or AIRY, among sportsmen. See AIRY.

ÆS UXORIUM, in Antiquity, a sum paid by bachelors, as a penalty for living single to old age. This tax for not marrying seems to have been first imposed in the year of Rome 350, under the censorship of M. Furius Camillus and M. Posthumus. At the census, or review of the people, each person was asked, Et tu ex anima sententia usorem habes liberum quereendum causa? He who had no wife was hereupon fined after a certain rate, called æs uxorium.

Æs per et libram was a formula in the Roman law, whereby purchases and sales were ratified. Originally the phrase seems to have been only used in speaking of things sold by weight, or by the scales: but it afterwards was used on other occasions. Hence even in adoptions, as there was a kind of imaginary purchase, the formula thereof expressed, that the person adopted was bought per æs et libram.

Æs Flavium, yellow copper, among the Romans, an appellation given to the coarser kinds of brass.

The ancients had different kinds of brass, as æs candidum, æs Corinthium, denoting probably different metallic alloys or mixtures.

Æs Caldarium, a term used by the German mineralists, for a substance which sometimes occurs to those who work upon cobalt, and is used for making the fine blue colour called smalt.

Æs Ustum, a chemical preparation, made of thin leaves of copper, sulphur, and nitre, placed stratum super stratum in a crucible, and set in a charcoal fire till all the sulphur is consumed; after which, the copper is taken out of the crucible, and reduced to powder. Some quench the leaves of copper in vinegar, and repeat the calcination.—Its principal use is in colouring glass, to which it gives a beautiful tincture. The surgeons use it as a detergent, and some have given it internally; but it is certainly a very dangerous medicine, and should be avoided.

ÆSCHINES, an Athenian, a Socratic philosopher, the son of Charinus a sausage-maker. He was continually with Socrates; which occasioned this philosopher to say, that the sausage-maker's son was the only person who knew how to pay a due regard to him. Æschine It is said that poverty obliged him to go to Sicily to Dionysius the tyrant; and that he met with great contempt from Plato, but was extremely well received by Aristippus; to whom he showed some of his dialogues, and received from him a handsome reward. He would not venture to profess philosophy at Athens, Plato and Aristippus being in such high esteem; but he opened a school in which he taught philosophy to maintain himself. He afterwards wrote orations for the forum. Phrynicus, in Photius, ranks him amongst the best orators, and mentions his orations as the standard of the pure Attic style. Hermogenes has also spoken very highly of him. He wrote besides several Dialogues, of which there are only three extant: 1. Concerning virtue, whether it can be taught. 2. Eryxias, or Erasistratus; concerning riches, whether they are good. 3. Axiochus; concerning death, whether it is to be feared. M. Le Clerc has given a Latin translation of them, with notes and several dissertations, entitled Sylvae Philologicae.

ÆSCHINES, a celebrated Grecian orator, was born at Athens 327 years before the Christian era. According to his own account, he was of distinguished birth; according to that of Demosthenes, he was the son of a courtesan, and a humble performer in a company of comedians. But whatever was the true history of his birth and early life, his talents, which were considerable, procured him great applause, and enabled him to be a formidable rival to Demosthenes himself. The two orators, inspired probably with mutual jealousy and animosity, became at last the strenuous leaders of opposing parties. Æschines was accused by Demosthenes of having received money as a bribe, when he was employed on an embassy to Philip of Macedon. He indirectly retaliated the charge by bringing an accusation against Ctesiphon the friend of Demosthenes for having moved a decree, contrary to the laws, to confer on Demosthenes a golden crown, as a mark of public approbation. A numerous assembly of judges and citizens met to hear and decide the question: each orator employed all his powers of eloquence; but Demosthenes, with superior talents, and with justice on his side, was victorious; and Æschines was sent into exile. The resentment of Demosthenes was now softened into generous kindness; for when Æschines was going into banishment, he requested him to accept of a sum of money; which made him exclaim, "How do I regret leaving a country where I have found an enemy so generous, that I must despair of ever meeting with a friend who shall be like him!"

Æschines opened a school of eloquence at Rhodes, which was the place of his exile, and he commenced his lectures by reading to his audience the two orations which had been the cause of his banishment. His own oration received great praise; but that of Demosthenes was heard with boundless applause. In so trying a moment, when vanity must be supposed to have been deeply wounded, with a noble generosity of sentiment, he said, "What would you have thought if you had heard him thunder out the words himself."—Æschines afterwards removed to Samos, where he died, in the 75th year of his age, Three of his orations only are extant. His eloquence is not without energy, Aeschylus, the tragic poet, was born at Athens. The time of his birth is not exactly ascertained; some suppose that it was in the 6th, others in the 7th Olympiad; but according to Stanley, who follows the Arundelian marbles, he was born in the 63d Olympiad. He was the son of Euphorian, and brother to Cynegirus and Aminias, who distinguished themselves in the battle of Marathon, and the sea-fight of Salamis, at which engagements Aeschylus was likewise present. In this last action, according to Diodorus Siculus, Aminias, the younger of the three brothers, commanded a squadron of ships, and fought with so much conduct and bravery, that he sunk the admiral of the Persian fleet, and signalized himself above all the Athenians. To this brother our poet was, upon a particular occasion, obliged for saving his life: Elian relates, that Aeschylus being charged by the Athenians with certain blasphemous expressions in some of his pieces, was accused of impiety, and condemned to be stoned to death: They were just going to put the sentence in execution, when Aminias, with a happy presence of mind, throwing aside his cloak, showed his arm without a hand, which he had lost at the battle of Salamis in defence of his country. This sight made such an impression on the judges, that, touched with the remembrance of his valour, and with the friendship he showed for his brother, they pardoned Aeschylus. Our poet, however, resented the indignity of this prosecution, and resolved to leave a place where his life had been in danger. He became more determined in this resolution when he found his pieces less pleasing to the Athenians than those of Sophocles, though a much younger writer. Some affirm, that Aeschylus never sat down to compose but when he had drank liberally. He wrote a great number of tragedies, of which there are but seven remaining: and notwithstanding the sharp censures of some critics, he must be allowed to have been the father of the tragic art. In the time of Thespis, there was no public theatre to act upon; the strollers driving about from place to place in a cart. Aeschylus furnished his actors with masks, and dressed them suitably to their characters. He likewise introduced the huskin, to make them appear more like heroes.—The ancients gave Aeschylus also the praise of having been the first who removed murders and shocking sights from the eyes of the spectators. He is said likewise to have lessened the number of the chorus. M. Le Fevre has observed, that Aeschylus never represented women in love in his tragedies; which, he says, was not suited to his genius; but, in representing a woman transported with fury, he was incomparable. Longinus says, that Aeschylus has a noble boldness of expression; and that his imagination is lofty and heroic. It must be owned, however, that he affected pompous words, and that his sense is too often obscured by figures: this gave Salmius occasion to say, that he was more difficult to be understood than the Scripture itself. But notwithstanding these imperfections, this poet was held in great veneration by the Athenians, who made a public decree that his tragedies should be played after his death. He was killed in the 69th year of his age, by an eagle letting fall a tortoise upon his head as he was walking in the fields. He had the honour of a pompous funeral from the Sicilians, who buried him near the river Gela; and the tragedians of the country performed plays and theatrical exercises at his tomb.—The best edition of his plays is that of London, 1663, folio, with a Latin translation and a learned commentary by Thomas Stanley.

Æschynomenè, Bastard sensitive plant, in Botany. See Botany Index.

Aesculapius, in the heathen mythology, the god of physic, was the son of Apollo and the nymph Coronis. He was educated by the centaur Chiron, who taught him physic; by which means Aesculapius cured the most desperate diseases. But Jupiter, enraged at his restoring to life Hippolitus, who had been torn in pieces by his own horses, killed him with a thunderbolt. According to Cicero, there were three deities of this name: the first, the son of Apollo, worshipped in Arcadia, who invented the probe, and bandages for wounds; the second, the brother of Mercury, killed by lightning; and the third, the son of Arisippus and Arsinoe, who first taught the art of tooth-drawing and purging. At Epidaurus, Aesculapius's statue was of gold and ivory, with a long beard, his head surrounded with rays, holding in one hand a knotty stick, and the other entwined with a serpent; he was seated on a throne of the same materials as his statue, and had a dog lying at his feet. The Romans crowned him with laurel, to represent his descent from Apollo; and the Phliasians represented him as beardless. The cock, the raven, and the goat, were sacred to this deity. His chief temples were at Pergamus, Smyrna, Trica a city in Ionia, and the isle of Coos; in all which votive tablets were hung up, showing the diseases cured by his assistance. But his most famous shrine was at Epidaurus; where, every five years, games were instituted to him, nine days after the Isthmian games at Corinth.

Aesculus, the Horse-chesnut, in Botany. See Botany Index.

Æsop, the Phrygian, lived in the time of Solon, about the 56th Olympiad, under the reign of Croesus the last king of Lydia. As to genius and abilities, he was greatly indebted to nature; but in other respects not so fortunate, being born a slave and extremely deformed. St Jerome, speaking of him, says he was unfortunate in his birth, condition in life, and death; hinting thereby at his deformity, servile state, and tragical end. His great genius, however, enabled him to support his misfortunes; and in order to alleviate the hardships of servitude, he composed those entertaining and instructive fables which have acquired him so much reputation. He is generally supposed to have been the inventor of that kind of writing; but this is contested by several, particularly Quintilian, who seems to think that Hesiod was the first author of fables. Æsop, however, certainly improved this art to a very great degree; and hence it is that he has been accounted the author of this sort of productions:

Æsopus auctor quam materiam reperit, Hanc ego potivi versibus senariis. PHÆD.

Mine is the task, in easy verse, The tales of Æsop to rehearse. The first master whom Aesop served, was one Carasius Demarchus, an inhabitant of Athens; and there, in all probability, he acquired his purity in the Greek tongue. After him he had several masters; and at length came under a philosopher named Idmon or Iadmon, who enfranchised him. After he had recovered his liberty, he soon acquired a great reputation amongst the Greeks; so that, according to Meziriae, the report of his wisdom having reached Croesus, he sent to enquire after him, and engaged him in his service. He travelled through Greece, according to the same author; whether for his own pleasure, or upon the affairs of Croesus, is uncertain; and passing by Athens soon after Pisistratus had usurped the sovereign power, and finding that the Athenians bore the yoke very impatiently, he told them the fable of the frogs who petitioned Jupiter for a king. The images made use of by Aesop are certainly very happy inventions to instruct mankind; they possess all that is necessary to perfect a precept, having a mixture of the useful with the agreeable. "Aesop the fabulist (says Aulus Gellius) was deservedly esteemed wise, since he did not, after the manner of the philosophers, rigidly and imperiously dictate such things as were proper to be advised and persuaded; but framing entertaining and agreeable apologies, he thereby charms and captivates the human mind."—Aesop was put to death at Delphi. Plutarch tells us, that he came there with a great quantity of gold and silver, being ordered by Croesus to offer a sacrifice to Apollo, and to give a considerable sum to each inhabitant: but a quarrel arising betwixt him and the Delphians, he sent back the money to Croesus; for he thought those for whom the prince designed it, had rendered themselves unworthy of it. The inhabitants of Delphi brought an accusation of sacrilege against him; and pretending they had convicted him, threw him headlong from a rock. For this cruelty and injustice, we are told they were visited with famine and pestilence; and consulting the oracle, they received for answer, that the god designed this as a punishment for their treatment of Aesop: they endeavoured to make an atonement, by raising a pyramid to his honour.

Aesop, Clodius, a celebrated actor, who flourished about the 67th year of Rome. He and Roscius were cotemporaries, and the best performers who ever appeared upon the Roman stage; the former excelling in tragedy, the latter in comedy. Cicero put himself under their direction to perfect his action. Aesop lived in a most expensive manner, and at one entertainment is said to have had a dish which cost above eight hundred pounds; this dish, we are told, was filled with singing and speaking birds, some of which cost near 50l. The delight which Aesop took in this sort of birds proceeded, as Mr Bayle observes, from the expence. He did not make a dish of them because they could speak, according to the refinement of Pliny upon this circumstance, this motive being only by accident; but because of their extraordinary price. If there had been any birds that could not speak, and yet more scarce and dear than these, he would have procured such for his table. Aesop's son was no less luxurious than his father, for he dissolved pearls for his guests to swallow. Some speak of this as a common practice of his; but others mention his falling into this excess only on a particular day, when he was treating his friends. Ho-

race * speaks only of one pearl of great value, which he dissolved in vinegar, and drank. Aesop, notwithstanding his expences, is said to have died worth above 160,000l. When he was upon the stage, he entered into his part to such a degree, as sometimes to be seized with a perfect ecstasy: Plutarch mentions it as reported of him, that whilst he was representing Atreus deliberating how he should revenge himself on Thyestes, he was so transported beyond himself in the heat of action, that with his truncheon he smote one of the servants crossing the stage, and laid him dead on the spot.