in fabulous history, the daughter of Aetopos, king of Brotia, was beloved by Jupiter, who dehaunched her in the similitude of a lambent flame, and then carried her from Epidaurus to a desert island called Oenippe, which afterwards obtained her own name.
(anc. geog.), an island on the Saronic Bay, or Bay of Engia, 20 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 Aecus, who called it Aegina from his mother's name, it being before called Oenopia, (Ovid). The inhabitants were called Aeginetae, and Aeginenses. The Greeks had a common temple dedicated to Jupiter in Aegina. Aegina. The Aeginetae applied to commerce; and were the first who coined money, called νομίσματα ἀργυρά: hence Aegineticum ars, formerly in great repute. The inhabitants were called Myrmidonites, or a nation of ants, from their great application to agriculture. See AEACUS.
This island was surrounded by Attica, the territory of Megara, and the Peloponnesus, each distant about 100 stadia, or 12 miles and a half. In circumference it was reckoned 180 stadia, or 22 miles and a half. It was washed on the east and south by the Myrtoan and Cretan seas.
It is now called Egina, or Egin, the g soft and the i short. The temple above-mentioned is situated upon the summit of a mountain called Panhellenius, about an hour distant from the shore. The Aeginetas affirmed it was erected by AEacus; in whose time Hellas being terribly oppressed by drought, the Delphic oracle was consulted; and the response was, That Jupiter must be rendered propitious by AEacus. The cities intreated him to be their mediator: He sacrificed and prayed to Jupiter Panhellenius, and procured rain.
The temple was of the Doric order, and had six columns in front. Twenty-one of the exterior columns are yet standing, with two in the front of the pronaos and of the porticus, and five of the number which formed the ranges of the cell. The entablature, except the architrave, is fallen. The stone is of a light brownish colour, much eaten in many places, and indicating a very great age. Some of the columns have been injured by boring to their centres for the metal. In several, the junction of the parts is so exact, that each seems to consist of one piece. This ruin Mr Chandler considers as scarcely to be paralleled in its claim to a remote antiquity. The situation on a lonely mountain, at a distance from the sea, has preserved it from total demolition, amid all the changes and accidents of numerous centuries.
Near the shore is a burrow, raised, it is related, for Phocus, upon the following occasion. Telamon and Peleus, sons of AEacus, challenged their half-brother Phocus to contend in the Pentathlum. In throwing the stone, which served as a quoit, Pelens hit Phocus, who was killed; when both of them fled. Afterwards, Telamon sent a herald to assert his innocence. AEacus would not suffer him to land, or to apologize, except from the vessel; or, if he chose rather, from a heap cast up in the water. Telamon, entering the private port by night, raised a barrow, as a token, it is likely, of a pious regard for the deceased. He was afterwards condemned, as not free from guilt; and failed away again to Salamis. The barrow in the second century, when seen by Paufanias, was surrounded with a fence, and had on it a rough stone. The terror of some dreadful judgment to be inflicted from heaven had preserved it entire and unaltered to his time; and in a country depopulated and neglected, it may still endure for many ages.
The soil of this island is, as described by Strabo, very stony, especially the bottoms, but in some places not unfertile in grain. Besides corn, it produces olives, grapes, and almonds; and abounds in pigeons and partridges. It has been related, that the Aeginetas annually wage war with the feathered race, care- fully collecting or breaking their eggs, to prevent their multiplying, and in consequence a yearly famine. They have no hares, foxes, or wolves. The rivers in summer are all dry. The vauvode or governor farms the revenue of the Grand Signior for 12 purfes, or 6000 piastres. About half this sum is repaid yearly by the caratcach-money, or poll-tax.
ÆGINA, the capital of the above island. Its site has been long forsaken. Instead of the temples mentioned by Pausanias, there are 13 lonely churches, all very mean; and two Doric columns supporting their architrave. These stand by the sea-side toward the low cape; and, it has been supposed, are a remnant of a temple of Venus, which was situated by the port principally frequented. The theatre, which is recorded as worth seeing, resembled that of the Epidaurians both in size and workmanship. It was not far from the private port; the stadium, which, like that at Priene, was constructed with only one side, being joined to it behind, and each structure mutually sustaining and propping the other. The walls belonging to the ports and arsenal were of excellent masonry, and may be traced to a considerable extent, above, or nearly even with, the water. At the entrance of the mole, on the left, is a small chapel of St Nicholas; and opposite, a square tower with steps before it, detached, from which a bridge was laid across, to be removed on any alarm. This structure, which is mean, was erected by the Venetians, while at war with the Turks in 1693.
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 Abulpharagius 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.
ÆGINHARD, the celebrated secretary and supposed son-in-law of Charlemagne. He is said to have been carried through the snow on the shoulders of the affectionate and ingenious Imma, to prevent his being tracked from her apartments by the emperor her father; a story which the elegant pen of Addison has copied and embellished from an old German chronicle, and inserted in the 3d volume of the Spectator.—This happy lover (supposing the story to be true) seems to have possessed a heart not unworthy of so enchanting a mistress, and to have returned her affection with the most faithful attachment; for there is a letter of Æginhard's still extant, lamenting the death of his wife, which is written in the tenderest strain of conubial affliction;—it does not, however, express that this lady was the affectionate princess, and indeed some late critics have proved that Imma was not the daughter of Charlemagne.—But to return to our historian: He was a native of Germany, and educated by the munificence of his imperial master, of which he has left the most grateful testimony in his preface to the life of that monarch.
Æginhard, after the loss of his lamented wife, is supposed to have passed the remainder of his days in religious retirement, and to have died soon after the year 840. His life of Charlemagne, his annals from 741 to 889, and his letters, are all inserted in the 2d volume of Duchesne's Scriptores Francorum. But there is an improved edition of this valuable historian, with the annotations of Hermann Schmucke, in 4to, 1711.
ÆGIPAN, in heathen mythology, a denomination given to the god Pan, because he was represented with the horns, legs, feet, &c. of a goat.
ÆGIPHILA, Goat-friend; a genus of the monogynia order, belonging to the tetrandra class of plants; the characters of which are: The calyx is a single-leaved perianthium, bell-shaped, four-toothed, loose, very short, and persistent: The corolla consists of one petal; the tubus cylindric, narrower and longer than the calyx; the border divided into four segments, flat and equal; the divisions oblong: The stamens consist of four erect capillary filaments; the antherae are incumbent and squared: The pistillum has a germen above; a capillary, two-cleft, middle-sized style; and a simple stigma: The pericarpium is a roundish unilocular berry: The seeds are four. There is only one species, a native of Martinico.
ÆGIS, in the ancient mythology, a name given to the shield or buckler of Jupiter and Pallas.
The goat Amalthea, which had suckled Jove, being dead, that god is said to have covered his buckler with the skin thereof; whence the appellation ægis, from ἀγείς, αγείας, ἀγεῖας. Jupiter, afterwards restoring the beast to life again, covered it with a new skin, and placed it among the stars. As to his buckler, he made a present of it to Minerva; whence that goddess's buckler is also called ægis.
Minerva, having killed the Gorgon Medusa, nailed her head in the middle of the ægis, which henceforth had the faculty of converting into stone all those who looked thereon; as Medusa herself had done during her life.
Others take the ægis not to have been a buckler, but a cuirass, or breast-plate: and it is certain the ægis of Pallas, described by Virgil, Æn. lib. viii. ver. 435, must have been a cuirass; since that poet says expressly, that Medusa's head was on the breast of the goddess. But the ægis of Jupiter, mentioned a little higher, ver. 354, seems to have been a buckler: the words
Cum sepe nigrantem
Ægida concuteret dextra,
agreeing very well to a buckler; but not at all to a cuirass or breast-plate.
Servius makes the same distinction on the two passages of Virgil: for on verse 354, he takes the ægis for the buckler of Jupiter, made, as above-mentioned, of the skin of the goat Amalthea; and on verse 435 he describes the ægis as the armour which covers the breast, and which in speaking of men is called cuirass, and ægis in speaking of the gods. Many authors have overlooked these distinctions for want of going to the sources.
ÆGISTHUS, in ancient history, was the 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 Ægyihius. He corrupted Clytemnestra ÆGITHALLUS (anc. geog.), a promontory and citadel of Sicily, between Drepanum and the Emporium Aegititanum, afterwards called Accellus; corruptly written Aegitharos, in Ptolemy; situate near mount Eryx, and now called Capo di Sante Teodoro.
ÆGIUM, (anc. geog.) a town of Achaia Propria, five miles from the place where Helice stood, and famous for the council of the Acheans, which usually met there on account either of the dignity or commodious situation of the place. It was also famous for the worship of Θεάς Ἀγίας, Conventional Jupiter, and of Panachaeon Ceres. The territory of Ægium was watered by two rivers, viz. the Phoenix and Meganitis. The epithet is Ægianus. There is a coin in the cabinet of the king of Prussia, with the inscription API, and the figure of a tortoise, which is the symbol of Peloponnesus, and leaves no doubt as to the place where it was struck.
ÆGOBOLIUM, in antiquity, the sacrifice of a goat offered to Cybele. The æcobolium was an expiatory sacrifice, which bore a near resemblance to the taurobolium and criobolium, and seems to have been sometimes joined with them.
ÆGOPODIUM, small wild Angelica, Goutwort, Goatsfoot, Herb Gerard, or Ashweed; a genus of the digynia order, belonging to the pentandra clas of plants; the characters of which are: The universal calyx is a manifold convex umbel; the partial one, confimilar and flat; there is no involucrum; and the proper perianthium is scarcely discernible: The universal corolla is uniform, the florets all fertile; the proper one has five inverse-ovate, concave, equal petals, inflected at the top: The stamina consist of five simple filaments twice the length of the corolla; the anthera roundish: The pistillum has a germen beneath; two purple erect styli the length of the corolla; the stigmata are headed: No pericarpium: The fruit is ovate, striated, and bipartite: The seeds are two, ovate, on one side convex and striated, and flat on the other. There is but one species, a native of Britain and other parts of Europe. It 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.
ÆGOPRICON, a genus of the monœcia order, belonging to the diaandra clas of plants; the characters of which are: The calyx both of the male and female is a tubular perianthium of one leaf divided into three segments: Corolla wanting in both: The stamina consist of a single erect filament longer than the calyx, with an ovate anthera: The pistillum has an ovate germen, three divaricated styli, and simple persistent stigmata: The pericarpium is a globular berry, three-grained within, and three-cell'd: The seeds are solitary, and angular on one side.—There is but one species, a native of Surinam.
ÆGOSPOTAMOS, (anc. geog.), a river in the Thracian Chersonesus, falling with a south-east course into the Hellepont, 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 Ifocrates, received a signal overthrow from the Lacedemonians under Lyfander, which was followed by the taking of Athens, and put an end to the Peloponnesian war. The Athenian fleet having followed the Lacedemonians, anchored in the road, over against the enemy, who lay before Lampiacus. The Hellepont is not above two thousand paces broad in that place. The two armies seeing themselves so near each other, expected only to rest that day, and were in hopes of coming to a battle on the next.
But Lyfander had another design in his view. He commanded the seamen and pilots to go on board their galleys, as if they were in reality to fight the next morning at break of day, to hold themselves in readiness, and to wait his orders with profound silence. He commanded the land-army in like manner to draw up in battle upon the coast, and to wait the day without noise. On the morrow, as soon as the sun was risen, the Athenians began to row towards them with their whole fleet in one line, and to bid them defiance. Lyfander, though his ships were ranged in order of battle, with their heads towards the enemy, lay still without making any movement. In the evening, when the Athenians withdrew, he did not suffer his soldiers to go ashore, till two or three galleys, which he had sent out to observe them, were returned with advice that they had seen the enemy land. The next day palled in the same manner, as did the third and fourth. Such a conduct, which argued reserve and apprehension, extremely augmented the security and boldness of the Athenians, and inspired them with an extreme contempt for an army, which fear, in their senses, prevented from showing themselves, and attempting anything.
Whilst this passed, Alcibiades, who was near the fleet, took horse, and came to the Athenian generals; to whom he represented, that they kept upon a very disadvantageous coast, where there were neither ports nor cities in the neighbourhood; that they were obliged to bring their provisions from Sestos with great danger and difficulty; and that they were very much in the wrong to suffer the soldiers and mariners of the fleet, as soon as they were ashore, to straggle and disperse themselves at their own pleasure, whilst they were faced in view by the enemy's fleet, accustomed to execute the orders of their general with the readiest obedience, and upon the slightest signal. He offered also to attack the enemy by land with a strong body of Thracian troops, and to force them to a battle. The generals, especially Tydeus and Meander, jealous of their command, did not content themselves with refusing his offers, from the opinion, that if the event proved unfortunate, the whole blame would fall on them, and if favourable, that Alcibiades alone would have the honour of it; but rejected also with insult his wife and salutary counsel, as if a man in disgrace lost his sense and abilities with the favour of the commonwealth. Alcibiades withdrew.
The fifth day the Athenians presented themselves again, and offered battle; retiring in the evening according to custom with more insulting airs than the days before. Lyfander, as usual, detached some galleys to observe them, with orders to return with the utmost utmost diligence when they saw the Athenians landed, and to put up a brazen buckler at each ship's head as soon as they reached the middle of the channel. Himself in the mean time ran through the whole line in his galley, exhorting the pilots and officers to hold the seamen and soldiers in readiness to row and fight on the first signal.
As soon as the bucklers were put up in the ships heads, and the admiral galley had given the signal by the sound of trumpet, the whole fleet set forward in good order. The land-army at the same time made all possible haste to the top of the promontory to see the battle. The strait that separates the two continents in this place is about fifteen stadia, or three quarters of a league in breadth; which space was presently cleared through the activity and diligence of the rowers. Conon the Athenian general was the first who perceived from thence, that fleet advance in good order to attack him; upon which he immediately cried out for the troops to embark. In the height of sorrow and trouble, some he called to by their names, some he conjured, and others he forced to go on board their galleys; but all his endeavours and emotion were ineffectual, the soldiers being dispersed on all sides. For they were no sooner come on shore, than some run to the furlers, some to walk in the country, some to sleep in their tents, and others had begun to dress their suppers. This proceeded from the want of vigilance and experience in their generals, who, not suspecting the least danger, indulged themselves in their taking repose, and gave their soldiers the same liberty.
The enemy had already fallen on with loud cries and a great noise of their oars, when Conon, disengaging himself with nine galleys, of which number was the sacred ship called the Paralian, stood away for Cyprus, where he took refuge with Evagoras. The Peloponnesians, falling upon the rest of the fleet, took immediately the galleys which were empty, and disabled and destroyed such as began to fill with men. The soldiers, who ran without order or arms to their relief, were either killed in the endeavour to get on board, or flying on shore were cut to pieces by the enemy, who landed in pursuit of them. Lyfander took 3000 prisoners, with all the generals, and the whole fleet. After having plundered the camp, and fastened the enemy's galleys to the sterns of his own, he returned to Lampacus amidst the sound of flutes and songs of triumph. It was his glory to have achieved one of the greatest military exploits recorded in history with little or no loss, and to have terminated a war in the small space of an hour, which had already lasted 27 years, and which, perhaps, without him, had been of much longer continuance.
ÆGYPT. See EGYPT.
ÆGYPTIACUM, in pharmacy, the name of several detergent ointments; which are described under the article OINTMENT.
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 Belcus, and brother of Danaus. See BELIDES.
ÆINATÆ, 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 nicknamed Μέλισσα, 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, Archilocheus, &c., and, though a Roman, 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. geog.), one of the fortresses near the wall or rampart, or, in the words of the Notitia, through the line of the hither walls; built, as is thought, by Adrian*. Now Portland, (Camden), in Northumberland, between Newcastle and Morpeth. (emperor.)
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 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.
AFM, AM, or AME, a liquid measure used in most parts of Germany; but different in different towns; the acre commonly contains 20 vertils, or 80 maffes; that of Heidelberg is equal to 48 maffes; and that of Würtemberg to 160 maffes. See AM.
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 subdued 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.
**ÆMOBOLIUM**, in antiquity, the blood of a bull or ram offered in the sacrifices, called *taurobolia* and *criobolia*; in which sense the word occurs in ancient inscriptions.
**ÆNARIA** (anc. geog.), an island on the bay of Cumae, or over-against Cumae in Italy, (Pliny.) It is also called *Inarime*, (Virgil;) and now *Ischia*: scarce three miles distant from the coast, and the promontory Misenum to the west; 20 miles in compass; called *Pithecia* 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. See *Æneid*.
**ÆNEAS SYLVIVUS**, (Pope). See *Pius II*.
**ÆNEATORES**, in antiquity, the musicians in an army, including those who played trumpets, horns, &c. The word is formed from *aneus*, on account of the brass instruments used by them.
**ÆNEID**, the name of Virgil's celebrated epic poem. The subject of the *Æneid*, which is the establishment of Æneas in Italy, is extremely happy. Nothing could be more interesting to the Romans than to look back to their origin from so famous a hero. While the object was splendid itself, the traditionary history of his country opened interesting fields to the poet; and he could glance at all the future great exploits of the Romans, in its ancient and fabulous state.
As to the unity of action, it is perfectly well preserved in the *Æneid*. The settlement of Æneas, by the order of the gods, is constantly kept in view. The episodes are linked properly with the main subject. The nodus, or intrigue of the poem, is happily managed. The wrath of Juno, who opposes Æneas, gives rise to all his difficulties, and connects the human with the celestial operations throughout the whole poem.
One great imperfection of the *Æneid*, however, is, that there are almost no marked characters in it. Achates, Cloanthes, Gyas, and other Trojan heroes who accompanied Æneas into Italy, are insipid figures. Even Æneas himself is without interest. The character of Dido is the best supported in the whole *Æneid*.
The principal excellency of Virgil is tenderness. His soul was full of sensibility. He must have felt himself all the affecting circumstances in the scenes he describes; and he knew how to touch the heart by a single stroke. In an epic poem this merit is the next to sublimity. The second book of the *Æneid* is one of the greatest master-pieces that ever was executed. The death of old Priam, and the family-pieces of Æneas, Anchises, and Creusa, are as tender as can be conceived. In the fourth book, the unhappy passion and death of Dido are admirable. The episodes of Pallas and Evander, of Nisus and Euryalus, of Lausus and Mezentius, are all superlatively fine.
In his battles, Virgil is far inferior to Homer. But in the important episode, the descent into hell, he has outdone Homer by many degrees. There is nothing in antiquity to equal the fifth book of the *Æneid*.
**ÆNGINA**, one of the islands of the Archipelago. It lies in the bay of Engia, 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, *anigma*, formed of *an* (not), *igma* (a figure), *inmuere*, to hint a thing darkly, and of *anu*, an obscure speech or discourse. The popular name is *riddle*; from the Belgic *ræden*, or the Saxon *araethan*, to interpret. Fa. Bouhours, in the memoirs of Trevoux, defines an *anigma*, 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 *anigma*. 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 feminina circulum, inde quadrangulum, hinc triangulum, fac circulum, et habebis lapidem philosophorum.*—F. Menetrier has attempted to reduce the composition and resolution of *anigmas* to a kind of art, with fixed rules and principles, which he calls the philosophy of *anigmatic* 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 propopoezia. The last kind are the most pleasing, inasmuch as they give life and action to things which otherwise have them not. To make an *anigma*, 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 *anigmas* 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, tamorphosis, wherein, e.g., human figures are changed into trees, and rivers into metals. It is essential to ænigmas, that the history or fable, under which they are presented, be known to every body; otherwise it will be two ænigmas instead of one; the first of the history or fable, the second of the sense in which it is to be taken. Another essential rule of the ænigma is, that it only admit of one sense. Every ænigma which is susceptible of different interpretations, all equally natural, is so far imperfect. What gives a kind of erudition to an ænigma, is the invention of figures in situations, gestures, colours, &c. authorised by passages of the poets, the customs of artists in statues, bas-reliefs, inscriptions, and medals.—In foreign colleges,
The Explication of Ænigmas makes a considerable exercise; and that one of the most difficult and amusing, where wit and penetration have the largest field.
—By explaining an ænigma, 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 showing 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 ænigmas, 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 inconstancy, 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 ænigmas, 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 ænigmatical are those of Pythagoras, which, under dark proverbs, hold forth lessons of morality; as when he says, State ram ne transfiri, to signify, Do no injustice.
But it must be added, that we meet with some ænigmas 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 Grifinis, 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 Ænigma.
D. M.
Elia Lalia Grifinis, Nec vir, nec mulier, Nec androgyna; Nec puella, nec juvenis, Nec anus; Nec castra, nec meretrix, Nec pudica; Sed omnia: Sublata Neque sane, neque ferro, Neque veneno; Sed omnibus: Nec calo, nec terris, Nec aquis, Sed ubique facit. Lucius Agatho Priscius, Nec maritus, nec amator, Nec necessarius; Neque merens, neque gaudens, Neque scitis; Hanc, Nec molem, nec pyramidem, Nec sepulchrum, Sed omnia. Scit et necsit, cui posuerit.
That is to say, To the gods names, Elia Lalia Grifinis, 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 Agatho Priscius, 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 habens, Hoc est cadaver sepulchrum extra non habens, Sed cadaver idem est et sepulchrum.
We find near 50 several solutions of this ænigma advanced by learned men. Marius Michael Augustus maintains Elia Lalia Grifinis to signify rain-water falling into the sea. Ri. Vitus first explained it of Niobe turned to a stone, afterwards of the rational foul, 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; Nefmondius, of a law-fuit; Jo. Gaf. Gerartius, of love; Zu. Boxhornius, of a shadow; P. Terronus, of music; Fort Licetus, of generation, friendship, and privation; M. O. Montalbanus, of hemp; Car. Cæf. Malvafa, of an abortive girl promised in marriage; Pet. Mengulus, of the rule of chastity, prescribed by the founder of the military. ÆOLIS, 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 Leipzig Acts, of the Christian church.
ÆNIGMATOGRAPHY, or Ænigmathology, the art of resolving or making enigmas.
ÆNONA (anc. geog.), a city of Liburnia, called by Pliny Civitas Prajini, the reason of which is unknown; also Ernona, and is now called Mona; on the Adriatic, by which it is for the greater part surrounded; over-against the island Giffa, from which it is distant four miles to the west. E. Long. 16°, Lat. 28°.
ÆNUS (anc. geog.), now the Inn, a river of Germany, which, rising in the country of the Grifons, out of the Alps, in the district called Gottes-haus-punt, runs through the Grifons, the county of Tyrol, the duchy of Bavaria, and through Pfaffau into the Danube.
ÆNIUS, Ænori, or Ænium (anc. geog.), a town of Thrace, situate on the east-mouth of the Hebrus, which has two mouths; and said to be built by the Cumeans. It was a free town, in which stood the tomb of Polydorus, (Pliny); Ænius is the epithet. Here the brother of Cato Uticensis died, and was honoured with a monument of marble in the forum of the Æni, (Plutarch); called Ænei, (Stephanus); Livy says that the town was otherwise called Abysynthus. Now En.
ÆNITHOLOGIUS, in poetry, a verse of two dactyls and three trochei; as, Prælia dira placent truci juvente.
ÆOLIÆ INSULÆ, now Isole di Lipari, (anc. geog.), seven islands, situated between Sicily and Italy, 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 Lipareorum Insulae, from their principal island Lipara. Dionysius Periegetes calls them Πανοι, because circumnavigable.
ÆOLIC, in a general sense, denotes something belonging to Æolis.
ÆOLIC, or ÆOLIAN, in grammar, denotes one of the five dialects of the Greek tongue. It was first used in Boeotia; whence it passed into Æolia, and was that which Sappho and Alcæus wrote in. The Æolic dialect generally throws out the aspirate or sharp spirit, and agrees in so many things with the Doric dialect, that the two are usually confounded together.
The Æolic digamma is a name given to the letter F, which the Æolians used to prefix to words beginning with vowels, as Povos, for πονος; also to interject between vowels, as Ἀει, for αἰ.
Æolic Væse, in profody, a verse consisting of an iambus, or spondee; then of two anapests, separated by a long syllable; and, lastly, of another syllable. Such as, O stelliferi conditor orbis. This is otherwise called eulogic verse; and, from the chief poets who used it, Archilochian and Pindaric.
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 fluid 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. Des Cartes and others have used this instrument to account for the natural cause and generation of the wind; and hence it was called Æolipila: q. d. pila Æoli, the ball of Æolus or of the god of the winds.
ÆOLIS, or ÆOLIA (anc. geog.), 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 Æolici, or Æolii.
ÆOLIUM MARE (anc. geog.), a part of the Egean sea, wading Æolis; called also Mygium, from Mytha. Now called, Golfo di Smyrna.
ÆOLUS, in heathen mythology, the god of the winds, was said to be the son of Jupiter by Acasta, 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 Strombolo, 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 origin 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. See Acoustics, n. 10.
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 aeons; and called him pleroma, a Greek term signifying fulness. 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 Hesiod), whom they called by several glorious names, and all by the general appellation of Aeons: among which they reckoned Zan, Life; Δόξα, Word; Μαρτυρική, Only-begotten; Θάρσου, Fulness; and many other divine powers and emanations, amounting in in number to thirty: which they fancied to be successively derived from one another; and all from one self-originated deity, named Bythus, i.e., profound or unfathomable; whom they called likewise, The most high and ineffable Father. See Valentinians.
ÆORA, among ancient writers on medicine, is used for gelation; which sort of exercise was often prescribed by the physicians of those days. Other exercises consisted principally in the motion of the body; but in the æora the limbs were at rest, while the body was carried about and moved from place to place, in such a manner as the physician preferred. It had therefore the advantages of exercise, without the fatigue of it.—This exercise was promoted several ways: sometimes the patient was laid in a sort of hammock, supported by ropes, and moved backward and forward; sometimes his bed run nimbly on its feet. And beside these, the several ways of travelling were accounted species of the æora, whether in the litter, in a boat or ship, or on even ground in a chariot.—Asclepiades was the first who brought gestation into practice, which was used as a means to recover strength after a fever, &c.
AQUANA JUGA, (anc. geog.) mountains of Picenum, in the kingdom of Naples, now called Montagna di Sorrento, denominated from the town Aquana, which being destroyed, was replaced by Vicus, now Vico di Sorrento; called also Aquana, Sil. Italicus.
AQUIMELIUM, in antiquity, a place in Rome, where stood the house of Spurius Melius, who, by largesses corrupting the people, affected the supreme power: refusing to appear before the dictator Cincinnatus, he was slain by Servilius Alala, master of the horse; his house was razed to the ground; and the spot on which it stood was called Area Aquimelit. (Livy).
ÆRA, in chronology, a fixed point of time from whence any number of years is begun to be counted.
It is sometimes also written in ancient authors Era. The origin of the term is contested, though it is generally allowed to have had its rise in Spain. Sepulveda supposes it formed from A. ER. A. the note or abbreviations of the words, annus erat Augusti, occasioned by the Spaniards beginning their computation from the time their country came under the dominion of Augustus, or that of receiving the Roman calendar. This opinion, however ingenious, is rejected by Scaliger, not only on account that in the ancient abbreviations A never stood for annus, unless when preceded by V for visit; and that it seems improbable they should put ER for erat, and the letter A, without any discrimination, both for annus and Augustus. Vossius nevertheless favours the conjecture, and judges it at least as probable, as either that of Ifdore, who derives æra from æt, the "tribute-money," wherewith Augustus taxed the world: or that of Scaliger himself, who deduces it likewise from æt, though in a different manner. As, he observes, was used among the ancients for an article or item in an account; and hence it came also to stand for a sum or number itself. From the plural æra, came by corruption æra, aram, in the singular; much as Oflia, Ofliam, the name of a place, from Oflia, the mouths of the Tyber.
The difference between the terms æra and epoch is, that the æras are certain points fixed by some people, or nation; and the epochs are points fixed by chronologists and historians. The idea of an æra comprehends also a certain succession of years proceeding from a fixed point of time, and the epoch is that point itself. Thus the Christian æra began at the epoch of the birth of Jesus Christ. See Chronology, where the different æras, &c., are enumerated and explained.
ÆRARIIUM, the treasury or place where the public money was deposited amongst the Romans.
Ærarium Sanctius contained the monies arising from the twentieth part of all legacies: this was kept for the extreme necessities of the state.
Ærarium Pricatum was the emperor's privy purse, or the place where the money arising from his private patrimony was deposited.
Ærarium Vicefimarium, the place where the money arising from the taxes levied from foreign countries was laid up, so called because it most commonly consisted of a twentieth part of the produce.
Ærarium Libyæ, or Junonis Lucinae, was where the monies were deposited which parents paid for the birth of each child.
There are several other treasuries mentioned in history, as the ararium Juventutis, Veneris, &c. The temple of Saturn was the public treasury of Rome, either because Saturn first taught the Italians to coin money, or, which is most likely, because this temple was the strongest and most secure, and therefore the fittest place for that purpose.
Ærarium differs from fiscus, as the first contained the public money, the second that of the prince. The two are, however, sometimes indiscriminately used for each other.
ÆRARIIUS, a name given by the Romans to a degraded citizen, who had been struck off the list of his century. Such persons were so called because they were liable to all the taxes (æra), without enjoying any of its privileges.
The ærarii were incapable of making a will, of inheriting, of voting in assemblies, of enjoying any post of honour or profit; in effect, were only subject to the burdens, without the benefits of society; yet they retained their freedom, and were not reduced to the condition of slaves. To be made an ærarius was a punishment inflicted for some offence, and reputed one degree more severe than to be expelled a tribe, tribumoveri.
ÆRARIIUS was also an officer instituted by Alexander Severus, for the distribution of the money given in largesses to the soldiery, or people.
ÆRARIIUS was also used for a person employed in coining or working brass.
These are sometimes called ærarii furores: at other times, ærarius is distinguished from futor; the former answering to what we now call copper-smiths, the latter to founders.
ÆRARIIUS was likewise applied to a folder who receives pay.
ÆRIA, or ERTIA (anc. geogr.), the ancient name of Egypt: the scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius says, that not only Thebaïs, but Egypt, was called Ἑρτία by the Greeks, which Eusebius also confirms: and hence Apollinaris, in his translation of the 114th Psalm, uses it for Egypt. Hieronymus applies this name to Ethiopia.
AERIAL.