their ancient meaning. The word 'Earl,' after several
fluctuations, has settled down as the title of one rank in the
Peerage; the word 'Churl' has come to be a word of moral
reprobation, irrespective of the rank of the person who is
guilty of the offence. But in the primary meaning of the
words, 'Eorl' and 'Ceorl'--words whose happy jingle causes
them to be constantly opposed to each other--form an
exhaustive division of the free members of the state. The
distinction in modern language is most nearly expressed br the
words 'Gentle' and 'Simple.' The 'Ceorl' is the simple
freeman, the mere unit in the army or in the assembly, whom no
distinction of birth or office marks out from his fellows."
_E. A. Freeman,
History of the Norman Conquest of England,
chapter 3, section 2._
See, also, ETHEL;
and ENGLAND: A. D. 958.
EORMEN STREET.
See ERMYN STREET.
EPAMINONDAS, and the greatness of Thebes.
See GREECE: B. C. 379-371, and 371-362;
also THEBES: B. C. 378.
EPEIROS.
See Epmus.
EPHAH, The.
"The ephah, or bath, was the unit of measures of capacity for
both liquids and grain [among the ancient Jews]. The ephah is
considered by Queipo to have been the measure of water
contained in the ancient Egyptian cubic foot, and thus
equivalent to 29.376 litres, or 6.468 imperial gallons, and to
have been nearly identical with the ancient Egyptian artaba
and the Greek metretes. For liquids, the ephah was divided
into six hin, and the twelfth part of the hin was the log. As
a grain measure, the ephah was divided into ten omers, or
gomers. The omer measure of manna gathered by the Israelites
in the desert as a day's food for each adult person was thus
equal to 2.6 imperial quarts. The largest measure of capacity
both for liquids and dry commodities was the cor of twelve
ephahs."
_H. W. Chisholm,
On the Science of Weighing and Measuring,
chapter 2._
EPHES-DAMMIM, Battle of.
The battle which followed David's encounter with Goliath, the
gigantic Philistine.
_1 Samuel, xvii._
EPHESIA, The.
See IONIC (PAN-IONIC) AMPHIKTYONY.
EPHESUS.
The Ephesian Temple.
"The ancient city of Ephesus was situated on the river
Cayster, which falls into the Bay of Scala Nova, on the
western coast of Asia Minor. Of the origin and foundation of
Ephesus we have no historical record. Stories were told which
ascribed the settlement of the place to Androklos, the son of
the Athenian king, Codrus. ... With other Ionian cities of
Asia Minor, Ephesus fell into the hands of Crœsus, the last of
the kings of Lydia, and, on the overthrow of Crœsus by Cyrus,
it passed under the heavier yoke of the Persian despot.
Although from that time, during a period of at least five
centuries, to the conquest by the Romans, the city underwent
great changes of fortune, it never lost its grandeur and
importance. The Temple of Artemis (Diana), whose splendour has
almost become proverbial, tended chiefly to make Ephesus the most
attractive and notable of all the cities of Asia Minor. Its
magnificent harbour was filled with Greek and Phenician
merchantmen, and multitudes flocked from all parts to profit
by its commerce and to worship at the shrine of its tutelary
goddess. The City Port was fully four miles from the sea,
which has not, as has been supposed, receded far. ... During
the generations which immediately followed the conquest of
Lydia and the rest of Asia Minor by the Persian kings, the
arts of Greece attained their highest perfection, and it was
within this short period of little more than two centuries
that the great Temple of Artemis was three times built upon
the same site, and, as recent researches have found, each time
on the same grand scale."
_J. T. Wood,
Discoveries at Ephesus,
chapter 1._
{982}
The excavations which were carried on at Ephesus by Mr. Wood,
for the British Museum, during eleven years, from 1863 until
1874, resulted in the uncovering of a large part of the site
of the great Temple and the determining of its architectural
features, besides bringing to light many inscriptions and much
valuable sculpture. The account given in the work named above
is exceedingly interesting.
EPHESUS: Ionian conquest and occupation.
See ASIA MINOR: THE GREEK COLONIES.
EPHESUS: Ancient Commerce.
"The spot on the Asiatic coast which corresponded most nearly
with Corinth on the European, was Ephesus, a city which, in
the time of Herodotus, had been the starting point of caravans
for Upper Asia, but which, under the change of dynasties and
ruin of empires, had dwindled into a mere provincial town. The
mild sway of Augustus restored it to wealth and eminence, and
as the official capital of the province of Asia, it was
reputed to be the metropolis of no less than 500 cities."
_C. Merivale,
History of the Romans,
chapter 40._
EPHESUS: A. D. 267.
Destruction by the Goths of the Temple of Diana.
See GOTHS: A. D. 258-267.
EPHESUS: A. D. 431 and 449.
The General Council and the "Robber Synod."
See NESTORIAN AND MONOPHYSITE CONTROVERSY.
----------EPHESUS: End----------
EPHETÆ, The.
A board of fifty-one judges instituted by the legislation of
Draco, at Athens, for the trial of crimes of bloodshed upon
the Areopagus.
_G. Schömann,
Antiquities of Greece: The State,
part 3, chapter 3._
EPHORS.
"Magistrates, called by the name of Ephors, existed in many
Dorian as well as in other States [of ancient Greece],
although our knowledge with regard to them extends no further
than to the fact of their existence; while the name, which
signifies quite generally 'overseers,' affords room for no
conclusion as to their political position or importance. In
Sparta, however, the Board of Five Ephors became, in the
course of time, a magistracy of such dignity and influence
that no other can be found in any free State with which it can
be compared. Concerning its first institution nothing certain
can be ascertained. ... The following appears to be a probable
account:--The Ephors were originally magistrates appointed by
the kings, partly to render them special assistance in the
judicial decision of private disputes,--a function which they
continued to exercise in later times,--partly to undertake,
as lieutenants of the kings, other of their functions, during
their absence in military service, or through some other
cause. ... When the monarchy and the Gerousia wished to
re-establish their ancient influence in opposition to the
popular assembly, they were obliged to agree to a concession
which should give some security to the people that this power
should not be abused to their detriment. This concession
consisted in the fact that the Ephors were independently
authorized to exercise control over the kings themselves. ...
The Ephors were enabled to interfere in every department of
the administration, and to remove or punish whatever they
found to be contrary to the laws or adverse to the public
interest."
_G. F. Schömann,
Antiquities of Greece: The State,
part 3, chapter 1, section 8._
See, also, SPARTA: THE CONSTITUTION, &c.
EPHTHALITES, The.
See HUNS, THE WHITE.
EPIDAMNUS.
See GREECE: B. C. 435-432;
and KORKYRA.
EPIDII, The.
See BRITAIN, CELTIC TRIBES.
EPIGAMIA.
The right of marriage in ancient Athens.
G. F. Schömann, Antiquities of Greece: The State,
part 3, chapter 3.
EPIGONI, The.
See BŒOTIA.
EPIPOLÆ.
One of the parts or divisions of the ancient city of Syracuse,
Sicily.
EPIROT LEAGUE, The.
"The temporary greatness of the Molossian kingdom [of Epeiros,
or Epirus] under Alexander and Pyrrhus is matter of general
history. Our immediate business is with the republican
government which succeeded on the bloody extinction of royalty
and the royal line [which occurred B. C. 239]. Epeiros now
became a republic; of the details of its constitution we know
nothing, but its form can hardly fail to have been federal.
The Epeirots formed one political body; Polybios always speaks
of them, like the Achaians and Akarnanians, as one people
acting with one will. Decrees are passed, ambassadors are sent
and received, in the name of the whole Epeirot people, and
Epeiros had, like Akarnania, a federal coinage bearing the
common name of the whole nation."
_E. A. Freeman,
History of Federal Government,
book 4, section 1._
EPIRUS.--THE EPIROTS.
"Passing over the borders of Akarnania [in ancient western
Greece] we find small nations or tribes not considered as
Greeks, but known, from the fourth century B. C. downwards,
under the common name of Epirots. This word signifies,
properly, inhabitants of a continent, as opposed to those of
an island or a peninsula. It came only gradually to be applied
by the Greeks as their comprehensive denomination to designate
all those diverse tribes, between the Ambrakian Gulf on the
south and west, Pindus on the east, and the Illyrians and
Macedonians to the north and north-east. Of these Epirots the
principal were--the Chaonians, Thesprotians, Kassopians, and
Molossians, who occupied the country inland as well as
maritime along the Ionian Sea, from the Akrokeraunian
mountains to the borders of Ambrakia in the interior of the
Ambrakian Gulf. ... Among these various tribes it is difficult
to discriminate the semi-Hellenic from the non-Hellenic; for
Herodotus considers both Molossians and Thesprotians as
Hellenic,--and the oracle of Dôdôna, as well as the
Nekyomanteion (or holy cavern for evoking the dead) of
Acheron, were both in the territory of the Thesprotians, and
both (in the time of the historian) Hellenic. Thucydides, on
the other hand, treats both Molossians and Thesprotians as
barbaric. ... Epirus is essentially a pastoral country: its
cattle as well as its shepherds and shepherds' dogs were
celebrated throughout all antiquity; and its population then,
as now, found divided village residence the most suitable to
their means and occupations. ... Both the Chaonians and
Thesprotians appear, in the time of Thucydides, as having no
kings: there was a privileged kingly race, but the presiding
chief was changed from year to year. The Molossians, however,
had a line of kings, succeeding from father to son, which
professed to trace its descent through fifteen generations
downward from Achilles and Neoptolemus to Tharypas about the
year 400 B. C."
_G. Grote,
History of Greece,
part 2, chapter 24._
{983}
The Molossian kings subsequently extended their sovereignty
over the whole country and styled themselves kings of Epirus.
Pyrrhus, whose war with Rome (see ROME: B. C. 282-275) is one
of the well known episodes of history, was the most ambitious
and energetic of the dynasty (see MACEDONIA: B. C. 297-280);
Hannibal reckoned him among the greatest of soldiers. In the
next century Epirus fell under the dominion of Rome.
Subsequently it formed part of the Byzantine empire; then
became a separate principality, ruled by a branch of the
imperial Comnenian family; was conquered by the Turks in 1466
and is now represented by the southern half of the province of
Turkey, called Albania.
See, also, ŒNOTRIANS.
EPIRUS: A. D. 1204-1350.
The Greek Despotat.
From the ruins of the Byzantine empire, overthrown by the
Crusaders and the Venetians in 1204, "that portion ...
situated to the west of the range of Pindus was saved from
feudal domination by Michael, a natural son of Constantine
Angelos, the uncle of the Emperors Isaac II. and Alexius III.
After the conquest of Constantinople, he escaped into Epirus,
where his marriage with a lady of the country gave him some
influence; and assuming the direction of the administration of
the whole country from Dyrrachium to Naupactus, he collected a
considerable military force, and established the seat of his
authority generally at Ioannina or Arta. ... History has
unfortunately preserved very little information concerning the
organisation and social condition of the different classes and
races which inhabited the dominions of the princes of Epirus.
Almost the only facts that have been preserved relate to the
wars and alliances of the despots and their families with the
Byzantine emperors and the Latin princes. ... They all assumed
the name of Angelos Komnenos Dukas; and the title of despot,
by which they are generally distinguished, was a Byzantine
honorary distinction, never borne by the earlier members of
the family until it had been conferred on them by the Greek
emperor. Michael I, the founder of the despotat, distinguished
himself by his talents as a soldier and a negotiator. He
extended his authority over all Epirus, Acarnania and Etolia,
and a part of Macedonia and Thessaly. Though virtually
independent, he acknowledged Theodore I. (Laskaris), [at
Nicæa] as the lawful emperor of the East." The able and
unscrupulous brother of Michael, Theodore, who became his
successor in 1214, extinguished by conquest the Lombard
kingdom of Saloniki, in Macedonia (A. D. 1222), and assumed
the title of emperor, in rivalry with the Greek emperor at
Nicæa, establishing his capital at Thessalonica. The empire of
Thessalonica was short lived. Its capital was taken by the
emperor of Nicæa, in 1234, and Michael's son John, then
reigning, was forced to resign the imperial title. The
despotat of Epirus survived for another century, much torn and
distracted by wars and domestic conflicts. In 1350 its
remaining territory was occupied by the king of Servia, and
finally it was swallowed up in the conquests of the Turks.
_G. Finlay,
History of Greece from its Conquest by the Crusader,
chapter 6._
ALSO IN:
_Sir J. E. Tennent,
History of Modern Greece,
chapter 3._
EPIRUS: Modern History.
See ALBANIANS.
EPISCOPALIAN CHURCH.
See CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
EPISTATES.
The presiding officer of the ancient Athenian council and
popular assembly.
EPONYM.--EPONYMUS.
The name-giver,--the name-giving hero of primitive myths, in
which tribes and races of people set before themselves, partly
by tradition, partly by imagination, an heroic personage who
is supposed to be their common progenitor and the source of
their name.
EPONYM CANON OF ASSYRIA.
See ASSYRIA, EPONYM CANON OF.
EPPING FOREST.
Once so extensive that it covered the whole county of Essex,
England, and was called the Forest of Essex. Subsequently,
when diminished in size, it was called Waltham Forest. Still
later, when further retrenched, it took the name of Epping,
from a town that is embraced in it. It is still quite large,
and within recent years it has been formally declared by the
Queen "a people's park."
_J. C. Brown,
Forests of England._
EPULONES, The.
"The epulones [at Rome] formed a college for the
administration of the sacred festivals."
_C. Merivale,
History of the Romans,
chapter 31._
EQUADOR.
See ECUADOR.
EQUAL RIGHTS PARTY.
See NEW YORK: A. D. 1835-1837.
EQUESTRIAN ORDER, Roman.
"The selection of the burgess cavalry was vested in the
censors. It was, no doubt, the duty of these to make the
selection on purely military grounds, and at their musters to
insist that all horsemen incapacitated by age or otherwise, or
at all unserviceable, should surrender their public horse; but
it was not easy to hinder them from looking to noble birth
more than to capacity, and from allowing men of standing, who
were once admitted, senators particularly, to retain their
horse beyond the proper time. Accordingly it became the
practical rule for the senators to vote in the eighteen
equestrian centuries, and the other places in these were
assigned chiefly to the younger men of the nobility. The
military system, of course, suffered from this, not so much
through the unfitness for effective service of no small part
of the legionary cavalry, as through the destruction of
military equality to which the change gave rise; the noble
youth more and more withdrew from serving in the infantry, and
the legionary cavalry became a close aristocratic corps."
_T. Mommsen,
History of Rome,
book 3, chapter 11._
"The eighteen centuries, therefore, in course of time ... lost
their original military character and remained only as a
voting body. It was by the transformation thus effected in the
character of the eighteen centuries of knights, whilst the
cavalry service passed over to the richer citizens not
included in the senatorial families, that a new class of Roman
citizens began gradually to be formed, distinct from the
nobility proper and from the mass of the people, and
designated as the equestrian order."
_W. Ihne,
History of Rome,
book 7, chapter. 1._
The equestrian order became a legally constituted class under
the judicial law of Caius Gracchus, B. C. 123, which fixed its
membership by a census, and transferred to it the judicial
functions previously exercised by the senators only. It formed
a kind of monetary aristocracy, as a counterweight to the
nobility.
_W. Ihne,
History of Rome,
book 7, chapter 6._
{984}
ERA, Christian.
"Unfortunately for ancient Chronology, there was no one fixed
or universally established Era. Different countries reckoned
by different eras, whose number is embarrassing, and their
commencements not always easily to be adjusted or reconciled
to each other; and it was not until A. D. 532 that the
Christian Era was invented by Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian by
birth, and a Roman Abbot, who flourished in the reign of
Justinian. ... Dionysius began his era with the year of our
Lord's incarnation and nativity, in U. C. 753, of the
Varronian Computation, or the 45th of the Julian Era. And at
an earlier period, Panodorus, an Egyptian monk, who flourished
under the Emperor Arcadius, A. D. 395, had dated the
incarnation in the same year. But by some mistake, or
misconception of his meaning, Bede, who lived in the next
century after Dionysius, adopted his year of the Nativity, U.
C. 753, yet began the Vulgar Era, which he first introduced,
the year after, and made it commence Jan. 1, U. C. 754, which
was an alteration for the worse, as making the Christian Era
recede a year further from the true year of the Nativity. The
Vulgar Era began to prevail in the West about the time of
Charles Martel and Pope Gregory II. A. D. 730. ... But it was
not established till the time of Pope Eugenius IV. A. D. 1431,
who ordered this era to be used in the public Registers. ...
Dionysius was led to date the year of the Nativity, U. C. 753,
from the Evangelist Luke's account that John the Baptist began
his ministry 'in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius
Cæsar'; and that Jesus, at his baptism, 'was beginning to be
about 30 years of age.' Luke iii. 1-23. ... But this date of
the Nativity is at variance with Matthew's account, that
Christ was born before Herod's death; which followed shortly
after his massacre of the infants at Bethlehem. ... Christ's
birth, therefore, could not have been earlier than U. C. 748,
nor later than U. C. 749. And if we assume the latter year, as
most conformable to the whole tenor of Sacred History, with
Chrysostom, Petavius, Prideaux, Playfair, &c., this would give
Christ's age at his baptism, about 34 years; contrary to
Luke's account."
_W. Hales,
New Analysis of Chronology,
volume 1, book l._
In a subsequent table, Mr. Hales gives the results of the
computations made by different chronologists, ancient and
modern, to fix the true year of the Nativity, as accommodated
to what is called "the vulgar," or popularly accepted,
Christian Era. The range is through no less than ten years,
from B. C. 7 to A. D. 3. His own conclusion, supported by
Prideaux and Playfair, is in favor of the year B. C. 5.
Somewhat more commonly at the present time, it is put at B. C.
4.
See, also, JEWS: B. C. 8-A. D. 1.
ERA, French Revolutionary.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1792 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER),
and 1793 (OCTOBER).
ERA, Gregorian.
See CALENDAR, GREGORIAN.
ERA, Jalalæan.
See TURKS (THE SELJUK): A. D. 1073-1092.
ERA, Julian.
See CALENDAR, JULIAN.
ERA, Mahometan, or Era of the Hegira.
"The epoch of the Era of the Hegira is, according to the civil
calculation, Friday, the 16th of July, A. D. 622, the day of
the flight of Mahomet from Mecca to Medina, which is the date
of the Mahometans; but astronomers and some historians assign
it to the preceding day, viz., Thursday, the 15th of July; an
important fact to be borne in mind when perusing Arabian
writers. The years of the Hegira are lunar years, and contain
twelve months, each commencing with the new moon; a practice
which necessarily leads to great confusion and uncertainty,
inasmuch as every year must begin considerably earlier in the
season than the preceding. In chronology and history, however,
and in dating their public instruments, the Turks use months
which contain alternately thirty and twenty-nine days,
excepting the last month, which, in intercalary years,
contains thirty days. ... The years of the Hegira are divided
into cycles of thirty years, nineteen of which are termed
common years, of 354 days each; and the eleven others
intercalary, or abundant, from their consisting of one day
more: these are the 2d, 5th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, 18th,
21st, 24th, 26th and 29th. To ascertain whether any given year
be intercalary or not divide it by 30; and if either of the
above numbers remain, the year is one of 355 days."
_Sir H. Nicolas,
Chronology of History._
See, also, MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 609-632.
ERA, Spanish.
"The Spanish era dates from 38 B. C. (A. U. 716) and is
supposed to mark some important epoch in the organization of
the province by the Romans. It may coincide with the campaign
of Calvinus, which is only known to us from a notice in the
Fasti Triumphales. ... The Spanish era was preserved in Aragon
till 1358, in Castile till 1383, and in Portugal till 1415."
_C. Merivale,
History of the Romans,
chapter 34, note._
ERA OF DIOCLETIAN, or Era of Martyrs.
See ROME: A. D. 192-284.
ERA OF GOOD FEELING.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1821-1824.
ERA OF THE FOUNDATION OF ROME.
See ROME: B. C. 753.
ERA OF THE OLYMPIADS.
See OLYMPIADS, ERA OF THE.
ERANI.
Associations existing in ancient Athens which resembled the
mutual benefit or friendly-aid societies of modern times.
_G. F. Schömann,
Antiquity of Greece: The State,
part 3, chapter 3._
ERASTIANISM.
A doctrine which "received its name from Thomas Erastus, a
German physician of the 16th century, contemporary with
Luther. The work in which he delivered his theory and
reasonings on the subject is entitled 'De Excommunicatione
Ecclesiastica.' ... The Erastians ... held that religion is an
affair between man and his creator, in which no other man or
society of men was entitled to interpose. ... Proceeding on
this ground, they maintained that every man calling himself a
Christian has a right to make resort to any Christian place of
worship, and partake in all its ordinances. Simple as this
idea is, it strikes at the root of all priestcraft."
_W. Godwin,
History of the Commonwealth,
volume 1, chapter 13._
ERCTÉ, Mount, Hamilcar on.
See PUNIC WAR, THE FIRST.
See, also, ERYX.
ERDINI, The.
See IRELAND, TRIBES OF EARLY CELTIC INHABITANTS.
EREMITES OF ST. FRANCIS.
See MINIMS.
ERETRIA.
See CHALCIS AND ERETRIA.
ERFURT, IMPERIAL CONFERENCE AND TREATY OF.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1808 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER).
{985}
ERECTHEION AT ATHENS, The.
"At a very early period there was, opposite the long northern
side of the Parthenon, a temple which, according to Herodot,
was dedicated jointly to Athene Polias and the Attic hero,
Erectheus. ... This temple was destroyed by fire while the
Persians held the city. Not unlikely the rebuilding of the
Erectheion was begun by Perikles together with that of the
other destroyed temples of the Akropolis; but as it was not
finished by him, it is generally not mentioned amongst his
works. ... This temple was renowned amongst the ancients as
one of the most beautiful and perfect in existence, and seems
to have remained almost intact down to the time of the Turks.
The siege of Athens by the Venetians in 1687 seems to have
been fatal to the Erectheion, as it was to the Parthenon."
_E. Guhl and W. Koner,
Life of the Greeks,
section 14._
See, also, ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS.