an ancient kind of punishment, which consisted in thrusting a stake up the fundament. The word comes from the French empaler, or the Italian impalare; or rather, they are all alike derived from Empaneling from the Latin palus "a stake," and the preposition in, "in or into." We find mention of empanelling in Juvenal. It was frequently practised in the time of Nero, and continues to be so in Turkey.

**Empalement of a Flower**, the same with Calyx.

**Empanelling.** See Impanelling.

**Emparlance.** See Imparlance.

**Empedocles,** a celebrated philosopher and poet, was born at Agrigentum, a city in Sicily. He followed the Pythagorean philosophy, and admitted the metempsychosis. He constantly appeared with a crown of gold on his head; to maintain, by this outward pomp, the reputation he had acquired of being a very extraordinary man. Yet Aristotle says, that he was a great lover of liberty, extremely averse to state and command, and that he even refused a kingdom that was offered him. His principal work was a Treatise in verse on the Nature and Principles of Things. Aristotle, Lucretius, and all the ancients, make the most magnificent eulogiums on his poetry and eloquence.

He taught rhetoric; and often alleviated the anxieties of his mind, as well as the pains of his body, with music. It is reported, that his curiosity to visit the flames of the crater of Ætna proved fatal to him. Some maintain that he wished it to be believed that he was a god; and that his death might be unknown, he threw himself into the crater and perished in the flames. His expectations, however, were frustrated; and the volcano by throwing up one of its sandals discovered to the world that Empedocles had perished by fire. Others report that he lived to an extreme old age; and that he was drowned in the sea about 440 years before the Christian era.

**Emperor (imperator),** among the ancient Romans, signified a general of an army, who, for some extraordinary success, had been complimented with this appellation. Thus Augustus, having obtained no less than twenty famous victories, was as often saluted with the title emperor; and Titus was denominated emperor by his army after the reduction of Jerusalem.

Afterwards, it came to designate an absolute monarch or supreme commander of an empire. In this sense Julius Caesar was called emperor: the same title descended with the dignity to Octavius, Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula; and afterwards it became elective.

In strictness, the title emperor does not, and cannot, add any thing to the rights of sovereignty: its effect is only to give precedence and pre-eminence above other sovereigns; and as such, it raises those invested with it to the summit of all human greatness.

It is disputed, whether or not emperors have the power of disposing of the regal title. It is true, they have sometimes taken upon them to erect kingdoms; and thus it is that Bohemia and Poland are said to have been raised to the dignity: thus also, the emperor Charles the Bald, in the year 877, gave Provence to Boso, putting the diadem on his head, and decreeing him to be called "king," ut more priforum imperatorum regibus videtur dominari. Add, that the emperor Leopold erected the ducal Prussia into a kingdom in favour of the elector of Brandenburg; and though several of the kings of Europe refused for some time to acknowledge him in that capacity, yet by the treaty of Utrecht in 1712 they all came in.

In the East, the title and quality of emperor are more frequent than they are among us; thus, the foreign princes of China, Japan, Mogul, Persia, &c., are all emperors of China, Japan, &c. In the year 1723, the czar of Muscovy assumed the title of emperor of all Russia, and procured himself to be recognized as such by most of the princes and states of Europe.

In the West, the title has been a long time retracted to the emperors of Germany. The first who bore it was Charlemagne, who had the title of emperor conferred on him by Pope Leo III., though he had all the power before. The imperial prerogatives were formerly much more extensive than they are at present. At the close of the Saxon race, A.D. 1024, they exercised the right of conferring all the ecclesiastical benefices in Germany; of receiving the revenues of them during a vacancy; of succeeding to the effects of intestate ecclesiastics; of confirming or annulling the elections of the popes; of assembling councils, and of appointing them to decide concerning the affairs of the church; of conferring the title of king on their vassals; of granting vacant fiefs; of receiving the revenues of the empire; of governing Italy as its proper sovereigns; of erecting free cities, and establishing fairs in them; of assembling the diets of the empire, and fixing the time of their duration; of coining money, and conferring the same privilege on the states of the empire; and of administering both high and low justice within the territories of the different states; but in the year 1437, they were reduced to the right of conferring all dignities and titles, except the privilege of being a state of the empire; of praes primariae, or of appointing once during their reign a dignitary in each chapter or religious house; of granting dispensations with respect to the age of majority; of erecting cities, and conferring the privilege of coining money; of calling the meetings of the diet, and presiding in them.

To which some have added, 1. That all the princes and states of Germany are obliged to do them homage, and swear fidelity to them. 2. That they, or their generals, have a right to command the forces of all the princes of the empire, when united together. 3. That they receive a kind of tribute from all the princes and states of the empire, for carrying on a war which concerns the whole empire, which is called the Roman month. For the rest, there is not a foot of land or territory annexed to his title: but ever since the reign of Charles IV., the emperors have depended entirely on their hereditary dominions as the only source of their power, and even of their subsistence.

See Diet and Electors.

The kings of France were anciently also called emperors, at the time when they reigned with their sons, whom they associated to the crown. Thus Hugh Capet, having associated his son Robert, took the title of emperor, and Robert that of king; under which titles they are mentioned in the History of the Council of Reims, by Gerbert, &c. King Robert is also called emperor of the French by Helgau of Fleury. Louis le Gros, upon associating his son, did the same. In the First Register of the King's Charters, fol. 166, are found letters of Louis le Gros, dated in 1116, in favour of Raymond bishop of Maguelonne, wherein he styles himself, Ludovicus, Dei ordinante providentia. The kings of England had likewise anciently the title of emperors, as appears from a charter of king Edgar: *Ego Edgarus Angelorum basilicus, omniumque regum infidelium oceani que Britanniam circumjacent, &c. imperator & dominus.*