or ē, a diphthong compounded of A and E. Authors are by no means agreed as to the use of the ē 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 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 ē, as in the word equator, &c.

ÆACEA, in Grecian Antiquity, solemn festivals and games celebrated at Ægina in honour of Æacus.

ÆACUS, the son of Jupiter by Ægina. When the isle of Ægina was depopulated by a plague, his father, in compassion to his grief, changed all the ants upon it into men and women, who were called Myrmidones, from μύρμηξ, an ant. The foundation of the fable is said to be, that when the country had been depopulated by pirates, who forced the few that remained to take shelter in caves, Æacus encouraged them to come out, and by commerce and industry to 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.

ÆCHMALOTARCHA (ἀχμαλοτάρχα), 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 galuth, 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.

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 or statue of the deity stood.

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 aediles 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 plebisicia, or decrees 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. They had the power, on certain occasions, of issuing edicts, and by degrees they procured to themselves a considerable jurisdiction. All these functions, which rendered the aediles so important, belonged at first to the aediles of the people, aediles plebeii, or minores. These were only two in number, and were first created in the same year as the tribunes, B.C. 494; 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 aediles were created; and hence it was that the aediles were elected every year at the same assembly as the tribunes. But these plebeian aediles having refused, on a signal occasion, to treat the people with shows, pleading that they were unable to support the expense, the patricians made an offer to do it, provided they would admit them to the honours of the aedilate. On this occasion there were two new aediles created, of the number of the patricians, in the year of Rome 388. They were called aediles curules, or majores, as having a right to sit on a curule chair, enriched with ivory, when they gave audience; whereas the plebeian aediles only sat on benches. Besides that the curule aediles shared all the ordinary functions with the plebeian, their chief employment 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 of estates. To assist these first four aediles, Caesar (B.C. 45) created a new kind, called aediles cereales, as being deputed chiefly to take care of the corn, which was called dominus Cereris; for the heathens honoured Ceres as the goddess who presided over corn, and attributed to her the invention of agriculture. These aediles cereales were also taken out of the order of patricians. In the municipal cities there were aediles, and with the same authority as at Rome.

We also read of an aedilis alimentarius, expressed in abbreviation by ædil. altim, 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 aedile of the camp, ædilis castrorum.

ÆDILITIUM EDICTUM, among the Romans, was that whereby a remedy was given to a buyer in case a vicious or unsound beast or slave was sold to him. It was called ædilitium, because the preventing of frauds in sales and contracts belonged especially to the curule aediles.

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

ÆGADES or ÆGATES, islands off the western coast of Sicily, between Trapani and Marsala, consisting of Maritimo, Levanso, and Favignana, which were of some note during the first Punic war.

ÆGAGROPILA, a ball composed of hair, generated in the stomach of the chamois goat, and very similar to those found in cows, hogs, &c. There is another species of ball found in some animals, particularly horses, which is a calcareous concretion.

ÆGEAN SEA, in Ancient Geography, now the Archipelago, a part of the Mediterranean, bounded on the north by Thrace and Macedonia, on the west by Greece, and on the east by Asia Minor. The origin of the name is greatly disputed. Festus advances three opinions: one, that it is so called from the many islands therein appearing at a distance like so many goats; another, because Ægea, queen of the Amazons, perished in it; a third, because Ægeus, the father of Theseus, threw himself headlong into it. See ARCHIPELAGO.

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 them; 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 came back 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 Aegean Sea. The Athenians decreed Egeus divine honours, and sacrificed to him as a marine deity and adopted son of Neptune.

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

ÆGIDA, now Capo d'Istria, the principal town on the north of the territory of Istria, situate in a little island, joined to the land by a causeway. In an inscription it is called Ægidis Insula. Long. 13. 43. E. Lat. 45. 31. N. It was afterwards called Justinopolis, after the emperor Justinus II.

ÆGILOPS, the name of a tumour in the great angle of the eye, either with or without an inflammation. The word is compounded of æg, goat, and opos, eye; as goats are supposed to be extremely liable to this distemper. If the ægilops 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 putrid humour thrown upon this part. The method of cure is the same as that of the ophthalmia. But before it has reached the lacrymal passages, it is managed like other ulcers. If the ægilops be neglected, it bursts, and degenerates into a fistula, which eats into the bone.

ÆGIMURUS, in Ancient Geography, an island in the bay of Carthage, about 30 miles distant from that city, (Livy); now Zoucamour. This island being afterwards sunk in the sea, two of its rocks remained above water, which were called Ares, 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 Asopus, king of Boeotia, was beloved by Jupiter, who ravished her in the similitude of a lambent flame, and then carried her from Epidaurus to a desert island called Ætnopia, which afterwards obtained her own name.

ÆGINA, or Eginia, or Engia, an island in the Saronic gulf, 20 miles distant from the Piræus, formerly lying with Athens in 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 Æginia, from his mother's name, it being before called Ætnopia. (Ovid.) The inhabitants were called Æginetæ and Æginenses.

Ægina is about 8 miles from N.W. to S.E., and about 6 in a transverse direction. Strabo states its periphery at 180 stadia, which would give a circumference of about 22½ English miles. Its western side consists of stony but yet fertile plains, which are well cultivated, and produce luxuriant crops of grain, with some cotton, vines, almonds, and figs. The rest of the island is mountainous: the southern end rises in the conical Mount Oros; and the Panhellenian ridge stretches to the north; from which fertile narrow valleys descend on either hand. From the absence of marshes, and its insularity, the climate is mild, and the most salubrious of Greece.

The ruins of the ancient Ægina extend along two small ports, still protected by well-built ancient moles, and the shores of an open bay, defended by an ancient breakwater, near the N.W. cape of the island. On the land side, the city-walls are still distinctly traceable, 10 feet in thickness, strengthened by towers at unequal distances, and pierced by three gates. They abutted on those of the ports, which were thus included within the line of fortifications; as at Athens and elsewhere in ancient Greece. Two elegant Doric columns and sub-structures are all that remain of the buildings noticed by Pausanias within the precincts of a city that was long the greatest and most opulent maritime power of Greece; but the ruins of seventeen Christian churches, still visible, prove that after the glories of the proud city had passed away,—after what it suffered from the jealousy of its rival, Athens, and from an earthquake about the beginning of our era,—a considerable modern town had occupied its site. Some of these may perhaps only date from the time that Ægina remained under its Venetian masters, as does a tower erected at the entrance of the largest port; but they resigned possession of the island to the Turks in 1715, under whom it became the prey of Mainote and other pirates; until the emancipation of Greece made it, in 1828-29, the seat of the Greek government. On a hill near the N.E. corner of the island, stands the modern little town of Ægina (as it is pronounced by the modern Greeks). It is separated by a ravine from the hill, on which rises in lonely majesty the ruins of the noble temple of Jupiter Panhellenius, occupying, at the extremity of the mountain ridge known by that name, the rocky summit of a hill, in the midst of a forest of pines. The temple was a ruin in the days of Cicero, as mentioned in one of his letters; and seems to have been thrown down by an earthquake at an unknown epoch. This temple is conspicuous from a distance, and was visited by Chandler in the last century; but has been chiefly known to us by the successful excavations of our countrymen Cockerell and Foster, assisted by Baron Haller, and M. Linck of Stuttgart in 1811. These gentlemen united in clearing away the rubbish which the lapse of 2000 years had accumulated on the basement and floor of the cell; and after 20 days' exertion they were rewarded by the discovery not only of many interesting details relating to Grecian architecture, but also of many statues in most wonderfully energetic action, that had once adorned the fallen pediments of this celebrated temple. These consist of the 11 figures of the eastern, and 5 statues of the western pediment, almost entire; besides fragments of the rest, and two statuettes, and other ornaments of the acroteria. These sculptures supply an important link in the history of ancient art, and connect the schools of early Greece with that of Etruscan sculpture. The efforts of Messrs Cockerell and Foster to secure those treasures to their country are well known; and how they were defeated by the unlucky mistake of the agent sent out to purchase them for the British Museum. They now form one of the most interesting acquisitions of the magnificent Glyptothek of Munich.

The temple stands on a stylobate of 94 feet by 45 feet. The original number of columns in the peristyle was 32, of which 12 were ranged on each side, and six in each front; 17 feet 2 inches high, including the wide-spreading ovolo of the capital, and a diameter of 3 feet 3 inches at the base. Two other columns of 3 feet 2 inches between antae, are in the pronaos, and two similar in the opisthodomos or posticum. The cella had a door at each end; a double row of smaller columns 2 feet 4 inches in diameter, were within the cella to support its partial roof; but the greatest portion of the cella was open, as this temple was hypethral. There still remain 21 columns of the peristyle with their architraves; six of the eastern front, and continuously with them are five columns of the north side; the four columns of the pronaos and opisthodomos; and the lower part of the shafts of five within the cella. The tympana had been painted of a bright azure to give relief to the statues, and the drapery of Minerva, the middle figure of each group, had been painted red and blue. The whole of the ornaments on the cornices and upper mouldings of the pediment had been painted in encaustic, not carved.

The subject of the groups of statuary appears to be the contest for the body of Patroclus, one of the Æacidae (or ÆGINETA, PAULUS, a celebrated surgeon of the island of Ægina, from whence he derived his name. According to M. le Clerc's calculation, he lived in the fourth century; but Abulfaragius 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 Celsius 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 accoucheur.

ÆGINETARUM FERIE, a festival in honour of Neptune, originally instituted at Ægina after the Trojan war, when those families whose friends returned in safety dismissed their attendants, and held their rejoicings in private, out of respect to such as mourned.—Plutarch, Quest. Graec. 44.

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 Imma, to prevent his being traced from her apartments by the emperor her father; a story which the elegant pen of Addison has copied and embellished in the third volume of the Spectator. There is a letter of Æginhard's still extant, lamenting the death of his wife, written in the tenderest strain of consubstantial affection; but it does not say that this lamented lady was the princess; and indeed some critics have supposed that Imma was not the daughter of Charlemagne. 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 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. An improved edition of this valuable historian, with the annotations of Hermann Schminke, in 4to, was published in 1711.

ÆGIPHILA, in Botany, Goat-friend.

ÆGIS, in 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 *egis*, from *ægēs*, *she-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 *egis*. Perseus, having killed Medusa, Minerva nailed her head in the middle of the *egis*, which thenceforth had the faculty of converting into stone all those who looked upon it; as Medusa herself had during her life. Others suppose the *egis* not to have been a buckler, but a cuirass or breastplate; and it is certain that the *egis* of Pallas, described by Virgil, *Æn*. lib. viii. v. 435, must have been a cuirass, since that poet says expressly that Medusa's head was on the breast of the goddess. But the *egis* of Jupiter, mentioned a little higher, v. 354, seems to have been a buckler. The words—

*.....Cum æspe nigrantem* *Ægis concavata 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 *egis* for the buckler of Jupiter, made, as above mentioned, of the skin of the goat Amalthea; and on verse 435 he describes the *egis* as the armour which covers the breast, and which in speaking of men is called *cuirass*, and *egis* 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 Thyeses by his own daughter Pelopoea, 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 *Ægisthus*. He seduced Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon, and lived with her during the siege of Troy. Afterwards, with her assistance, he slew her husband, and reigned seven years in Mycenæ. He was slain, together with Clytemnestra, by Orestes. Pompey used to call Julius Cæsar *Ægisthus*, on account of his having seduced his wife Mutia, whom he afterwards put away, though he had three children by her.

ÆGIUM, in Ancient Geography, a town of Achaia Propria, five miles from the place where Helice stood, and famous for the council of the Achaeans, which usually met there, on account probably of the commodious situation of the place.

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, in Botany, Small Wild Angelica, Goatwort, Goatsfoot.

ÆGOSPOTAMOS, in Ancient Geography, a river in the Thracian Chersonesus, falling with a south-east course into the Hellespont, to the north of Sestos; with a town, and a station or road for ships, at its mouth. Here the Athenians under Conon, through the fault of his colleague Philocles, received a signal overthrow from the Lacedemonians under Lysander (see 405), which was followed by the taking of Athens, and put an end to the Peloponnesian war.

ÆGYPTUS, in Fabulous History, was the son of Belus, and brother of Danaus.

ÆINAUTE, in Antiquity, *αιναυτες*, *alceus marineris*, 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.

ÆLFRIC, an eminent ecclesiastic of the tenth century, was the son of an earl of Kent, and a monk of the Benedictine order in the monastery of Abingdon. In 983 he was settled in the cathedral of Winchester, under Athelwold the bishop, and undertook the instruction of the youth of the diocese; for which purpose he compiled a Latin-Saxon vocabulary, and some Latin colloquies. He also translated from the Latin into Saxon many of the historical books of the Old Testament. While he resided at Winchester he drew up Canons, which are a kind of charge to be delivered by the bishops to their clergy. He was afterwards abbot of St Albans, then bishop of Wilton, and finally, in 1022, was translated to the see of York. Here he had a hard struggle for some years in bravely defending his diocese against the incursions of the Danes. Alfric is held up as one of the most distinguished prelates of the Saxon church. His learning for the times, was considerable, his morals pure, and his religious sentiments unimpaired by many of the corruptions of his age. Besides the works already mentioned, he translated two volumes of Homilies from the Latin Fathers. He was born in 964, and died in 1050.—Allan's York.

ÆLIA CAPITOLINA, a name given to the city built by the emperor Hadrian, A.D. 134, near the spot where the ancient Jerusalem stood, which he found in ruins when he visited the eastern parts of the Roman empire. A Roman colony was settled here, and a temple, in place of that of Jerusalem, was dedicated to Jupiter Capitolinus. Hence the name, to which he prefixed that of his own family.

ÆLIANUS, CLAUDIUS, born at Preneste, in Italy. He taught rhetoric at Rome, according to Perizonius, under the Emperor Alexander Severus. He was surnamed Meli-pañosos, honey-tongued, on account of the sweetness of his style in his discourses and writings. 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, Isocrates, Plutarch, Homer, Anacreon, Archilochus, &c., and, though a Roman, gives the preference to the writers of the Greek nation. His curious and entertaining work entitled Variae Historiae has been frequently republished, as well as his treatise De Natura Animalium. A very useful edition of the latter was published by Schneider, at Leipzig, in 1784, in 8vo; another at Jena, in 1832, by Fr. Jacobs. The collated edition of his works, by Gesner, 1556, fol., contains his Epistle Rectoriae.

ÆLIANUS, Tacticus, a Greek writer on military tactics, in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian.