the christian era, by Cecrops and an Egyptian colony. It was called
_Cecropia_ from its founder, and afterwards _Athenæ_ in honour
of Minerva, who had obtained the right of giving it a name in
preference to Neptune. _See:_ Minerva. It was governed by 17 kings
in the following order:――After a reign of 50 years, Cecrops was
succeeded by Cranaus, who began to reign 1506 B.C.; Amphictyon, 1497;
Erichthonius, 1487; Pandion, 1437; Erichtheus, 1397; Cecrops II.,
1347; Pandion II., 1307; Ægeus, 1283; Theseus, 1235; Menestheus,
1205; Demophoon, 1182; Oxyntes, 1149; Aphidas, 1137; Thymœtes, 1136;
Melanthus, 1128; and Codrus, 1091, who was killed after a reign of
21 years. The history of the 12 first of these monarchs is mostly
fabulous. After the death of Codrus the monarchical power was
abolished, and the state was governed by 13 perpetual, and 317 years
after, by seven decennial, and lastly, B.C. 684, after an anarchy of
three years, by annual magistrates, called Archons. _See:_ Archontes.
Under this democracy, the Athenians signalized themselves by their
valour in the field, their munificence, and the cultivation of
the fine arts. They were deemed so powerful by the Persians, that
Xerxes, when he invaded Greece, chiefly directed his arms against
Athens, which he took and burnt. Their military character was chiefly
displayed in the battles of Marathon, of Salamis, of Platæa, and of
Mycale. After these immortal victories, they rose in consequence and
dignity, and they demanded the superiority in the affairs of Greece.
The town was rebuilt and embellished by Themistocles, and a new
and magnificent harbour erected. Their success made them arrogant,
and they raised contentions among the neighbouring states, that
they might aggrandize themselves by their fall. The luxury and
intemperance, which had been long excluded from the city by the
salutary laws of their countrymen, Draco and Solon, crept by degrees
among all ranks of people, and soon after all Greece united to
destroy that city, which claimed a sovereign power over all the rest.
The Peloponnesian war, though at first a private quarrel, was soon
fomented into a universal war; and the arms of all the states of
Peloponnesus [_See:_ Peloponnesiacum bellum] were directed against
Athens, which, after 28 years of misfortunes and bloodshed, was
totally ruined, the 24th April, 404 years before the christian era,
by Lysander. After this, the Athenians were oppressed by 30 tyrants,
and for a while laboured under the weight of their own calamities.
They recovered something of their usual spirit in the age of Philip,
and boldly opposed his ambitious views; but their short-lived
efforts were not of great service to the interest of Greece, and
they fell into the hands of the Romans, B.C. 86. The Athenians have
been admired in all ages for their love of liberty, and for the
great men that were born among them; but favour there was attended
with danger; and there are very few instances in the history of
Athens that can prove that the jealousy and frenzy of the people did
not persecute and disturb the peace of the man who had fought their
battles and exposed his life in the defence of his country. Perhaps,
not one single city in the world can boast, in such a short space
of time, of such a number of truly illustrious citizens, equally
celebrated for their humanity, their learning, and their military
abilities. The Romans, in the more polished ages of their republic,
sent their youths to finish their education at Athens, and respected
the learning, while they despised the military character of the
inhabitants. The reputation which the Athenian schools had acquired
under Socrates and Plato was maintained by their degenerate and less
learned successors; and they flourished with diminished lustre, till
an edict of emperor Justinian suppressed, with the Roman consulship,
the philosophical meetings of the academy. It has been said by
Plutarch that the good men whom Athens produced were the most just
and equitable in the world; but that its bad citizens could not be
surpassed in any age or country, for their impiety, perfidiousness,
or cruelties. Their criminals were always put to death by drinking
the juice of hemlock. The ancients, to distinguish Athens in a
more particular manner, called it Astu, one of the eyes of Greece,
the learned city, the school of the world, the common patroness of
Greece. The Athenians thought themselves the most ancient nation of
Greece, and supposed themselves the original inhabitants of Attica,
for which reason they were called ἀυτοχθονες, produced from the
_same earth_ which they inhabited, γηγενες _sons of the earth_, and
τεττιγες _grasshoppers_. They sometimes wore golden grasshoppers
in their hair as badges of honour, to distinguish them from other
people of later origin and less noble extraction, because those
insects are supposed to be sprung from the ground. The number of men
able to bear arms at Athens in the reign of Cecrops was computed at
20,000, and there appeared no considerable augmentation in the more
civilized age of Pericles; but in the time of Demetrius Phalereus
there were found 21,000 citizens, 10,000 foreigners, and 40,000
slaves. Among the numerous temples and public edifices none was more
celebrated than that of Minerva, which, after being burnt by the
Persians, was rebuilt by Pericles, with the finest marble, and
still exists a venerable monument of the hero’s patriotism, and
of the abilities of the architect. _Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_,
Against Verres, &c.――_Thucydides_, bk. 1, &c.――_Justin_, bk. 2,
&c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 13, &c.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_.――_Pliny_,
bk. 7, ch. 56.――_Xenophon_, _Memorabilia_.――_Plutarch_, _in vitis_,
&c.――_Strabo_, bk. 9, &c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, &c.――_Valerius
Maximus._――_Livy_, bk. 31, &c.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Miltiades_,
&c.――_Polybius._――_Paterculus._
=Athenæa=, festivals celebrated at Athens in honour of Minerva. One
of them was called ♦_Panathenæa_, and the other _ Chalcea_; for an
account of which see those words.
♦ ‘Bana, thenæe’ replaced with ‘Panathenæa’
=Athenæum=, a place at Athens sacred to Minerva, where the poets,
philosophers, and rhetoricians generally declaimed and repeated
their compositions. It was public to all the professors of the
liberal arts. The same thing was adopted at Rome by Adrian, who made
a public building for the same laudable purposes.――――A promontory
of Italy.――――A fortified place between Ætolia and Macedonia. _Livy_,
bk. 38, ch. 1; bk. 39, ch. 25.
=Athenæus=, a Greek cosmographer.――――A peripatetic philosopher of
Cilicia in the time of Augustus. _Strabo._――――A Spartan sent by his
countrymen to Athens, to settle the peace during the Peloponnesian
war.――――A grammarian of Naucratis, who composed an elegant and
miscellaneous work, called ♦_Deipnosophistæ_, replete with very
curious and interesting remarks and anecdotes of the manners of the
ancients, and likewise valuable for the scattered pieces of ancient
poetry which it preserves. The work consists of 15 books, of which
the two first, part of the third, and almost the whole of the last,
are lost. Athenæus wrote, besides this, a history of Syria, and
other works now lost. He died A.D. 194. The best edition of his
works is that of Casaubon, folio, 2 vols., Lugdunum, 1612, by far
superior to the editions of 1595 and 1657.――――An historian, who
wrote an account of Semiramis. _Diodorus._――――A brother of king
Eumenes II., famous for his paternal affection.――――A Roman historian,
in the age of Gallienus, who is supposed to have written a book on
military engines.――――A physician of Cilicia in the age of Pliny, who
made heat, cold, wet, dry, and air the elements, instead of the four
commonly received.
♦ ‘Deipnosphistæ’ replaced with ‘Deipnosophistæ’
=Athenagŏras=, a Greek in the time of Darius, to whom Pharnabazus gave
the government of Chios, &c. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 5.――――A writer
on agriculture. _Varro._――――A christian philosopher, in the age of
Aurelius, who wrote a treatise on the resurrection, and an apology
for the christians, still extant. He died A.D. 177. The best edition
of his works is that of Dechair, 8vo, Oxford, 1706. The romance of
Theagenes and Charis is falsely ascribed to him.
=Athenāis=, a Sibyl of Erythræa, in the age of Alexander. _Strabo._
――――A daughter of the philosopher Leontius.
=Athenion=, a peripatetic philosopher, 108 B.C.――――A general of the
Sicilian slaves.――――A tyrant of Athens, surnamed Ariston.
=Athenŏcles=, a general, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 6.――――A turner of
Mitylene. _Pliny_, bk. 34.
=Athenodōrus=, a philosopher of Tarsus, intimate with Augustus. The
emperor often profited by his lessons, and was advised by him always
to repeat the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet before he gave way
to the impulse of anger. Athenodorus died in his 82nd year, much
lamented by his countrymen. _Suetonius._――――A poet who wrote comedy,
tragedy, and elegy, in the age of Alexander. _Plutarch_, _Alexander_.
――――A stoic philosopher of Cana, near Tarsus, in the age of Augustus.
He was intimate with Strabo. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――――A philosopher,
disciple to Zeno, and keeper of the royal library at Pergamus.――――A
marble sculptor.――――A man assassinated at Bactra for making himself
absolute.
=Atheos=, a surname of Diagoras and Theodorus, because they denied the
existence of a deity. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 1, ch. 1.
=Athĕsis=, now _Adige_, a river of Cisalpine Gaul, near the Po, falling
into the Adriatic sea. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 680.
=Athos=, a mountain of Macedonia, 150 miles in circumference,
projecting into the Ægean sea like a promontory. It is so high that
it overshadows the island of Lemnos, though at the distance of 87
miles; or, according to modern calculation, only 8 leagues. When
Xerxes invaded Greece, he made a trench of a mile and a half in
length at the foot of the mountain, into which he brought the sea
water, and conveyed his fleet over it, so that two ships could pass
one another, thus desirous either to avoid the danger of sailing
round the promontory, or to show his vanity and the extent of his
power. A sculptor, called Dinocrates, offered Alexander to cut mount
Athos, and to make with it a statue of the king holding a town in
his left hand, and in the right a spacious basin to receive all the
waters which flowed from it. Alexander greatly admired the plan,
but objected to the place; and he observed, that the neighbouring
country was not sufficiently fruitful to produce corn and provisions
for the inhabitants which were to dwell in the city, in the hand of
the statue. Athos is now called Monte Santo, famous for monasteries,
said to contain some ancient and valuable manuscripts. _Herodotus_,
bk. 6, ch. 44; bk. 7, ch. 21, &c.――_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 672.――_Ælian_,
_de Natura Animalium_, bk. 13, ch. 20, &c.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 10.
――_Aeschines_, _Against Ctesiphon_.
=Athrulla=, a town of Arabia. _Strabo._
=Athymbra=, a city of Caria, afterwards called Nyssa. _Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Atia=, a city of Campania.――――A law enacted A.U.C. 690 by Titus Atius
Labienus, the tribune of the people. It abolished the Cornelian law,
and put in full force the Lex Domitia, by transferring the right of
electing priests from the college of priests to the people.――――The
mother of Augustus. _See:_ Accia.
=Atilia lex=, gave the pretor and a majority of the tribunes power
of appointing guardians to those minors who were not previously
provided for by their parents. It was enacted about A.U.C. 560.
――――Another, A.U.C. 443, which gave the people power of electing
20 tribunes of the soldiers in four legions. _Livy_, bk. 9, ch. 30.
=Atilius=, a freedman, who exhibited combats of gladiators at Fidenæ.
The amphitheatre, which contained the spectators, fell during
the exhibition, and about 50,000 persons were killed or mutilated.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 4, ch. 62.
=Atilla=, the mother of the poet Lucan. She was accused of conspiracy
by her son, who expected to clear himself of the charge. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 56.
=Atīna=, an ancient town of the Volsci, one of the first which began
hostilities against Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 630.
=Atinas=, a friend of Turnus, &c. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 869.
=Atinia lex=, was enacted by the tribune Atinius. It gave a tribune of
the people the privileges of a senator, and the right of sitting in
the senate.
=Atlantes=, a people of Africa, in the neighbourhood of mount Atlas,
who lived chiefly on the fruits of the earth, and were said not to
have their sleep at all disturbed by dreams. They daily cursed the
sun at his rising and at his setting, because his excessive heat
scorched and tormented them. _Herodotus._
=Atlantiades=, a patronymic of Mercury as grandson of Atlas. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 639.
=Atlantĭdes=, a people of Africa near mount Atlas. They boasted
of being in possession of the country in which all the gods of
antiquity received their birth. Uranus was their first king, whom,
on account of his knowledge in astronomy, they enrolled in the
number of their gods. _Diodorus_, bk. 3.――――The daughters of Atlas,
were seven in number, Maia, Electra, Taygeta, Asterope, Merope,
Alcyone, and Celæno. They married some of the gods, and most
illustrious heroes, and their children were founders of many nations
and cities. The Atlantides were called nymphs, and even goddesses,
on account of their great intelligence and knowledge. The name of
Hesperides was also given them, on account of their mother Hesperis.
They were made constellations after death. _See:_ Pleiades.
=Atlantis=, a celebrated island mentioned by the ancients. Its
situation is unknown, and even its existence is doubted by some
writers.
=Atlas=, one of the Titans, son of Japetus and Clymene, one of the
Oceanides. He was brother to Epimetheus, Prometheus, and Menœtius.
His mother’s name, according to Apollodorus, was Asia. He married
Pleione daughter of Oceanus, or Hesperis, according to others, by
whom he had seven daughters, called Atlantides. _See:_ Atlantides.
He was king of Mauritania, and master of 1000 flocks of every kind,
as also of beautiful gardens, abounding in every species of fruit,
which he had entrusted to the care of a dragon. Perseus, after the
conquest of the Gorgons, passed by the palace of Atlas, and demanded
hospitality. The king, who was informed by an oracle of Themis
that he should be dethroned by one of the descendants of Jupiter,
refused to receive him, and even offered him violence. Perseus, who
was unequal in strength, showed him Medusa’s head, and Atlas was
instantly changed into a large mountain. This mountain, which runs
across the deserts of Africa east and west, is so high that the
ancients have imagined that the heavens rested on its top, and
that Atlas supported the world on his shoulders. Hyginus says that
Atlas assisted the giants in their wars against the gods, for which
Jupiter compelled him to bear the heavens on his shoulders. The
fable that Atlas supported the heavens on his back, arises from his
fondness for astronomy, and his often frequenting elevated places
and mountains, whence he might observe the heavenly bodies. The
daughters of Atlas were carried away by Busiris king of Egypt, but
redeemed by Hercules, who received, as a reward from the father,
the knowledge of astronomy, and a celestial globe. This knowledge
Hercules communicated to the Greeks; whence the fable has further
said, that he eased for some time the labours of Atlas by taking
upon his shoulders the weight of the heavens. According to some
authors there were two other persons of that name, a king of Italy,
father of Electra, and a king of Arcadia, father of Maia the mother
of Mercury. _Virgil_,, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 481; bk. 8, li. 186.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, fable 17.――_Diodorus_, bk. 3.
――_Lucan_, bk. 9, li. 667, &c.――_Valerius Flaccus_, bk. 5.
――_Hyginus_, fables 83, 125, 155, 157, 192.――_Aratus_, _Astronomia_.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 508, &c.――――A
river flowing from mount Hæmus into the Ister. _Herodotus_, bk. 4,
ch. 49.
=Atossa=, a daughter of Cyrus, who was one of the wives of Cambyses,
of Smerdis, and afterwards of Darius, by whom she had Xerxes. She
was cured of a dangerous cancer by Democedes. She is supposed by
some to be the Vashti of scripture. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 68, &c.
=Atrăces=, a people of Ætolia, who received their name from Atrax son
of Ætolus. Their country was called Atracia.
=Atramyttium=, a town of Mysia.
=Atrăpes=, an officer of Alexander, who, at the general division of
the provinces, received Media. _Diodorus_, bk. 18.
=Atrax=, son of Ætolus, or, according to others, of the river Peneus.
He was king of Thessaly, and built a town which he called Atrax
or Atracia. This town became so famous that the word _Atracias_
has been applied to any inhabitant of Thessaly. He was father of
Hippodamia, who married Pirithous, and whom we must not confound
with the wife of Pelops, who bore the same name. _Propertius_, bk. 1,
poem 8, li. 25.――_Statius_, bk. 1, _Thebiad_, li. 106.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 209.――――A city of Thessaly, whence the
epithet of Atracius.――――A river of Ætolia, which falls into the
Ionian sea.
=Atrebātæ=, a people of Britain, who were in possession of the modern
counties of Berks, Oxford, &c.
=Atrĕbātes=, now _Artois_, a people of Gaul, who, together with the
Nervii, opposed Julius Cæsar with 15,000 men. They were conquered,
and Comius, a friend of the general, was set over them as king. They
were reinstated in their former liberty and independence, on account
of the services of Comius. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 2, &c.
=Atrēni=, a people of Armenia.
=Atreus=, a son of Pelops by Hippodamia, daughter of Œnomaus king of
Pisa, was king of Mycenæ, and brother to Pittheus, Trœzon, Thyestes,
and Chrysippus. As Chrysippus was an illegitimate son, and at the
same time a favourite of his father, Hippodamia resolved to remove
him. She persuaded her sons Thyestes and Atreus to murder him; but
their refusal exasperated her more, and she executed it herself.
This murder was grievous to Pelops: he suspected his two sons,
who fled away from his presence. Atreus retired to the court
of Eurystheus king of Argos, his nephew, and upon his death he
succeeded him on the throne. He married, as some report, Ærope, his
predecessor’s daughter, by whom he had Plisthenes, Menelaus, and
Agamemnon. Others affirm that Ærope was the wife of Plisthenes,
by whom he had Agamemnon and Menelaus, who are the reputed sons
of Atreus, because that prince took care of their education, and
brought them up as his own. _See:_ Plisthenes. Thyestes had followed
his brother to Argos, where he lived with him, and debauched his
wife, by whom he had two, or, according to some, three children.
This incestuous commerce offended Atreus, and Thyestes was banished
from his court. He was, however, soon after recalled by his brother,
who determined cruelly to revenge the violence offered to his bed.
To effect this purpose, he invited his brother to a sumptuous feast,
where Thyestes was served up with the flesh of the children he had
had by his sister-in-law the queen. After the repast was finished,
the arms and the heads of the murdered children were produced, to
convince Thyestes of what he had feasted upon. This action appeared
so cruel and impious, that the sun is said to have shrunk back in
his course at the bloody sight. Thyestes immediately fled to the
court of Thesprotus, and thence to Sicyon, where he ravished his
own daughter Pelopea, in a grove sacred to Minerva, without knowing
who she was. This incest he committed intentionally, as some report,
to revenge himself on his brother Atreus, according to the words of
the oracle, which promised him satisfaction for the cruelties he had
suffered only from the hand of a son who should be born of himself
and his own daughter. Pelopea brought forth a son whom she called
Ægisthus, and soon after she married Atreus, who had lost his
wife. Atreus adopted Ægisthus, and sent him to murder Thyestes,
who had been seized at Delphi and imprisoned. Thyestes knew his
son, and made himself known to him; he made him espouse his cause,
and instead of becoming his father’s murderer, he rather avenged
his wrongs, and returned to Atreus, whom he assassinated. _See:_
Thyestes, Ægisthus, Pelopea, Agamemnon, and Menelaus. _Hyginus_,
fables 83, 86, 87, 88, & 258.――_Euripides_, _Orestes_; _Iphigeneia
in Taurus_.――_Plutarch_, _Parallela minora_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9,
ch. 40.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10.――_Seneca_ on _Atreus_.
=Atrīdæ=, a patronymic given by Homer to Agamemnon and Menelaus,
as being the sons of Atreus. This is false, upon the authority of
Hesiod, Lactantius [Placidus], Dictys of Crete, &c., who maintain
that these princes were not the sons of Atreus, but of Plisthenes,
and that they were brought up in the house and under the eye of
their grandfather. _See:_ Plisthenes.
=Atronius=, a friend of Turnus, killed by the Trojans. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 10.
=Atropatia=, a part of Media. _Strabo._
=Atrŏpos=, one of the Parcæ, daughters of Nox and Erebus. According
to the derivation of her name (_a non_, τρεπω _muto_), she is
inexorable and inflexible, and her duty among the three sisters
is to cut the thread of life, without any regard to sex, age, or
quality. She was represented by the ancients in a black veil, with
a pair of scissors in her hand. _See:_ Parcæ.
=T. Q. Atta=, a writer of merit in the Augustan age, who seems to
have received this name from some deformity in his legs or feet.
His compositions, dramatical as well as satirical, were held in
universal admiration, though Horace thinks of them with indifference.
_Horace_, bk. 2, ltr. 1, li. 79.
=Attălia=, a city of Pamphylia, built by king Attalus. _Strabo._
=Attalĭcus.= _See:_ Attalus III.