History for ready reference, Volumes 1 to 5

Volume I—A To Elba (continued 10)

Reading edition

J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, chapter 1, section 1.

ARICONIUM. A town of Roman Britain which appears to have been the principal mart of the iron manufacturing industry in the Forest of Dean.

T. Wright, The Celt, the Roman and the Saxon, page 161.

ARII, The.

See LYGIANS.

ARIKARAS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: PAWNEE (CADDOAN) FAMILY.

ARIMINUM.

The Roman colony, planted in the third century B. C., which grew into the modern city of Rimini. See ROME: B. C. 295-191.—When Cæsar entered Italy as an invader, crossing the frontier of Cisalpine Gaul—the Rubicon—his first movement was to occupy Ariminum. He halted there for two or three weeks, making his preparations for the civil war which he had now entered upon and waiting for the two legions that he had ordered from Gaul.

C. Merivale, History of the Romans, chapter 14.

ARIOVALDUS, King of the Lombards, A. D. 626-638.

ARISTEIDES, Ascendancy of.

See ATHENS: B. C. 477-462.

ARISTOCRACY. OLIGARCHY.

"Aristocracy signifies the rule of the best men. If, however, this epithet is referred to an absolute ideal standard of excellence, it is manifest that an aristocratical government is a mere abstract notion, which has nothing in history, or in nature, to correspond to it. But if we content ourselves with taking the same terms in a relative sense, … aristocracy … will be that form of government in which the ruling few are distinguished from the multitude by illustrious birth, hereditary wealth, and personal merit. … Whenever such a change took place in the character or the relative position of the ruling body, that it no longer commanded the respect of its subjects, but found itself opposed to them, and compelled to direct its measures chiefly to the preservation of its power, it ceased to be, in the Greek sense an aristocracy; it became a faction, an oligarchy."

C. Thirlwall, History of Greece, chapter 10.

ARISTOMNEAN WAR.

See MESSENIAN WARS, FIRST AND SECOND.

ARIZONA: The Name.

"Arizona, probably Arizonac in its original form, was the native and probably Pima name of the place of a hill, valley, stream, or some other local feature—just south of the modern boundary, in the mountains still so called, on the head waters of the stream flowing past Saric, where the famous Planchas de Plata mine was discovered in the middle of the 18th century, the name being first known to Spaniards in that connection and being applied to the mining camp or real de minas. The aboriginal meaning of the term is not known, though from the common occurrence in this region of the prefix 'ari,' the root 'son,' and the termination 'ac,' the derivation ought not to escape the research of a competent student. Such guesses as are extant, founded on the native tongues, offer only the barest possibility of a partial and accidental accuracy; while similar derivations from the Spanish are extremely absurd. … The name should properly be written and pronounced Arisona, as our English sound of the z does not occur in Spanish."

H. H. Bancroft, History of the Pacific States, volume 12, page 520.

{133}

ARIZONA: Aboriginal Inhabitants.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: PUEBLOS, APACHE GROUP, SHOSHONEAN FAMILY, AND UTAHS.

ARIZONA: A. D. 1848. Partial acquisition from Mexico.

See MEXICO: A. D. 1848.

ARIZONA: A. D. 1853. Purchase by the United States of the southern part from Mexico. The Gadsden Treaty.

"On December 30, 1853, James Gadsden, United States minister to Mexico, concluded a treaty by which the boundary line was moved southward so as to give the United States, for a monetary consideration of $10,000,000, all of modern Arizona south of the Gila, an effort so to fix the line as to include a port on the gulf being unsuccessful. … On the face of the matter this Gadsden treaty was a tolerably satisfactory settlement of a boundary dispute, and a purchase by the United States of a route for a southern railroad to California."

H. H. Bancroft, History of the Pacific States, volume 12, chapter 20.

—————ARIZONA: End—————

ARKANSAS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SIOUAN FAMILY.

ARKANSAS: A. D. 1542 Entered by Hernando de Soto.

See FLORIDA: A. D. 1528-1542.

ARKANSAS: A. D. 1803. Embraced in the Louisiana Purchase.

See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1798-1803.

ARKANSAS: A. D. 1819-1836. Detached from Missouri. Organized as a Territory. Admitted as a State.

"Preparatory to the assumption of state government, the limits of the Missouri Territory were restricted on the south by the parallel of 36° 30' North. The restriction was made by an act of Congress, approved March 3, 1819, entitled an 'Act establishing a separate territorial government in the southern portion of the Missouri Territory.' The portion thus separated was subsequently organized into the second grade of territorial government, and Colonel James Miller, a meritorious and distinguished officer of the Northwestern army, was appointed first governor. This territory was known as the Arkansas Territory, and, at the period of its first organization, contained an aggregate of nearly 14,000 inhabitants. Its limits comprised all the territory on the west side of the Mississippi between the parallels 33° and 36° 30', or between the northern limit of Louisiana and the southern boundary of the State of Missouri. On the west it extended indefinitely to the Mexican territories, at least 550 miles. The Post of Arkansas was made the seat of the new government. The population of this extensive territory for several years was comprised chiefly in the settlements upon the tributaries of White River and the St. Francis; upon the Mississippi, between New Madrid and Point Chicot; and upon both sides of the Arkansas River, within 100 miles of its mouth, but especially in the vicinity of the Post of Arkansas. … So feeble was the attraction in this remote region for the active, industrious, and well-disposed portion of the western pioneers, that the Arkansas Territory, in 1830, ten years after its organization, had acquired an aggregate of only 30,388 souls, including 4,576 slaves. … The western half of the territory had been erected, in 1824, into a separate district, to be reserved for the future residence of the Indian tribes, and to be known as the Indian Territory. From this time the tide of emigration began to set more actively into Arkansas, as well as into other portions of the southwest. … The territory increased rapidly for several years, and the census of 1835 gave the whole number of inhabitants at 58,134 souls, including 9,630 slaves. Thus the Arkansas Territory in the last five years had doubled its population. … The people, through the General Assembly, made application to Congress for authority to establish a regular form of state government. The assent of Congress was not withheld, and a Convention was authorized to meet at Little Rock on the first day of January, 1836, for the purpose of forming and adopting a State Constitution. The same was approved by Congress, and on the 13th of June following the State of Arkansas was admitted into the Federal Union as an independent state, and was, in point of time and order, the twenty-fifth in the confederacy. … Like the Missouri Territory, Arkansas had been a slaveholding country from the earliest French colonies. Of course, the institution of negro slavery, with proper checks and limits, was sustained by the new Constitution."

J. W. Monette, Discovery and Settlement of the Valley of the Mississippi, book 5, chapter 17 (volume 2).

See, also, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1818-1821.

ARKANSAS: A. D. 1861 (March). Secession voted down.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (MARCH-APRIL).

ARKANSAS: A. D. 1861 (April). Governor Rector's reply to President Lincoln's call for troops.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (APRIL).

ARKANSAS: A. D. 1862 (January-March). Advance of National forces into the State. Battle of Pea Ridge.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (JANUARY-MARCH: MISSOURI-ARKANSAS).

ARKANSAS: A. D. 1862 (July-September). Progress of the Civil War.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (JULY-SEPTEMBER: MISSOURI-ARKANSAS).

ARKANSAS: A. D.1862(December). The Battle of Prairie Grove.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER: MISSOURI-ARKANSAS).

ARKANSAS: A. D. 1863 (January). The capture of Arkansas Post from the Confederates.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (JANUARY: ARKANSAS).

ARKANSAS: A. D. 1863 (July). The defence of Helena.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (JULY: ON THE MISSISSIPPI).

ARKANSAS: A. D. 1863 (August-October). The breaking of Confederate authority. Occupation of Little Rock by National forces.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (AUGUST-OCTOBER: ARKANSAS-Missouri).

ARKANSAS: A. D. 1864 (March-October). Last important operations of the War. Price's Raid.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (MARCH-OCTOBER: ARKANSAS-MISSOURI).

{134}

ARKANSAS: A. D. 1864. First steps toward Reconstruction.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863-1864 (DECEMBER-JULY).

ARKANSAS: A. D. 1865-1868. Reconstruction completed.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D.1865 (MAY-JULY), to 1868-1870.

—————ARKANSAS: End—————

ARKITES, The.

A Canaanite tribe who occupied the plain north of Lebanon.

ARKWRIGHT'S SPINNING MACHINE, OR WATER-FRAME, The invention of.

See COTTON MANUFACTURE.

ARLES: Origin.

See SALVES.

ARLES: A. D. 411. Double siege.

See BRITAIN: A. D. 407.

ARLES: A. D. 425. Besieged by the Goths.

See GOTHS (VISIGOTHS): A. D. 419-451.

ARLES: A. D. 508-510. Siege by the Franks.

After the overthrow of the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse, A. D. 507, by the victory of Clovis, king of the Franks, at Voclad, near Poitiers, "the great city of Aries, once the Roman capital of Gaul, maintained a gallant defence against the united Franks and Burgundians, and saved for generations the Visigothic rule in Provence and southern Languedoc. Of the siege, which lasted apparently from 508 to 510, we have some graphic details in the life of St. Cæsarius, Bishop of Aries, written by his disciples." The city was relieved in 510 by an Ostrogothic army, sent by king Theodoric of Italy, after a great battle in which 30,000 Franks were reported to be slain. "The result of the battle of Aries was to put Theodoric in secure possession of all Provence and of so much of Languedoc as was needful to ensure his access to Spain"—where the Ostrogothic king, as guardian of his infant grandson, Amalaric, was taking care of the Visigothic kingdom.

T. Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders, book 4, chapter 9.

ARLES: A. D. 933. Formation of the kingdom.

See BURGUNDY: A. D. 843-933.

ARLES: A. D. 1032-1378. The breaking up of the kingdom and its gradual absorption in France.

See BURGUNDY: A. D. 1032, and 1127-1378.

ARLES: 1092-1207. The gay court of Provence.

See PROVENCE: A. D. 943-1092, and 1179-1207.

—————ARLES: End—————

ARMADA, The Spanish.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1588.

ARMAGEDDON.

See MEGIDDO.

ARMAGH, St. Patrick's School at.

See IRELAND: 5th to 8th CENTURIES.

ARMAGNAC, The counts of.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1327.

ARMAGNACS.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1380-1415, and 1415-1419.

ARMENIA:

"Almost immediately to the west of the Caspian there rises a high table-land diversified by mountains, which stretches eastward for more than eighteen degrees, between the 37th and 41st parallels. This highland may properly be regarded as a continuation of the great Iranean plateau, with which it is connected at its southeastern corner. It comprises a portion of the modern Persia, the whole of Armenia, and most of Asia Minor. Its principal mountain ranges are latitudinal, or from west to east, only the minor ones taking the opposite or longitudinal direction. … The heart of the mountain-region, the tract extending from the district of Erivan on the east to the upper course of the Kizil·Irmak river and the vicinity of Sivas upon the west, was, as it still is, Armenia. Amidst these natural fastnesses, in a country of lofty ridges, deep and narrow valleys, numerous and copious streams, and occasional broad plains—a country of rich pasture grounds, productive orchards, and abundant harvests—this interesting people has maintained itself almost unchanged from the time of the early Persian kings to the present day. Armenia was one of the most valuable portions of the Persian empire, furnishing, as it did, besides stone and timber, and several most important minerals, an annual supply of 20,000 excellent horses to the stud of the Persian king."

G. Rawlinson, Five Great Monarchies: Persia, chapter 1.

Before the Persians established their sovereignty over the country, "it seems certain that from one quarter or another Armenia had been Arianized; the old Turanian character had passed away from it; immigrants had flocked in and a new people had been formed—the real Armenians of later times, and indeed of the present day." Submitting to Alexander, on the overthrow of the Persian monarchy, Armenia fell afterwards under the yoke of the Seleucidæ, but gained independence about 190 B. C., or earlier. Under the influence of Parthia, a branch of the Parthian royal family, the Arsacids, was subsequently placed on the throne and a dynasty established which reigned for nearly six hundred years. The fourth of these kings, Tigranes, who occupied the throne in the earlier part of the last century B. C., placed Armenia in the front rank of Asiatic kingdoms and in powerful rivalry with Parthia. Its subsequent history is one of many wars and invasions and much buffeting between Romans, Parthians, Persians, and their successors in the conflicts of the eastern world. The part of Armenia west of the Euphrates was called by the Romans Armenia Minor. For a short period after the revolt from the Seleucid monarchy, it formed a distinct kingdom called Sophene.

G. Rawlinson, Sixth and Seventh Great Oriental Monarchies.

ARMENIA: B. C. 69-68. War with the Romans. Great defeat at Tigranocerta Submission to Rome.

See ROME: B. C. 78-68, and 69-63.

ARMENIA: A. D. 115-117.

Annexed to the Roman Empire by Trajan and restored to independence by Hadrian.

See ROME: A. D. 96-138.

ARMENIA: A. D. 422 (?). Persian Conquest. Becomes the satrapy of Persarmenia.

See PERSIA: A. D. 226-627.

ARMENIA: A. D. 1016-1073. Conquest and devastation by the Seljuk Turks.

See TURKS (SELJUKS): A. D. 1004-1063, and 1063-1073.

ARMENIA: 12th-14th Centuries. The Mediæval Christian Kingdom.

"The last decade of the 12th century saw the establishment of two small Christian kingdoms in the Levant, which long outlived all other relics of the Crusades except the military orders; and which, with very little help from the West, sustained a hazardous existence in complete contrast with almost everything around them. The kingdoms of Cyprus and Armenia have a history very closely intertwined, but their origin and most of their circumstances were very different. By Armenia as a kingdom is meant little more than the ancient Cilicia, the land between Taurus and the sea, from the frontier of the principality of Antioch, eastward, to Kelenderis or Palæopolis, a little beyond Seleucia; this territory, which was computed to contain 16 days' journey in length, measured from four miles of Antioch, by two in breadth, was separated from the Greater Armenia, which before the period on which we are now employed had fallen under the sway of the Seljuks, by the ridges of Taurus. {135} The population was composed largely of the sweepings of Asia Minor, Christian tribes which had taken refuge in the mountains. Their religion was partly Greek, partly Armenian. … Their rulers were princes descended from the house of the Bagratidæ, who had governed the Greater Armenia as kings from the year 885 to the reign of Constantine of Monomachus, and had then merged their hazardous independence in the mass of the Greek Empire. After the seizure of Asia Minor by the Seljuks, the few of the Bagratidæ who had retained possession of the mountain fastnesses of Cilicia or the strongholds of Mesopotamia, acted as independent lords, showing little respect for Byzantium save where there was something to be gained. … Rupin of the Mountain was prince [of Cilicia] at the time of the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin; he died in 1189, and his successor, Leo, or Livon, after having successfully courted the favour of pope and emperor, was recognised as king of Armenia by the emperor Henry VI., and was crowned by Conrad of Wittelsbach, Archbishop of Mainz, in 1198." The dynasty ended with Leo IV., whose "whole reign was a continued struggle against the Moslems," and who was assassinated about 1342. "The five remaining kings of Armenia sprang from a branch of the Cypriot house of Lusignan [see CYPRUS: A. D. 1192-1489] and were little more than Latin exiles in the midst of several strange populations all alike hostile."

William Stubbs, Lectures on the Study of Mediæval and Modern History, lecture 8.

ARMENIA: A. D. 1623-1635. Subjugated by Persia and regained by the Turks.

See TURKS: A. D. 1623-1640.

—————ARMENIA: End—————

ARMENIAN CHURCH, The.

The church of the Armenians is "the oldest of all national churches. They were converted by St. Gregory, called 'The Illuminator,' who was a relative of Dertad or Tiridates, their prince, and had been forced to leave the country at the same time with him, and settled at Cæsareia in Cappadocia, where he was initiated into the Christian faith. When they returned, both prince and people embraced the Gospel through the preaching of Gregory, A. D. 276, and thus presented the first instance of an entire nation becoming Christian. … By an accident they were unrepresented at [the Council of] Chalcedon [A. D. 451], and, owing to the poverty of their language in words serviceable for the purposes of theology, they had at that time but one word for Nature and Person, in consequence of which they misunderstood the decision of that council [that Christ possessed two natures, divine and human, in one Person] with sufficient clearness. … It was not until eighty-four years had elapsed that they finally adopted Eutychianism [the doctrine that the divinity is the sole nature in Christ], and an anathema was pronounced on the Chalcedonian decrees (536)."

H. F. Tozer, The Church and the Eastern Empire, chapter 5.

"The religion of Armenia could not derive much glory from the learning or the power of its inhabitants. The royalty expired with the origin of their schism; and their Christian kings, who arose and fell in the 13th century on the confines of Cilicia, were the clients of the Latins and the vassals of the Turkish sultan of Iconium, The helpless nation has seldom been permitted to enjoy the tranquility of servitude. From the earliest period to the present hour, Armenia has been the theatre of perpetual war; the lands between Tauris and Erivan were dispeopled by the cruel policy of the Sophis; and myriads of Christian families were transplanted, to perish or to propagate in the distant provinces of Persia. Under the rod of oppression, the zeal of the Armenians is fervent and intrepid; they have often preferred the crown of martyrdom to the white turban of Mahomet; they devoutly hate the error and idolatry of the Greeks."

ARMINIANISM.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1603-1619.

ARMINIUS, The Deliverance of Germany by.

See GERMANY: B. C. 8-A. D. 11.

ARMORIAL BEARINGS, Origin of.

"As to armorial bearings, there is no doubt that emblems somewhat similar have been immemorially used both in war and peace. The shields of ancient warriors, and devices upon coins or seals, bear no distant resemblance to modern blazonry. But the general introduction of such bearings, as hereditary distinctions, has been sometimes attributed to tournaments, wherein the champions were distinguished by fanciful devices; sometimes to the crusades, where a multitude of all nations and languages stood in need of some visible token to denote the banners of their respective chiefs. In fact, the peculiar symbols of heraldry point to both these sources and have been borrowed in part from each. Hereditary arms were perhaps scarcely used by private families before the beginning of the thirteenth century. From that time, however, they became very general."

H. Hallam, The Middle Ages, chapter 2, part 2.

ARMORICA.

The peninsular projection of the coast of Gaul between the mouths of the Seine and the Loire, embracing modern Brittany, and a great part of Normandy, was known to the Romans as Armorica. The most important of the Armorican tribes in Cæsar's time was that of the Veneti. "In the fourth and fifth centuries, the northern coast from the Loire to the frontier of the Netherlands was called 'Tractus Aremoricus,' or Aremorica, which in Celtic signifies 'maritime country.' The commotions of the third century, which continued to increase during the fourth and fifth, repeatedly drove the Romans from that country. French antiquaries imagine that it was a regularly constituted Gallic republic, of which Chlovis had the protectorate, but this is wrong."

B. G. Niebuhr, Lectures on Ancient Ethnography and Geography, volume 2, page 318.

ALSO IN: E. H. Bunbury, History of Ancient Geography, volume 2, page 235.

See, also, VENETI OF WESTERN GAUL, and IBERIANS, THE WESTERN.

ARMSTRONG, General John, and the Newburgh Addresses.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1782-1783.

ARMSTRONG, General John: Secretary of War. Plan of descent on Montreal.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1813 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER).

ARMY, The Legal Creation of the British.

See MUTINY ACTS.

ARMY PURCHASE, Abolition of.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1871.

ARNÆANS, The.

See GREECE: THE MIGRATIONS.

{136}

ARNAULD, Jacqueline Marie, and the Monastery of Port Royal.

See PORT ROYAL and the JANSENISTS: A. D. 1602-1660.

ARNAUTS, The.

See ALBANIANS, MEDIÆVAL.

ARNAY-LE-DUC, Battle of (1570).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1563-1570.

ARNOLD, Benedict, and the American Revolution.

See CANADA: A. D. 1775-1776; and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (MAY); 1777 (JULY-OCTOBER); 1780 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER); 1780-1781; 1781 (JANUARY-MAY); 1781 (MAY-OCTOBER).

ARNOLD OF BRESCIA, The Republic of.

See ROME: A. D. 1145-1155.

ARNOLD VON WINKELRIED, at the Battle of Sempach.

See SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1386-1388.

ARNULF, King of the East Franks (Germany), A. D. 888-899; King of Italy and Emperor, A. D. 894-899.

AROGI, Battle of (1868).

See ABYSSINIA: A. D. 1854-1889.

ARPAD, Dynasty of.

See HUNGARIANS: RAVAGES IN EUROPE; and HUNGARY: A. D. 972-1114; 1114-1301.

ARPAD, Siege of.

Conducted by the Assyrian Conqueror Tiglath-Pileser, beginning B. C. 742 and lasting two years. The fall of the city brought with it the submission of all northern Syria.

A. H. Sayce, Assyria, chapter 2.

ARQUES, Battles at (1589).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1589-1590.

ARRABIATI, The.

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1490-1498.

ARRAPACHITIS.

See JEWS: THE EARLY HEBREW HISTORY.

ARRAPAHOES, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.

ARRAS: Origin.

See BELGÆ.

ARRAS: A. D. 1583. Submission to Spain.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1584-1585.

ARRAS: A. D. 1654. Unsuccessful Siege by the Spaniards under Condé.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1653-1656.

—————ARRAS: End—————

ARRAS, Treaties of (1415 and 1435).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1380-1415, and 1431-1453.

ARRETIUM, Battle of (B. C. 285).

See ROME: B. C. 295-191.

ARROW HEADED WRITING.

See CUNEIFORM WRITING.

ARSACIDÆ, The.

The dynasty of Parthian kings were so called, from the founder of the line, Arsaces, who led the revolt of Parthia from the rule of the Syrian Seleucidæ and raised himself to the throne. According to some ancient writers Arsaces was a Bactrian; according to others a Scythian.

G. Rawlinson, Sixth Great Oriental Monarchy, chapter 3.

ARSEN.

In one of the earlier raids of the Seljukian Turks into Armenia, in the eleventh century the city of Arsen was destroyed. "It had long been the great city of Eastern Asia Minor, the centre of Asiatic trade, the depot for merchandise transmitted overland from Persia and India to the Eastern Empire and Europe generally. It was full of warehouses belonging to Armenians and Syrians and is said to have contained 800 churches and 300,000 people. Having failed to capture the city, Togrul's general succeeded in burning it. The destruction of so much wealth struck a fatal blow at Armenian commerce."

E. Pears, The Fall of Constantinople, chapter 2.

ARSENE, Lake.

An ancient name of the Lake of Van, which is also called Thopitis by Strabo.

E. H. Bunbury, History of Ancient Geography, chapter 22, section 1.

ARTABA, The.

See EPHAH.

ARTAXATA.

The ancient capital of Armenia, said to have been built under the superintendence of Hannibal, while a refugee in Armenia. At a later time it was called Neronia, in honor of the Roman Emperor Nero.

ARTAXERXES LONGIMANUS, King of Persia, B. C. 465-425. ARTAXERXES MNEMON, King of Persia, B. C. 405-359. ARTAXERXES OCHUS, King of Persia, B. C. 359-338. ARTAXERXES, or ARDSHIR, Founder of the Sassanian monarchy.

See PERSIA: B. C. 150-A. D. 226.

ARTEMISIUM, Sea fights at.

See GREECE: B. C. 480.

ARTEMITA.

See DASTAGERD.

ARTEVELD, Jacques and Philip Van: Their rise and fall in Ghent.

See FLANDERS: A. D. 1335-1337, to 1382.

ARTHUR, King, and the Knights of the Round Table.

"On the difficult question, whether there was a historical Arthur or not, … a word or two must now be devoted; … and here one has to notice in the first place that Welsh literature never calls Arthur a gwledig or prince but emperor, and it may be inferred that his historical position, in case he had such a position, was that of one filling, after the departure of the Romans, the office which under them was that of the Comes Britanniæ or Count of Britain. The officer so called had a roving commission to defend the Province wherever his presence might be called for. The other military captains here were the Dux Britanniarum, who had charge of the forces in the north and especially on the Wall, and the Comes Littoris Saxonici [Count of the Saxon Shore], who was entrusted with the defence of the south-eastern coast of the island. The successors of both these captains seem to have been called in Welsh gwledigs or princes. So Arthur's suggested position as Comes Britanniæ would be in a sense superior to theirs, which harmonizes with his being called emperor and not gwledig. The Welsh have borrowed the Latin title of imperator, 'emperor,' and made it into 'amherawdyr,' later 'amherawdwr,' so it is not impossible, that when the Roman imperator ceased to have anything more to say to this country, the title was given to the highest officer in the island, namely the Comes Britanniæ, and that in the words 'Yr Amherawdyr Arthur,' 'the Emperor Arthur,' we have a remnant of our insular history. If this view be correct, it might be regarded as something more than an accident that Arthur's position relatively to that of the other Brythonic princes of his time is exactly given by Nennius, or whoever it was that wrote the Historia Brittonum ascribed to him: there Arthur is represented fighting in company with the kings of the Brythons in defence of their common country, he being their leader in war. If, as has sometimes been argued, the uncle of Maglocunus or Maelgwn, whom the latter is accused by Gilda of having slain and superseded, was no other than Arthur, it would supply one reason why that writer called Maelgwn 'insularis draco,' 'the dragon or war-captain of the island,' and why the latter and his successors after him were called by the Welsh not gwledigs but kings, though their great ancestor Cuneda was only a gwledig. {137} On the other hand the way in which Gildas alludes to the uncle of Maelgwn without even giving his name, would seem to suggest that in his estimation at least he was no more illustrious than his predecessors in the position which he held, whatever that may have been. How then did Arthur become famous above them, and how came he to be the subject of so much story and romance? The answer, in short, which one has to give to this hard question must be to the effect, that besides a historic Arthur there was a Brythonic divinity named Arthur, after whom the man may have been called, or with whose name his, in case it was of a different origin, may have become identical in sound owing to an accident of speech; for both explanations are possible, as we shall attempt to show later. Leaving aside for a while the man Arthur, and assuming the existence of a god of that name, let us see what could be made of him. Mythologically speaking he would probably have to be regarded as a Culture Hero; for, a model king and the institutor of the Knighthood of the Round Table, he is represented as the leader of expeditions to the isles of Hades, and as one who stood in somewhat the same kind of relation to Gwalchmei as Gwydion did to ILeu. It is needless here to dwell on the character usually given to Arthur as a ruler: he with his knights around him may be compared to Conehobar, in the midst of the Champions of Emain Macha, or Woden among the Anses at Valhalla, while Arthur's Knights are called those of the Round Table, around which they are described sitting; and it would be interesting to understand the signification of the term Round Table. On the whole it is the table, probably, and not its roundness that is the fact to which to call attention, as it possibly means that Arthur's court was the first early court where those present sat at a table at all in Britain. No such thing as a common table figures at Conchobar's court or any other described in the old legends of Ireland, and the same applies, we believe, to those of the old Norsemen. The attribution to Arthur of the first use of a common table would fit in well with the character of a Culture Hero which we have ventured to ascribe to him, and it derives countenance from the pretended history of the Round Table; for the Arthurian legend traces it back to Arthur's father, Uthr Bendragon, in whom we have under one of his many names the king of Hades, the realm whence all culture was fabled to have been derived. In a wider sense the Round Table possibly signified plenty or abundance, and might be compared with the table of the Ethiopians, at which Zeus and the other gods of Greek mythology used to feast from time to time."

J. Rhys, Studies in the Arthurian Legend, chapter 1.

See, also CUMBRIA.

ARTHUR, Chester A. Election to Vice-Presidency. Succession to the Presidency.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1880 and 1881.

ARTI OF FLORENCE.

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1250-1293.

ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION (American).

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1777-1781, and 1783-1787.

ARTICLES OF HENRY, The.

See POLAND: A. D. 1573.

ARTOIS, The House of.

See BOURBON, THE HOUSE OF.

ARTOIS: A. D. 1529. Pretensions of the King of France to Suzerainty resigned.

See ITALY: A. D. 1527-1529.

ARTYNI.

See DEMIURGI.

ARVADITES, The.

The Canaanite inhabitants of the island of Aradus, or Arvad, and who also held territory on the main land.

F. Lenormant, Manual of Ancient History, book 6, chapter 1.

ARVERNI, The.

See ÆDUI; also, GAULS, and ALLOBROGES.

ARX, The.

See CAPITOLINE HILL; also GENS, ROMAN.

ARXAMUS, Battle of.

One of the defeats sustained by the Romans in their wars with the Persians. Battle fought A. D. 603.

G. Rawlinson, Seventh Great Oriental Monarchy, chapter 24.

ARYANS. ARYAS.

"This family (which is sometimes called Japhetic, or descendants of Japhet) includes the Hindus and Persians among Asiatic nations, and almost all the peoples of Europe. It may seem strange that we English should be related not only to the Germans and Dutch and Scandinavians, but to the Russians, French, Spanish, Romans and Greeks as well; stranger still that we can claim kinship with such distant peoples as the Persians and Hindus. … What seems actually to have been the case is this: In distant ages, somewhere about the rivers Oxus and Jaxartes, and on the north of that mountainous range called the Hindoo-Koosh, dwelt the ancestors of all the nations we have enumerated, forming at this time a single and united people, simple and primitive in their way of life, but yet having enough of a common national life to preserve a common language. They called themselves Aryas or Aryans, a word which, in its very earliest sense, seems to have meant those who move upwards, or straight; and hence, probably, came to stand for the noble race as compared with other races on whom, of course, they would look down. … As their numbers increased, the space wherein they dwelt became too small for them who had out of one formed many different peoples. Then began a series of migrations, in which the collection of tribes who spoke one language and formed one people started off to seek their fortune in new lands. … First among them, in all probability, started the Kelts or Celts, who, travelling perhaps to the South of the Caspian and the North of the Black Sea, found their way to Europe and spread far on to the extreme West. … Another of the great families who left the Aryan home was the Pelasgic or the Græco-Italic. These, journeying along first Southwards and then to the West, passed through Asia Minor, on to the countries of Greece and Italy, and in time separated into those two great peoples, the Greeks (or Hellenes, as they came to call themselves), and the Romans. … Next we come to two other great families of nations who seem to have taken the same route at first, and perhaps began their travels together as the Greeks and Romans did. These are the Teutons and the Slaves. … The word Slave comes from Slowan, which in old Slavonian meant to speak, and was given by the Slavonians to themselves as the people who could speak in opposition to other nations whom, as they were not able to understand them, they were pleased to consider as dumb. The Greek word barbaroi (whence our barbarians) arose in obedience to a like prejudice, only from an imitation of babbling such as is made by saying 'bar-bar-bar.'"

C. F. Keary, Dawn of History, chapter 4.

{138}

The above passage sets forth the older theory of an Aryan family of nations as well as of languages in its unqualified form. Its later modifications are indicated in the following: "The discovery of Sanscrit and the further discovery to which it led, that the languages now variously known as Aryan, Aryanic, Indo-European, Indo-Germanic, Indo-Celtic and Japhetic are closely akin to one another, spread a spell over the world of thought which cannot be said to have yet wholly passed away. It was hastily argued from the kinship of their languages to the kinship of the nations that spoke them. … The question then arises as to the home of the 'holethnos,' or parent tribe, before its dispersion and during the proethnic period, at a time when as yet there was neither Greek nor Hindoo, neither Celt nor Teuton, but only an undifferentiated Aryan. Of course, the answer at first was—where could it have been but in the East. And at length the glottologist found it necessary to shift the cradle of the Aryan race to the neighbourhood of the Oxus and the Jaxartes, so as to place it somewhere between the Caspian Sea and the Himalayas. Then Doctor Latham boldly raised his voice against the Asiatic theory altogether, and stated that he regarded the attempt to deduce the Aryans from Asia as resembling an attempt to derive the reptiles of this country from those of Ireland. Afterwards Benfey argued, from the presence in the vocabulary common to the Aryan languages of words for bear and wolf, for birch and beech, and the absence of certain others, such as those for lion, tiger and palm, that the original home of the Aryans must have been within the temperate zone in Europe. … As might be expected in the case of such a difficult question, those who are inclined to believe in the European origin of the Aryans are by no means agreed among themselves as to the spot to be fixed upon. Latham placed it east, or south-east of Lithuania, in Podolia, or Volhynia; Benfey had in view a district above the Black Sea and not far from the Caspian; Peschel fixed on the slopes of the Caucasus; Cuno on the great plain of Central Europe; Fligier on the southern part of Russia; Pösche on the tract between the Niemen and the Dnieper; L. Geiger on central and western Germany; and Penka on Scandinavia."

J. Rhys, Race Theories (in New Princeton Review, January, 1888).

"Aryan, in scientific language, is utterly inapplicable to race. It means language, and nothing but language; and, if we speak of Aryan race at all, we should know that it means no more than X + Aryan speech. … I have declared again and again that if I say Aryas, I mean neither blood nor bones, nor hair nor skull; I mean simply those who speak an Aryan language. The same applies to Hindus, Greeks, Romans, Germans, Celts and Slaves. … In that sense, and in that sense only, do I say that even the blackest Hindus represent an earlier stage of Aryan speech and thought than the fairest Scandinavians. … If an answer must be given as to the place where our Aryan ancestors dwelt before their separation, whether in large swarms of millions, or in a few scattered tents and huts, I should still say, as I said forty years ago, 'Somewhere in Asia,' and no more."

F. Max Müller, Biog. of Words and Home of the Aryas, chapter 6.

The theories which dispute the Asiatic origin of the Aryans are strongly presented by Canon Taylor in The Origin of the Aryans, by G. H. Rendall, in The Cradle of the Aryans, and by Dr. O. Schrader in Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples.

See, also, INDIA: THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS, and THE IMMIGRATION AND CONQUESTS OF THE ARYAS.

AS. LIBRA. DENARIUS. SESTERTIUS.

"The term As [among the Romans] and the words which denote its divisions, were not confined to weight alone, but were applied to measures of length and capacity also, and in general to any object which could be regarded as consisting of twelve equal parts. Thus they were commonly used to denote shares into which an inheritance was divided." As a unit of weight the As, or Libra, "occupied the same position in the Roman system as the pound does in our own. According to the most accurate researches, the As was equal to about 11.8 oz. avoirdupois, or .7375 of an avoirdupois pound." It "was divided into 12 equal parts called unciæ, and the unciæ was divided into 24 equal parts called scrupula." "The As, regarded as a coin [of copper] originally weighed, as the name implies, one pound, and the smaller copper coins those fractions of the pound denoted by their names. By degrees; however, the weight of the As, regarded as a coin, was greatly diminished. We are told that, about the commencement of the first Punic war, it had fallen from 12 ounces to 2 ounces; in the early part of the second Punic war (B. C. 217), it was reduced to one ounce; and not long afterwards, by a Lex Papiria, it was fixed at half-an-ounce, which remained the standard ever after." The silver coins of Rome were the Denarius, equivalent (after 217 B. C.) to 16 Asses; the Quinarius and the Sestertius, which became, respectively, one half and one fourth of the Denarius in value. The Sestertius, at the close of the Republic, is. estimated to have been equivalent in value to two pence sterling of English money. The coinage was debased under the Empire. The principal gold coin of the Empire was the Denarius Aureus, which passed for 25 silver Denarii.

W. Ramsay, Manual of Roman Antiquity, chapter 13.

ASCALON, Battle of (A. D. 1099).

See JERUSALEM: A. D. 1099-1144.

ASCANIENS, The.

See BRANDENBURG: A. D. 928-1142.

ASCULUM, Battle of (B. C. 279).

See ROME: B. C. 282-275.

ASCULUM, Massacre at.

See ROME: B. C. 90-88.

ASHANTEE WAR, The (1874).

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1873-1880

ASHBURTON TREATY, The.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1842.

ASHDOD.

See PHILISTINES.

ASHRAF, Shah of Persia, A. D. 1725-1730.

ASHTI, Battle of (1818).

See INDIA: A. D. 1816-1819.

{139}

ASIA: The Name.

"There are grounds for believing Europe and Asia to have originally signified 'the west' and 'the east' respectively. Both are Semitic terms, and probably passed to the Greeks from the Phœnicians. … The Greeks first applied the title [Asia] to that portion of the eastern continent which lay nearest to them, and with which they became first acquainted—the coast of Asia Minor opposite the Cyclades; whence they extended it as their knowledge grew. Still it had always a special application to the country about Ephesus."

G. Rawlinson, Notes to Herodotus, volume 3, page 33.

ASIA: The Roman Province (so called).

"As originally constituted, it corresponded to the dominions of the kings of Pergamus … left by the will of Attalus III. to the Roman people (B. C. 133). … It included the whole of Mysia and Lydia, with Æolis, Ionia and Caria, except a small part which was subject to Rhodes, and the greater part, if not the whole, of Phrygia. A portion of the last region, however, was detached from it."

E. H. Bunbury, History of Ancient Geography, chapter 20, section 1.

ASIA: Central. Mongol Conquest.

See MONGOLS.

ASIA: Turkish Conquest.

See TURKS.

ASIA: Russian Conquests.

See RUSSIA: A. D. 1859-1876, and 1869-1881.

ASIA MINOR:

"The name of Asia Minor, so familiar to the student of ancient geography, was not in use either among Greek or Roman writers until a very late period. Orosius, who wrote in the fifth century after the Christian era, is the first extant writer who employs the term in its modern sense."

E. H. Bunbury, History of Ancient Geography, chapter 7, section 2.

The name Anatolia, which is of Greek origin, synonymous with "The Levant," signifying "The Sunrise," came into use among the Byzantines, about the 10th century, and was adopted by their successors, the Turks.

ASIA MINOR: Earlier Kingdoms and People.

See PHRYGIANS and MYSIANS. LYDIANS. CARIANS. LYCIANS. BITHYNIANS. PONTUS (CAPPADOCIA). PAPHLAGONIANS. TROJA.

ASIA MINOR: The Greek Colonies.

"The tumult which had been caused by the irruption of the Thesprotians into Thessaly and the displacement of the population of Greece [see GREECE: THE MIGRATION, &c.] did not subside within the limits of the peninsula. From the north and the south those inhabitants who were unable to maintain their ground against the incursions of the Thessalians, Arnaeans, or Dorians, and preferred exile to submission, sought new homes in the islands of the Aegean and on the western coast of Asia Minor. The migrations continued for several generations. When at length they came to an end, and the Anatolian coast from Mount Ida to the Triopian headland, with the adjacent islands, was in the possession of the Greeks, three great divisions or tribes were distinguished in the new settlements: Dorians, Ionians, and Aeolians. In spite of the presence of some alien elements, the Dorians and Ionians of Asia Minor were the same tribes as the Dorians and Ionians of Greece. The Aeolians, on the other hand, were a composite tribe, as their name implies. … Of these three divisions the Aeolians lay farthest to the north. The precise limits of their territory were differently fixed by different authorities. … The Aeolic cities fell into two groups: a northern, of which Lesbos was the centre, and a southern, composed of the cities in the immediate neighbourhood of the Hermus, and founded from Cyme.—The northern group included the islands of Tenedos and Lesbos. In the latter there were originally six cities: Methymna, Mytilene, Pyrrha, Eresus, Arisba, and Antissa, but Arisba was subsequently conquered and enslaved by Mytilene. … The second great stream of migration proceeded from Athens [after the death of Codrus—see ATHENS: FROM THE DORIAN MIGRATION TO B. C. 683—according to Greek tradition, the younger sons of Codrus leading these Ionian colonists across the Aegean, first to the Carian city of Miletus—see MILETUS,—which they captured, and then to the conquest of Ephesus and the island of Samos]. … The colonies spread until a dodecapolis was established, similar to the union which the Ionians had founded in their old settlements on the northern shore of Peloponnesus. In some cities the Ionian population formed a minority. … The colonisation of Ionia was undoubtedly, in the main, an achievement of emigrants from Attica, but it was not accomplished by a single family, or in the space of one life-time. … The two most famous of the Ionian cities were Miletus and Ephesus. The first was a Carian city previously known as Anactoria. … Ephesus was originally in the hands of the Leleges and the Lydians, who were driven out by the Ionians under Androclus. The ancient sanctuary of the tutelary goddess of the place was transformed by the Greeks into a temple of Artemis, who was here worshipped as the goddess of birth and productivity in accordance with Oriental rather than Hellenic ideas." The remaining Ionic cities and islands were Myus (named from the mosquitoes which infested it, and which finally drove the colony to abandon it), Priene, Erythrae, Clazomenæ, Teos, Phocaea, Colophon, Lebedus, Samos and Chios. "Chios was first inhabited by Cretans … and subsequently by Carians. … Of the manner in which Chios became connected with the Ionians the Chians could give no clear account. … The southern part of the Anatolian coast, and the southern-most islands in the Aegean were colonised by the Dorians, who wrested them from the Phoenician or Carian occupants. Of the islands, Crete is the most important. … Crete was one of the oldest centres of civilisation in the Aegean [see CRETE]. … The Dorian colony in Rhodes, like that in Crete, was ascribed to the band which left Argos under the command of Althaemenes. … Other islands colonised by the Dorians were Thera, … Melos, … Carpathus, Calydnae, Nisyrus, and Cos. … From the islands, the Dorians spread to the mainland. The peninsula of Cnidus was perhaps the first settlement. … Halicarnassus was founded from Troezen, and the Ionian element must have been considerable. … Of the Dorian cities, six united in the common worship of Apollo on the headland of Triopium. These were Lindus, Ialysus, and Camirus in Rhodes, Cos, and, on the mainland, Halicarnassus and Cnidus. … The territory which the Aeolians acquired is described by Herodotus as more fertile than that occupied by the Ionians, but of a less excellent climate. It was inhabited by a number of tribes, among which the Troes or Teucri were the chief. … In Homer the inhabitants of the city of the Troad are Dardani or Troes, and the name Teucri does not occur. In historical times the Gergithes, who dwelt in the town of the same name … near Lampsacus, and also formed the subject population of Miletus, were the only remnants of this once famous nation. {140} But their former greatness was attested by the Homeric poems, and the occurrence of the name Gergithians at various places in the Troad [see TROJA]. To this tribe belonged the Troy of the Grecian epic, the site of which, so far as it represents any historical city, is fixed at Hissarlik. In the Iliad the Trojan empire extends from the Aesepus to the Caicus; it was divided—or, at least, later historians speak of it as divided—into principalities which recognised Priam as their chief. But the Homeric descriptions of the city and its eminence are not to be taken as historically true. Whatever the power and civilisation of the ancient stronghold exhumed by Dr. Schliemann may have been, it was necessary for the epic poet to represent Priam and his nation as a dangerous rival in wealth and arms to the great kings of Mycenae and Sparta. … The traditional dates fix these colonies [of the Greeks in Asia Minor] in the generations which followed the Trojan war. … We may suppose that the colonisation of the Aegean and of Asia Minor by the Greeks was coincident with the expulsion of the Phoenicians. The greatest extension of the Phoenician power in the Aegean seems to fall in the 15th century B. C. From the 13th it was gradually on the decline, and the Greeks were enabled to secure the trade for themselves. … By 1100 B. C. Asia Minor may have been in the hands of the Greeks, though the Phoenicians still maintained themselves in Rhodes and Cyprus. But all attempts at chronology are illusory."

E. Abbott, History of Greece, chapter 4 (volume 1).

ALSO IN: E. Curtius, History of Greece, book 2, chapter 3 (volume 1).

G. Grote, History of Greece, part 2, chapters 13-15.

J. A. Cramer, Geography and Historical Description of Asia Minor, section 6 (volume 1).

See, also, MILETUS, PHOCÆANS.

ASIA MINOR: B. C. 724-539. Prosperity of the Greek Colonies. Their Submission to Crœsus, King of Lydia, and their conquest and annexation to the Persian Empire.

"The Grecian colonies on the coast of Asia early rose to wealth by means of trade and manufactures. Though we have not the means of tracing their commerce, we know that it was considerable, with the mother country, with Italy, and at length Spain, with Phœnicia and the interior of Asia, whence the productions of India passed to Greece. The Milesians, who had fine woolen manufactures, extended their commerce to the Euxine, on all sides of which they founded factories, and exchanged their manufactures and other goods with the Scythians and the neighbouring peoples, for slaves, wool, raw hides, bees-wax, flax, hemp, pitch, etc. There is even reason to suppose that, by means of caravans, their traders bartered their wares not far from the confines of China [see MILETUS]. … But while they were advancing in wealth and prosperity, a powerful monarchy formed itself in Lydia, of which the capital was Sardes, a city at the foot of Mount Tmolus." Gyges, the first of the Mermnad dynasty of Lydian kings (see LYDIANS), whose reign is supposed to have begun about B. C. 724, "turned his arms against the Ionian cities on the coast. During a century and a half the efforts of the Lydian monarchs to reduce these states were unavailing. At length (Ol. 55) [B. C. 568] the celebrated Crœsus mounted the throne of Lydia, and he made all Asia this side of the River Halys (Lycia and Cilicia excepted) acknowledge his dominion. The Aeolian, Ionian and Dorian cities of the coast all paid him tribute; but, according to the usual rule of eastern conquerors, he meddled not with their political institutions, and they might deem themselves fortunate in being insured against war by the payment of an annual sum of money. Crœsus, moreover, cultivated the friendship of the European Greeks." But Crœsus was overthrown, B. C. 554, by the conquering Cyrus and his kingdom of Lydia was swallowed up in the great Persian empire then taking form [see PERSIA: B. C. 549-521]. Cyrus, during his war with Crœsus, had tried to entice the Ionians away from the latter and win them to an alliance with himself. But they incurred his resentment by refusing. "They and the Æolians now sent ambassadors, praying to be received to submission on the same terms as those on which they had obeyed the Lydian monarch; but the Milesians alone found favour: the rest had to prepare for war. They repaired the walls of their towns, and sent to Sparta for aid. Aid, however, was refused; but Cyrus, being called away by the war with Babylon, neglected them for the present. Three years afterwards (Ol. 59, 2), Harpagus, who had saved Cyrus in his infancy from his grandfather, Astyages, came as governor of Lydia. He instantly prepared to reduce the cities of the coast. Town after town submitted. The Teians abandoned theirs, and retired to Abdera in Thrace; the Phocæans, getting on shipboard, and vowing never to return, sailed for Corsica, and being there harassed by the Carthagenians and Tyrrhenians, they went to Rhegion in Italy, and at length founded Massalia (Marseilles) on the coast of Gaul. The Grecian colonies thus became a part of the Persian empire."

T. Keightley, History of Greece, part 1, chapter 9.

ALSO IN: Herodotus, History, translated and edited by G. Rawlinson, book 1, and appendix

M. Duncker, History of Antiquity, book 8, chapters 6-7 (volume 6).

ASIA MINOR: B. C. 501-493. The Ionian revolt and its suppression.

See PERSIA: B. C. 521-493.

ASIA MINOR: B. C. 479. Athens assumes the protection of Ionia.

See ATHENS: B. C.479-478.

ASIA MINOR: B. C. 477. Formation of Confederacy of Delos.

See GREECE: B. C. 478-477.

ASIA MINOR: B. C. 413. Tribute again demanded from the Greeks by the Persian King. Conspiracy against Athens.

See GREECE: B. C. 413.

ASIA MINOR: B. C. 413-412. Revolt of the Greek cities from Athens. Intrigues of Alcibiades.

See GREECE: B. C. 413-412.

ASIA MINOR: B. C. 412. Re-submission to Persia.

See PERSIA: B. C. 486-405.

ASIA MINOR: B. C. 401-400. Expedition of Cyrus the Younger, and Retreat of the Ten Thousand.

See PERSIA: B. C.401-400.

ASIA MINOR: B. C. 399-387. Spartan war with Persia in behalf of the Greek cities. Their abandonment by the Peace of Antalcidas.

See GREECE: B. C. 399-387.

ASIA MINOR: B. C. 334. Conquest by Alexander the Great.

See MACEDONIA: B. C. 334-330.

ASIA MINOR: B. C. 301. Mostly annexed to the Thracian Kingdom of Lysimachus.

See MACEDONIA, &c.: B. C. 310-301.

ASIA MINOR: B. C. 281-224. Battle-ground of the warring monarchies of Syria and Egypt. Changes of masters.

See SELEUCIDÆ.

{141}

ASIA MINOR: B. C. 191. First Entrance of the Romans. Their defeat of Antiochus the Great. Their expansion of the kingdom of Pergamum and the Republic of Rhodes.

See SELEUCIDÆ B. C. 224-187.

ASIA MINOR: B. C. 120-65. Mithridates and his kingdom. Massacre of Italians. Futile revolt from Rome. Complete Roman Conquest.

See MITHRIDATIC WARS; also ROME: B. C.78-68. and 69-63.

ASIA MINOR: A. D. 292. Diocletian's seat of Empire established at Nicomedia.

See ROME: A. D. 284-305.

ASIA MINOR: A. D. 602-628. Persian invasions. Deliverance by Heraclius.

See ROME: A. D. 565-628.

ASIA MINOR: A. D. 1063-1092. Conquest and ruin by the Seljuk Turks.

See TURKS (SELJUKS): A. D. 1063-1073; and 1073-1092.

ASIA MINOR: A. D. 1097-1149. Wars of the Crusaders.

See CRUSADES: A. D. 1096-1099; and 1147-1149.

ASIA MINOR: A. D. 1204-1261. The Empire of Nicæa and the Empire of Trebizond.

See GREEK EMPIRE OF NICÆA.

—————ASIA MINOR: End—————

ASIENTO, OR ASSIENTO, The.

See SLAVERY: A. D. 1698-1776; UTRECHT: A. D. 1712-1714; AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, THE CONGRESS OF; ENGLAND: A. D. 1739-1741; and GEORGIA: A. D. 1738-1743.

ASKELON.

See PHILISTINES.

ASKLEPIADS.

"Throughout all the historical ages [of Greece] the descendants of Asklêpius [or Esculapius] were numerous and widely diffused. The many families or gentes called Asklêpiads, who devoted themselves to the study and practice of medicine, and who principally dwelt near the temples of Asklêpius, whither sick and suffering men came to obtain relief—all recognized the god, not merely as the object of their common worship, but also as their actual progenitor."

G. Grote, History of Greece, part 1, chapter 9.

ASMONEANS, The.

See JEWS: B. C. 166-40.

ASOPIA.

See SICYON.

ASOV.

See AZOF.

ASPADAN.

The ancient name of which that of Ispahan is a corrupted form.

G. Rawlinson, Five Great Monarchies: Media, chapter 1.

ASPERN-ESSLINGEN (OR THE MARCHFELD), Battle of.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1809 (JANUARY-JUNE).

ASPIS, The.

See PHALANX.

ASPROMONTE, Defeat of Garibaldi at (1862).

See ITALY: A. D. 1862-1866.

ASSAM, English Acquisition of.

See INDIA: A. D. 1823-1833.

ASSANDUN, Battle of.

The sixth and last battle, A. D. 1016, between Edmund Ironsides, the English King, and his Danish rival, Cnut, or Canute, for the Crown of England. The English were terribly defeated and the flower of their nobility perished on the field. The result was a division of the kingdom; but Edmund soon died, or was killed. Ashington, in Essex, was the battle-ground.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 979-1016.

ASSASSINATIONS, Notable. Abbas, Pasha of Egypt. See EGYPT: A. D. 1840-1869.

Alexander II. of Russia. See RUSSIA: A. D. 1879-1881.

Beatoun, Cardinal. See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1546.

Becket, Thomas. See ENGLAND: A. D. 1162-1170

Buckingham. See ENGLAND: A. D. 1628.

Cæsar. See ROME; B. C. 44.

Capo d'Istrea, Count, President of Greece. See GREECE: A. D. 1830-1862.

Cavendish, Lord Frederick, and Burke, Mr. See IRELAND: A. D. 1882.

Concini. See FRANCE: A. D. 1610-1619.

Danilo, Prince of Montenegro (1860). See MONTENEGRO.

Darnley. See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1561-1568.

Francis of Guise. See FRANCE: A. D. 1560-1563.

Garfield, President. See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1881.

Gustavus III. of Sweden. See SCANDINAVIAN STATES (SWEDEN): A. D. 1720-1792.

Henry of Guise. See FRANCE: A. D. 1584-1589.

Henry III. of France. See FRANCE; A. D. 1584-1589.

Henry IV. of France. See FRANCE: A. D. 1599-1600.

Hipparchus. See ATHENS: B. C, 560-510.

John, Duke of Burgundy. See FRANCE: A. D. 1415-1419.

Kleber, General. See FRANCE; A. D. 1800 (JANUARY-JUNE).

Kotzebue. See GERMANY; A. D. 1817-1820.

Lincoln, President. See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (APRIL 14TH).

Marat. See FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (JULY).

Mayo, Lord. See INDIA; A. D. 1862-1876.

Murray, The Regent. See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1561-1568.

Omar, Caliph. See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST, &c.: A. D. 661.

Paul, Czar of Russia. See RUSSIA: A. D. 1801.

Perceval, Spencer. See ENGLAND; A. D. 1806-1812.

Peter III. See RUSSIA: A. D. 1761-1762.

Philip of Macedon. See GREECE: B. C. 357-336.

Prim, General (1870). See SPAIN. A. D. 1866-1843.

Rizzio. See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1561-1568.

Rossi, Count. See ITALY: A. D. 1848-1849.

Wallenstein (1634). See GERMANY: A. D. 1632-1634.

William the Silent. See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1581-1584.

Witt, John and Cornelius de. See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1672-1674.

ASSASSINS, The.

"I must here speak with the brevity which my limits prescribe of that wonderful brotherhood of the Assassins, which during the 12th and 13th centuries spread such terror through all Asia, Mussulman and Christian. Their deeds should be studied in Von Hammer's history of their order, of which however there is an excellent analysis in Taylor's History of Mohammedanism. The word Assassin, it must be remembered, in its ordinary signification, is derived from this order, and not the reverse. The Assassins were not so called because they were murderers, but murderers are called assassins because the Assassins were murderers. The origin of the word Assassin has been much disputed by oriental scholars; but its application is sufficiently written upon the Asiatic history of the 12th century. The Assassins were not, strictly speaking, a dynasty, but rather an order, like the Templars; only the office of Grand-Master, like the Caliphate, became hereditary. They were originally a branch of the Egyptian Ishmaelites [see MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 908-1171] and at first professed the principles of that sect. But there can be no doubt that their inner doctrine became at last a mere negation of all religion and all morality. 'To believe nothing and to dare everything' was the summary of their teaching. Their exoteric principle, addressed to the non-initiated members of the order, was simple blind obedience to the will of their superiors. If the Assassin was ordered to take off a Caliph or a Sultan by the dagger or the bowl, the deed was done; if he was ordered to throw himself from the ramparts, the deed was done likewise. … Their founder was Hassan Sabah, who, in 1090, shortly before the death of Malek Shah, seized the castle of Alamout—the Vulture's nest—in northern Persia, whence they extended their possessions over a whole chain of mountain fortresses in that country and in Syria. The Grand-Master was the Sheikh-al-Jebal, the famous Old Man of the Mountain, at whose name Europe and Asia shuddered."

E. A. Freeman, History and Conquests of the Saracens, lecture 4.

{142}

"In the Fatimide Khalif of Egypt, they [the Assassins, or Ismailiens of Syria and Persia] beheld an incarnate deity. To kill his enemies, in whatever way they best could, was an action, the merit of which could not be disputed, and the reward for which was certain." Hasan Sabah, the founder of the Order, died at Alamout A. D. 1124. "From the day he entered Alamut until that of his death—a period of thirty-five years—he never emerged, but upon two occasions, from the seclusion of his house. Pitiless and inscrutable as Destiny, he watched the troubled world of Oriental politics, himself invisible, and whenever he perceived a formidable foe, caused a dagger to be driven into his heart." It was not until more than a century after the death of its founder that the fearful organization of the Assassins was extinguished (A. D. 1257) by the same flood of Mongol invasion which swept Bagdad and the Caliphate out of existence.

R. D. Osborn, Islam under the Khalifs of Bagdad, part 3, chapter 3.

W. C. Taylor, History of Mohammedanism and its Sects, chapter 9.

The Assassins were rooted out from all their strongholds in Kuhistan and the neighboring region, and were practically exterminated, in 1257, by the Mongols under Khulagu, or Houlagou, brother of Mongu Khan, the great sovereign of the Mongol Empire, then reigning. Alamut, the Vulture's Nest, was demolished.

H. H. Howorth, History of the Mongols, part 1, page 193; and part 3, pages 91-108.

See BAGDAD; A. D. 1258.

ASSAYE, Battle of (1803).

See INDIA; A. D. 1798-1803.

ASSEMBLY OF THE NOTABLES IN FRANCE (1787).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1774-1788.

ASSENISIPIA, The proposed State of.

See NORTHWEST TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1784.

ASSIDEANS, The.

See CHASIDM, THE.

ASSIENTO, The.

See ASIENTO.

ASSIGNATS.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1789-1791; 1794-1795 (JULY-APRIL); 1795 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).

ASSINARUS, Athenian defeat and surrender at the.

See SYRACUSE: B. C. 415-413.

ASSINIBOIA.

See NORTHWEST TERRITORIES OF CANADA.

ASSINIBOINS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SIOUAN FAMILY.

ASSIZE, The Bloody.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1685 (SEPTEMBER).

ASSIZE OF BREAD AND ALE.

The Assize of Bread and Ale was an English ordinance or enactment, dating back to the time of Henry III. in the 13th century, which fixed the price of those commodities by a scale regulated according to the market prices of wheat, barley and oats. "The Assize of bread was re-enacted so lately as the beginning of the last century and was only abolished in London and its neighbourhood about thirty years ago"—that is, early in the present century.

G. L. Craik, History of British Commerce, volume 1, page 137.

ASSIZE OF CLARENDON, The.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1162-1170.

ASSIZE OF JERUSALEM, The.

"No sooner had Godfrey of Bouillon [elected King of Jerusalem, after the taking of the Holy City by the Crusaders, A. D. 1099] accepted the office of supreme magistrate than he solicited the public and private advice of the Latin pilgrims who were the best skilled in the statutes and customs of Europe. From these materials, with the counsel and approbation of the Patriarch and barons, of the clergy and laity, Godfrey composed the Assise of Jerusalem, a precious monument of feudal jurisprudence. The new code, attested by the seals of the King, the Patriarch, and the Viscount of Jerusalem, was deposited in the holy sepulchre, enriched with the improvements of succeeding times, and respectfully consulted as often as any doubtful question arose in the tribunals of Palestine. With the kingdom and city all was lost; the fragments of the written law were preserved by jealous tradition and variable practice till the middle of the thirteenth century. The code was restored by the pen of John d'Ibelin, Count of Jaffa, one of the principal feudatories; and the final revision was accomplished in the year thirteen hundred and sixty-nine, for the use of the Latin kingdom of Cyprus."

ASSIZES.

"The formal edicts known under the name of Assizes, the Assizes of Clarendon and Northampton, the Assize of Arms, the Assize of the Forest, and the Assizes of Measures, are the only relics of the legislative work of the period [reign of Henry II. in England]. These edicts are chiefly composed of new regulations for the enforcement of royal justice, … In this respect they strongly resemble the capitularies of the Frank Kings, or, to go farther back, the edicts of the Roman prætors. … The term Assize, which comes into use in this meaning about the middle of the twelfth century, both on the continent and in England, appears to be the proper Norman name for such edicts. … In the 'Assize of Jerusalem' it simply means a law; and the same in Henry's legislation. Secondarily, it means a form of trial established by the particular law, as the Great Assize, the Assize of Mort d' Ancester; and thirdly the court held to hold such trials, in which sense it is commonly used at the present day."

William Stubbs, Constitutional History of England, chapter 13.

ASSUR.

See ASSYRIA.

ASSYRIA.

For matter relating to Assyrian history, the reader is referred to the caption SEMITES, under which it will be given. The subject is deferred to that part of this work which will go later into print, for the reason that every month is adding to the knowledge of the students of ancient oriental history and clearing away disputed questions. It is quite possible that the time between the publication of our first volume and our fourth or fifth may make important additions to the scanty literature of the subject in English. Modern excavation on the sites of the ancient cities in the East, bringing to light large library collections of inscribed clay tablets,—sacred and historical writings, official records, business contracts and many varieties of inscriptions,—have almost revolutionized the study of ancient history and the views of antiquity derived from it. {143} "M. Botta, who was appointed French consul at Mosul in 1842, was the first to commence excavations on the sites of the buried cities of Assyria, and to him is due the honour of the first discovery of her long lost palaces. M. Botta commenced his labours at Kouyunjik, the large mound opposite Mosul, but he found here very little to compensate for his labours. New at the time to excavations, he does not appear to have worked in the best manner; M. Botta at Kouyunjik contented himself with sinking pits in the mound, and on these proving unproductive abandoning them. While M. Botta was excavating at Kouyunjik, his attention was called to the mounds of Khorsabad by a native of the village on that site; and he sent a party of workmen to the spot to commence excavation. In a few days his perseverance was rewarded by the discovery of some sculptures, after which, abandoning the work at Kouyunjik, he transferred his establishment to Khorsabad and thoroughly explored that site. … The palace which M. Botta had discovered … is one of the most perfect Assyrian buildings yet explored, and forms an excellent example of Assyrian architecture. Beside the palace on the mound of Khorsabad, M. Botta also opened the remains of a temple, and a grand porch decorated by six winged bulls. … The operations of M. Botta were brought to a close in 1845, and a splendid collection of sculptures and other antiquities, the fruits of his labours, arrived in Paris in 1846 and was deposited in the Louvre. Afterwards the French Government appointed M. Place consul at Mosul, and he continued some of the excavations of his predecessor. … Mr. Layard, whose attention was early turned in this direction, visited the country in 1840, and afterwards took a great interest in the excavations of M. Botta. At length, in 1845, Layard was enabled through the assistance of Sir Stratford Canning to commence excavations in Assyria himself. On the 8th of November he started from Mosul, and descended the Tigris to Nimroud. … Mr. Layard has described in his works with great minuteness his successive excavations, and the remarkable and interesting discoveries he made. … After making these discoveries in Assyria, Mr. Layard visited Babylonia, and opened trenches in several of the mounds there. On the return of Mr. Layard to England, excavations were continued in the Euphrates valley under the superintendence of Colonel (now Sir Henry) Rawlinson. Under his directions, Mr. Hormuzd Rassam, Mr. Loftus, and Mr. Taylor excavated various sites and made numerous discoveries, the British Museum receiving the best of the monuments. The materials collected in the national museums of France and England, and the numerous inscriptions published, attracted the attention of the learned, and very soon considerable light was thrown on the history, language, manners, and customs of ancient Assyria and Babylonia."

G. Smith, Assyrian Discoveries, chapter 1.

"One of the most important results of Sir A. H. Layard's explorations at Nineveh was the discovery of the ruined library of the ancient city, now buried under the mounds of Kouyunjik. The broken clay tablets belonging to this library not only furnished the student with an immense mass of literary matter, but also with direct aids towards a knowledge of the Assyrian syllabary and language. Among the literature represented in the library of Kouyunjik were lists of characters, with their various phonetic and ideographic meanings, tables of synonymes, and catalogues of the names of plants and animals. This, however, was not all. The inventors of the cuneiform system of writing had been a people who preceded the Semites in the occupation of Babylonia, and who spoke an agglutinative language utterly different from that of their Semitic successors. These Accadians, as they are usually termed, left behind them a considerable amount of literature, which was highly prized by the Semitic Babylonians and Assyrians. A large portion of the Ninevite tablets, accordingly, consists of interlinear or parallel translations from Accadian into Assyrian, as well as of reading books, dictionaries, and grammars, in which the Accadian original is placed by the side of its Assyrian equivalent. … The bilingual texts have not only enabled scholars to recover the long-forgotten Accadian language; they have also been of the greatest possible assistance to them in their reconstruction of the Assyrian dictionary itself. The three expeditions conducted by Mr. George Smith [1873-1876], as well as the later ones of Mr. Hormuzd Rassam, have added largely to the stock of tablets from Kouyunjik originally acquired for the British Museum by Sir A. H. Layard, and have also brought to light a few other tablets from the libraries of Babylonia."

A. H. Sayce, Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments, chapter 1.

ALSO IN: G. Rawlinson, Five Great Monarchies: The Second Monarchy, chapter 9.

M. Duncker, History of Antiquity, books 3-4.

George Smith, Ancient History from the Monuments: Assyria.

See, also, BABYLONIA and SEMITES.

ASSYRIA, Eponym Canon of.

"Just as there were archons at Athens and consuls at Rome who were elected annually, so among the Assyrians there was a custom of electing one man to be over the year, whom they called 'limu,' or 'eponym.' … Babylonian and Assyrian documents were more generally dated by the names of these eponyms than by that of the reigning King. … In 1862 Sir Henry Rawlinson discovered the fragment of the eponym canon of Assyria. It was one of the grandest and most important discoveries ever made, for it has decided definitely a great many points which otherwise could never have been cleared up. Fragments of seven copies of this canon were found, and from these the chronology of Assyria has been definitely settled from B. C. 1330 to about B. C. 620."

E. A. W. Budge, Babylonian Life and History, chapter 3.

ASTOLF, King of the Lombards, A. D. 749-759.

ASTRAKHAN: The Khanate.

See MONGOLS: A. D. 1238-1391.

ASTRAKHAN: A. D. 1569. Russian repulse of the Turks.

See RUSSIA: A. D. 1569-1571.

ASTURIANS, The.

See CANTABRIANS.

ASTURIAS: Resistance to the Moorish Conquest.

See SPAIN: A. D. 713-737.

ASTY, OR ASTU, The.

The ancient city of Athens proper, as distinguished from its connected harbors, was called the Asty, or Astu.

J. A. St. John, The Hellenes, book 1, chapter 4.

ALSO IN: W. M. Leake, Topography of Athens, section 10.

ASTYNOMI.

Certain police officials in ancient Athens, ten in number. "They were charged with all that belongs to street supervision, e. g., the cleansing of the streets, for which purpose the coprologi, or street-sweepers, were under their orders; the securing of morality and decent behaviour in the streets."

G. F. Schömann, Antiquity of Greece: The State, part 3, chapter 3.

ASUNCION: A. D. 1537. The founding of the city.

See PARAGUAY: A. D. 1515-1557.

ATABEGS, ATTABEGS, OR ATTABECKS.

"From the decline of the dynasty of Seljook to the conquest of Persia by Hulakoo Khan, the son of Chenghis, a period of more than a century, that country was distracted by the contests of petty princes, or governors, called Attabegs; who, taking advantage of the weakness of the last Seljookian monarchs, and of the distractions which followed their final extinction, established their authority over some of the finest provinces of the Empire. Many of these petty dynasties acquired such a local fame as, to this day, gives an importance to their memory with the inhabitants of the countries over which they ruled. … The word Attabeg is Turkish: it is a compound word of 'atta,' master, or tutor, and 'beg,' lord; and signifies a governor, or tutor, of a lord or prince."

Sir J. Malcolm, History of Persia, volume 1; chapter 9.

"It is true that the Atabeks appear but a short space as actors on the stage of Eastern history; but these 'tutors of princes' occupy a position neither insignificant nor unimportant in the course of events which occurred in Syria and Persia at the time they flourished."-

W. H. Morley, Preface to Mirkhond's History of the Atabeks.

See, also, SALADIN, THE EMPIRE OF.

ATAHUALPA, The Inca.

See PERU: A. D. 1581-1533.

ATELIERS NATIONAUX OF 1848, AT PARIS.

See FRANCE; A. D. 1848 (FEBRUARY-MAY), and (APRIL-DECEMBER).

ATHABASCA, The District of.

See NORTHWEST TERRITORIES OF CANADA.

ATHABASCANS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ATHABASCAN FAMILY.

ATHALAYAS.

See SARDINIA, THE ISLAND: NAME AND EARLY HISTORY.

ATHEL. ATHELING. ATHELBONDE.

See ADEL.

ATHENRY, Battle of.

The most desperate battle fought by the Irish in resisting the English conquest of Ireland. They were terribly slaughtered and the chivalry of Connaught was crushed. The battle occurred Aug. 10, A. D. 1316.

M. Haverty, History of Ireland, page 282.

—————ATHENRY: End—————

ATHENS:

ATHENS: The Preëminence of Athens.

"When we speak of Greece we think first of Athens. … To citizens and to strangers by means of epic recitations and dramatic spectacles, she presented an idealised image of life itself. She was the home of new ideas, the mother-city from which poetry, eloquence, and philosophy spread to distant lands. While the chief dialects of Greece survive, each not as a mere dialect but as the language of literature,—a thing unknown in the history of any other people,—the Attic idiom, in which the characteristic elements of other dialects met and were blended, has become to us, as it did to the ancients, the very type of Hellenic speech. Athens was not only the 'capital of Greece,' the 'school of Greece;' it deserves the name applied to it in an epitaph on Euripides: 'his country is Athens, Greece of Greece.' The rays of the Greek genius here found a centre and a focus."

S. H. Butcher, Some Aspects of the Greek Genius, pages 38-39.

"Our interest in ancient history, it may be said, lies not in details but in large masses. It matters little how early the Arcadians acquired a political unity or what Nabis did to Mycenæ; that which interests us is the constitution of Athens, the repulse of Persia, the brief bloom of Thebes. Life is not so long that we can spend our days over the unimportant fates of uninteresting tribes and towns."

ATHENS: Area and Population.

"The entire circuit of the Asty [the lower city, or Athens proper], Long Walls and maritime city, taken as one inclosure, is equal to about 17 English miles, or 148 stades. This is very different from the 200 stades which Dion Chrysostom states to have been the circumference of the same walls, an estimate exceeding by more than 20 stades even the sum of the peripheries of the Asty and Peimic towns, according to the numbers of Thucydides. … Rome was circular, Syracuse triangular, and Athens consisted of two circular cities, joined by a street of four miles in length,—a figure, the superficies of which was not more than the fourth part of that of a city of an equal circumference, in a circular form. Hence, when to Rome within the walls were added suburbs of equal extent, its population was greater than that of all Attica. That of Athens, although the most populous city in Greece, was probably never greater than 200,000."

W. M. Leake, Topography of Athens, section 10.

Ionian Origin.

See DORIANS AND IONIANS.

ATHENS: The Beginning of the city-state. How Attica was absorbed in its capital.

"In the days of Cecrops and the first kings [see ATTICA] down to the reign of Theseus, Attica was divided into communes, having their own town-halls and magistrates. Except in case of alarm the whole people did not assemble in council under the king, but administered their own affairs, and advised together in their several townships. Some of them at times even went to war with him, as the Eleusinians under Eumolpus with Erectheus. But when Theseus came to the throne, he, being a powerful as well as a wise ruler, among other improvements in the administration of the country, dissolved the councils and separate governments, and united all the inhabitants of Attica in the present city, establishing one council and town-hall. They continued to live on their own lands, but he compelled them to resort to Athens as their metropolis, and henceforward they were all inscribed in the roll of her citizens. A great city thus arose which was handed down by Theseus to his descendants, and from his day to this the Athenians have regularly celebrated the national festival of the Synoecia, or 'union of the communes' in honour of the goddess Athenè. Before his time, what is now the Acropolis and the ground lying under it to the south was the city. Many reasons may be urged in proof of this statement."

Thucydides, History (Jowett's translation), book 2, section 15.

ALSO IN: M. Duncker, History of Greece, book 3, chapter 7 (volume 2).

{145}

[Image: Map]

PLAN OF ATHENS.

From "Mythology and Monuments of Ancient Athens," by Jane E. Harrison and Margaret de G. Verrall.

[Image: Map]

HARBORS OF ATHENS.

{146}

ATHENS: From the Dorian Migration to B. C. 683. End of kingship and institution of the Archons.

At the epoch of the Boeotian and Dorian migrations (see GREECE: THE MIGRATIONS), Attica was flooded by fugitives, both from the north and from the Peloponnesus. "But the bulk of the refugees passed on to Asia, and built up the cities of Ionia. … When the swarms of emigrants cleared off, and Athens is again discernable, the crown has passed from the old royal house of the Cecropidæ to a family of exiles from Peloponnesus. … A generation later the Dorian invasion, which had overwhelmed Corinth and torn away Megara from the Attic dominion, swept up to the very gates of Athens. An oracle declared that the city would never fall if its ruler perished by the hand of the invaders; therefore King Codrus disguised himself as a peasant, set out for the Dorian camp, struck down the first man he met, and was himself slain by the second. The invasion failed, and the Athenians, to perpetuate the memory of their monarch's patriotism, would not allow the title of 'king' to be borne by the descendants who succeeded him on the throne, but changed the name to 'archon,' or 'ruler.' … These legends evidently cover some obscure changes in the internal history of Attica."

C. W. C. Oman, History of Greece, chapter 11.

"After the death of Codrus the nobles, taking advantage, perhaps, of the opportunity afforded by the dispute between his sons, are said to have abolished the title of king, and to have substituted for it that of Archon. This change, however, seems to have been important, rather as it indicated the new, precarious tenure by which the royal power was held, than as it immediately affected the nature of the office. It was, indeed, still held for life; and Medon, the son of Codrus, transmitted it to his posterity. … After twelve reigns, ending with that of Alcmæon [B. C. 752], the duration of the office was limited to ten years; and through the guilt or calamity of Hippomenes, the fourth decennial archon, the house of Medon was deprived of its privilege, and the supreme magistracy was thrown open to the whole body of nobles. This change was speedily followed by one much more important. … The duration of the archonship was again reduced to a single year [B. C. 683]; and, at the same time, its branches were severed and distributed among nine new magistrates. Among these, the first in rank retained the distinguishing title of the Archon, and the year was marked by his name. He represented the majesty of the state, and exercised a peculiar jurisdiction—that which had belonged to the king as the common parent of his people, the protector of families, the guardian of orphans and heiresses, and of the general rights of inheritance. For the second archon the title of king [basileus], if it had been laid aside, was revived, as the functions assigned to him were those most associated with ancient recollections. He represented the king as the high-priest of his people; he regulated the celebration of the mysteries and the most solemn festivals; decided all causes which affected the interests of religion. … The third archon bore the title of Polemarch, and filled the place of the king as the leader of his people in war, and the guardian who watched over its security in time of peace. … The remaining six archons received the common title of thesmothetes, which literally signifies legislators, and was probably applied to them as the judges who determined the great variety of causes which did not fall under the cognizance of their colleagues; because, in the absence of a written code, those who declare and interpret the laws may be properly said to make them."

C. Thirlwall, History of Greece, chapter 11.

"We are in no condition to determine the civil classification and political constitution of Attica, even at the period of the Archonship of Kreon, 683 B. C., when authentic Athenian chronology first commences, much less can we pretend to any knowledge of the anterior centuries. … All the information which we possess respecting that old polity is derived from authors who lived after all or most of these great changes [by Solon, and later]—and who, finding no records, nor anything better than current legends, explained the foretime as well as they could by guesses more or less ingenious, generally attached to the dominant legendary names."

G. Grote, History of Greece, part 2, chapter 10.

ALSO IN: G. F. Schömann, Antiquity of Greece: The State, part 3, chapter 3.

ATHENS: B. C. 624. Under the Draconian Legislation.

"Drako was the first thesmothet, who was called upon to set down his thesmoi [ordinances and decisions] in writing, and thus to invest them essentially with a character of more or less generality. In the later and better-known times of Athenian law, we find these archons deprived in great measure of their powers of judging and deciding, and restricted to the task of first hearing of parties and collecting the evidence, next, of introducing the matter for trial into the appropriate dikastery, over which they presided. Originally, there was no separation of powers; the archons both judged and administered…. All of these functionaries belonged to the Eupatrids, and all of them doubtless acted more or less in the narrow interest of their order; moreover, there was ample room for favouritism in the way of connivance as well as antipathy on the part of the archons. That such was decidedly the case, and that discontent began to be serious, we may infer from the duty imposed on the thesmothet Drako, B. C. 624, to put in writing the thesmoi or ordinances, so that they might be 'shown publicly' and known beforehand. He did not meddle with the political constitution, and in his ordinances Aristotle finds little worthy of remark except the extreme severity of the punishments awarded: petty thefts, or even proved idleness of life, being visited with death or disfranchisement. But we are not to construe this remark as demonstrating any special inhumanity in the character of Drako, who was not invested with the large power which Solon afterwards enjoyed, and cannot be imagined to have imposed upon the community severe laws of his own invention. … The general spirit of penal legislation had become so much milder, during the two centuries which followed, that these old ordinances appeared to Aristotle intolerably rigorous."

G. Grote, History of Greece, part 2, chapter 10 (volume 3).

{147}

ATHENS: B. C. 612-595. Conspiracy of Cylon. Banishment of the Alcmæonids.

The first attempt at Athens to overturn the oligarchical government and establish a personal tyranny was made, B. C. 612, by Cylon (Kylon), a patrician, son-in-law of the tyrant of Megara, who was encouraged and helped in his undertaking by the latter. The conspiracy failed miserably. The partisans of Cylon, blockaded in the acropolis, were forced to surrender; but they placed themselves under the protection of the goddess Minerva and were promised their lives. More effectually to retain the protection of the goddess until their escape was effected, they attached a cord to her altar and held it in their hands as they passed out through the midst of their enemies. Unhappily the cord broke, and the archon Megacles at once declared that the safeguard of Minerva was withdrawn from them, whereupon they were massacred without mercy, even though they fled to the neighboring altars and clung to them. The treachery and bad faith of this cruel deed does not seem to have disturbed the Athenian people, but the sacrilege involved in it caused horror and fear when they had had time to reflect upon it. Megacles and his whole family—the Alcmæonids as they were called, from the name of one of their ancestors—were held accountable for the affront to the gods and were considered polluted and accursed. Every public calamity was ascribed to their sin, and at length, after a solemn trial, they were banished from the city (about 596 or 595 B. C.), while the dead of the family were disinterred and cast out. The agitations of this affair exercised an important influence on the course of events, which opened the way for Solon and his constitutional reforms.