princes, and annihilated in the seas the powers of the Ezyptian
Soldan, should perish on an obscure strand, by the hands of a few
savages, should be a salutary lesson for human ambition."
Almeida was a man of noble appearance, prudent, courteous, and
very much esteemed for his generosity. During his administration of
India he made the Portuguese name respected. He is represented by
some writers as a conceited man, who thought nobody so well qualified
to govern India as himself; but perhaps we only do him justice in
believing that his ruling motive was a desire to elevate the fame and
power of bis native state.
(Karros, Hiitory of the Portuguese Conquestt in the East, decade i.,
book 8 to the end ii., book 1-4 ; Damian a Goes, Chronica do Senhor
Key Don. Manotl ; Mariana, book xxix. chap. 16; Lardner, Cabinet
Cyclopedia, History of Spain and Portugal, vol. iii., p. 806.)
ALMOHADES, the name of a Mohammedan dynasty, which began
in Africa and Spain with Abdelmumen, in the year 542 of the Hegira,
A.D. 1147. MohamiEed-ben-Abdallah, a native of Herga, in Africa,
was the son of a lamplighter in a mosque. He received his education
at Cordova ; and having finished his studies, he travelled to the East
to improve his knowledge, and visited Cairo and Baghdad. In Baghdad
he attended the school of the philosopher Abu-Hamid-Algezali, who
had written a book on the revival of learning and the law, which was
condemned at Cordova as dangerous to the faith of Islam. Ali, the
Almoravidiau king of Cordova, approved of this decision, and the book
was given up to the flames. Algezali perceiving a stranger in his
school, and having ascertained that he was from the nest, asked him
whether he had ever been at Cordova, and heard of his book. Abdal-
lah informed him of the fate of his work. The doctor turned pale,
tore the book which he had in his hands, and looking to heaven,
exclaimed, " May God thus tear the kingdom from the impious Ali ! "
Abdallab joined him in his prayer, and added, " Pray God to make me
an instrument of thy vengeance."
After three years' residence at Baghdad, Mohammed returned to
Mauritania in 510 (A.D. 1116), where he rendered himself conspicuous
by the simplicity of his dress, by his austerity, and by his bold preach-
ing against the vices both of the king and the people. On his arriving
at a village called Tejewo, he met a youth of prepossessing appearance,
by name Abdelmumen, who was going with his uncle to study in the
East. Abdallah promised to give him the instruction which he
desired, but taught him all that was most conducive to his own
designs. He communicated to him a prophecy in which it was fore-
told that the empire of life and of the law would only arise with
Abdelmumen. Having thus prepared him, he named him his vizier.
They both went to Fez, and thence to Maroceo. Entering one day
into the mosque of the latter city, Mohammed placed himself in the
seat of the Imam. One of the ministers represented to him that
nobody could occupy that place except the king of the faithful.
Mohammed answered him with much gravity in these words of the
Koran, " Inna '1 mesajida lillahi" " certainly the temples only belong
to God." Shortly after the king entered, and prayers being said,
Mohammed aro?e, and addressing himself to Ali, said to him, " Put a
remedy to the evils and injustices prevailing in thy kingdom, for God
will require of thee an account of thy people." The king at first
treated him with contempt ; but as he continued to preach and attract
the multitude, Ali at last assembled his council, and though severe
measures were proposed, the king contented himself with expelling
him from the city.
Mohammed now built a hut in a burial-ground, and multitudes
flocked there to hear his doctrine. He preached to them about the
coming of the great Mehedi, who was to establish the empire of justice
upon earth. The king ordered him to be imprisoned and beheaded,
but be escaped to Agmat, and thence to Tinmal in the land of Sous.
One day while he was expounding the prophecy of the coming of the
great Meheiii, Abdelmumen observed, " That prophecy evidently
applies to thee ; thou art the true Mehedi." Upon this, Abdelmumen,
with fifty others of his disciples, acknowledged him as their Mehedi.
After these, seventy more swore allegiance to him. Mohammed estab-
lished two councils. The fifty who first acknowledged his authority
were those with whom he entrusted the affairs of greater consequence,
and to the latter seventy he confided those of less importance.
He then went to the mountains, preaching the unity of God, and
was followed by 20,000 men of the tribe of Mii-nmuda, to whom he
gave the name of Mowahedun, that is, Unitarians, from which the
nmme of Almohndes is derived. The command of this army was given
to Mohammed Alakhir.
Alm-ls'hac-lbrahim, Ali's own brother, marched against the rebels;
nnd the two armies were ready to fight, when a sudden terror seized
the foremost ranks of Ibrahim, who, turning their horses, began to fly
in all directions, trampling down their own fellow-soldiers. The
Almohades possessed themselves of the rich baggage, and in conse-
quence of this success several other tribes joined them. Ali now
called his brother Temin from Spain, and with a powerful army sent
him against the Mehedi, who had retired to the mountains. This
general, though more successful than the preceding, never could defeat
the Almohades. They fortified themselves at Tinmal, and from this
place they sallied forth to devastate the surrounding country.
In 1125 (513 of the Hegira), they laid siege to Maroceo, but were
defeated in a vigorous sally made by the besieged. Three years after -
wards, Abdelmumen marched at the head of 30,000 meu, and obtained
a complete victory over the Almoravides. Ou his return to Tiuuial,
the Mehedi came out to greet the victorious general ; and the next
day he called his men at the mosque, aud took his last leave of them.
Shortly after Abdelmumen waited upon him. The Mehedi gave him
the book of Algezali, and departed from this world. He had made
several reforms in the Mohammedan religion, among which was the
adoption of a more simple profession of faith, and of prayers which
they were allowed to say on their march, aud even when fighting,
which gave them a superiority over their enemies.
The chiefs of the Almohades now assembled to determine the form
of government they should adopt after the death of the Mehedi ; and
having decided in favour of a moderate monarchy, the election fell
upon Abdelmumen, who was declared Imam and Amir-al-Mumeuin.
Ho pursued his conquests with vigour,.and iu three years reduced the
empire of the Almoravides to very narrow limits. He took Oran and
Fez, and laid siege to Maroceo, the only city now left to the Almora-
vides in Africa. Whilst Abdelmumen was engaged in reducing that
city, he sent Abu-Amran with a numerous army to invade Andalusia.
Many of the petty chiefs of Spain joined the Almohades. In the meau
time the siege of Maroceo was pursued with vigour, and the inhabit-
ants defended it heroically. The besieger swore he would not retire
until he hod sifted the town through a sieve. Famine had carried off
three-fourths of the population, and the remaining part could make
but a feeble defence, when the city was taken by a general assault iu
the year 543 of the Hegira, A.D. 1148. The young emperor Ibrahim
was put to death, the few surviving inhabitants inhumanly mas.iacred,
and the town demolished. According to Marmot, Abdelmumen lite-
rally fulfilled his oath. He afterwards rebuilt the city, and called
some tribes from the desert to re-people it.
The arms of the Almohades were not less successful in Spain than
in Africa. Almost all Andalusia acknowledged their dominion. Cor-
dova, the last hold of the Almoravides, was taken by Abu-Amrau,
and Abdelmumeu was proclaimed sovereign both of Mauritania and
Spain.
Not content with the territory he possessed in Spain, Abdelmumen
published in 557 (A.D. 1161) the Jihdd, or holy war, with an intention
of subduing the whole of the Peninsula. He levied an army of 100,000
horse and 300,000 foot, but in the midst of his preparations death
overtook him in 558.
His youngest son, Yussef-Abu-Yacub, succeeded him. This prince,
not being so warlike as his father, dismissed the army which he had
assembled at Sule", and in the first few years of his reign he cultivated
the arts of peace. In 568 (A.D. 1170) however, he invaded Spain, and,
after conquering the rest of the Mohammedan dominions in the
Peninsula, fell in an engagement with the Christians.
Yussef-ben-Yacub, better known by the name of Almansor, landed
at Algeciras, and defeated Alfonso III. of Castile iu the plains of Alarco.i.
The prisoners he had made in this battle he immediately restored to
liberty an example of very rare occurrence among the Mohammedans.
After this signal victory he took Calatrava, Guadalajara, Madrid, and
Salamanca, and afterwards returned to Africa, where he died in 595
(A.D. 1198). This prince was the ornament of his age, aud the most
liberal and magnanimous of the Almohadiau dynasty.
His son Mohammed-Abu-Abdalla, who succeeded him, though an
effeminate and weak prince, was not insensible to the glory of arms.
He mustered a most powerful army, one of the five divisions of which,
if we are to give credit to the Arabic and Spanish historians, amounted
to 160,000 men: his design was to conquer the whole Peninsula.
Such was the terror which this vast armament inspired among the
Christians, that Inuocent III. proclaimed a crusade, and several bishops
went from town to town to rouse the Christian princes. The kings of
Castile, Aragon, and Navarre, with a numerous body of foreign volun-
teers, advanced to stop the progress of the Moslems. The two armies
met in Las Navas de Tolosa, between Castile and Andalusia ; and on
the 12th of June, 1211, the Christians obtained so complete a victory
over the Africans, that Mohammed himself had a narrow escape, and
left no less than 170,000 men on the field ; the rest fled for safety.
After this signal defeat he retired to Maroceo, gave up the care of the
government to his son, Yussef-Abu-Yacub, who was only eleven years
of age, and passed the last days of his life iu licentious pleasures.
He died in 610 (1213).
Abu-Yacub died without issue in 620 (1223). His death was the
signal of a civil war which ended with the destruction of the Alino-
hailes. After several disputes, Almamun-Abu-Ali, brother of tho
governor of Valencia, was proclaimed emperor. He projected a reform
in the constitution, and prepared the way towards it by writing a
treatise against the institutions of the Mehedi. The two councils
instituted by the Mehedi, against whom Alraamun's reform was princi-
ALOMPKA.
M
, and oboes Yahya-ben-Aoaslr in his toad.
supplying him with troops to oppose Almamnn. Yahya landed in
tsfld.S. and was defeated by the emperor near Medina >
AJmamun epeediiy eroisid over to Africa, and arriving at Marocco
Dbled the senate, and after upbraiding them for
em to be behead sd in the court of the palace.
All the walis suspee* d of partiality for this body underwent the same
bu.and their heads were left to putrefy on the ramparts of Marocco.
In Spain, Ibn-Hud, an Andalusian sheik, who had formed the project
of rescuing the country from the yoke of tho Almohades, after a series
of victories expelled them from til* Peninsula. Almamun, bsrsssod
by to many disasters, died in 8 (1831). His tuooeseors in Africa
lived in a continual state of intestine warfare. The but of them was
Idris, who fell in a battle against the Marini, and with him ended the
dynasty of the Almohades.
(Casiri. BMioOuat ArMeo-Uitpana ; Conde, Xutorio dt to Domi-
m**m4tltA*wtmmUrH*,tLUi Marmol, Dttcnpeion Oaurai
dt Afrit*; Rodericus Toletanus, Dt JUtmt Buptutint ; D'Herbelot,
BMiotUqmt Oriental*.)
ALMuKAVIDKS, an Arabian tribe, who came out of the country of
Himyar, and esteblished themselves in Syria in the time of the first
kalif, Abu-bekr. They passed afterwards into Egypt, penetrated into
Africa towards the west, and settled about the Desert of Sahara. They
extended themselves gradually, and gave the name to a sect called
Molthemiu, or Molathemin, on account of their wearing veils. Their
religion seems at a very early period to have been Christian, but by
mixing with the Mohammedans they lost every trace of it; and even
of the religion of Islam they hardly know anything beyond the formula,
La ilth ilia Allah Mohammed rasul Allah ;' that is, ' There is but one
Ood, and Mohammed is his envoy.'
Yahya-ben-Ibrahim, a very patriotic man of the tribe of Qudala,
which was one of these tribes, on his return from Mecca, meeting with
Abn-Amran, a famous Fakih (that is, lawyer and theologian), of Fez,
informed him of the state of ignorance of his tribe, and of their tract-
able disposition, and requested him to send some teachers. Abdallah-
ban-Yaesim, a disciple of another Fakih, offered to accompany Yahya.
Having met with an enthusiastic reception from the tribe, he induced
them to wage war against the tribe of Lametounah, who were made
to acknowledge his spiritual authority ; and he gave his followers the
name of Maiabautb, or Morabitin, which signifies men devoted to the
service of religion. Abdullah bavin? fallen in battle in the year 450
of the Hrgira, A.D. 1058, Abu-bekr-ben-Omar-Lametouni was appointed
sovereign prince. This chief led his tribe westward, established the
eat of his empire at the city of Agmat, and laid the foundation of
Marocco.
The tribe of Gudala had declared war against that of Lametounah,
and Abu-bekr marched speedily to its assistance, leaving the command
of the army to his relation, Yussef-bvn-Taxfin. Yuasef subdued the
Barbers, completed the building of the city of Marocco, and entirely
expelled the Zvleridea, commonly known by the name of Zegries, from
Mauritania. Having by his exploits and by his affability won the
affections of his men, he declared himself sovereign prince, and married
the beautiful Zaioab, sifter of Abu-bekr. ThU chief having returned
from his expedition, encamped before Agmat ; but finding his oppo-
nent too strong to be attack sd. had an interview with Yuseef, and
returned to his native dreerts. Yussef made him a magnificent present,
which he continued to send to Abu-bekr every year till his death.
Yuesef now assumed the title of Amir-ol-Muslemiu, or ' Prince of
the Believers.' Having been invited by some of the Mohammedan
kings of Spain to assist them against Alouso VI., he sailed in 1086 at
the bead of a numerous army, landed on the ooast of Andalusia, and
marched to Bstremadura. Kin< Alonso hastened from Aragon to stop
hie progress, and met the Almoravides in the plains of Zalaca. The
Christians fought like heroes, but were compelled to retreat at night-
fall, and the king himself was severely wounded.
Yueavf was called back to Africa, and left the command of the
Almoravides to Syr-ben-Abu-bekr. The next year he returned with
considerable reinforcement*, and defeating one by one the Moorish
- of Spain, established the seat of his empire at Cordova, and
1 his son All to be proclaimed his luocesaor. Yussef died at
in the year 1 10, at the advanced age of 07. Clemency and
humanity were prominent virtues in his character. Contemporary
historians state that he never pronounced a sentence of death. The
vast empire of the Almoravides, which now reached from Mount Atlas
to the Surra Morena, was destroyed by the Almohades in the year 643
of the Hrgira, *.a) 148. [AutOHAOU.]
lerbelot, BMiMiymt OriftlmUi Conde, Domination dt lot
Pegu.
nation
ALOMPRA, founder of the reigning dynasty of Birma, appears to
have been born about the year 1711. When Beinga Dalla, king of
eooqoervd Birma (1750*2), Alompra was known by the deaig-
n Aumdaca, or the huntsman.' He was at that time chief of the
mbU yUlage of Munohaboo, situated to the we.t of Keoiim-
and about twelve miles distant from the Irawaddy. The
of the prnslemaUan issued by Beinga Dalla on r -selling his
oapiul. anoouocmg that Birma was annexed as a conquered province
to his kingdom, excited (real exasperation among the krmese.
Aloinpra, who had collected a band of about one hundred devoted
followers, strengthened and repaired the stockade around his village.
There was a garrison of about fifty Peguan soldiers placet! in -Mon-
chaboo, which Aloinpra attacked and captured unexpectedly some
time in the autumn of 1753, putting every man to the sword.
Apporasa, the brother of Itoingn Dalla, and governor of Birina, gave
directions to place Alompra in strict confinement when he should be
brouicht in by the party which had been dispatched against Moochaboo
as soon as the massacre of the garrison had been heard of. The Pegusn
troops expected no resistance from the much inferior force assembled
in Monchaboo, and were confounded at finding the stockade closed
and manned against them. At daybreak next morning Alompra made
a sally, and, taking the besiegers by surprise, defeated and pursued
them for the space of about two miles. Returning to Monchaboo, he
sent emissaries to all the neighbouring towns and villages, inviting the
Binnese to join his standard. Many hesitated to engage in what
appeared a desperate undertaking, but as many obeyed the summons
as placed him at the head of a thousand men. Dotachew, the son of
Apporaza, who was at the head of three thousand men, hesitated
whether to advance and crush the insurrection, or wait for reinforce-
ments. Alompra, learning his indecision, took the bold part of march-
ing at once upon Ava. Before he reached the city Dotachew fled from
it, and the Binnese rose and overpowered the troops he left behind
him. Alompra, on receiving this intelligence, scut his second son
Shembuan to take possession of Ava, and returned to Monchaboo.
All these events took place before the close of 1753.
A large force was assembled at Pegu, placed under the command of
Apporaza, and dispatched up the Irawaddy in war-boats. The fleet
set sail in January, 1754, at the time of the year wheu the river is
lowest and barely navigable. The obstructions it met with left the
Birmese time to collect their forces. Alompra recruited hi* army, and
assembled a fleet at Keouin-meoum. In the vicinity of Ava the Peguans
were molested by frequent desultory attacks; but their leader, after
summoning the city without effect, judged it more advisable to proceed
at once against the main force of the enemy than to waste time on a
siege. A battle took place near Keoum-meoum, which, although only
the fleets were engaged, was obstinate and bloody, and ended ill the
defeat of the Peguans. Apporaza, with the wreck of his army, sought
shelter within the frontier of Pegu.
The Peguans avenged themselves by a massacre of all the Birmese
within their power. On the 13th of October they put to death tho
King of Biruia, who was a prisoner at Pegu, and several hundreds of
his subjects of both sexes and all ages. The Birmese, who were
numerous in the frontier towns, flew to arms and revenged their fri. ml-i
with equal barbarity. The eldest son of the murdered king found his
way to Monchaboo at the head of a strong body of Quoin. He attempted
to assert his hereditary claim to the throne; but seeing Alompra deter-
mined not to recognise it, and doubtful of his personal security, he
retired to Siam. After the departure of the prince, Alompra caused
nearly a thousand of the Quoin to be put to death, alleging that they
had conspired against him. Their kinsmen threatened vengeance, and
at the same time Alompra received intelligence that a fleet from Pegu
had blockaded Prome. A Birmese officer, dispatched by Alompra,
succeeded in throwing a reinforcement of men and provisions into
Prome ; and in the space of forty days Alompra collected hia troops,
left his two eldest sous in command of Ava and Monchaboo, and
descended the river at the head of a formidable fleet. Immediately
on his arrival at the blockaded town he attacked the fleet of Pegu.
The enemy fled ; he pursued them immediately, and without loss of
time pushed on his troops to within a few leagues of Bossein. Beiuga
Dalla retired to Pegu, and hia forces, discouraged by his retreat,
evacuated Baasein on February 17, 1755. On the 23rd the Birmese
entered the town, and having set it on fire, returned the same day to
a station where the branch of the river flowing toward* Syriam sepa-
rates from that which pastes Bassein. About the middle of April he
defeated Apporaza at Synyagong, and obliged the force* of Pegu to
fall back upon Syriam, leaving the whole delta west of that town in
possession of the Birme-e. Jvirly in May Alompra fixed his head-
quarters at Dagon, a few miles fiorn Syriam, to which he afterwards
gave the name of Rangoon.
About the middle of June Alompra was obliged to leave his post
at Dagon by an insurrection in liirma, and a simultaneous adv..
the Siamese upon his frontier. Having restored tranquillity he made
some stay at Monchaboo, where in tho month of September he con-
cluded an alliance with the envoy of tho British resident at Negrais,
and immediately afterwards returned to Dagon.
Alompra remained apparently inactive Wore Syriam till the mouth
of July, 1756; the enemy, imagining he calculated on reducing it by
famine, were lulled into security. Availing hirnaelf of their negligence,
he carried the place by a night attack. Advancing thence, he shut up
the King of Pegu in his capital, cut him ofl from all communication
wiili his own fertile territories of Dalla and Basaein, and from the
possibility of foreign aid. As oon a the rainy seanou was at an end,
and the swamps of Syriam and Pegu had emerged from t he inumlation,
Alompra ordered his general, Meiula-Meingaing, to advance upon Pegu
with a strong detachment. He followed hiuix, ll with the whole army
id a few days. The surrounding country was laid waste, the city
invested, and shortly afterwards taken by storm.
160
ALP-ARSLAN.
ALSTROMER, JONAS.
170
On his return to Monchaboo, Alompra spent some months in that
town, which he had enlarged and made his capital. ID 1758 a revolt
in Pegu broke out. His presence crushed the insurrection ; but the
impression entertained by the Birmese that it had been excited by
foreign intrigues, stimulated Alompra to seek revenge on other
enemies.
The English at Negraia were suspected. An alliance, offensive and
defensive, had been concluded between Alompra and the British
resident at Negrais ; notwithstanding which it was alleged that British
traders had supplied the people of Pegu with arms. The position of
the British government in India at that time had rendered it expedient
to recal the resident at Negrais (he reached Calcutta on May 14, 1759),
but a few persons were left to preserve the right of possession in case
it should be resolved at any future period to re-establish the settle-
ment. On the 6th of October following, Negrais was treacherously
attacked by a party of Birmese who had entered it as guests, a number
of Europeans and Hindoos slain, the rest carried off prisoners, and
the place destroyed, though it does not appear that this assault was
made by command of Alompra, or even with his previous knowledge ;
but he tacitly sanctioned the outrage after it had been committed.
The Siamese too were suspected of having stirred up the insurrection
in Pegu ; upon them Alompra sought to tak>: open vengeance. Mergui
and Tenasserioi fell an easy prey ; and, inspirited with these successes,
the victor resolved to carry the war into the heart of Siam without
delay. The enemy harassed his army as it advanced, but did not
venture upon a general engagement. They retarded its march how-
ever, and a month elapsed before he approached Bankok. Two days
after the Birmese had completed their lines of circumvallation and
erected their stockades, Alompra was taken ill. He felt that his
disease wag mortal, and anxious to reach his capital in order to settle
the succession, and take other precautions for averting civil disorder
after hia death, he broke up the siege, and commenced his retreat by
the moat direct route. The progress of his disease however was so
rapid that death overtook him within two days' march of Martaban,
about May 15, 1760.
Alompra at th-j time of his death had not completed hia fiftieth
year. It is said that hia person did not exceed the middle aize, but
was strong and well proportioned ; that his features were coarse and
dark. He was prone to auger, severe in punishing. He was as deceitful
and reckless of human life as most Asiatic conquerors. He was a
braggart, like all hia successors; but he did something to brag of. As
a soldier, he commanded success by the promptitude and vigour of
hia movements. " The wisdom of his councila," saya Major Symes,
speaking of hia civil government, " secured what his valour had
acquired; he reformed the Rhooms, or courts of justice ; he abridged
the power of the magistrates, and forbade them to decide at their
private houses on criminal causes, or property where the amount
exceeded a certain sum ; every process of importance waa decided in
public, and every decree registered."
(Symes, Account of an Embaay to the Kingdom of Ana in the Year
1795 ; Crawfurd, Juurnal of an Embassy to the Court! of Siam and
Cochin-China.)
ALP-ARSLAN (that is, ' the Brave Lion '), or, with hia complete
name, Muhammed-hen-Daud-Alfi-Anlan, born in 1030, was the nephew
of the Seljukide Sultan Togrul-Beg, whom the Abbaaide Kalif Kaim-
biamr-illah had, for the protection of hia throne, invested with the
dignity of Emir-al-Omara, or Commander-in-Chief of the whole
empire, and who, when nearly 75 years old, had also married a very
young daughter of that kalif. Togrul-Beg died in 1063, and, as he
left no children, hia nephew, Alp-Arslau, who had till then been
governor of Khoraaaan, succeeded him aa Sultan of the Seljukea.
Alp-Arslan restored the youthful widow of Togrul-Beg to her father,
demanding at the same time to be appointed Eiuir-al-Omara in the
place of his uncle, a request which the kalif could not refuse. One
of the first acts of Alp-Arslan's reign waa to put to death the grand
vizir of Togrul-Beg, together with 600 of hia adherenta. Nizam-al-
Mulk, who waa chosen for that office by Alp-Aralan, has earned the
reputation of one of the greatest statesmen of the East. Alp-Arslan
waa about to extend his dominions by conquests in Transoxiana, when
a revolt in Azerbijan, instigated by Kutulmish, required hia presence
there. He defeated the rebellious prince near the city of Rei, and
resumed in the ensuing year (1065) hia conquests in Transoxiana,
while hia vizir Nizam-al-Mulk endeavoured to promote the welfare of
the interior, and to advance the interests of literature and education
by establishing colleges in the principal towns of the empire. The
greater part of Syria waa at thia time already in the hands of the
Turks, and the troops of the Greek emperor offered but little resist-
ance to their further progress. Romanus Diogenes, who camo to the
throne in 1063, resolved to take more vigorous measures against them.
He joined his army in person, and defeated the Turks in several battles
in Cilicia and near Malatia; but he waa unsuccessful in an expedition
againat Khelat, and waa, in 1071, taken prisoner in a battle near
Malazkurd (or Melez^bird) in Armenia. Alp-Aralan treated him
generously, and on hia promise to pay a considerable ransom, released
him and all the no'.le prisoner* from their captivity. But the Greeks
had in the meantime placed Michael Parapiuucius upon the throne,
by which circumstance Diogenes was prevented from fulfilling his
engagement. Thia caused a renewal of hostilities. Alp-Aralan'a son,
Malek-Shah, conquered Georgia, while the Sultau himself was pre-
paring au expedition agaiust Turkistau. He crossed the Jihon, and
commenced the war by taking the fort of Berzem ; its governor,
Yussuf-Kothual, was led before Alp-Arslan as a prisoner, and when
reproached by him for the trouble he had given him by his long and
useless resistance, became so incensed, that he rushed upon the Sultau
and with a dagger indicted a mortal wound upon him, of which he
died (1072). Alp-Arslan was buried at Merw in Khorassan. His son
Malek Shah succeeded him in the government.
ALSTltOMEK, JONAS, was born on Jan. 7, 1685, at Aliugsrcs, at
that time a small town of about 150 inhabitants. His parents were
so poor, that after being taught to read and write, he was sent to
service at the house of a colonel in the neighbourhood ; but he soon
left this place for the shop of a small trader in Eksjo, where he con-
tinued till the ill-treatment of his master forced him to leave : after a
few more changes he set out for Stockholm to seek his fortune. Here
a merchant of the name of Alberg, who had resolved to set up in
business in London, engaged him to accompany him aa book-keeper.
The young adventurer assumed the name of Ahtrom, from the name
of the stream on which he was born, being the first of the family who
had aspired to the dignity of a surname. On his passage he took his
share of work with the sailors, a circumstance which had nearly
turned much to his injury, for he had scarcely set foot on land in
London, May 1, 1707, when he was laid hold of by a press-gang, and
rescued with difficulty out of their hands by a comrade, who could
hardly persuade them that he was a clerk. In the course of three
years Alberg failed. In the same year, 1710, the clerk set up in
business on his own account as a ship-broker, and procured letters of
naturalisation. His first thought, on his success, was to impart a
share of it to his family. His father was dead, but he sent support
to his mother, who was still living, and he invited over to England
his younger brother and two sisters. The brother he instructed in
trade, and then sent out to Portugal, where he died in 1716. Of the
two sisters, the elder managed the household affairs, and the younger
learned book-keeping and trade, at which she became ao clever, that
during Alstrom's occasional absences from the counting-house she
used to carry on the business and maintain au extensive correspond-
ence. Alstrbm was now comfortably settled, if it had not been for
the contrast which he could not help drawing between the prosperity
of the country he lived in and the misery of that he had left behind.
" As a citizen he was an Englishman," says his biographer, " but he
was at heart a Swede." He watched impatiently for the return of
Charles XII. from his captivity at Bender to lay before him his plans
of improvement ; and when the welcome news arrived he hurried off
to Sweden, but soon found that during the life of that king there was
no chance of his schemes being listened to. He did not return how-
ever without effecting something ; for, having observed that the
English woollen manufactures constituted the principal exports to
Sweden, he took with him a stock of thirty sheep for the purpose of
improving the Swedish wool, and presented them to friends at Gotten-
burg and Uddevalla; and this flock was the origin of a great improve-
ment in the wool of Sweden. On leaving Stockholm he went to
Germany, and the ship in which he sailed being captured on the
voyage by a Danish cruiser, he claimed and obtained his liberty in the
character of nn English merchant. For the next four or five jears he
travelled in different parts of Europe, still with the view of finding
manufactures to transplant, and then found it necessary to attend
closely for two or three years to business in London, where he was
nominated Swedish consul. In 1723 he left London for Paris, and
sent on before him to Sweden a Dutchman, who established the first
cotton-printing manufactory in the country at Sickla. From Paris he
wrote to Stockholm to obtain the privileges he considered necessary
for the establishment of a factory for weaving, and at St.-Germain
engaged some English stocking-weavers to accompany him to Sweden.
The privileges were granted, and in 1724 weaving was fairly com-
menced at Alingsces, the native place of Alstrom, which he had
selected eight years before as au eligible spot for his purpose : after
a time he found that his capital was not sufficient to carry on the
undertaking, and his neighbours were more disposed to be a hindrance
than a help. When just on the point of throwing everything up and
returning to England, he heard that a meeting of forgemasters was
about to take place at Carlstad on business, and he determined to
make a last effort. He travelled to Carlstad, got into conversation
with one of the forgemasters, and by hia assistance the whole body
was prevailed on to advance Alstrom some money for present needs,
and appoint a meeting at the fair of Christinnehamn. The crisis was
now past ; at the fair a joint-stock company was formed, and soon
after the king, Frederick of Hesse-Cassel, took forty shares, and as a
matter of course, many of the nobility and the senate followed the
royal example. From thia time the main interest of Alstrom'a
biography ceases, and nothing remains to be told but a series of useful
efforts and merited honours. He procured, with difficulty and
expense, we are told, a skilful 'spinster' from England, who first
instructed the Swedish women in the art of spinning wool. He
imported flocks of sheep from England, Spain, and Eiderstedt, and
goats from Angora. He made experiments for the introduction of
different kinda of dyeing-plants, and also of tobacco and potatoes.
He introduced improvements in the manufacture of cutlery, in
m
A1.TDORFER, ALBRKCHT.
A I/THEN, EHAN.
'
By theee multi-
I oeoupatieo* be contributed acre to th. bieBt of hi* country
Utaa to UM aufBMBteUoa of hi* own fortune. What he lost in wemlth
bowwer u made op m honour. In ITU h wa* made * member of
llM Council of Coasmeroa, with an understanding that be WM to giro
W aauo of hU Uaw to it as be could spar* from the factory at Aling-
eote; but be took soch u interest in the occupation that lie often
M* all hi* tarn* to UM Council. la 1748. when the royal order of
& North Star wo. institute bawaaoue of the earliest knight* ; and
in 17il. at UM coronation of King Adolphui Frederick, be was
e*noUl. and also hoaound, u u customary on such occasion*, with
an additional syllable to bia name, which WM changed from Alstr..m
to Aletroaaer. From that tim* b had a great influence on all the
rasolutiona of UM atetoi with regard to commerce and manufacture*,
aud they t**tifi*d Uwir r**>rd to him on various occasions. So early
a* 1T, whan a grrat part of UM buildings at Alingscaa waa destroyed
by fire, they voted a public contribution fur their reiteration. la
1760 they paeud a reeolntion that a butt of Alstromer ihoul.l bo
Bali at UM public expense, and placed in the Exchange at Stockholm.
About the amme time the Academy of Science* ordered a medal to be
atruck in bu honour. lie did not long survive the distinction*
awarded him by the State* and Academy. He died on June 2, 1761.
Be wu twice married, and had aix ton* and two daughter*, but only
fear of the eooe survived him, three of whom, Patrick, August, and
Claa, bat more especially (.!*, rose to eminence. It ii stated by
Binding, that at the time of their father's death, 18,000 persona
were employed in the silk and woollen manufacture in Sweden.
Alatromer was UM author of a few short works on the practical
question* which occupied his life.
(Kryger, AmiiuuUc-Tui a/wr J. AUlr6mer; Roeenhsne, Anttfkninyar
JUrosb ttU V**ukmft-Akadcmiet Hutoria, pp. 173, 444 ; Aurivillius,
ChtaJeyw BMutlutn Vftatiattu, I 28 ; Hinching, IliXoriick- Liter*
rwefcs // u dAa, i. M.)
ALTDORFKK, ALBRECHT, painter and engraver, and one of the
moat celebrated of the old Qerman masters, was bom at Altdorf in
Bavaria in 1468. This has been shown by Heinekcn, who acquired
hia information from a senator of Hegensburg (Ratisbon), who found
document* concerning the family of Aitdorfer in that city. Those who
apeak of him as a Swiss have been misled by Saiidrart, who waa the
originator of the error.
Aitdorfer waa himself a member of the interior senate of Regens-
burg, of which city he was enrolled a burgess in 1511 ; he was also
architect to the city of Regensburg. He was probably the son of
Ulrich Aitdorfer, an arttit of Regetubnrg, wlio gave up his right of
burghenhip in 14V).
Aitdorfer did not paint much, but his pictures show a surprising
patience and indiutry. There is in the Pinakothek at Munich a picture
by him, re presenting Alexander's battle of Arbela, of which the labour
is prodigious. It bears the date 1529 ; it is not of large dimensions,
bat oontatn* almost an innumerable mans of small figures, all in tlie
German military costume of the day, every article of dress or military
implement being made out with the greatest exactness ; and all the
various sad probable incidents of a battle profusely introduced.
That* is perhaps not another picture in existence which contains so
many figures ; the design is however strictly gothic, and Aitdorfer has
wholly neglected the powerful aid of serial perspective. This picture
waa formerly at Schleiasheim, whence it was taken by the French tu
Paris, and Napoleon waa so much delighted with it, that he ordered
it to be hung up in hia bath-room at St Cloud, when it remained
until 1815. Though one of the most interesting and remarkable pro-
ductions of German painting, it has never been engraved; the very
sight of it however would probably appal many engravers. His other
petal are in a similar style ; he eearoely ever painted large figures :
UM Saviour with Mary and John, St Peter, St Catherine, and another
saint, at UM convent of Molk, which are the sue of life, are the only
kaowa exceptions, and Uisae have bean attributed to Albert Durer,
who is supposed by some to have been the master of Aitdorfer, but
H ia a mere conjecture.
are several of Altdorfer's pictures at Schleissheim, near
Nurnberg and Regentburg ; a Birth of Christ at
f Suaaanah and the Elder* in the Pinakothek at Munich.
Aa a wood-rograver Aitdorfer is more generally known, and he is
"' ul * A b * t Dtnt , of the old German or little masters;
he it called by UM French La Petit Albert : his cuts, amounting to
about eighty, are alight, and occasionally ill drawn, but they are
we"ted whfc great freedom. Holbein is said to have studied AH-
dorfer's cuta, which, from a certain similarity of stylo, notwithstanding
UM superiority of Holbein, is not Improbable.
11 > ""tal plate* on copper and pewter are more numerous than his
odewta, amd amount to about 1 IS, but thev are inferior to hi, ctita
about 1 It, but they are inferior to bis cuts,
id very inferior alao to UM engraving, of Durer and Aldegraver ; they
tj hard, occasionally very badly drawn, and generally bad
We works he appear* to have been In earlier life
boot ^ 1** 1686 * " f 1 " P engraving
, "** * dmtod fr 1X> to Ii25, ami on two of
* principal picture* we have UM data* 18 and 152* : 1588, the
reported year of I, b death, i. found upon one picture. He lived
chiefly at Regenaburg, and died without issue. Regensburg at one
time possessed many of Aitdorfer' s worlds but they have been removed
to Munich ; among them u nearly a complete collection of bin prints,
which were presented to the town library by the Stadtgerichta-Aiseaaor
Penchel. The subject* of Aitdorfer'* print* are historical, sacred and
profane, and mythological ; with a few landscapes, and some detigna
for goldsmiths. Heiuekeu, Huber, and Bartach have given list*, more
or leas complete, of Aitdorfer' s prints.
(Sandrart, Teuttchc Academie, Ac.; Heinekrn, Dictimnairt da
Artuttt, Ac.; Fioriilo, (iaduchte d r /.cicluunde* KUtute, Ac. ; Huber,
JJaixul dtt Amatevrt, ic.; Bartaoh, Peinlre-Qrateur.)
ALTHEN, EHAN, or JEAN, who introduced madder into France,
was born in Persia in 1711; died 1774. HU infancy and the first
years of bis life were passed amidst luxury and opulence. The son
of the governor of a province, he might anticipate thu most brilliant
future, and confidently hope to succeed to the honours of his father,
who had been ambassador at the court of Joseph I. of Germany. The
usurpation of Thamaa-Kouli-Khon overthrew the Persian empire, and
with it the fortunes of the Altheu family. They were all massacred,
with the exception of Ebon, or Jean, who escaped by flight, but only
to fall into the bands of a horde of Arabs, who, without pity fur hia
Under age, sold him into slavery. He was carried into Auaiolm, where,
for fourteen years, he laboured in the cultivation of madder ami K
cotton ; but even the hard condition of a slave could not break his
spirit, nor drive from his heart the remembrance of the past, and the
hope of a happier future. Endowed with that persevering character,
that true energy which obstacles only tend to stimulate, he succeeded
in escaping from his master's house, and took refuge in Smyrna with
the French consul. He was afterwards brought under the notice of
the French ambassador at the Porte ; the ambassador wrote to the
consul at Vereailleg, and Jean Althen embarked in a vessel bound for
Marseille. He carried with him the means of amply repaying the
hospitality of France : among bis modest luggage he hud secreted
some of the madder-seeds, taken from the soil of Smyrna. In thus
acting he endangered his life ; for the exportation of these pi
seeds was punishable with death. It so happened however that he
eluded all the researches of a suspicious and despotic power ; but on
arriving at Marseille he met with no support in that city ; and want
of money prevented his proceeding to Versailles, where the recom-
mendations of the ambassador were already forgotten.
The Persian was not discouraged. He knew the power of an ener-
getic will, and trusted to time and hia own exertions. He wearied
the authorities with constant solicitations. But au unlooked-for event
promoted his views more than all his own endeavours. He was young
and handsome ; a young girl of Marseille fell in love with the foreigner :
she became his wile, and brought him a portion of a hundred thousand
crowns. Marriages of a nature similar to this were of frvquent occur-
rence, and no one in Marseille was astonished at it, Allheu embraced
the Catholic religion.
He then went to Versailles ; the letters of the ambassador and the
consul, to which lie referred, gave him access to the ministerial saloons :
he even obtained an audience of Louis XV. Thin audience lasted two
hours, and the Persian's judicious language made a lively impression
on the king, who was not wanting in sense and penetration. Althen
gained the permission he desired. He wUhed to introduce a new
system for the cultivation and manufacture of silk. He began bi*
enterprise near Montpellier, but the prejudices of au ignorant popu-
lation impeded bis progress. Louis XV. forgot him ; the government,
absorbed in important matters, gave him no pecuniary aid. Alihi-n
consumed his wife's patrimony in fruitless endeavours. He wi
implored, he made several journeys to Versailles; he was invariably
repulsed.
He returned to Marseille, In his various journeys he had several
times passed through the Comtat Yeiiaissin; he was struck by the
similarity of the nature of this soil and that of Smyrna ; the tem-
perature and the climate were similar, lie thought thut madder might
be cultivated successfully in the Comtat. With the promptitude with
which he carried out all his decisions, he immediately converted into
money the remainder of bin property and went to Avignon, which was
then included in the States of the Church. He there met with power-
ful patronage from Madame de Clausenette, who allowed him to moke
his first experiment on one of her estates. The cultivation of madder
was successful
In 1768 another attempt at the cultivation of madder was made on
the left bank of the Rhone, upon an estate belonging to M. de Cau-
mont ; the trial was successful, but there wo* as yet no market for
this produce. It was the union of Avignon and the Comtat Veuaissin
with France, the immense rise in the cotton trade produced by the
continental blockade, and the development of every kind of manu-
facture, which caused the cultivation of madder to yield, in the
department of Vaucluse, on an average twenty million franca a year
in agricultural produce. One fact will suffice to prove the immense
service which Althen rendered to the Comtat The whole territory
of Monteux, in the arrondiasement of Carpentron, bos since increased
one hundred-fold in value. Althen could foresee these renult*, which
were fast realising, whilst his own life was closing in circumstances
bordering on indigence. He expired at C'uumont, leaving an only
daughter, who died as poor as her father.
173
ALTHORP, LORD.
ALVARADO, PEDRO DE.
174
At last, in 1821, the council-general of Vaucluse remembered Althen,
and to acquit its debt of gratitude, voted a marble tablet to be placed
in the Calvet Museum at Avignon, with the following inscription :
" To Jean Althen, a Persian, who introduced and first cultivated madder
in the territory of Avignon, under the auspices of M. le Marquia de
Caumont in M.DCC.LXV., the Council-General of Vaucluse M.DCCC.XXI."
(Portraid et Hutoires des Uommes Utiiea, publics par la SocUU
Montyon.)
ALTHORP, LORD. [SPEXCER, EARL.]
ALUNNO, NICCOLO, one of the old Umbrian painters of the
15th century, less known than he deserves to be. There are very few
of his works extant, and Vasari notices him only in the ' Life of Pin-
turicchio,' and treats him as his contemporary. Mariotti however, in
lua ' Lettere Pittoriche I'erugine," states that Alunno was established
as a painter at Foligno a? early as 1460, and that he painted at least
two years before that date. He was a, native of Foliguo, and his works
are signed 'Opus Nicolai Fulginatis,' or 'Nicolai Fulginatis Opus;'
but there was a Niccolo Deliberatore, likewise of Foligno, and there-
fore all the works with this signature may not be by Alunno.
His chief works were in a chapel of the cathedral of Assisi, of which
there is now scarcely a trace left ; Vasari speaks of a Pieth as a part,
with two angels bearing torches, and weeping so naturally, that in hia
opinion no painter could have done them much better. Besides which
Vasari mentions as capital works, a Nativity, in the church of Sant'
Agostino, at Foligno ; an altar-piece for San Francesco, and another
for the high altar of the cathedral of Assisi. There is still at Foligno,
over a side altar of the church of San Nicoolu, a picture of that saint
and the infant Christ, which was painted by Alunno in 1492 : it had
formerly a predella, or a long picture in various compartments, which
served it originally as a base, according to the old Italian custom with
altar-pieces ; but being one of the paintings which the French thought
fit to send to Paris, it was returned at the general restoration of the
plundered works oi art, without its predella, which is now in the
gallery of the Louvre. It contains six pictures, one of which is an
allegorical piece, of two angels holding a scroll, upon which are written
some verses which are legible with difficulty, celebrating the abilities
of Alunno, and the generosity of a lady of the name of Bressida. The
other five pictures are from the life of Christ. They are drawn in a
dry and meagre style, and are very brown in colouring, and have
strong contrasting jiahta; but they have much expression, and are j
executed with facility. Alunno excelled in expression ; he was in the
habit, in his large pictures, of painting the heads from the life, which
gave them a truth and reality not found in the works of many of his
contemporaries. The period of his death is not known, but he painted
aft-r 1500; he painted in the old manner in water-colours, or a tem-
pera, Alnnno painted also some standards used in religious proces-
sions; they are called Gonfaloni. There is still extant a gonfalone
of this description by him, made of very fine canvass, in the church
of Santa Maria Nuova, at Perugia, with the inscription " Soeietas
Annunciata fecit fieri hoe opus, 1466."
(Vasari, Vite M PUtori, ic. ; Lanzi, Storia P'Morlca, ic. ; Rumohr,
Italicnische. Forschunyen.)
ALURED, ALRED, or ALFRED, of Beverley, an English historian,
who lived in the 12th century. He is the author of an Epitome of
British History, from the time of the fabulous Brutus to the 29th year
of the reign of Henry L, which Thomas Hearne published at Oxford
in 1716, under the title of ' The Annals of Alured of Beverley.' It
is written in a Latin style remarkable for its correctness, considering
the age in which the author lived : and more attention appears to be
paid in it to the dates of the events recorded than in most of our
ancient chronicles. It exhibits however in many places so strong a
resemblance to the similar work which bears the name of Geoffrey of
Honmouth, that Leland, and others after him, have considered it to
be merely an abridgment of Geoffrey's work. On the other hand, it
would rather seem that Alured's History was really published before
that of Geoffrey, so that, where they agree in expression, the plagiarism
or copying ought probably to be charged upon the latter. Geoffrey's
work has always been regarded as principally a translation from a
British or Annoric original ; and he and Alured may have drawn their
information, to a considerable extent, from the same sources. Of the
personal history of Alured, the little that has been handed down rests
entirely on the worthless authority of Bale, in hia ' Illustrium Jla^nts
Britannia Scriptorum Catalogus, a Japheto, per 3620 Annos.' He is
naid to have been born in the town of Beverley, in Yorkshire ; to have
received his education at Cambridge, where he became distinguished
for hU skill in divinity, as well as in various branches of profane
learning ; and having afterwards turned secular priest, to have beeu
made one of the canons and treasurer of the church of St. John in
his native town. His death is conjectured to have taken place in
1129, the year in which his annals terminate. Bale makes him the
author of many other works; but the catalogue appears to be manu-
factured by the process of representing each of the books of his annals
a* a distinct treatise. Among the works that have been attributed to
Alured is a Hi-tory of St. John of Beverley ; which the writer of his
life in the ' Biographia Britannica ' considers to be a collection of
charters and other records respecting that ecclesiastical foundation
still preserved among the Cottonian manuscripts in the British
Museum. But for the opinion that this collection is the history said
to have been written by Alured, there do not appear to be sufficient
grounds.
ALVARADO, PEDRO DE, one of the most distinguished of the
companions of Hernan Cortes in the conquest of Mexico. He was
born at Badajoz in Spanish Estremadura at the close of the 16th cen-
tury. His father was a knight of the order of St. James, and had the
' Encomienda' of Lobon in that province. Pedro was one of many
sons. Having, with four or five of his brothers, crossed the Atlantic,
he was at Cuba in 1518, and was appointed to one of three vessels
fitted out by Velasquez, the governor, for exploring the American
coast, uuder the command of Grijalva. After touching at the island
of Cozumel (or Acozamil, the ' Isle of Swallows'), and several places
in Yuuatan, they sailed up the rivers Tabasco and de Banderas. They
were so much pleased with the appearance of the country, the culti-
vation of the fields and inclosures, the beauty of the Indian edifices,
and the signs of civilisation, that Grijalvi gave it the name of New
Spain. Here the Spaniards first heard of Montczuma and his exten-
sive empire. Alvarado was despatched to Cuba with a report of the
regions which they had explored; and all the gold which they had
collected. As Grijalva, by his instructions, was strictly forbidden to
colonise, he continued his course along the coast, visiting several points
and collecting more treasure.
In February 1519 Cortes sailed from Havanua with 11 vessels; hia
force amounted to 508 officers and soldiers, and 109 seamen and
artificers. Alvarado had command of one of the vessels, and four
of his brothers embarked with him. The fleet was separated by a
storm, and Alvarado arrived at Cozumel, the appointed rendezvous,
three days before the rest. Cortes here reviewed his little army, held
council with his eleven captains, and prepared for immediate service.
As Alvarado, although eminently distinguished in this campaign,
was only a secondary personage, the main eventa of it belong to the
biography of Cortes, but we occasionally fall upon individual traits
of a marked character peculiarly his owu, and which, painting to the
life the Spanish soldier of the age of Charles V., deserve a briet
record. In the first voyage with Grijalva he entered alone the river
Papaloava, and trusting himself among the natives, who were in that
quarter of doubtful temper, obtained from them fish, fruits, and other
supplies. Grijalva reprimanded him for ruuninp; into danger ; but the
sailors, admiring his intrepidity, gave the river the name of the young
officer, which it still retains El Rio Alvarado, the mouth of which
is about forty miles to the south-east of Vera Cruz. The estimation
in which he was held by Cortes is attested by the unbounded con-
fidence which he reposed in him. At the fight of Tabasco, the great
battle of Otumba, and the final reduction of the capital city after many
and great difficulties, dangers, and reverses, Alvarado was intrusted
with the most important operations, and mainly contributed to success.
When the shrewd vigilance of Cortes prompted him to oppose per-
sonally any interruption to his great design for the envious spirit
of Velasquez, the governor of Cuba, caused him frequent anxiety and
trouble on all such occasions he left the command with Alvarado, who
discharged his duties with unswerving fidelity.
When Cortes was called away to meet Narvaez, who had been sent
by the governor of Cuba, with a force very superior to his own, to
dispossess him of his command, he left the city and the royal captive
in Alvarado's charge, with a force of a hundred and fifty men, accord-
ing to Herrera, but by Solis stated not to have exceeded eighty. During
the absence of tbe chief a dangerous commotion took place in the
capital, and when Alvarado sent messengers to tell Cortes that he was
hard pressed by the Mexicans, Montezuma sent with them others to
say that he could not restrain the fury of his subjects, but that ho
was well content in the hands of Alvarado, and had no desire to be
separated from him.
Las Casas charges Alvarado with an atrocious attack upon the
Mexicans for the purpose of plunder ; but Herrera and Solis assure
us that a plot was laid for the massacre of the Spaniards, and that
Alvarado kept the whole Mexican population at bay with his small
band unt'l the return of Cortes from his victory over Narvaez, and
with the troops of that captain incorporated with his own. In the
valuable series of original memoirs published at Paris by Mona.
Ternaux-Compana, thera are statements by native Mexican authors,
contemporary and other, which increase the difficulty of coming to a
satisfactory decision on many points of the conquest of Mexico.
Alvarado was in every fight until the final reduction of Mexico.
Afterwards, in 1523, he was sent with 300 foot, 160 horse, and four
pieces of cannon, with some Mexican auxiliaries, against the tribes of
Indians on the coast of the Pacific in the direction of Guatemala. He
reduced the provinces of Zacatulan, Tecoantepec (now Tehuantepec),
Soconusco, and Utlatlan. In a conflict at Cayacatl on the coast of
the Pacific, where the Indiana fought with great courage, Alvarado
was lamed in one of his legs by an arrow, and it was ever after three
inches shorter than the other. Having beaten off all opponents, he
passed on to Guatemala, called by the natives Quahtetnallan, and on
the border of the L'ake Atitlan took some Indian prisoners. He sent
them to their chiefs with overtures of peace. The chiefs answered
that they had never been conquered, but since he behaved so bravely,
they were willing to be his friends ; accordingly their chiefs came,
touched his hands, and remained peaceable. As he proceeded, all the
people round the lake brought him presents, and assurances of
m
AI.VARAIX), PEDRO DE.
ALVAREZ, KRANCISCX).
ire
were rip>o.la. H. UMO founded a city, which b. called
tathkjo de to* Cabalfcro. (DOW Ou.temala U Vici,), with church of
UM MBM name, and Cortea Met him MO Spaniard* to increaae iU
pomlaliim Alvarado also wot bU brother Dim to form M-Mle-
Liwt to TwaHnM. which h. called San Jor**, and b. then established
a trt on tfc* Pacific. nfieeo laffota from to. citv of Santiago, which
he oalkd Puerto H. la Poaeaioa. H* then embarked for Spain, where
be wu received with a distinction worthy of hU faro* The Emperor
Chariea V, on hi. lauding, dwdrad h. would go poat baite to court.
In neknowlc.lpn.ent of hi. eervioea, Alvarado obtained the goTernor-
kip of Guatemala, and all the gold and valuable* which he had
brought were declared hi* own. During thin ri.it he formed a matri-
monial alliance with Doha Beatrix de la Cueva, a lady of an ancient
awl noble Spaniah boa**, from which the duke, of Albuquerque are
Jsainailiil and hortly afterward! be returned with a numerous band
of kakhta, fectlemea. kinsmen, and friend*, to Guatemala, which
nredilj became a naodtotp* and protperoua city ; and the province,
My. Herrera, flounabed while be had the command of it ( Dec.' 4,.
lib. 2, cap. S.)
Greet eoUrpri*** war* ttill in proeecution in South America under
Pbarro and Almagro, who bad gained poseewon of Peru, and pro-
jected the conquest of Chili. Alvarado WH not of a temper to bo
idle while other* were in anna, Quito with ita rich city WM not
eooadend wiUiin the boundary of Pixarro'* command ; mid Alvarado,
baring authority from the Emperor Charlea to extend hia discoveries,
bat with pecial caution not to interfere with the conquests of other
captain*, determined to go thither. After Bending one of hi* officers,
Garcia de Hulguin, who bad signalled himself in the Mexican cam-
paign*, to reconnoitre, and receiving from him encouraging accounts,
Be "embarked on the PaciBo with 600 aoldien, 227 of whom were
horsemen, with an intention to land at Puerto Tiejo ; but the voyage
being unpropitious, and a mortality spreading among the bones, be
Uaded at a bay called Bahia de loa Caraques, near Cape San Francisco,
seeding on at the same time his pilot, Juan Fernandez, to ascertain
the limit, of I'ixarn/s government, on which he declared he bad no
wish to intrude. From Caraqnes he marched into the interior, and
with a courage and perseverance almost without a parallel, which may
be read with interest in the 'Decada' of Herrera, he reached the
country he was in quest of. Notwithstanding all his care (for he set
an example to the hardiest of his men by frequently dismounting hi*
bone and placing a sick man upon it), he lost in the morasses near
the coast and in the snows of the Andes seventy-nine of his soldiers ;
six Spanish women also who accompanied them perished, and many
hones. On ascending the Andes, Alvarado learnt that an armed
force under Almagro was in readiness to meet him. He took some of
their scouts, treated them well, and sent them back, with a civil
message that he did not come to breed disturbance", but only to dis-
cover, under the royal commission, new lands along the South Sea,
and that he was ready to meet them on friendly terms. They met at
Riobamba, on the plain of that name, and it was adjusted that Alva-
rado should rrlinquUh hi* project, leave such of hi* followers as were
willing to remain, together with all the vessels except those necessary
for hi* return, and receive 120,000 cutellaoo*, or piece* of eight, a*
an indemnification for bis outlay and losses. This he did, as he
afirmed. to avoid injury to hia sovereign, and the evils of civil war-
far*. Putarro came up with an additional force, but being informed
of what had taken place, the affair ended with lively rejoicing*, and
Alvarado departed with valuable present*.
lli> renown spreading throughout the Spanish possessions, he was
called to Honduras to help the settler* out of some difficulties. He
was mxived with grrat joy, and the government was resigned into
his hand*. Be founded there a town, which he called 'Oracias a
Dim,' because hi* men, having suffered much in travelling over
barren mountain*, exclaimed, when they reached that place, " Thanks
to God, we are come into a good land." He also formed another
settlement, which he called San Juan de Puerto de Caballos, iu tho
Bay of Honduras.
Ferdinand Piano having, in 1534, gone to Spain with a great
amount of treasure from I'eru. and represented among other things
the ccrmmstaiwra of Alvarado's expedition to Quito, the emperor
had declared it an entire contravention of hia orders, and expressed
mat indignation. H* had lent out orders for Alvarado'* arrest, ami
It was on thU account, it is said, that be so readily answered the
call to go U> Honduras. The affairs of thst district bring brought
into rood order, Alvarado resolved to visit Spain a second time. He
embarked with hia wife at the port of Truxillo in Hondura* Bay, on
board a caravel Unind for Havanna, and thence proceeded to lii
daXraatkm. H* found mean*, by hu argument*, or by the influence
of U* friend*, *o to soften the Kmperor, tbst not only bis dis-
obodience wa* overlooked, but hi* government waa enlarged with the
addition of the province of Honduras to that of Guatemala. He
returned with hi* wife, and landed at Puerto de Caballo.. Honduras
waa sfain in great disorder, but b. restored it to order, and " from
Hal tine," says Herren, " Honduras, which bad been continually
troubled with broil* and anffered great oppmnion, was peaceable
nader the irovernment of Alvarado." These matter* being adjusted, he
proceeded to Onatemala. and net about new discoveries, H* equipped
fleet of twelve bur* ship* and two row-gallevr, one of twenty, the
other of thirteen beaches, and embarked at El Puerto de la Posesion,
with 800 soldier*, 150 horses, and a considerable retinue of Indiana.
He (ailed along the coast, but, the weather being very unfavourable,
put into the port of Los Pueblos de Avalos on the coast of Michoacan.
At thin period (1541) the Chiuhimeoas of New Galicia, a brave race
of men, from whom, according to Clavigero, the Tlascalans, alliea of
Cortes, were descended, had revolted. Onate had marched against
them, and been wonted : hearing that Alvarado wa* on the coast, he
eut him advice* of what had happened. Alvarado immediately
landed at Los Pueblo* with a part of hi* horse and foot, crowed in a
night and a day the morass of Tonola, generally reckoned a three
day*' march, and on reaching the encampment of the Spaniards, held
a consultation with the officers. The Indian* had withdrawn, and
fortified themselves on the mountain tops in a position difficult of
access : they were numerous, obstinate, hardy, expert bowmen, and
very dexterous in the use of the javelin. The Spaniards and their
Indian allies attacked them with vigour, but were repulsed and driven
back to the plain. The Indians followed in great number*, and the
ground being marshy and unfit for cavalry operations, the Spaniards
continued their retreat to a river, which they forded ; but the farther
bank was so steep, that the troopers weio compelled to dismount and
lead their hones up it. Alvarado stayed, as usual, to bring up the
rear : a horse climbing the bank slipped, and fell upon him. As be
was iu armour, the weight of the animal crushed his breast so severely
thbt lie died in three days. His death put a stop to the expedition.
(Herrera, Uitturia General de lot C'atteUanot, Ac. ; Solis, C<mi/uiita de
jtf&rieo ; Humboldt, Political Kaay on New Spain ; J/ittvire de*
Chichimegw* par Don Fernando de Alva IxtlUxochitl, publide en
Francais par H. Teruaux-Compaus, Paris, 1840.)
ALVAREZ, FRANCISCO, was mass priest and chaplain to Dom
Manuel, king of Portugal, about the year 1515. He was a native of
Coimbra, and at that time advanced in life. (Damiaui de Goes call*
him "senex moribus iuculpatis.") Of his early history nothing U
known. In the year above mentioned Alvarez was appointed by the
king to accompany Duarte Ualvam on a minion to the Negus of
Abyssinia, or as he was at that time called by the Portuguese, ' ho
Preste Joaui.' The mission, along with the Armenian, Mattueua, who
had visited Portugal as ambassador from the Negus, arrived at Goa
in 1516 ; but Lopo Soarez, who waa at that time governor of the
Portuguese possessions in India, detained it there under various pre-
tences. After the death of Soarez, his successor, Diogo Lopez de
Sequeira, undertook to accompany the mission in person to the Red
Sea. The expedition reached Massua on the 16th of April, 1520.
Duarte Ualvam died a few days previously at the island of Camaran,
and Rodrigo de Lima was nominated to proceed to the court of
Abyssinia in his stead, by De Sequeira, who said to the new ambas-
sador, " J loin Rodrigo, I do not send Father Francisco Alvarez with
you, but you with him, and you are to do nothing without his advice."
The mission was detained in Abyssinia till April 25, 1526, on which
day it sailed from Massua on ita return. Alvarez had gained the con-
fidence of the Negus to such a degree, that he wag accredited by him
as the envoy to the Pope, along with a native Abyssinian, whom he
calls at first Zagajabo, and afterwards (posaibly a title) Licacante. Tho
mission sailed to Canauor, and ihenc to Lisbon, where it arrived on
the 2ath of July, 1527. Dom Jonui HI., who bad succeeded hia father
on the throne of Portugal in 1521, was iu no hurry to forward the
Abyssinian ambassador and Alvarez to Rome. The former, in spite of
his urgent remonstrances, was detained in Portugal till 1539; but
Alvarez was sent in 1533 to Clement VII., into whose hands he
delivered bis credentials iu the January of that year, at Bologna, in
the presence of the Emperor Charles V. Of the year of Alvarez's
death no mention is made by any contemporary and trustworthy
author, but Goes, in a memorial addressed to Paul III., and dated
at Louvaiiie, Sept. 1, 1540, speaks of him in a way that load* us to
infer thst he was then dead.
According to Ramusio, Ludolf, and Leon Pinello, Alvarez compiled
an ' Itinerary' of the mission iu five books, which was never printed.
The book entitled 'Ho Preste Joaui das Indian: Verdadera Infor-
uiacam das Terra* do Preste Joaui,' printed ' in the house of Luis
Rodriguez/ publisher to the King of Portugal, iu October, 1540, con-
list* merely of extracts from the larger work. Kauiunio procured
from Damiam de Goes another imperfect copy of Alvarez's work,
which he represents as differing materially from that publish' <1 in
Portugal. Both, he say*, were in the highest degree mutilated and
corrupt. The 'Journey in Ethiopia,' by Francisco Alvarez, in lUiuu-
sio'* collection (first edition, 1560), is compiled from these two
abridgments. What became of the original ' Itinerary ' does not
appear. Goes says that Paulus Joviun had undertaken to translate it
into I-atin, and possibly it may have fallen into his hands.
Ramusio's compilation consists of 148 chapters ; the book published
in Portugal in 1540 contains 141 chapters, which bring down the
narrative to the departure of the mission from Massua on it< i-
and nine additional chapters narrating ita return to Portugal, and in
in there, which correspond pretty closely witli the last eight
chapters of Ramusio. The main difference between the Portuguese
and Italian version* consists iu the additional matter contained iu
nine of Ramusio's chapters. The Italian ha* added little to the
information respecting Abyssinia given in the Portuguese edition, but
1/7
ALVAREZ, DON JOSE.
AMADEUS.
173
he has inserted some digressions which throw important light on the
history of the early discoveries under the auspices of the kings of
Portugal. The names of places in Abyssinia are written in the Portu-
guese version in a manner that corresponds pretty closely with that
adopted by the most recent and accurate Oriental scholars : in
Kamusio'g version they are much disfigured.
The extracts from the 'Itinerary' have been made in a manner
which fully justifies the harsh terms In which Kamusio speaks of
them. They contain a good deal of the transactions of 1521, very
little of those of 1524, and a good deal of those of 1526. They con-
vey some valuable information relative to the history and constitution
of the Abyssinian government, and some pregnant hints respecting
the geography of the country. The style of the Portuguese version
evinces a manly and judicious spirit, that leads us to regret the loss
of the entire work. A search in the archives of Portugal, or the
library of the Vatican, might le.\d to its recovery.
(Leon Pinello, Epitome de la, Siblioteca Oriental y Occidental,, fol.
Madrid, 1737 ; Damiam de Goes, Fides, Seligio, Moresque sEihiopum,
Ac., Paris, 1541 ; Ramusio, Viayyi e Navigatione, fol. Venice, 1613 ;
So Prete Joam dot Indiai, Verdadera Informacam das Terras do
Prate Joam segundo via e escreveo ho Padre Francisco Alvarez, Capel-
lam del Rey nosso Senhor. Imprests em Casa da Luis Rodriguez
Hvreiro de sua Alteza, fol. 1540.)
ALVAREZ, DON JOSE, a very distinguished Spanish sculptor,
and one of the most eminent artists of the 1 9th century, was born at
Priego, in the province of Cordova, in 1768. His father was a stone-
mason, and Alvarez's youth was spent as a labourer, in that business,
aa his father was too poor to support him otherwise. He however
evinced au ability for sculpture at an early period, and employed what
time he could spare from his daily labour with a view to educate him-
self as a sculptor. In his twentieth year he made such progress as to
obtain admission into the academy of Granada, in which he soon
distinguished himself for his ability in modelling. A lion destroying
a serpent, which ho made for a fountain at Priego, obtained for him
the patronage of Don Antonio da Gongora, the bishop of Cordova,
the founder of the academy of that place, who took Alvarez into his
house, and caused him to be elected a member of the academy. Not-
withstanding his proficiency however, in 1794 he left Cordova and
entered as a student into the academy of San Fernando at Madrid, of
which as ' the Andalusian ' he soon became the most distinguished
student. He obtained the first prize of the academy, for a basso-
rilievo of the procession of Ferdinand I. and his sons carrying bare-
footed the miraculously discovered body of St. Isidore to the church
of San Juan de Leon.
In 1799 ho was granted a pension of 12,000 reals by Charles IV. to
enable him to prosecute his studies in Paris and in Rome. In Paris
he paid great attention to anatomy, and studied in the public dissect-
ing-rooms ; and he gained there additional academical honours. He
obtained the second great prize in sculpture awarded by the Institute.
Alvarez was a devoted admirer of the sculptures of the Parthenon
which Choiseul Cloudier had brought to Paris from Constantinople ;
he made many drawings of them, and his improved taste was manifest
in a statue of Ganymede, which he made in 1804, and by which he
acquired the reputation of one of the first of modern sculptors.
Napoleon I., then emperor, paid two visits to the studio of Alvarez,
and presented him with a gold medal of the value of 500 francs.
Notwithstanding this personal honour, Napoleon's after-conduct
regarding Spain excited in Alvarez an invincible aversion to him ; he
would never model his bust, and when Joseph Bonaparte was pro-
claimed King of Spain, Alvarez, then at Rome, was imprisoned in the
castle of St. Angela for refusing, as a pensioner of the Spanish govern-
ment, to take the oath of allegiance to the new king ; he was however
released shortly afterwards. After the completion of his statue of
Ganymede, Alvarez's pension was increased to 28,000 reals, and he
left Paris for Rome, where he thenceforth chiefly resided. In Rome
he executed or modelled many much-admired works, the best of which
was a group of Autilochua and Memnon in 1818, for which he was
nominated court-sculptor by Ferdinand VII., who commissioned him
to execute the group in marble : it is now in Madrid.
In 1825 he was appointed principal sculptor to the king of Spam,
and was decorated with the cross of Civil Merit. In 1826 he visited
Madrid for the purpose of selecting the best statues and other sculp-
tures in the king's palaces to be placed together in the museum of the
Prado ; but be died within twelve months of his arrival, in the 60th
year of his age. From his office, the circumstances connected with
his death, and the honourable commiaion about which he was engaged,
it is evident that the reports which appeared ii the French newspapers
at the time of his death about his extreme poverty bordering upon
destitution must be fulse. There are many of his works at Madrid ;
several from ancient mythology, some full-length statues, and a few
busts. Busts he did not willingly model, but the few he did are
reputed excellent likenesses, and among them are those of Rossini,
the composer, and Ceau Bermudez, the author of the ' Dictionary of
Spanish Artists.'
It is generally admitted that Alvarez excelled in many qualities of
a high ordt r in invention, in expression, and in design ; and he is by
his admirers compared with Canova. That he is less generally known
than many of his more fortunate or more renowned contemporaries,
BIO'J. DIV. VOL. I.
is probably more owing to an ignorauce of his works than to their
inferiority. He was a member of the Institute of France, of the
Academy of St. Luke of Rome, and of the academies of Carrara and
Naples. He left three eons, who were allowed to retain a portion of
their father's pension. The eldest, who promised to be a sculptor of
ability, died at Burgos in 1830, in his 25th year.
There was another distinguished Spanish sculptor of this name,
Don Manuel Alvarez, who was born at Salamanca in 1727. After
acquiring the rudiments of his art with two sculptors of Salamanca
he repaired to Madrid, and became the pupil of Don Felipe de Castro,
the king's sculptor, whom he assisted in many of his works. He
obtained the first prize of the academy of San Fernando in 1754, by
which he was entitled to study in Rome, with a pension from the
Spanish government ; but he declined the advantage on account of
the weak state of his health. In 1757 he was elected a member, in
1762 Vice-Director, in 1786 Director of the Academy of San Fer-
nando ; and in 1794 sculptor to the king. He died in 1797, generally
regretted, in the 70th year of his age. His statues and busts are very
numerous in the churches, palaces, and monasteries of Spain, espe-
cially at Salamanca, Toledo, Zaragoza, and Madrid. Alvarez was
commonly called by his fellow artists El Griego, or 'the Greek,' on
account of the purity and vigour of his design, and his accuracy of
execution a great compliment.
(Archive filr Geschichte, &o., 1829, No. 15 ; Seminario Pintoresco
Espanol, No. 52 ; Cean Bermudez, Diccionario Historic*) de los mas
Ilmtres Profesoret de las Bellas Artes en Eipana.)
ALYATTES, a king of Lydia, the father of Crcesus, who seems to have
been some time associated with him in the government ; he died about
B.O. 562, after a reign of fifty-seven years. On his accession he con-
tinued a war with Miletus, which was left unfinished by his father
Ludyattes. In the fifth year of the conflict a temple of Minerva was
burnt by him. Soon after he sent for advice under sickness to the
oracle at Delphi, but was refused a response till the temple was
restored. He rebuilt the temple, recovered from his sickness, and
made peace with Miletus. From B.C. 590 he was engaged during five
years in a war with Cyaxares, king of Media, in consequence of
receiving some Scythians who had offended that monarch. In the
course of hostilities Alyattes expelled the Cimmerians from Asia,
captured Smyrna, and attacked Clazomence. A battle between the
forces of the three kings was interrupted by an eclipse of the sun.
This event led to a peace, which was consummated by a marriage
between Aryenis, the daughter of the Lydian king, and Astyages, the
son of Cyaxares. The place where the eclipse was seen is uot men-
tioned by Herodotus; but we may fairly conjecture it was in the
upper latitudes of Asia Minor, and between the Halys and the higher
waters of the Euphrates. This eclipse was predicted by Thales of
Miletus, but all that the historian can be made to signify is that hu
predicted the year.
Near the Lake Gygoca, which is a few miles north of Sardis, now
Sartis, in Asia Minor, is still seen the immense mound of earth which
was raised to his memory. Herodotus, who gives the first account of
it (i. 93), says, that the circuit round the base was 3800 Greek feet,
and the width 2600 feet; the height is not given. It rested on a
foundation of great stones, which are now covered by the earth that
has fallen down ; but the mound still retains its conical form, and
rises up like a natural hill.
AMADEUS (Ital. Amedeo), the name of nine sovereigns of Savoy.
Amadeui I. was count of Maurienne in Savoy ; it is uncertain whether
he survived his father, Humbert the Whitehanded, who was living iu
1030; but he styled himself count in an undated deed, and is reckoned
by historians among the ancestors of the house of Savoy. Amadeus If.
was the nephew of the preceding, the second son of Oddo, count of
Maurienne, and of Adelaide, marchioness of Susa, with whom, after
his father's death, he governed the territories, and who survived him.
He died in 1078. Amadeus III. succeeded his father, Humbert II.,
in 1103; joined in the crusade with Louis VII. of France, and died
in Cyprus on his return in 1148. Amadeus IV., born in 1197, suc-
ceeded his father Tomaso I. in 1233 ; he considerably increased his
possessions, and died in 1253. His brother Peter was long in England,
being uncle to Eleanor, queen of Henry III., by whom he was made
Earl of Richmond, and built the Savoy palace in London. Amadeus V.,
born in 1249, succeeded his uncle Fiiippo in 1285; he acquired the
county of Bresse and the district of Asti ; he died in 1323.
Amadeus VI., 'the Green Count,' born in 1334, succeeded his father
1343 ; he defeated the French at Arbrette in 1354 ; he nearly doubled
his territories in Piedmont, and extended them in other directions ;
he died in 1383. Amadeus VII., ' the Red Count,' born in 1360, suc-
ceeded his father in 1383 ; he acquired Nice in 1388, and died in 1391.
Amadeus VIII., born in 1383, succeeded his father 1391. By the
extension of various branches of his family, whose possessions he
inherited, he came to rank among the great powers of Europe, and
was created Duke of Savoy, 1416. He was the legislator of his
dominions, and published a code in 1430 called 'Statuta Sabaudiso.'
In 1434 he resigned the sovereignty, and retired to a monastery at
Ripaille. In 1439 he wts elected Pope, and proclaimed as Felix V. ;
this occasioned a schism which lasted till 1449, when he resigned the
papacy, and again retired to Ripaille. He died in 1451. Amadeus IX.,
bom in 1435, succeeded his father Louis, son of Amadous VIII., in
AMADIS DK OAULA.
AMARA.
148S. Alter reta tmUod by the inaurraction. of his brothers he
tor more d.UuUd account of theee sovereign-, MM
UM fliaareWUpg/ IkclvHwy of H Svtittg for On IHf<au> of l'*jl
ft
;>1S DE (JAl'I.A. tbe hero of an old romance of chivalry,
written in Spaniah pros* by Vasco Lobeira, towards the end of the
llth century. It we* afterward* oorreeUd and edited in more modern
Spam.1. by llaroU Ordonei of MonUlvo. about the beginning of the
1Mb century, and became a very popular book in Italy and France ;
it WM trandated into French by D'Herberay, and printed in 1555.
with many additions, under tbe mia-translatod title of ' Amadis doe
Oanles,' meaning France. In tbe original Spanish romance Hauls ia
Walee. and the subject, character., and localities are Briti.h. The
story allude* to bbttlou* fesU between tbe Welsh and the English,
previous to those of Arthur and the Knight* of tl.e Round Table;
UM Roman, and Saxon* are united against the Prince of Qaula or
Wales, and the Saxon, are represented a* faithless and treacherous.
It is probable that Vaaeo Lobeira took tbe groundwork of hi. story
from some older British or Welsh legend. The 'Amadis' is can-
siderad as one of the most interesting work, in the whole library of
chivalry and romance. Tbe French version of D'Herberay was trans-
lated into English by Anthony Munday (1019}, and part of this
version was freely rendered into verse by William Stewart Rose
(1803). In 1803 Southey published a prose translation from the
Spanish version of Garcia Ordonei.
AMALARIC, the last Visigoth king of Spain, was the sou of
AUric IL, and grandson of Theodorio II. At tbe death of his father,
A.O. 506, he was only five years of age ; and Gensaleic, a bastard son
of AUric, waa elected king of the Goths in Spain. Theodorio, who
was tben in Italy, sent hi* general Theudis with a powerful army to
protect tbe rights of his grandson. Gensaleio was defeated, and
Tbeudis was entrusted with the guardianship of the child and the
government of Spain. When Amalaric became of age he was acknow-
ledged king of the Goths, both in Spain and in Gothic GauL In
order to secure hi* French posaeasions he solicited and obtained the
band of Clotilda, daughter of Clovis, king of tbe Franks; but this
marriage proved in the end an unfortunate one. It is stated that in
coasequrnce of religious differences he barbarously treated his queen.
Her brother Cbildebert, or Childibert, king of Paris, mustered a Urge
army and marched against his brother-in-law. The two armies met,
according to some author*, in Gothic Gaul, and, according to others,
in CaUlonis. Both French and Spaniard* fought with equal valour
and obstinacy. At last the Spaniards were defeated, and Amalaric
took refuge in a church, where he wo* killed, in the year 531. The
conqueror, after having plundered the Arian churches, returned to
France with his sister.
Amalaric was tbe last of the Visigoth kings, and the first who
ntablUbed the court at Seville. On bis death, Theudis, on Ostrogoth
or Ka- tern Goth, was elected king.
(See Mariana, v. 7 ; Prooopius, De Bella GoOtorum, i.)
AM A LI K. ANNA, princess of Prussia, was a daughter of Frederick
Wiiliam I , king of 1'rusmia, and sister of Frederick the Great She
was born on the Vth of November, 1 723. The Princes. Amalie showed
great talent from her childhood, and especially for music, which she
cultivated to peneveringly that, at least in theoretical and historical
knowledge, she was scarcely equalled iu her time. Music was through-
oat lib almost her sol* occupation. At the age of twenty-one she
became princes, abbes, of Quedliuburg, where .be devoted all her
time to music, with the exception of what she had to give to the
administration of UM extensive estates of the abbey. She died March
30, 17 ~ 7.
AMALIE, wile of tbe Duke of Saxe Weimar, lost her husband when
ake was hardly twenty year* of age, and found herself at the head of
UM government in troubled tiroes, during the wars between the two
great German powers, Austria and Frederick of Prussia. The Duchess
of Weimar however contrived to direct in safety the affairs of her little
state, and after tbe restoration of peace she turned all her thoughts to
tbe internal improvement of her country. The city of Weimar became
tbe resort of tbe most distinguished literary men of Germany, whom
tbe dacbtes encouraged by her liberal patronage to come and reside
iJfe e I t WWw>d . O" 1 "*. Herder, and Schiller, formed a oon-
Waitioa i of feniu. of which any city might be proud. Wieland was
i tutor to tbe two eons of tbe duchess. Oothe was induced
distinguished pUos in UM ducal council. Herde/wos ap'powted court
ITn'ihiii'A 00 ' ul* ''* 1 -'^ 11 ^ 1 '' "J*?- in ! l ector -?? *"? *&<> o] * T"
.
r from public life in 1775, having given up
.-.-, -> her eldest son, then of age : she retired to
her delightful onlry residence of Tieffurth. whenf.he continued to
urroond herself with men of talent and learning. In 1788 she under-
journey to Ilaly, parti, to restore her health, and partly to
!*A~B dip r >l k?Wn of the work, of art in which Italy
abounds. She returned
from this journey in 170, accompanied by
henceforth continued to live surrounded by poet*,
devoting bar own time to the cultivation of
until tbe year 1806; wbea the misfortune of tbe battle of
UrmBy. broke her heart. Gotheaa;.
'plain of Ulntso, aad showed no symptom
of suffering, she gradually waited away. Her death took place on the
1 oih ..f April, 1807.
AMALUIC, or ARNAULD, nil influential chief of tl.<- crusade
against the Albigensee, waa born about tlie middle of the 12th cen-
tury, and died September 39, 1225. Ho was first Abbot of 1'oblet in
Catalonia, then of Oraudselve, and lastly of Citoaux. He was in the
enjoyment of this hut dignity when iu 1'Jul Innocent III. associated
him with the legates Uaoul and 1'ierre do Castelnau in tbo uiiuiou to
extirpato, throughout France, the heresy of the Albigeunes. Ha
preached a crusade ajaiust them ; many of his contemporaries, several
of whom were prince, and lords, took part in it; and he was nomi-
nated generalissimo of the crusaders. In 1209, after taking several
castle* and many times routing the enemy's forces, he besieged and
took Boxier*. Sixty thousand inhabitant* were massacred, and the
town, plundered and depopulated, wr made a prey to the flames.
Before the commencement of the massacre the crusaders inquired of
their commander Amalrio how they were to distinguish the Catholics
in tbe town from the heretics, " Kill them all," replied the abbot ;
" God knows hU own." On the tor mi nation of thU bloody expedition
Aiuolric conducted his army to Carcagaone, to which place he laid
siege. The garrison, commanded by the Viscount Ktituoml Roger,
after a long and obstinato resistance, was obliged to capitulate.
Amalric permitted them to pass out of the town in their nhirta and
trousers ; but, contrary to the conditions of the treaty, he detained
the viscount, whom he caused to perish iu close confinement. Amalric
was presented to the archbishopric of Narlxmne in 1212; thence ho
went into Spain with the troops, and contributed to the defeat of a
Moorish king. On his return to Franco ho embroiled himself iu a
quarrel with Count Simon de Montfort about the title of Duke de
Narbonne, which he had assumed. Amalrio exuomnnmicate.1 Simon,
and entered into a league against him with the Count of Toulouse.
(Nouvclle Biographic Universdle.)
AMALTEO, 1'OMPONIO, a distinguished painter of the Venetian
school, born at San Vito in the Friuli, in 1505. He was the scholar
of Pordenone, and painted much iu the stylo of that master, though
he was less bold in execution, and inferior to him iu invention. I In
Three Judgments however, in tho court of justice, or loggia, at
Cenedo, which were completed in 1530, were long supposed to be the
works of Pordeuone, both on account of their style and the mis-state-
ment of Hidolli. They aro the Judgment of Solomon, the Judgmeut
of Daniel, and a Judgment of Trajan ; and are considered Auiolteo'i
masterpieces. Vasari praises, in the ' Life of Pordenone,' some
frescoes by Amalteo in the castle of .San Vito, for which he was
ennobled by Cardinal Griinaui, the signer of San Vito, and patriarch
of Aquilca. Amalteo wag distinguished for good drawing, a quality
rare among the Venetian painters. Tho date of his death is not
known.
Pomponio's brother and pupil, Oirolomo Amalteo, who died young,
had also great ability, but ho generally painted small pictures highly
finished.
(Alton, MtmorU inlorno alia Vita di Pomponio Amalteo, in the
Oiiiucoli CcUogeriani, vol. xlviii. ; Rcnaldis, Delia Pittura 1'ritdana ;
Lauzi, Sloria Piitorica.)
AM AN, JOHANN, an architect who executed many important
buildings in Germany, was born at St Blasien iu Baden, iu 1765. In
his early practice as an artist he was remarkable for his ability as a
painter on gloss. His practice as an architect cotnmcucfd in 1~'>1.
and he was employed by various German princes, aud by the I'.::
of Austria, till his death in 1834.
AM AHA, or AMAHAS1NHA, an ancient Hindoo grammarian, and
author of one of the oldest and most esteemed original vocabularies
of Sanskrit nouns, called after his name, ' Arnara Kasha,' that is, the
Thesaurus of Arnara, but sometimes quoted uuder tho title of ' Tri-
kuiidn,' that is, the Tripartite. Owing to the almost total want of
records on the internal history of India, the era at which Ainara lived
can only be ascertained by conjecture. Numerous authorities assert
that he was a contemporary of king Vikramaditya ; and his name is
iucluded in a memorial verse among the Nine Gems, or nine distin-
guished poets and scholars who adorned the court of that prince. The
exact date of this Vikramodityo's reign is however still subject to discus-
sion, as in Indian history several kings of that name occur. Tradition
places Amara and the Nine Gems generally under the first Vikrama-
ditya, 50 year, before our era. Mr. Beutley (' Asiatic Researches,'
vol. vii. pp. 242-244) supposes the Vikramaditya under whose reign
Amara lived, to be the successor of Raja Bhuja-deva, as sovereign of
Dhara in Malwa, who reigned during the latter port of the ) 1th century.
Mr. Colebrooke ('Algebra from the Sanskrit,' Introd. pp. 45-51) from
astronomical data in the work of Varahamihira (another of the Nine
Gems), bus assumed tho close of the 5th century, or about the year
472, as the probable epoch when that astronomer wrote, and Vikra-
tnaditya and the Niue Gems lived. This opinion, with regard to
Amors, is supported by the frequent reference made to his Dictionary
as to an ancient and classical work of standard authority, by numerous
writers, to many of whom an antiquity of several centuries at least
can be confidently attributed.
Of Amara'a life little i* known. He embraced the tenets of tho
Buddhas, a heterodox sect; and all his compositions, with the excep-
tion of bis Dictionary, porished ia tho persecutions raised by the
1S1
AMAEAL, ANDRES DO.
AMARI, MICHELE.
18 J
Rrahmans against the persons and writings of the Buddhas, which
began in the 3rd century, and reached their height during the 5th and
6th centuries.
Like other original Sanskrit vocabularies, that of Amara is in metre
to aid the memory. The whole is divided into three books. In the
first two, words relating to kindred objects are collected in one or more
verses, and placed in chapters. Thus the first book commences with
words for heaven ; next follow the names and attributes of the several
deities ; then come terms for space, the cardinal points of the compass,
&c. The third book is supplementary : it contains epithets, a list of
homonymous words (arranged alphabetically like many Arabic diction-
aries, according to the final consonants), particles, and adverbs (consi-
dered as indeclinable nouns by the Hindoo grammarians), and remarks
on the gender of substantive?. The Sanskrit dictionaries or ' Koshas,"
do not include the verbs of the language, the stems or roots being
arranged and explained in separate lists. The ' Amarakosha ' contains
only about 10,000 different words. In a language BO copious as the
Sanskrit this number appears small ; but in consequence of the great
regularity and consistency with which, in this language, compound
nouns and derivatives are formed, very few of these require to be
inserted and explained in a dictionary. Real deficiencies in the list of
Amara are supplied partly by commentaries on it, and partly by more
recent dictionaries, one of which, the ' Trikandasesha," by Purushot-
tamadeva.is, what ite title implies, purposely compiled as a supplement
to the tripartite work of Amara.
An excellent edition of the ' Amarakosha,' with marginal explana-
tions and notes in English , and an alphabetic index, was published by
Mr. H. T. Colebrooke at Serampore, 1808, 4to.; reprinted, 1829, 8vo.
An edition of the mere Sanskrit text, and table of contents likewise in
Sanskrit, appeared at Calcutta in 1813 in a volume with three other
original Sanskrit vocabularies.
(Ariatic Keearc/tei, vii. p. 214, seq. ; Wilson, Sandcrit Dictionary,
Preface, p. 5, seq., first edit.)
AMARAL, ANDRES DO, a Portuguese by birth, and knight of the
order of St. John of Jerusalem, of that branch called 'the language of
Castile,' at the time that the order was in the possession of the island
of Rhodes. In the year 1510 he was sent on an expedition against the
fleet of the sultan of E^ypt, then lying in the Gulf of Ajasso, in
company with Villiera de 1'Isle Adam, with whom he quarrelled. On
the death of Carretta, the forty-second grand master, in 1521, Amaral
put himself forward as candidate; but Villiers de 1'Isle Adam was
chosen by a large majority. Stung by his failure, Amaral seems to
have conceived a deadly hatred not only of his successful rival, but of
the whole order. On the day of the election, Jan. 22, 1521, he said in
the church of St. John, where it took place, to one of his friends, a
knight of Castile, that L'Isle Adam would be the last grand master of
Rhodes. Rumours arose of approaching danger to Rhodes from a
large armament in preparation by Sultan Solyman L On June 26,
1522, alt uncertainty was dissipated by the appearance of the Turkish
fleet off the island, consisting of four hundred vessels, and carrying an
army of one hundred and fifty thousand men. To oppose this force,
L'lele Adam had about five thousand soldiers, including six hundred
knights. The Turks landed without opposition, and the siege of the
city began ; but after repeated losses, the Turkish commanders were
compelled to call for the sultan himself to animate the courage of his
troop?, and on the 28th of August, Solyman arrived to assume the
command in person. The Turks sustained, nevertheless, a defeat on
September 24, and were, it was thought, about to retire from the
siege. On October 30, some of the guard having for some days before
noticed a servant of Amaral's, named Blag Diez, going frequently to n
part of the fortifications called the bulwark of Auvergne at unseason-
able hours, with a bow or arblast in his hand, conceived misgivings of
bis purposes, and carried information to the grand master, who ordered
his immediate arrest and examination. He would confess nothing till
he was " put to the Gehenna," and then he revealed a startling tale.
Since the election of L'Isle Adam, his master had, he stated, com-
menced and kept up a secret correspondence with the Turks : it was
he who, by means of a Turkish captive, had apprised the sultan of the
weak state of the order, and had invited him to come and conquer
Rhodes; who had since informed him of the most secret councils in
which lie had taken part KB grand prior of Castile ; had pointed out
the weak part* of the fortifications; and finally, since the failure of the
assault in September, had exhorted him to persevere, and success was
certain. Hia master was in the habit, he stated, of communicating
with the Turkish camp by means of letters fastened to arrows and
hot from the bulwark of Auvergne. Amaral was instantly arrested,
and the grand master ordered him to be examined by two of the grand
cross knight*, in conjunction with the magistrates of the town. There
was other circumstantial evidence, and both his servant and himself
were sentenced to death. Diez was hung on November 4, and on the
game day Amaral was solemnly stripped in the church of St. John of
his robes of knighthood, and delivered over to tho secular arm : on the
next day he was beheaded.
The evidence seems quite sufficient to prove the crime of Amaral,
but in later times his guilt has been doubted. Though the order
continued to exist for some centuries, the prediction was verified that
L'Isle Ad<un would be the laat grand master of Rhodes. By the
advice of hi* council, though against his own opinion, he surrendered
the place on honourable conditions, and on Christmas-day, 1522, Sultan
Solyman took possession of Rhodes.
(Biographical Dictionary of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge.)
AMARI, MICHELE, an Italian historian, was born at Palermo,
July 7, 1806. He was educated at home till the age of fifteen, his
studies b ing guided by Professor Domenico Scina, In his sixteenth
year he obtained a situation in a government office. Soon after this,
in 1822, liia father was condemned to death for being engaged in a
conspiracy for effecting the independence of Sicily. Seven of his com-
panions were executed, but the sentence of the elder Amari was coin-
muted to thirty years' imprisonment. Michele was not deprived of
his office, but the duty of supporting his mother and family of three
younger children out of his scanty salary devolved upon him. Rendered
reckless by the misfortune which had fallen upon his family, Michele
now abandoned study, and devoted his leisure hours to the practice
of bodily exercises, with a view to fit himself for a guerilla leader.
But from this morbid state he is said to have been aroused by an
attachment he formed for au English lady ; and though unsuccessful
in his suit, it led him to the ardent study of the English language, of
which the first-fruit was a translation of 'Marmion,' published at
Palermo in 1832. He now devoted himself to the study of English
and French literature, and especially moral philosophy and history ;
and an answer which he published to a pamphlet which asserted that
Sicily had always been dependent upon Naples, gained so much
applause, that he determined to undertake a history of Sicily from
the commencement of the Bourbon dynasty. In this work he had
made some progress when he abandoned it, in order to investigate
thoroughly the subject of the Sicilian Vespers. In 1837 Palermo was
ravaged by the cholera, and the populace, excited by political agitators,
rose in revolt and expelled the Neapolitan garrison. Tho insurrection
was soon suppressed ; but though Amari had been among the most
active of the officials in endeavouring to arrest or palliate the disease,
and took no part in the political proceedings, he was deprived of his
office, and transferred to a different department at Naples. Here he
steadily prosecuted his historical labours. Having completed his task,
he obtained leave to visit his family at Palermo ; and there, in April
1842, published his history under the title of ' La Guerra del Vespro
Sicilinno.' The book had received the licence of the censors ; but a few
months after its publication it was discovered by the authorities that in
describing the French dominion the author had been really discussing
that of Naples, and under the mask of Charles of Anjou he had been
tracing a likeness of Ferdinand II. The book accordingly was prohi-
bited ; the censors who had permitted it to pass were dismissed from
their offices ; five journals which had reviewed it were suppressed ;
the publisher was banished to the Isle of Ponza, where he soon after
died ; and Amari himself was summoned to Naples, but he fortunately
succeeded in escaping to France.
Amari had, there can be little doubt, like many other authors living
under a strict censorship, written of the past with a constant though
latent reference to the present ; but the great object of his history
was to rectify what he believed to be the erroneous view commonly
taken of the Sicilian Vespers. For centuries it had been the received
opinion that the great massacre so named was the result of a widely-
extended conspiracy, the work of John of Procida. Amari, on tho
contrary, undertook to prove we quote his own words " that the
Vespers were not the result of any conspiracy, but rather an outbreak
occasioned by the insolence of the ruling party, and owing its origin
and its important results to the social and political condition of a
people neither used nor inclined to endure a foreign and tyrannical
yoke ; and this view is undoubtedly confirmed by new documents
which throw light upon the causes of the revolution the letter of
Charles himself, that of the Sicilians, and several inedited papal bulls.
It was to her people, not to her nobles, that Sicily owed the revolution
which in the 13th century saved her from the extreme of misery and
degradation, from servile corruption, and from sinking into insignifi-
cance." The ' History of the Sicilian Vespers' at once excited general
attention, and its bold denial of the common theory supported as it
was by a large body of new documents though much canvassed,
gained almost universal acquiescence. In Italy the prohibition ensured
for it a wide circle of readers ; it was translated into German by Dr.
J. F. Schroder of Hildesheim, and into English under the care of the
Earl of Ellesmere. A fourth edition of the original, with a new
preface and additional documents, was published at Florence in 1851.
At Paris Amari applied diligently to the study of Arabic, in order
to fit himself for the preparation of a history of Sicily during the
Mussulman occupation. He succeeded in mastering tho language, and
formed large collections of original materials for his projected history
from the libraries of Paris, London, and Oxford. These he was busily
employed in collating and digesting when intelligence reached him of
the revolution in Sicily, January 1848, and he at once cast aside his
books and proceeded to the seat of war. Before he could reach Palermo,
however, tho Neapolitans had for the time succumbed. Amari had
in his absence been named by the provisional government professor of
jurisprudence in the university of Palermo. He was now named a
member of the revolutionary committee, and elected a deputy for
Palermo to the parliament which at its meeting in April decreed tho
deposition of the Bourbon dynasty. He soon after received the office
kMAOB
AMIiERGER, CHRISTOPH.
194
, but thoufh be refused th. Mlaryof bisoffloe,
4 4U bit best to perform hi. duti, be found it impossible to t i.fy
the popular ii|in4>li<M. and after enduring what b* call* official
martyrdom foe fir. mootha, be WM gUd to exchange hU port f-T a
mhsYnii to Paris. The object of thia WM to obtain tb intervention
of the republican government; bui in thii he failed, and at the renewal
of boetilities in Sicily. March 1 849, b again irpairr.1 to Palermo. He
MW at onoe tb further resistance WM hopeless, and be left the city
April M. the day before it furreodered to the Neapolitan general
He reached Para in safrty, and once more returned to bit literary
punuita. Soon afterwards be puUUbed a political brochure, < La
Shak et lea Bourbona.' Hie subsequent publications bare been sug-
gelled by hie Arabia reeearches : Sol wan-af Mote, oeaa confetti politic!
di Ibo-Zafer, Arabo Sidliano del XII eecolo;' and tome paper, in the
Aafctio Journal*
AXA8I3, or AMOSIS, the eighth king, according to Africanut, of
the twenty-tilth dynacty of Egyptian kiugs, reigned from ac. 69 to
B.C. S24. Amatis wai a native of Sioupb, in the notno* (district) of Sail,
in the Delta. Being eent by Apriee (the Pharaoh Hophra of Scripture,
Jeran. Mr. SO) to etop a mutiny in the Egyptian army, be wan pro-
claimed king by the rebels, and defeated hii matter, who WM sup-
ported by a force of 30,000 Carians and Ionian Greeks. Anusis
became King of Egypt, and Apriee, being surrendered to the Egyptians,
WM put to death.
ft meets married a Greek wife from Cyrene, and allowed Greek
merctuDU to (ettle at Nancratis, and to build temples and bazaars.
Pythagoras and Solon are laid to have visited Egypt in his reign.
Amais decorated Sais with magnificent propylica to the temple of
Athene*, with oolossi and androsphinxes, and a monolith (one-stone)
temple brought 000 mile* down tie river from the quarries of Syene.
Sate, the royal reaidence of Amaais, which is now called Sa-cl-Hajar,
or Sa, ' the Rock,' exhibits only mounds of rubbish and pottery, and
untried bricks.
He placed a ooloesus 75 Greek feet long, flanked by two figures
SO feet high, in front of the temple of Hephaestus (Phtha) at Memphis.
lie placed another at Sais, of the same siie. Amatia also extended
thei commerce of Egypt by the conquest of Cyprus. Agriculture no
lees flourished during his reign. He was succeeded by his son Psam-
menitos, who was conquered by Cambyses the Persian, B.C. 625.
(Ztocrtpfum de rSffyple., Antiquiid, voL v. ; Herod., it 162-182.)
All ATI, the name of a family of violin-makers, resident at Cremona
from the first half of the 16th to the termination of the 17th century,
. f which the brothers Andrea and Nicolo appear to have been the
first who rivalled the eminent Tyrolese workmen.
in ranker previ
1789 the Baron de Bagge possessed an instrument which bore his
Afdrta Amali was a violin mnk
ions to the year 1551, for in
name and that date. For some years afterwards, Andrea, in con-
junction with his brother Nicolo, continued the manufacture of
violins, violas, and violoncellos, which to this day are justly valued by
all connoisseurs for their excellent form and finish, aud their sweet
and brilliant tone. Of their violoncellos few at present are known to
exist, and these are highly admired and prized. Nicolo, whose repu-
tation is more especially identified with these instruments, is some-
times erroneously confounded with his great nephew of the same
Antonio Amali, son of Andrea, was born at Cremona in 1565, and
for some time worked with bis brother Ueronimo. The violin which
Antonio made for Henry IV. of France is still in existence, richly
ornamented and in perfect order. Its date is 1.195. The instruments
of Ocronimo Amati are considered less valuable than those of his
brother. Nicolo Amati, the son of Oeronimo, was living in 1692, at
a very advanced age. He followed the form and proportions of the
violin which his ancestors had adopted, and which are thus described
bv Jacob Otto of Weimar, who, in the course of his business as a
vtolia-makrr, profuses to have bad thirty of their instruments pass
through hia bands : " All their instruments were constructed after
the simplest rules of mathematics, and the six which came into my
roassdon unspoilt were made nfu-r the following pro(>ortions. The
belly WM strongest where the bridge rests; it then diminished about
a third at that part where the / holes are cut, and where the belly rests
proportion* an beat adapted for producing a full, clear, and
Tnas
A1UTO
VmitcntUt oV
*"*' lf
"*
Otto, On Ike Violm
O, GIOVANNI ANTONIO D 1 , a distinguuhed painter of
the early half of the 10th century, and one of the best of the Nea-
potila* paiotera, WM horn at Naples in 1475. His master is not
known; be Mrmsto bare educated himself chiefly by studying the
works of Maertro Boooo, who died in 1486, and an alUu-meoe of
Retro Prrogino, which is In the cathedral of Naplrs.
AtMto iniiiinil that reverential feeling which associated art with
H MVW commetiord a picture of the Madonna and liatn-
Mao, hie most favourite subject, without first taking the sacrament,
and thus purifying himself for the holy task. He carried his feding
of propriety so far as to consider it wrong to paint even a partially
naked woman ; and impressed with this feeling he refused to jwint
the decorations of the triumphal arch which WM erected in honour
of Charles V. when lie visited Naples : he recommended Andrea da
Salerno to the authorities in his place.
Though as a painter be lived chiefly in the 16th century, bin style
is more that of the quattrooentisti, and is very similar to that of
Perugino, but, with equally good colouring, the forms of Amato are
fuller than those of Perugino. He painted in oil and in fresco, but
his frescos have almost all disappeared : they have either been white-
washed, or have disappeared in the repairing of their localities. His
best picture is considered to be the Dispute on the Sacrament, in the
Cathedral of Naples.
Amato was a man of general acquirements, and devoted much of
his time with assiduity and delight to the cultivation of letter*. II-
wrote a commentary upon difficult passages in the Sacred Scriptures.
Ho died at Naples in 1555, aged 80.
Of Amato's numerous scholars, his own nephew of the same name,
born in 1535, was one of the most distinguished. He was called II
Giovane, the Young, to distinguish him from his uncle, who, however,
was himself sometimes called II Vecchio, or the Elder. The nephew
after the death of his uncle studied with Oio. Bernardo Lama, an older
scholar of the elder Amato. His best work is a large and admirable
altar-piece of the Infant Christ, in the church of the Banco de' Poveri
at Naples : he was a beautiful colouriat He died at Naples in 1598.
(Dominici, Vile de Pittori, <<., ffapolilani.)
AMATO, or AMATUS, JOANNES RUUERICUS, often called
Amatus Lusitanus, a very eminent physician of the 16th century.
Amato was of a Jewish family, and was born at Castel-Branco, in the
province of Beira in Portugal, in 1511. Like many of his nation, con-
cealing his religious faith, he was educated at Salamanca ; after leaving
which he travelled in France, the Netherlands Germany, and Italy.
He remained for some time both at Venice and Ferrara, giving lectures
on the medical art. Before 1549 Amato bad removed to Ancona,
where he resided and practised his profession till 1555. While here
he had the honour of being several times called to Rome to attend
the Pope, Julius III. Dread of the Inquisition, however, whose
notice had been attracted to him as a concealed Jew, induced him, in
1555, to withdraw to Pesaro. From Pesaro he some time after
retired to liaguso, and from thence, in 1559, to Thessalonica (Saloniki),
where he mode open profession of the religion of his forefathers. He
is ascertained to have been olive in 1561, but no notice of him occurs
after that date, and it is not known when he died. Amato is the
author of two works, both of which were long ranked among the most
esteemed medical treatises of modern times. The one is entitled, in
the first edition, printed in 4 to, at Antwerp, in 1536, 'ExegemaU in
Priores duos Dioscoridis de Materia Medica Libros ;' and iu subse-
quent editions, ' Enarrationes in Diosooridem.' The other is his
' Curationum Medicinolium Centuriso Septem.' In both these works
the author is said to show an intimate acquaintance with the writings
of the Greek and Arabic physicians ; and they are also stated to con-
tain many curious notices both in medicine and in natural history.
Some of his biographers mention a translation into Spanish by Amato
of the ' Roman History ' of Eutropius.
AMAZIAH, or AMAZIAHU, means literally 'one strengthened
by Jehovah,' and is the name of the ninth king of Judah, who began
to reign when he was twenty-five years old, about the year n.c. 838,
after his father Joash had been murdered iu the house of Millo by
his own servant* Jozachor and Jehozabat. (2 Kings, xiv.) Aiuaziah
reigned twenty-nine years iu Jerusalem ; his mother's name was Jeho-
addan of Jerusalem. He fought with the Edomitcs, of whom he slew
20,000, and took Selah, and called it Joktucel. The name of Selah is
translated faro, ' rock,' by the Greeks. The remains at this place
in Arabia Petnea, between the Dead Sea and the Elauitic Gulf, are
described by Irby and Mangles (' Travels,' p. 336, &c.)
Amaziah next declared war against Jehoash, the king of Israel, but
was defeated and taken prisoner. Jerusalem was also taken and
plundered. Amaziah, however, recovered his liberty, and rc-igued
fifteen years after the death of Jehoath, whcu a conspiracy having
been formed against him, he fled to Licbish ; but he was pursued and
slain there, and buried in Jerusalem. He was succeeded by his son,
Azariah, 'help of Jehovah,' or Uaiah, 'power of Jehovah,' who WM
sixteen years old (2 Kings, xiv.; 2 Chron. xxv. ; Jos., ' Antiq.,' ix.
9, 10).
AMBERGER, CHRISTOPH, a celebrated old Gorman painter of
the 16th century, was of a family of Amberg in the Ober 1'falz, whence
his name ; but Amberger himself was, according to Von Mechel, born
at N urn berg about 1490. His father was a stonemason, and his grand-
father WM a carver in wood at Amberg. Nothing is known of
Amberger's early history previous to 1530, when he was air
painter of some note, ami in great employment at Augsburg. Tho
works which he executed at this time however were chiefly in dis-
temper. He painted the exteriors of some houses in this UIHIIIH-I- ;
and, upon canvas, twelve pictures of the history of Joseph in Egypt,
which are still a'. Augsburg.
Amberger painted also in oil and iu fresco. HU oil pictures are
chiefly portraits, much in the style of Holbein, whose portrait* he
185
AMBOISE, CARDINAL GEORGES D'.
AMBROSIUS, ST.
186
studied and copied. Fiorillo states that many of Amberger's copies
pass as the originals of Holbein. His historical pieces in oil are very
small, and executed in the hard manner and sharp gothic style of the
period in Germany, without any feeling for aerial perspective, though
the rules of linear perspective are well observed in his works : his
colouring is rich. His best works are at his native place, Amberg,
in the Church of St. Martin and in the Franciscan convent there.
Amberger is generally supposed to have died about 1563 at Augs-
burg : he was however still living in 1568, according to some judicial
records in that place.
(Sandrart, Teutsclte Academic, &c. ; Mechel, Catalogue des Tableaux,
<tc. de Vienne; Waagen, Gemalde Sammluny zt Berlin; Nagler,
A'< / nstl cr-LtJcicon. )
AMBOISE, CARDINAL GEORGES D', an eminent French eccle-
siastic and statesman. He was born in 1460, at the chateau of
Chaumont on the Loire, the seat of his family, which was one of the
most illustrious in France. Being a younger son he was educated for
the church, and was made Bishop of Montauban by the time he had
attained the age of fourteen. His first preferment at court was given
him by Louis XI., who made him his almoner. After the death of
this prince, however, in 1483, having connected himself with the
Duke of Orleans, who unsuccessfully disputed the regency with Anne
of Beaujeu, he shared the misfortunes of his party, and was along
with the duke himself put into confinement, from which he was not
released till six or seven years after, when the new king, Charles VIII.,
attained his majority. Soon after being restored to liberty he was pro-
moted to the archbishopric of Narbonne, which, in 1493, he exchanged
for that of Rouen. Here, besides presiding over his diocese, he acted
as the deputy of his friend the Duke of Orleans, who held the office
of governor of Normandy, and in that capacity introduced several
valuable reforms into the administration of the province. In 149S
the duke became king by the title of Louis XII., and from this time
D'Amboiee may be considered as prime minister of France. The
memorable events of the reign of Louis XII. are connected with the
assertion of his rights to the duchy of Milan, and the protracted wars
which he carried on in Italy to maintain that claim. In this part of
liis