or Addice, a cutting tool of the ax kind, chiefly used by coopers.

ÆACEA, in Grecian antiquity, solemn festivals and games celebrated at Ægina, in honour of Æacus. ÆACUS, the son of Jupiter by Ægina. When the isle of Ægina was depopulated by a plague, his father, in compassion to his grief, changed all the ants upon it into men and women, who were called Myrmidons, from μύρμηξ, an ant. The foundation of the fable is said to be, that when the country had been depopulated by pirates, who forced the few that remained to take shelter in caves, Æacus encouraged them to come out, and by commerce and industry recover what they had lost. His character for justice was such, that, in a time of universal drought, he was nominated by the Delphic oracle to intercede for Greece, and his prayer was answered. The Pagans also imagined that Æacus, on account of his impartial justice, was chosen by Pluto one of the three judges of the dead; and that it was his province to judge the Europeans.

ÆCHMALOTARCHA, in Jewish antiquity, a title given to the principal leader or governor of the Hebrew captives residing in Chaldea, Assyria, and the neighbouring countries. This magistrate was called by the Jews rosh-galath, i.e. the chief of the captivity.

ÆDES, in Roman antiquity, besides its more ordinary signification of a house, likewise signified an inferior kind of temple, consecrated to some deity.

ÆDICULA, a term used to denote the inner part of the temple, where the altar and statue of the deity stood.

ÆDILATE, the office of ædile, sometimes called Æditia. See the next article.

ÆDILE, ædilis, in Roman antiquity, a magistrate whose chief business was to superintend buildings of all kinds, but more especially public ones, as temples, aqueducts, bridges, &c. To the ædiles likewise belonged the care of the highways, public places, weights and measures, &c. They also fixed the prices of provisions, took cognizance of debauches, punished lewd women, and such persons as frequented gaming houses. The custody of the plebeian, or orders of the people, was likewise committed to them. They had the inspection of comedies and other pieces of wit; and were obliged to exhibit magnificent games to the people, at their own expense, whereby many of them were ruined. At first the ædiles were only two in number, and chosen from among the common people; but these being unable to support the expense of the public shows, two more were created out of the patrician order: these last took upon themselves all the charges of the games, and were called Ædiles Curules or Majores, as the two plebeians were denominated Minores. Julius Cæsar, in order to save these four, created two others, who were called Ædiles Cereales, as having the inspection of all manner of grain committed to their care. There were also ædiles in the municipal cities, who had much the same authority as those in Rome.

ÆEDITUS, in Roman antiquity, an officer belonging to the temple, who had the charge of the offerings, treasure, and sacred utensils. The female deities had a woman officer of this kind called Æditia.

ÆGAGROPILA, a ball composed of a substance resembling hair, generated in the stomach of the chamois-goat. This ball is of the same nature with those found in cows, hogs, &c.

ÆGEAE, or Ægea, (anc. geogr.) the name of Ædessa, so called from the following adventure: Caranus, the first king of Macedonia, being ordered by the oracle to seek out a settlement in Macedonia, under the conduct of a flock of goats, surprized the town of Ædessa, during a thick fog and rainy weather, in following the goats, that fled from the rain; which goats ever after, in all his military expeditions, he caused always to proceed his standard; and in memory of this he called Ædessa Ægea, and his people Ægeada. And hence probably, in the prophet Daniel, the he-goat is the symbol of the king of Macedon.

ÆGEAN SEA, (anc. geogr.) now the Archipelago, a part of the Mediterranean, separating Europe from Asia and Africa; washing, on the one hand, Greece and Macedonia; on the other, Caria and Ionia. The origin of the name is greatly disputed. Fellus advances three opinions: one, that it is so called from the many islands therein, at a distance appearing like so many goats: another, because Ægæa queen of the Amazons perished in it: a third opinion is, because Ægeus, the father of Theseus threw himself headlong into it.

ÆGEUS, in fabulous history, was king of Athens, and the father of Theseus. The Athenians having safely killed the son of Minos, king of Crete, for carrying away the prize from them, Minos made war upon the Athenians; and being victorious, imposed this heavy condition on Ægeus, that he should annually send into Crete, seven of the noblest of the Athenian youths, chosen by lot, to be devoured by the Minotaur. On the fourth year of this tribute, the choice fell on Theseus; or, as others say, he himself intreated to be sent. The king, at his son's departure, gave orders, that as the ship sailed with black sails, it should return with the same in case he perished; but, if he became victorious, he should change them into white. When Theseus returned to Crete, after killing the Minotaur, and forgot to change the sails in token of his victory, according to the agreement with his father; the latter, who watched the return of the vessel, supposing by the black sails that his son was dead, cast himself headlong into the sea, which afterwards obtained the name of the Ægean Sea. The Athenians decreed Ægeus divine honours; and sacrificed to him as a marine deity, the adopted son of Neptune.

ÆGIAS, among physicians, a white speck on the pupil of the eye, which occasions a dimness of sight.

ÆGIDA, (Pliny;) now Capo d'Ifria, the principal town in the north of the territory of Iliria, situated in a little island, joined to the land by a bridge. In an inscription, (Gruter,) it is called Ægidis Insula. E. Long. 14. 20. Lat. 45. 50. It was afterwards called Jufimopolis, after the emperor Jufinus.

ÆGILOPS; the name of a tumour in the eye, which frequently degenerates into a fitula lacrymalis.

ÆGILOPS, Wild Festuc, a genus of the monocota order, belonging to the polygamia clas of plants, is a native of Italy and some other parts of Europe. The root is composed of a few short white fibres: the plant grows to about a foot high: the stalk is round, hollow, jointed, and has two or three long, narrow, grassy leaves on it, hairy at the edges: at the top of the stalk grows a short spike consisting of two or three little rigid clusters of flowers: the seeds are large; and somewhat like barley, but flatter.

ÆGIMURUS, (anc. geogr.) an island on the bay of of Carthage, about thirty miles distant from that city, (Livy;) now the Galetta: This island being afterwards sunk in the sea, two of its rocks remained above water, which were called Ars, and mentioned by Virgil, because the Romans and Carthagians entered into an agreement or league to settle their mutual boundaries at these rocks.

ÆGINA, in fabulous history, the daughter of Æopos, king of Bactria, was beloved by Jupiter, who debauched her in the similitude of a lambent flame, and then carried her from Epidaurus to a desert island called Oenope, which afterwards obtained her own name.

ÆGINA, (anc. geogr.) now Engia, an island on the Saronic Bay, or Bay of Engia, twenty miles distant from the Piraeus, formerly vying with Athens for naval power, and at the sea-fight of Salamis disputing the palm of victory with the Athenians. It was the country and kingdom of Æacus, who called it Ægina from his mother's name, it being before called Oenopia, (Ovid.) The inhabitants were called Æginetæ, and Æginenses. The Greeks had a common temple in Ægina. The soil was glebe underneath, but rocky on the surface; yet yielding plenty of barley. The Æginetæ applied to commerce; and were the first who coined money, called Æginetan drachmae; hence Æginetum æs, formerly in great repute. The inhabitants were called Myrmidones, or a nation of ants, from their great application to agriculture. See Æacus.

ÆGINETA (Paulus), a celebrated surgeon of the island of Ægina, from whence he derived his name. According to Mr Le Clerc's calculation, he lived in the fourth century; but Abdulpharagus the Arabian, who is allowed to give the best account of those times, places him with more probability in the seventh. His knowledge in surgery was very great, and his works are deservedly famous. Fabricius ab Aquapendente has thought fit to transcribe him in a great variety of places. Indeed the doctrine of Paulus Ægineta, together with that of Celsus, and Albucasis, make up the whole text of this author. He is the first writer who takes notice of the cathartic quality of rhubarb; and, according to Dr Milward, is the first in all antiquity who deserves the title of a man-midwife.

ÆGIPAN, in heathen mythology, a denomination given to the god Pan, because he was represented with the horns, legs, feet, &c. of a goat.

ÆGIS, in heathen mythology, the shield which Jupiter presented to Minerva, after his having covered it with the skin of Amalthea, the goat who suckled him. Afterwards Minerva fixed Medusa's head in the middle of the ægis, which by this means obtained the power of turning all who saw it into stone.

ÆGISTHUS, son of Thyestes by his own daughter Pilopeia, who, to conceal her shame, exposed him in the woods: some say he was taken up by a shepherd, and suckled by a goat, whence he was called Ægithus. He corrupted Clytemnestra the wife of Agamemnon; and with her assistance slew her husband, and reigned seven years in Mycenæ. He was, together with Clytemnestra, slain by Orestes. Pompey used to call Julius Caesar Ægithus, on account of his having corrupted his wife Mutia, whom he afterward put away, though he had three children by her.

ÆGIUCHUS, in heathen mythology, a surname of Jupiter, given him on account of his having been suckled by a goat.

ÆGIUM, (anc. geogr.) a town of Achaia Propria, five miles from the place where Helice stood, and famous for the council of the Achæans, which usually met there, on account either of the dignity, or commodious situation of the place. It was also famous for the worship of Ægipan, Æsculapius, Conventional Jupiter, and of Panachaean Ceres. The territory of Ægium was watered by two rivers, viz. the Phoenix and Meganitis. The epithet is Ægiensis. There is a coin in the cabinet of the king of Prussia, with the inscription ΑΓΙΩΝ, and the figure of a tortoise, which is the symbol of Peloponnesus, and leaves no doubt as to the place where it was struck.

ÆGLEFINUS, or Haddock, in ichthyology, a species of the gadus. See Gadus.

ÆGOPODIUM, small wild Angelica, or Goutwort, a genus of the digynia order, belonging to the pentandra clas of plants, is very common under hedges, and about gardens; the leaves resemble those of Angelica, and it carries small white flowers. Its roots run so fast, as to render it a very troublesome weed.

ÆGOS POTAMOS, (anc. geogr.) a river in the Thracian Chersonesus, falling with a south-east course into the Hellespont, to the north of Sestos; also a town, station, or road for ships, at its mouth. Here the Athenians, under Conon, through the fault of his colleague Hocrates, received so fatal a blow from the Lacedemonians under Lysander, in a sea-engagement, as to cost them their liberty and their all.

ÆGYPT. See Egypt.

ÆGYPTIACUM, in pharmacy, the name of several detergent ointments. See Pharmacy, p. 992-993.

ÆGYPTILLA, in natural history, the name of a stone described by the ancients, and said, by some authors, to have the remarkable quality of giving water the colour and taste of wine. This seems a very imaginary virtue, as are indeed too many of those in former ages attributed to stones. The descriptions left us of this remarkable fossil tell us, that it was variegated with, or composed of, veins of black and white, or black and blueish, with sometimes a plate or vein of whitish red. The authors of these accounts seem to have understood by this name the several stones of the onyx, sardonyx, and camea kind, all which we have at present common among us, but none of which possess any such strange properties.

ÆGYPTUS, (fab. hist.) was the son of Beleus, and brother of Danaus. See Belides.

ÆINATTÆ, in antiquity, a denomination given to the senators of Miletus, because they held their deliberations on board a ship, and never returned to land till matters had been agreed on.

ÆLIAN (Claudius), born at Preneste in Italy. He taught rhetoric at Rome, according to Perizonius, under the emperor Alexander Severus. He was surnamed Ἐλαιώνας, honey-mouth, on account of the sweetness of his style. He was likewise honoured with the title of Sophist, an appellation in his days given only to men of learning and wisdom. He loved retirement, and devoted himself to study. He greatly admired and studied Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates, Plutarch, Homer, Anacreon, Archilochus, &c. and, though a Roman, gives ÆNEAS gives the preference to the writers of the Greek nation. His two most celebrated works are, his Various History, and History of Animals. He composed likewise a book on Providence, mentioned by Eustathius; and another on Divine Appearances, or The Declarations of Providence. There have been several editions of his Various History.

ÆLIUS PONS, (anc. geogr.) one of the fortresses near the wall or rampart, or, in the words of the Notitia, through the line of the hither wall; built, as is thought, by Adrian*. Now Portcullan, (Camden), (emperor,) in Northumberland, between Newcastle and Morpeth.

ÆLIUS PONS, now il Ponte S. Angelo, a stone-bridge at Rome, over the Tyber, which leads to the Borgo and Vatican from the city, along Adrian's mole, built by the emperor Adrian.

ÆLFRED. See Alfred.

ÆLURUS, in Egyptian mythology, the deity or god of cats; represented sometimes like a cat, and sometimes like a man with a cat's head. The Egyptians had so superstitious a regard for this animal, that the killing it, whether by accident or design, was punished with death: and Diodorus relates, that, in the time of extreme famine, they chose rather to eat one another, than touch these sacred animals.

ÆMILIUS (Paulus), the son of Lucius Paulus, who was killed at the battle of Cannae, was twice consul. In his first consulate he triumphed over the Ligurians; and in the second subduéd Perseus king of Macedonia, and reduced that country to a Roman province, on which he obtained the surname of Macedonicus. He returned to Rome loaded with glory, and triumphed for three days. He died 168 years before Christ.

ÆMILIUS (Paulus), a celebrated historian, born at Verona, who obtained such reputation in Italy, that he was invited into France by the cardinal of Bourbon, in the reign of Lewis XII. in order to write the history of the kings of France in Latin, and was given a canonry in the cathedral of Paris. He was near 30 years in writing that history, which has been greatly admired; and died at Paris on the 5th of May 1529.

ÆNARIA, (anc. geogr.) an island on the bay of Cumæ, or over-against Cumæ in Italy, (Pliny.) It is also called Inarina, (Virgil;) and now Ischia: scarce three miles distant from the coast, and the promontory Misenum to the west; 20 miles in compass; called Pithecusa by the Greeks. It is one of the Oenotrides, and fenced round by very high rocks, so as to be inaccessible but on one side; it was formerly famous for its earthen ware. See Ischia.

ÆNEAS, (fab. hist.) a famous Trojan prince, the son of Anchises and Venus. At the destruction of Troy, he bore his aged father on his back, and saved him from the Greeks; but being too solicitous about his son and household-gods, lost his wife Creusa in the escape. Landing in Africa, he was kindly received by queen Dido: but quitting her coast, he arrived in Italy, where he married Lavinia the daughter of king Latinus, and defeated Turnus, to whom she had been contracted. After the death of his father-in-law, he was made king of the Latins, over whom he reigned three years: but joining with the Aborigines, he was slain in a battle against the Tuscans. Virgil has rendered the name of this prince immortal, by making him the hero of his poem.

ÆNEAS SYLVIVS, (Pope). See Pius II.

ÆNEATORES, in antiquity, the musicians in an army, including those who played trumpets, horns, &c. The word is formed from æneus, on account of the brazen instruments used by them.

ÆNGINA, one of the islands of the Archipelago. It lies in the bay of Engria, and the town of that name contains about 800 houses and a castle; and near it are the ruins of a magnificent structure, which was probably a temple.

ÆNIGMA, denotes any dark saying, wherein some well-known thing is concealed under obscure language. The word is Greek, ἀνύμα, formed of ἀνεύμα, obscure immere, to hint a thing darkly, and of ἀνεύ, an obscure speech or discourse. The popular name is riddle; from the Belgic raedan, or the Saxon raedan, to interpret. Fa. Bouhours, in the memoirs of Trevoux, defines an enigma, A discourse, or painting, including some hidden meaning, which is proposed to be guessed.

Painted Ænigmas, are representations of the works of nature, or art, concealed under human figures, drawn from history, or fable.

A Verbal Ænigma, is a witty, artful, and abstruse description of any thing.—In a general sense, every dark saying, every difficult question, every parable, may pass for an enigma. Hence obscure laws are called Enigmata Juri. The alchemists are great dealers in the enigmatic language, their processes for the philosophers stone being generally wrapped up in riddles: e.g., Fac ex mare et femina circulum, inde quadrangulum, hinc triangulum, fac circulum, et habebis lapidem philosophorum.—F. Menclier has attempted to reduce the composition and resolution of enigmas to a kind of art, with fixed rules and principles, which he calls the philosophy of enigmatic images.

The Subject of an Ænigma, or the thing to be concealed and made a mystery of, he justly observes, ought not to be such in itself; but, on the contrary, common, obvious, and easy to be conceived. It is to be taken, either from nature, as the heavens, or stars; or from art, as painting, the compass, a mirror, or the like.

The Form of Ænigmas consists in the words, which, whether they be in prose or verse, contain either some description, a question, or a propositio. The last kind are the most pleasing, insomuch as they give life and action to things which otherwise have them not. To make an enigma, therefore, two things are to be pitched on, which bear some resemblance to each other; as the sun, and a monarch; or a ship, and a house: and on this resemblance is to be raised a superstructure of contrarieties to amuse and perplex. It is easier to find great subjects for enigmas in figures than in words, insomuch as painting attracts the eyes and excites the attention to discover the sense. The subjects of enigmas in painting, are to be taken either from history or fable: the composition here is a kind of metamorphosis, wherein, e.g., human figures are changed into trees, and rivers into metals. It is essential to enigmas, that the history or fable, under which they are presented, be known to everybody; otherwise it will be two enigmas instead of one; the first of the history or fable, the second of the sense in which it It is to be taken. Another essential rule of the enigma is, that it only admit of one sense. Every enigma which is susceptible of different interpretations, all equally natural, is so far imperfect. What gives a kind of erudition to an enigma, is the invention of figures in situations, gestures, colours, &c. authorized by passages of the poets, the customs of artists in statues, basso relievos, inscriptions, and medals.—In foreign colleges,

The explication of Enigmas makes a considerable exercise; and that one of the most difficult and amusing, where wit and penetration have the largest field.—By explaining an enigma, is meant the finding a motto corresponding to the action and persons represented in a picture, taken either from history or mythology. The great art of this exercise consists in the choice of a motto, which either by itself, or the circumstances of time, place, person who speaks, or those before whom he is speaking, may divert the spectators, and furnish occasion for strokes of wit; also in shewing to advantage the conformities between the figure and thing figured, giving ingenious turns to the reasons employed to support what is advanced, and in artfully introducing pieces of poetry to illustrate the subject and awaken the attention of the audience.

As to the solution of enigmas, it may be observed, that those expressed by figures are more difficult to explain than those consisting of words, by reason images may signify more things than words can; so that to fix them to a particular sense, we must apply every situation, symbol, &c. and without omitting a circumstance.—As there are few persons in history, or mythology, but have some particular character of vice or virtue, we are, before all things, to attend to this character, in order to divine what the figure of a person represented in a painting signifies, and to find what agreement this may have with the subject whereof we would explain it. Thus, if Proteus be represented in a picture, it may be taken to denote insincerity, and applied either to a physical or moral subject, whose character is to be changeable; e.g. an almanack, which expresses the weather, the seasons, heat, cold, storms, and the like. The colours of figures may also help to unriddle what they mean: white, for instance, is a mark of innocence, red of modesty, green of hope, black of sorrow, &c. When figures are accompanied with symbols, they are less precarious; these being, as it were, the soul of enigmas, and the key that opens the mystery of them. Of all the kinds of symbols which may be met with in those who have treated professedly on the subject, the only truly enigmatical are those of Pythagoras, which, under dark proverbs, hold forth lessons of morality; as when he says, State-ram ne tranfiliat, to signify, Do no injustice.

But it must be added, that we meet with some enigmas in history, complicated to a degree which much transcends all rules, and has given great perplexity to the interpreters of them. Such is that celebrated ancient one, Elia Lalia Griffo, about which many of the learned have puzzled their heads. There are two exemplars of it: one found 140 years ago, on a marble near Bologna; the other in an ancient MS. written in Gothic letters, at Milan. It is controverted between the two cities, which is to be reputed the more authentic.

The Bononian Enigma.

D. M.

Elia Lalia Griffo, Nec vir, nec mulier; Nec androgyna; Nec puella, nec juvenis; Nec anus; Nec castra, nec meretrice; Nec pudica; Sed omnia; Sublata Neque fames, neque ferro; Neque veneno; Sed omnibus; Nec exilo, nec terris; Nec aqua; Sed ubique jacet. Lucius Agatio Priscus; Nec maritus, nec amator; Nec necessearius; Neque merenti, neque gaudenti; Neque flumine; Hanc, Nec molem, nec pyramidem; Nec sepulchrum; Sed omnia; Seit et necsit, cui posuerit.

That is to say, To the gods manes, Elia Lalia Griffo, neither man, nor woman, nor hermaphrodite; neither girl, nor young woman, nor old; neither chaste, nor a whore; but all these: killed neither by hunger, nor steel, nor poison; but by all these: rests neither in heaven, nor on earth, nor in the waters; but everywhere. Lucius Agatio Priscus, neither her husband, nor lover, nor friend; neither sorrowful, nor joyful, nor weeping, certain, or uncertain, to whom he rears this monument, neither erects her a temple, nor a pyramid, nor a tomb, but all these. In the MS. at Milan, instead of D. M. we find A. M. P. P. D. and at the end the following addition:

Hoc est sepulchrum intus cadaver non habent; Hoc est cadaver sepulchrum extra non habent; Sed cadaver idem est & sepulchrum.

We find near 50 several solutions of this enigma advanced by learned men. Marius Michael Angelus maintains Elia Lalia Griffo to signify rain-water falling into the sea. Ri. Vitus first explained it of Niobe turned to a stone, afterwards of the rational soul, and afterwards of the Platonic idea; Jo. Turrius, of the materia prima; Fr. Schottus, of an eunuch; Nic. Bernardus, of the philosophers-stone, in which he is followed by Borrichius; Zach. Pontinus, of three human bodies in the same situation, and buried by three different men at the same time; Neomondius, of a law-suit; Jo. Gaf. Geratius, of love; Zu. Boxhornius, of a shadow; P. Terronus, of music; Fort. Licetus, of generation, friendship, and privation; M. Ov. Montalbanus, of hemp; Car. Cef. Malafina, of an abortive girl promised in marriage; Pet. Mongulus, of the rule of chastity, prescribed by the founder of the military religion of St Mary; M. de Ciconia, of pope Joan; Heumannus, of Lot's wife; and lastly, J. C. S. an anonymous writer in the Leipzic Acts, of the Christian church.

or Enigmatology, the art of resolving or making enigmas.

ÆOLIAE INSULÆ, now Isole di Lipari, (anc. geogr.) seven islands, situated between Sicily and Italy, (Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, Mela); so called from Æolus, who reigned there about the time of the Trojan war. The Greeks call them Hephaestiades; and the Romans, Vulcaniae, from their fiery eruptions. They are also called Liparorum Insulae, from the principal island Lipara. Dionysius Periegetes calls them insulæ, because circumnavigable.

ÆOLIC, in a general sense, denotes something belonging to Æolis.

Æolic Dialect, among grammarians, one of the five dialects of the Greek tongue, agreeing in most things with the Doric dialect. See Doric.

Æolic Verse, in profody, a verse consisting of an iambus, or spondeus; then of two anapests, separated by a long syllable; and, lastly, of another syllable. Such as, ὁ σκληρὸς κόσμος ἀρίστῃ.

ÆOLIPILE, in hydraulics, is a hollow ball of metal, generally used in courses of experimental philosophy, in order to demonstrate the possibility of converting water into an elastic steam or vapour by heat. The instrument, therefore, consists of a slender neck, or pipe, having a narrow orifice inserted into the ball by means of a shouldered screw. This pipe being taken out, the ball is filled almost full of water, and the pipe being again screwed in, the ball is placed on a pan of kindled charcoal, where it is well heated, and there issues from the orifice a vapour, with prodigious violence and great noise, which continues till all the included water is discharged. The stronger the fire is, the more elastic and violent will be the steam; but care must be taken that the small orifice of the pipe be not, by any accident, stopped up; because the instrument would in that case infallibly burst in pieces, with such violence as may greatly endanger the lives of the persons near it. Another way of introducing the water is to heat the ball red-hot when empty, which will drive out almost all the air; and then by suddenly immersing it in water, the pressure of the atmosphere will force in the fluid, till it is nearly full. Descartes and others have used this instrument to account for the natural cause and generation of the wind; and hence it was called Æolopile; q. d. pila Æoli, the ball of Æolus or of the god of the winds.

ÆOLIS, or Æolis, (anc. geogr.) a country of the Hither Asia, settled by colonies of Æolian Greeks. Taken at large, it comprehends all Troas, and the coast of the Hellespont to the Propontis, because in those parts there were several Æolian colonies: more strictly, it is situated between Troas to the north, and Ionia to the south. The people are called Æoloi, or Æolit.

ÆOLIUM MARE, (anc. geogr.) a part of the Egean sea, washing Æolis; called also Myssum, from Mytilia. Now called, Gialfo di Smyrna.

ÆOLUS, in heathen mythology, the god of the winds, is said to be the son of Jupiter by Acacria, or Sigefia, the daughter of Hippotus; or, according to others, the son of Hippotus by Meneclea, daughter of Hyllus king of Lipara. He dwelt in the island Strongyle, now called Stromboli, one of the seven islands called Æolian from their being under the dominion of Æolus. Others say, that his residence was at Regium, in Italy; and others again place him in the island Lipara. He is represented as having authority over the winds, which he held enchained in a vast cavern, to prevent their continuing the devastations they had been guilty of before they were put under his direction. Mythologists explain the original of these fables, by saying, that he was a wise and good prince; and, being skilled in astronomy, was able, by the flux and reflux of the tides, and the nature of the volcano in the island Strongyle, to foretell storms and tempests.

Harp of Æolus, or the Æolian Lyre.

ÆON, a Greek word, properly signifying the age or duration of anything.

Æon, among the followers of Plato, was used to signify any virtue, attribute, or perfection; hence they represented the Deity as an assemblage of all possible sons; and called him personæ, a Greek term signifying fullness. The Valentinians, who, in the first ages of the church, blended the conceits of the Jewish cabalists, the Platonists, and the Chaldean philosophers, with the simplicity of the Christian doctrine, invented a kind of Theogony, or Genealogy of Gods (not unlike that of Heliad), whom they called by several glorious names, and all by the general appellation of Æons: among which they reckoned Zan, Life; Ælos, Word; Monarchos, Only-begotten; Æmona, Fullness; and many other divine powers and emanations, amounting in number to thirty: which they fancied to be successively derived from one another; and all from one self-originated deity, named Bythos, i. e. profound or unfathomable; whom they called likewise, The most high and ineffable Father. See Valentinians.

ÆQUIMELIUM, in antiquity, a place in Rome, where stood the house of Sulpicius Melius, who, by largesses corrupting the people, affected the supreme power; refusing to appear before the dictator Cincinnatus, he was slain by Servilius Ahala, master of the horse; his house was razed to the ground; and the spot on which it stood was called Area Equimelitis. (Livy).

ÆRA. The point of time from whence any number of years is begun to be counted, is called a period, era, or epoch. The word era comes from the Latin æra, because the Romans marked their years with a kind of small brass nails. The difference between the terms era and epoch is, that the eras are certain points fixed by some people, or nation; and the epochs are points fixed by chronologists and historians. The idea of an era comprehends also a certain succession of years proceeding from a fixed point of time, and the epoch is that point itself. Thus the Christian era began at the epoch of the birth of Jesus Christ.

ÆRIAL, in a general sense, denotes something partaking of the nature of air; thus, aerial substance, aerial particles, &c.

ÆRIANS, in church-history, a branch of Arians, who, to the doctrines of that sect, added some peculiar dogmas of their own; as, that there is no difference between bishops and priests; a doctrine maintained by many modern divines, particularly of the presbyterian and reformed churches.

Flos Æris, among alchemists, small scales procured from copper melted by a strong heat; it is sometimes used for serugo or verdigrise.