or AE, a diphthong compounded of A and E. Authors are by no means agreed as to the use of the ae in English words. Some, out of regard to etymology, insist on its being retained in all words, particularly technical ones, borrowed from the Greek and Latin; while others, from a consideration that it is no proper diphthong in our language, its sound being no other than that of the simple e, contend that it ought to be entirely disused; and, in fact, the simple e has of late been adopted instead of the Roman ae, as in the word equator, &c.
ÆACEA, in Grecian Antiquity, solemn festivals and games celebrated at Aigina, in honour of Æacus.
ÆACUS, the son of Jupiter by Ægina. When the ille 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 Myrmidones, from myrmos, 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. See the article ÆGINA. 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.
ÆBUDÆ, a name anciently given to the Western islands of Scotland.
ÆBURA, in Ancient Geography, a town of Spain, in Extremadura, on the river Guadiana, to the west of Merida; now called Talavera. W. Long. 7. 15. N. Lat. 38. 40.
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; but the above term, of like import in the Greek, is that used by Origen and others who wrote in the Greek tongue.
The Jewish writers assure us, that the æchmalotarchæ were only to be chosen out of the tribe of Judah. The eastern Jews had their princes of the captivity, as the western Jews their patriarchs. The Jews are still said to have an æchmalotarcha at Babylon, but without the authority of the ancient ones. (Bohagae Hist. Jews, and Prideaux's Connection.)
ÆCIDIUM, in Botany. See Botany Index.
ÆCULANUM, in Ancient Geography, a town of the Hirpini in Italy, at the foot of the Apennines, to the east of Abellinum, contrated Æclanum, situated between Beneventum and Tarentum. The inhabitants are called Æculani by Pliny; and Æclanenses, in an ancient inscription (Gruter). The town is now called Frigento, (Cluverius), 43 miles east of Naples. E. Long. 15. 36. N. Lat. 41. 15.
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 Ædilitas. See the next article.
ÆDILE (aedilis), 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 plebiscita, 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. To them also belonged the custody of the plebiscita, and the censure and examination of books. They had the power, on certain occasions, of issuing edicts; and, by degrees, they procured to themselves a considerable jurisdiction, the cognizance of various causes, &c. This office ruined numbers by its expenses; so that, in Augustus's time, even many senators declined it on that account.
All these functions which rendered the ædiles so considerable belonged at first to the ædiles of the people, ædiles plebeii, or minores; these were only two in number, and were first created in the same year as the tribunes; for the tribunes, finding themselves oppressed with the multiplicity of affairs, demanded of the senate to have officers, to whom they might intrust matters of less importance; and accordingly two ædiles were created; and hence it was that the ædiles were elected every year at the same assembly as the tribunes. But these plebeian ædiles having refused, on a signal occasion, to treat the people with shows, as pleading themselves unable to support the expense thereof, the patricians made an offer to do it, provided they would admit them to the honours of the ædilate. On this occasion there were two new ædiles created, of the number of the patricians, in the year of Rome 388; they were called ædiles curules, or maiores; as having a right to sit on a curule chair, enriched with ivory, when they gave audience; whereas the plebeian ædiles only sat on benches.—Besides that the curule ædiles shared all the ordinary functions with the plebeian, their chief employ was, to procure the celebration of the grand Roman games, and to exhibit comedies, shows of gladiators, &c., to the people; and they were also appointed judges in all cases relating to the selling or exchanging estates.
To these there four first ædiles, Cæsar created a new kind, called ædiles cereales, as being deputed chiefly to take care of the corn, which was called donum Cereris; for the Heathens honoured Ceres as the goddess who presided over corn, and attributed to her the invention of agriculture. These ædiles cereales were also taken out of the order of patricians. In the municipal cities there were ædiles, and with the same authority as at Rome.
We also read of an ædilis alimentarius, expressed in abbreviation by Ædil. alim. whose business seems to have been to provide diet for those who were maintained at the public charge, though others assign him a different office.—In an ancient inscription we also meet with ædile of the camp, ædilis coirorum.
ÆDILITIUM edictum, among the Romans, was that whereby a remedy was given to a buyer in case a vicious or unfound beast, or slave, was sold to him. It was called æditium, because the preventing of frauds in sales and contracts belonged especially to the curule ædiles.
ÆDITUUS, 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 female officer of this kind called Æditia.
ÆGAGROPILA, a ball composed of hair, generated in the stomach of the chamois goat, which is familiar to those found in cows, hogs, &c. There is another another species of ball found in some animals, particularly horses, which is a calculous concretion.
ÆGÆA, or ÆGEA, in Ancient Geography, the name of Ædipus, 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 Ædelia, 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 to precede his standard; and in memory of this he called Ædelia Ægea, and his people Ægeades. And hence probably, in the prophet Daniel, the he-goat is the symbol of the king of Macedon.
ÆGEAN SEA, in Ancient Geography, now the Archipelago, a part of the Mediterranean, separating Europe from Asia; wailing, on the one hand, Greece and Macedonia; on the other, Caria and Ionia. The origin of the name is greatly disputed. Fetus advances three opinions: one, that it is so called from the many islands therein, at a distance appearing like so many goats; another, because Ægea 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 basely 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 severe 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 entreated 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 on the north of the territory of Ifria, 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'. N. Lat. 45° 50'. It was afterwards called Justinopolis, after the emperor Justinus.
ÆGIOPS, the name of a tumour in the great angle of the eye; either with, or without, an inflammation. The word is compounded of αἴκις goat, and ἐνεύρεια eye; as goats are supposed extremely liable to this distemper.
Authors frequently use the words æglops, anchilops, and fislula lacrymalis, promiscuously; but the more accurate, after Ægineta, make a difference.—The tumour, before it becomes ulcerous, is properly called anchilops; and, after it is got into the lachrymal passage, has rendered the os lachrymale carious, fislula lacrymalis.
If the æglops be accompanied with an inflammation, it is supposed to take its rise from the abundance of blood which a plethoric habit discharges on the corner of the eye. If it be without an inflammation, it is supposed to proceed from a viscid pituitous humour, thrown upon this part.
The method of cure is the same as that of the ophthalmia. But before it has reached the lachrymal passages, it is managed like other ulcers. If the æglops be neglected, it bursts, and degenerates into a fistula, which eats into the bone.
ÆGILOPS, in Botany. See Botany Index.
ÆGIMURUS, in Ancient Geography, an island in the bay of Carthage, about 30 miles distant from that city, (Livy); now the Goletta: This island being afterwards sunk in the sea, two of its rocks remained above water, which were called Areæ, and mentioned by Virgil, because the Romans and Carthaginians entered into an agreement or league to limit their respective boundaries by these rocks.
ÆGINA, in Fabulous History, the daughter of Æopuss, king of Boeotia, 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, in Ancient Geography, an island in 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 Æacus, who called it Ægina from his mother's name, it being before called Oenopia, (Ovid.) The inhabitants were called Æginetæ, and Æginetæs. The Greeks had a common temple dedicated to Jupiter in Ægina. The Æginetæ applied to commerce; and were the first who coined money, called Naupactæ Argentæ; hence Ægineticum aes, formerly in great repute. The inhabitants were called Myrmidonæ, or a nation of ants, from their great application to agriculture. See ÆACUS.
This island was surrounded by Attica, the territory of Megara, and the Peloponnese, 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 walked on the ebb and forth by the Myrtean and Cretan seas.
It is now called Evina, or Egina, the g soft and the i short. The temple above mentioned is situated upon the summit of a mountain called Panhellenicus, at some distance from the shore. The Æginetans affirmed it was erected by Æacus; in whose time Greece being terribly oppressed by drought, the Delphic oracle was consulted; and the response was, That Jupiter must be rendered propitious by Æacus. The cities entreated 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 pronao, and of the opisthicon, 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 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 barrow, raised, it is related, for Phocus, upon the following occasion. Telamon and Peleus, sons of Æacus, challenged their half-brother Phocus to contend in the Pentathlum. In throwing the stone, which served as a quoit, Peleus hit Phocus, who was killed; when both of them died. Afterwards Telamon sent a herald to assert his innocence. Æacus 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 sailed away again to Salamis. The barrow in the second century, when seen by Paulanias, 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 Æginetans annually wage war with the feathered race, carefully 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 wainoode or governor farms the revenue of the Grand Signior for 12 purses, or 6000 pistoles. About half this sum is repaid yearly by the caratch-money, or poll tax.
Ægina, the capital of the above island. Its site has been long forsaken. Instead of the temples mentioned by Paulanias, 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 Abulpharagus 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 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 consubstantial 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 839, and his letters, are all inserted in the 2d volume of Duchesne's Scriptores Francorum. There is an improved edition of this valuable historian, with the annotations of Hermann Schmüncke, 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, in Botany. See Botany Index.
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; whence the appellation ægis, from ægís, the goat. Jupiter, afterwards restored the animal to life, covered it with a new skin, and placed it among the stars. He made a present of his buckler 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 Ægipodion had the faculty of converting into stone all those who looked upon it; as Medusa herself had done during her life.
Others suppose the argus not to have been a buckler, but a cuirass, or breastplate; 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 goddesses. But the ægis of Jupiter, mentioned a little higher, ver. 354, seems to have been a buckler: the words
Cum siæpe nigrantem Ægida concurret dextra,
are descriptive of a buckler; but not at all of a cuirass or breastplate.
Servius makes the same distinction on the two passages of Virgil; for, on verse 354, he takes the argus for the buckler of Jupiter, made, as above mentioned, of the skin of the goat Amalthea; and on verse 435, he describes the argus as the armour which covers the breast, and which in speaking of men is called cuirass, and argus 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 Plopleia, 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 Ægillus. He seduced Clytemnestra the wife of Agamemnon and lived with her during the siege of Troy. Afterwards with her affiance he flew her husband, and reigned seven years in Mycenæ. He was, together with Clytemnestra, slain by Orestes. Pompey used to call Julius Caesar Ægillus, on account of his having seduced his wife Mutia, whom he afterwards put away, though he had three children by her.
Ægithallus, in Ancient Geography, a promontory and citadel of Sicily, between Drepanum and the Emporium Ægitanum, afterwards called Acellus; corruptly written Ægibarbus, in Ptolemy; situated near Mount Eryx, and now called Capo di Santo Teodoro.
Ægium, in Ancient Geography, a town of Achaea 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 Æginaeae Zeus, Conventional Jupiter, and of Panachaeæ Ceres. The territory of Ægium was watered by two rivers, viz. the Phoenix and Megantes. The epithet is Ægianæs. There is a coin in the cabinet of the king of Prussia, with the inscription AIT, 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 ægobolium 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 Gout-wort, Goatsfoot, in Botany. See Botany Index.
Ægopricon, in Botany. See Botany Index.
Ægospotamos, in Ancient Geography, a river in the Thracian Chertoneclus, falling with a south-east course into the Hellefpon, to the north of Selos; also a town, station, or road for ships at its mouth. Here the Athenians, under Conon, through the fault of his colleague Ilocrates, 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 Lampacus. The Hellefpon 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 order of 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 passed 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 senate, 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 Selos 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 Menander, 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, AEGYPTIA 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 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. He 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 furlongs, or three quarters of a league in breadth; which space was plentifully cleared through the activity and diligence of the rowers. Conon the Athenian general was the first who perceived from shore, 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 emotions were ineffectual, the soldiers being dispersed on all sides. For they were no sooner come on shore, than some ran to the cutters, 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 Lamplacus 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.