ARCULF ARIMASPI
ARDASHIR ARIMINUM
ARDEA ARIOBARZANES
ARDEBIL ARION
ARDECHE ARIOSTO, LODOVICO
ARDEE ARISTAENETUS
ARDEN, FOREST OF ARISTAEUS
ARDENNES (district) ARISTAGORAS
ARDENNES (department of France) ARISTANDER
ARDGLASS ARISTARCHUS (of Samos)
ARDITI, LUIGI ARISTARCHUS (of Samothrace)
ARDMORE ARISTEAS (Greek mythical personage)
ARDRES ARISTEAS (author of "Letter")
ARDROSSAN ARISTIDES (Athenian statesman)
AREA ARISTIDES (of Miletus)
ARECIBO ARISTIDES (of Thebes)
AREMBERG ARISTIDES, AELIUS
ARENA ARISTIDES, QUINTILIANUS
ARENDAL ARISTIDES, APOLOGY OF
ARENIG GROUP ARISTIPPUS
AREOI ARISTO (of Chios)
AREOPAGUS ARISTO (of Pella)
AREQUIPA (department of Peru) ARISTOBULUS (of Cassandreia)
AREQUIPA (city of Peru) ARISTOBULUS (of Paneas)
ARES ARISTOCRACY
ARETAEUS ARISTODEMUS
ARETAS ARISTOLOCHIA
ARETE ARISTOMENES
ARETHAS ARISTONICUS
ARETHUSA ARISTOPHANES (Greek dramatist)
ARETINO, PIETRO ARISTOPHANES (of Byzantium)
AREZZO ARISTOTLE
ARGALI ARISTOXENUS
ARGAO ARISUGAWA
ARGAUM ARITHMETIC
ARGEI ARIUS
ARGELANDER, FRIEDRICH AUGUST ARIZONA
ARGENS, JEAN BAPTISTE DE BOYER ARJUNA
ARGENSOLA, LUPERCIO LEONARDO DE ARK
ARGENSON ARKANSAS (river of the U.S.)
ARGENTAN ARKANSAS (state)
ARGENTEUIL ARKANSAS CITY
ARGENTINA ARKLOW
ARGENTINE ARKWRIGHT, SIR RICHARD
ARGENTITE ARLES (town of France)
ARGENTON ARLES (kingdom)
ARGHANDAB ARLINGTON, HENRY BENNET
ARGHOUL ARLINGTON
ARGOL ARLON
ARGON ARM
ARGONAUTS ARMADA, THE
ARGONNE ARMADILLO
ARGOS ARMAGEDDON
ARGOSTOLI ARMAGH (county of Ireland)
ARGOSY ARMAGH (city)
ARGUIN ARMAGNAC
ARGUMENT ARMATOLES
ARGUS ARMATURE
ARGYLL, EARLS AND DUKES OF ARMAVIR
ARGYLLSHIRE ARMENIA
ARGYRODITE ARMENIAN CHURCH
ARGYROKASTRO ARMENIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
ARGYROPULUS, JOHN ARMENTIERES
ARIA ARMET
ARIADNE ARMFELT, GUSTAF MAURITZ
ARIANO DI PUGLIA ARMIDALE
ARIAS MONTANO, BENITO ARMILLA
ARICA ARMINIUS
ARICIA ARMINIUS, JACOBUS
ARICINI ARMISTICE
ARIEGE ARMOIRE
ARIES ARMORICA
ARIKARA ARMOUR, PHILIP DANFORTH
ARCULF, a Gallican bishop and pilgrim-traveller, who visited the Levant
about 680, and was the earliest Christian traveller and observer of any
importance in the Nearer East after the rise of Islam. On his return he
was driven by contrary winds to Britain, and so came to Iona, where he
related his experiences to his host, the abbot Adamnan (679-704). This
narrative, as written out by Adamnan, was presented to Aldfrith the
Wise, last of the great Northumbrian kings, at York about 701, and came
to the knowledge of Bede, who inserted a brief summary of the same in
his _Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation_, and also drew up a
separate and longer digest which obtained great popularity throughout
the middle ages as a standard guide-book (the so-called _Libellus de
locis sanctis_) to the Holy Places of Syria. Arculf is the first to
mention the column at Jerusalem, which claimed to mark the exact centre
of the Inhabited Earth, and later became one of the favourite Palestine
wonders. Besides a valuable account of the principal sacred sites of
Judaea, Samaria and Galilee as they existed in the 7th century, he also
gives important information as to Alexandria and Constantinople, briefly
describes Damascus and Tyre, the Nile and the Lipari volcanoes, and
refers to the caliph Moawiya I. (A.D. 661-680), whom he pictures as
befriending Christians and rescuing the "sudarium" of Christ from the
Jews. Arculf's record is especially useful from its plans, drawn from
personal observation by the traveller himself, of the churches of the
Holy Sepulchre and of Mount Sion in Jerusalem, of the Ascension on
Olivet and of Jacob's well at Sichem. It is also a useful witness to the
prosperity and trade of Alexandria after the Moslem conquest: it tells
us how the Pharos was still lit up every night; and it gives us (from
Constantinople) the first form of the story of St George which ever
seems to have attracted notice in Britain.
Thirteen MSS, of the original Arculf-Adamnan narrative exist, and
fully 100 of Bede's abridgment: of the former, the most important,
containing all the plans, are (1) Bern, Canton Library, 582, of 9th
cent.; (2) Paris, National Library, Lat. 13,048, of 9th cent.; a
third MS., London, B. Mus., Cotlon, Tib. D. V., of 8th-9th cents.,
though damaged by fire and lacking the illustrations, is of value for
the text, being the oldest of all. Among editions the first is of
1619, by Gretser; the best, that of 1877, by Tobler, in _Itinera et
Descriptiones Terrae Sanctae_; we may also mention that of 1870, by
Delpit, in his _Essai sur les anciens pelerinages a Jerusalem_; see
also Delpit's remarks upon Arculf in the same work, pp. 260-304;
Beazley, _Dawn of Modern Geography_, i. 131-40 (1897).
ARDASHIR, the modern form of the Persian royal name ARTAXERXES (q.v.),
"he whose empire is excellent." After the three Achaemenian kings of
this name, it occurs in Armenia, in the shortened form Artaxias
(Armenian, Artashes or Artaxes), and among the dynasts of Persia who
maintained their independence during the Parthian period (see PERSIS).
One of these, (1) Artaxerxes or ARDASHIR I. (in his Greek inscriptions
he calls himself Artaxares, and the same form occurs in Agathias II. 25,
iv. 24), became the founder of the New-Persian or Sassanian empire. Of
his reign we have only very scanty information, as the Greek and Roman
authors mention only his victory over the Parthians and his wars with
Rome. A trustworthy tradition about the origin of his power, from
Persian sources, has been preserved by the Arabic historian Tabari (Th.
Noldeke, _Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden, aus
der arabischen Chronik des Tabari_, 1879). He was the second son of
Papak (Babek), the offspring of Sassan (Sasan), after whom the dynasty
is named. Papak had made himself king of the district of Istakhr (in the
neighbourhood of Persepolis, which had fallen to ruins). After the death
of Papak and his oldest son Shapur (Shahpuhr, Sapores), Ardashir made
himself king (probably A.D. 212), put his other brothers to death and
began war against the neighbouring dynasts of Persis. When he had
conquered a great part of Persis and Carmania, the Parthian king
Artabanus IV. interfered. But he was defeated in three battles and at
last killed (A.D. 236). Ardashir now considered himself sovereign of the
whole empire of the Parthians and called himself "King of Kings of the
Iranians." But his aspirations went farther. In Persis the traditions of
the Achaemenian empire had always been alive, as the name of Ardashir
himself shows, and with them the national religion of Zoroaster.
Ardashir, who was a zealous worshipper of Ahuramazda and in intimate
connexion with the magian priests, established the orthodox Zoroastrian
creed as the official religion of his new kingdom, persecuted the
infidels, and tried to restore the old Persian empire, which under the
Achaemenids had extended over the whole of Asia from the Aegean Sea to
the Indus. At the same time he put down the local dynasts and tried to
create a strong concentrated power. His empire is thus quite different
in character from the Parthian kingdom of the Arsacids, which had no
national and religious basis but leant towards Hellenism, and whose
organization had always been very loose. Ardashir extirpated the whole
race of the Arsacids, with the exception of those princes who had found
refuge in Armenia, and in many wars, in which, however, as the Persian
tradition shows, he occasionally suffered heavy defeats, he succeeded in
subjugating the greater part of Iran, Susiana and Babylonia. The
Parthian capital Ctesiphon (q.v.) remained the principal residence of
the Sassanian kingdom, by the side of the national metropolis Istakhr,
which was too far out of the way to become the centre of administration.
Opposite to Ctesiphon, on the right bank of the Tigris, Ardashir
restored Seleucia under the name of Weh-Ardashir. The attempt to conquer
Mesopotamia, Armenia and Cappadocia led to a war with Rome, in which he
was repelled by Alexander Severus (A.D. 233). Before his death (A.D.
241) Ardashir associated with himself on the throne his son Shapur, who
successfully continued his work.
Under the tombs of Darius I. at Persepolis, on the surface of the rock,
Ardashir has sculptured his image and that of the god Ahuramazda (Ormuzd
or Ormazd). Both are on horseback; the god is giving the diadem to the
king. Under the horse of the king lies a defeated enemy, the Parthian
king Artaban; under the horse of Ormuzd, the devil Ahriman, with two
snakes rising from his head. In the bilingual inscription (Greek and
Pahlavi), Ardashir I. calls himself "the Mazdayasnian [i.e. "worshipper
of Ahuramazda"] god Artaxares, king of the kings of the Arianes
(Iranians), of godly origin, son of the god Papak the king." (See Sir R.
Ker Porter, _Travels_ (1821-1822), i. 548 foll.; Flandin et Coste,
_Voyage en Perse_, iv. 182; F. Stolze and J.C. Andreas, _Persepolis_,
pl. 116; Marcel Diculafoy, _L'Art antique de la Perse_, 1884-1889, v.
pl. 14). A similar inscription and sculpture is on a rock near Gur
(Firuzabad) in Persia. On his coins he has the same titles (in Pahlavi).
We see that he, like his father and his successors, were worshipped as
gods, probably as incarnations of a secondary deity of the Persian
creed.
Like the history of the founder of the Achaemenian empire, that of
Ardashir has from the beginning been overgrown with legends; like Cyrus
he is the son of a shepherd, his future greatness is predicted by dreams
and visions, and by the calculations of astronomers he becomes a servant
at the court of King Artabanus and then flies to Persia and begins the
rebellion; he fights with the great dragon, the enemy of god, &c. A
Pahlavi text, which contains this legend, has been translated by Noldeke
(_Geschichte des Artachshir i Papakan_, 1879). On the same tradition the
account of Firdousi in the Shahnama is based; it occurs also, with some
variations, in Agathias ii. 26 f. Another work, which contained
religious and moral admonitions which were put into the mouth of the
king, has not come down to us. On the other hand the genealogy of
Ardashir has of course been connected with the Achaemenids, on whose
behalf he exacts vengeance from the Parthians, and with the legendary
kings of old Iran.
(2) ARDASHIR II. (379-383). Under the reign of his brother Shapur II. he
had been governor (king) of Adiabene, where he persecuted the
Christians. After Shapur's death, he was raised to the throne by the
magnates, although more than seventy years old. Having tried to make
himself independent from the court, and having executed some of the
grandees, he was deposed after a reign of four years.
(3) ARDASHIR III. (628-630), son of Kavadh II., was raised to the throne
as a boy of seven years, but was killed two years afterwards by his
general, Shahrbaraz. (Ed. M.)
ARDEA, a town of the Rutuli in Latium, 3 m. from the S.W. coast, where
its harbour (_Castrum Inui_) lay, at the mouth of the stream now known
as Fosso dell' Incastro, and 23 m. S. of Rome by the Via Ardeatina. It
was founded, according to legend, either by a son of Odysseus and Circe,
or by Danae, the mother of Perseus. It was one of the oldest of the
coast cities of Latium, and a place of considerable importance;
according to tradition the Ardeatines and Zacynthians joined in the
foundation of Saguntum in Spain. It was the capital of Turnus, the
opponent of Aeneas. It was conquered by Tarquinius Superbus, and appears
as a Roman possession in the treaty with Carthage of 509 B.C., though it
was later one of the thirty cities of the Latin league. In 445 B.C. an
unfair decision by the Romans in a frontier dispute with Aricia led,
according to the Roman historians, to a rising; the town became a Latin
colony 442 B.C., and shortly afterwards it appears as the place of exile
of Camillus. It had the charge of the common shrine of Venus in
Lavinium. It was devastated by the Samnites, was one of the 12 Latin
colonies that refused in 209 B.C. to provide more soldiers, and was in
186 used as a state prison, like Alba and Setia. In imperial times the
unhealthiness of the place led to its rapid decline, though it remained
a colony. In the forests of the neighbourhood the imperial elephants
were kept. A road, the Via Ardeatina, led to Ardea direct from Rome; the
gate by which it left the Servian wall was the Porta Naevia; a large
tomb behind the baths of Caracalla lay on its course. The gate by which
it left the Aurelian wall has been obliterated by the bastion of Antonio
da Sangallo (Ch. Hulsen in _Romische Mitteilungen_, 1894, 320).
The site of the primitive city, which later became the citadel, is
occupied by the modern town; it is situated at the end of a long plateau
between two valleys, and protected by perpendicular tufa cliffs some 60
ft. high on all sides except the north-east, where it joins the plateau.
Here it is defended by a fine wall of _opus quadratum_ of tufa, in
alternate courses of headers and stretchers. Within its area are scanty
remains of the podium of a temple and of buildings of the imperial
period. The road entering it from the south-west is deeply cut in the
rock. The area of the place was apparently twice extended, a further
portion of the narrow plateau, which now bears the name of Civita
Vecchia, being each time taken in and defended by a mound and ditch; the
nearer and better-preserved is about 1/2 m. from the city and measures
some 2000 ft. long, 133 ft. wide and 66 ft. high, the ditch being some
80 ft. wide. The second, 1/2 m. farther north-east, is smaller. In the
cliffs below the plateau to the north are early rock habitations, and
upon the plateau primitive Latin pottery has been found. In 1900 a group
of tombs cut in the rock was examined; they are outside the farther
mound and ditch, and belong, therefore, to the period after the second
extension of the city.
See O. Richter, in _Annali dell' Istituto_ (1884), 90; J.H. Parker in
_Archaeologia_, xlix. 169 (1885); A. Pasqui, in _Notizie degli scavi_,
(1900) 53. (T. As.)
ARDEBIL, or ARDABIL, chief town of a district, or sub-province, of same
name, of the province of Azerbaijan in north-western Persia, in lat. 38
deg. 14' N., and long. 48 deg. 21' E., and at an elevation of 4500 ft.
It is situated on the Baluk Su (Fish river), a tributary of the Kara Su
(Black river), which flows northwards to the Aras, and in a fertile
plain bounded on the west by Mount Savelan, a volcanic cone with an
altitude of 15,792 ft. (Russian triangulation), and on the east by the
Talish mountains (9000 ft.). Ardebil has a population of about 10,000,
and post and telegraph offices. Its trade, principally in the hands of
Armenians, is still important, but is chiefly a transit trade between
Russia and Persia by way of Astara, a port on the Caspian 30 m.
north-east of Ardebil. It is surrounded by a ruinous mud wall flanked by
towers; a quarter of a mile east of it stands a mud fort, 180 yds.
square, constructed according to European system of fortification.
Inside the city are the famous sepulchres and shrines of Shaikh Safi
ud-din and his descendant Shah Ismail I. (1502-1524) the first Shiah
shah of Persia and founder of the Safavi dynasty. Plans and photographs
of the shrines were taken in 1897 by Dr F. Sarre of Berlin and published
in 1901 (_Denkmaler Persischer Baukunst_; 65 large folio plates).
European and Chinese merchants resided at Ardebil in the middle ages,
and for a long time the city was a great emporium for central Asian and
Indian merchandise, which was forwarded to Europe via Tabriz, Trebizond
and the Black Sea, and also by way of the Caucasus and the Volga. Since
the beginning of the 16th century, when Persia fell under the sway of
the Safavis, the place has been much frequented by pilgrims who come to
pay their devotions at the shrine of Shaikh Safi. This shrine is a
richly endowed establishment with mosques and college attached, and had
a fine library containing many rare and valuable MSS. presented by Shah
Abbas I. at the beginning of the 17th century, and mostly carried off by
the Russians in 1828 and placed in the library at St Petersburg. The
grand carpet which had covered the floor of one of the mosques for three
centuries was purchased by a traveller about 1890 for 100 pounds, and
was finally acquired by the South Kensington Museum for many thousands.
This beautiful carpet measures 34 ft. by 17 ft. 6 in., and contains 380
hand-tied knots in the square inch, which gives over 32,500,000 knots to
the whole carpet (W. Griggs, _Asian Carpet Designs_). (A. H. S.)
ARDECHE, an inland department of south-eastern France, formed in 1790
from the Vivarais, a district of Languedoc. Pop. (1906) 347,140. Area,
2145 sq. m. It is bounded N.W. by the department of Loire, E. by the
Rhone which divides it from Isere and Drome, S. by Gard and W. by Lozere
and Haute-Loire. The surface of Ardeche is almost entirely covered by
the Cevennes mountains, the main chain, continued in the Boutieres
mountains, forming its western boundary. Its centre is traversed from
south-east to north-west by the Coiron range which extends from the
Rhone to the Mont Mezenc (5755 ft.), the highest point in the
department, and the oldest of its many volcanoes. These mountains
separate the southern half of the department, which comprises the basin
of the Ardeche, from the northern half which is watered by numerous
smaller tributaries of the Rhone, the chief of which are the Erieux and
the Doux. A few rivers belong to the Atlantic side of the watershed, the
chief being the Loire, which rises on the western borders of the
department, and the Allier, which for a short distance separates it from
Lozere. Nearly all the rivers of the department are of torrential
swiftness and subject to sudden floods. The scenery through which they
flow is often of great beauty and grandeur. Natural curiosities are the
Pont d'Arc, over the Ardeche, and the Chaussee des Geants, near Vals.
The climate in the valley of the Rhone is, in general, warm, and
sometimes very hot; but westward, as the elevation increases, the cold
becomes more intense and the winters longer. Some districts, especially
in summer, are liable to sudden alterations in the temperature. Rye,
wheat and potatoes are the chief crops cultivated. Good red and white
wines are grown in the hilly region bordering the Rhone valley, the
white wine of St Peray being highly esteemed. The principal fruits are
the chestnut, which is largely exported, the olive and the walnut. In
the rearing of silk-worms, Ardeche ranks second to Gard among French
departments, and great numbers of mulberry trees are grown for the
purposes of this industry. The many goats and sheep of Ardeche make it
one of the chief sources of supply of skins for glove-making. Mines of
coal, iron, lead and zinc are worked, and the quarries furnish hydraulic
lime (Le Teil) and other products. Besides flour-mills, distilleries and
saw-mills, there are important silk-mills and leather-works and
paper-factories. Annonay is the principal industrial town. The
department exports wine, cattle, lime, mineral waters, silk, paper, &c.
Hot springs are numerous, and some of them, as those of Vals, St
Laurent-les-Bains, Celles and Neyrac, are largely resorted to. Ardeche
is served by the Paris-Lyon-Mediterranee railway and has some 43 m. of
navigable waterway. The department is divided into the arrondissements
of Privas, Largentiere and Tournon, with 31 cantons and 342 communes. It
forms the diocese of Viviers and part of the archiepiscopal province of
Avignon. It is in the region of the XV. army corps, and within the
circumscription of the _academie_ (educational division) of Grenoble.
Its court of appeal is at Nimes. Privas, the capital, Annonay, Aubenas,
Largentiere and Tournon are the principal towns. Bourg-St Andeol,
Thines, Melas and Cruas have interesting Romanesque churches. Mazan has
remains of a Cistercian abbey founded in the 12th century to which its
vast church belongs. Viviers is an old town with a church of various
styles of architecture and several old houses.
ARDEE, a market-town of Co. Louth, Ireland, in the south parliamentary
division, on the river Dee, 48 m. N. by W. from Dublin on a branch of
the Great Northern railway. Pop. (1901) 1883. It has some trade in grain
and basket-making. The town is of high antiquity, and its name
(Ather-dee) is taken to signify the ford of the Dee. A form Ath-Firdia,
however, is connected with the ancient story of the warrior Cuchullain
of Ulster, who, while defending the ford against the men of Connaught,
was forced to slay many with whom he was on friendly terms, and among
them the warrior Firdia, whom he regarded with special affection. A
castle of the lords of the manor was built early in the 14th century,
and remains, as does another adjacent fortified building of the same
period. Roger de Peppart, lord of the manor early in the 13th century,
founded the present Protestant church and a house of Crutched Friars.
There was also a house of Carmelite Friars, but neither of these
remains. Ardee received its first recorded charter in 1377. It had a
full share in the several Irish wars, being sacked by Edward Bruce
(1315) and by O'Neill (1538); and it was taken by the Irish and
recaptured by the English in the wars of 1641, and was occupied later by
the forces of James II. and of William III. It returned two members to
the Irish parliament. A large rath, or encampment, with remains of
fortifications, stands to the south of the town.
ARDEN, FOREST OF, a district in the north of Warwickshire, England, the
"woodland" as opposed to the "felden," or "fielden," i.e. open country,
in the south, the river Avon separating the two. Originally it was part
of a forest tract of far wider extent than that within the confines of
the county, and now, though lacking the true character of a forest, it
is still unusually well wooded. The undulating surface ranges for the
most part from 250 to 500 ft. in elevation. Wide lands in this district
were held in the time of Edward the Confessor by Alwin, whose son
Thurkill of Warwick, or "of Arden," founded the family of the
Warwickshire Ardens who in Queen Elizabeth's time still held several of
the manors ascribed to Thurkill in _Domesday_. Shakespeare, whose mother
Mary Arden claimed to be of this family, knew the district well, living
as he did at Stratford; and its natural characteristics, then still
unchanged, inspired his pictures of forest life in _As You Like It_. The
name of the Forest of Arden, besides remaining a convenient designation
of a well-marked physical area, is preserved in such place-names as
Henley-in-Arden and Hampton-in-Arden.
ARDENNES, a district covering some portion of the ancient forest of
Ardenne, and extending over the Belgian province of Luxemburg, part of
the grand duchy, and the French department of Ardennes. Bruzen
Lamartiniere states in his _Dictionnaire Geographique_ that the Gauls
and Bretons called it by a word signifying "the forest," which was
turned into Latin as _Arduenna silva_, and he thinks it quite probable
that the name was really derived from the Celtic word _ardu_ (dark,
obscure). The Arduenna Silva was the most extensive forest of Gaul, and
Caesar (_Bello Gallico_, lib. vi. cap. 29) describes it as extending
from the Rhine and the confines of the Treviri as far as the limits of
the Nervii. In book v. the Roman conqueror describes his campaign
against Indutiomarus and the Treviri in the Ardenne forest. Strabo gave
it still greater extent, treating it as covering the whole region from
the Rhine to the North Sea. It is safer to give it the more reasonable
dimensions of Caesar, and to accept the verdict of later commentators
that it never extended west of the Scheldt. At the division of the
empire of Charlemagne between the three sons of Louis the Debonnaire,
effected by the pact of Verdun in 843, the forest had become a district
and is called therein _pagus Arduensis_. It was part of the division
that fell to Lothair, and several of the charters of 843 expressly
specify certain towns as being situated in this _pagus_. In the 10th
century the district had become a _comitatus_, subject to the powerful
count of Verdun, who changed his style to that of count of Ardenne.
The Belgian Ardennes may be said now to extend from the Meuse above
Dinant on the west to the grand duchy of Luxemburg and Rhenish Prussia
as far north as the Baraque de Michel on the east, and from a line drawn
eastward from Dinant through Marche, Durbuy and Stavelot to the Hautes
Fagnes on the north, to the French frontier roughly marked by the Semois
valley in the south. Within these limits there are still some of the
finest woods in Europe, which seem to have come down to us almost intact
from the days of the Arduenna of Caesar. Notable among these portions of
the great forest are the woods of St Hubert, the woods round La Roche,
and those of the Amerois, Herbeumont, and Chiny on the Semois. In the
grand duchy the forest has almost entirely disappeared, but owing to the
compulsory law of replanting in Belgium this fate does not seem likely
to attend the Belgian Ardennes.
In addition to being a forest the Ardennes is a plateau, and it offers
to the geologist a most interesting field of investigation. The greater
part of the Ardennes is occupied by a large area of Devonian beds,
through which rise the Cambrian masses of Rocroi and Stavelot, and a few
others of smaller size. Upon the folded slates and schists which
constitute these inliers the Devonian rests with marked unconformity;
but north of the ridge of Condroz Ordovician and Silurian beds make
their appearance. Near Dinant carboniferous beds are infolded among the
Devonian. Along the northern margin lies the intensely folded belt which
constitutes the coalfield of Namur, and, beneath the overlying Mesozoic
beds, is continued to the Boulonnais, Dover and beyond. The southern
boundary of this belt is formed by a great thrust-plane, the _faille du
midi_, along which the Devonian beds of the south have been thrust over
the carboniferous beds of the coalfield.
The Ardennes are the holiday ground of the Belgian people, and much of
this region is still unknown except to the few persons who by a happy
chance have discovered its remoter and hitherto well-guarded charms.
There is still an immense quantity of wild game to be found in the
Ardennes, including red and roe deer, wild boar, &c. The shooting is
preserved either by the few great landed proprietors left in the
country, or by the communes, who let the right of shooting to
individuals. Occasionally it is still stated in the press that wolves
have been seen in the Ardennes, but this is a mere fiction. The last
wolf was destroyed there in the 18th century.
ARDENNES, a department of France on the N.E. frontier, deriving its name
from that of the forest, and formed in 1790 from parts of Champagne,
Picardy and Hainault. Pop. (1906) 317,505. Area, 2028 sq. m. It is
bounded N. and N.E. by Belgium, E. by the department of Meuse, S. by
that of Marne, and W. by that of Aisne. In shape it is quadrilateral
with a cape-like prolongation into Belgium on the north. The slope of
the department is from north-east to south-west, though its longest
river, the Meuse, entering it in the south-east, pursues a winding
course of 111 m. in a north-westerly, and afterwards through deep gorges
in a northerly, direction. The other principal river, the Aisne, crosses
the southern border and takes a northerly, then a westerly course,
separating the region known as Champagne Pouilleuse from the more
elevated plateau of Argonne which forms the central zone of the
department and stretches to the left bank of the Meuse. The highest
points of the department are found in the wooded highlands of the
Ardennes which, with an altitude varying between 980 and 1640 ft., cover
the north and north-east. The climate is comparatively mild in the
south-west, but becomes colder and more rainy towards the north and
north-east. Agriculture is carried on to most advantage in the
Champagne and Argonne. Wheat and oats are the predominant cereals.
Potatoes, rye, lucerne and other kinds of forage are also important
crops. Pasturage is found chiefly on the banks of the Aisne and Meuse
and on the plateau of Rocroi in the north. Horse-raising is carried on
in the neighbourhood of Buzancy in the south, and at Bourg-Fieele in the
north. Fruit-growing is confined to the west and central districts. The
working of slate is very important, especially in the neighbourhood of
Fumay, and quarries producing freestone, lime-stone and other minerals
are found in several places. Flour-mills, saw-mills, sugar-works,
distilleries and leather-works are scattered over the department, but
iron-founding and various branches of metal-working which are active
along the valley of the Meuse (Nouzon, &c.) are the chief industries. To
these may be added wool-weaving, centred at Sedan, and minor industries
such as the manufacture of basket-work, wooden shoes, &c. Coal and raw
wool are prominent imports, while iron goods, cloth, timber, live-stock,
alcohol and the products of the soil are exported. Various branches of
the Eastern railway traverse the department. The Meuse is canalized
within the department, and the Canal des Ardennes, uniting that river
with the Aisne, and the lateral canal of the Aisne are together about 65
m. long. Ardennes is divided into five arrondissements: Mezieres,
Rocroi, Rethel, Vouziers and Sedan, with 31 cantons and 503 communes.
The department forms part of the ecclesiastical province of Reims and of
the circumscriptions of the appeal-court of Nancy and the VI. army
corps. In educational matters, it is included in the _academic_
(educational area) of Lille. Mezieres, the capital, Charleville, Rocroi,
Sedan and Rethel are the chief towns. Outside them its finest examples
of architecture are the churches of Mouzon (13th century) and Vouziers
(15th century).
ARDGLASS ("Green Height"): a small town of Co. Down, Ireland, in the
east parliamentary division, at the head of a rocky bay, in a
picturesque situation between two hills, 32 m. S. by E. of Belfast on a
branch of the Belfast & Co. Down railway. Pop. (1901) 501. Soon after
the Norman invasion it became of the first importance as a port, a fact
attested by the remains of no fewer than five castles in close
proximity, which give the town a picturesque aspect. There are also an
ancient church crowning the eastern hill, and a curious fortified
warehouse (called the New Works), dating probably from the 14th century,
when a trading company was established here under a grant from Henry IV.
Ardglass was a royal burgh and sent a representative to the Irish
parliament. The chief industry is the herring fishery. Ships of 500 tons
may enter the harbour at all times. In summer Ardglass is a frequented
resort of visitors; good bathing and a golf links contribute to its
attractions.
ARDITI, LUIGI (1822-1903), Italian musical composer and conductor, was
born in Piedmont, and studied music at the Conservatoire in Milan,
starting professionally as a violinist, and touring with Bottesini, the
double-bass player, in the United States in 1847. He began composing at
an early age, and in 1840 produced an overture, followed by an opera _I
Briganti_ in 1841, and other works. He paid frequent visits to America,
conducting the opera in New York, where he produced his _La Spia_ in
1856. In 1858 he became conductor of the opera at Her Majesty's theatre
in London, and both in London and abroad he became famous in this
capacity, having the reputation of being Madame Patti's favourite
conductor. His vocal waltz _Il Bacio_ was often sung by her. In 1896 he
published his _Reminiscences_, and after a long and active musical life
he died at Brighton on the 1st of May 1903.
ARDMORE, a township and the county-seat of Carter county, Oklahoma,
U.S.A., just S. of the Arbuckle Mountains, about 120 m. S. by E. of
Guthrie. Pop. (1900) 5681; (1907) 8759 (2122 being negroes, and 108
Indians); (1910) 8618. It is served by the Chicago, Rock Island &
Pacific, the St Louis & San Francisco, and the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe
railways. Ardmore is the market-town and distributing point for the
surrounding agricultural region, which is the home of a large part of
the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations. It is situated 890 ft. above the sea
in a cotton and grain producing region, in which cattle are raised and
fruit and vegetables grown; coal, oil, natural gas and rock asphalt
(which is used for paving the streets of Ardmore) are found in the
vicinity. Ardmore is an important cotton market, and has cotton gins, a
cotton compress, machine shops, bridge works, foundries, bottling works
and manufactories of cotton-seed oil, brick, concrete, flour, brooms,
mattresses and dressed lumber. At Ardmore are the Saint Agnes Academy, a
Catholic school for girls, and Saint Agnes College for boys, a
conservatory of music, Hargrove College, and the Selvidge Commercial
College. Near Ardmore is a summer school on the Chautauqua (q.v.)
system. Ardmore was founded in 1887, and was incorporated in 1898.
ARDRES, a town of northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais,
10-1/2 m. by rail S.S.E. of Calais', with which it is also connected by
a canal. Pop. (1906) 1269. The "Field of the Cloth of Gold," where Henry
VIII. of England and Francis I. of France met in 1520, was at Balinghem
in the immediate neighbourhood. The town is an important market for
cattle.
ARDROSSAN, a seaport, burgh of barony, and police burgh of Ayrshire,
Scotland, 32 m. from Glasgow by the Glasgow & South-Western railway, and
29-1/2 m. by the Lanarkshire & Ayrshire branch of the Caledonian
railway. Pop. (1901) 6077. The rise of Ardrossan was due to the
enterprise of Hugh, 12th earl of Eglinton, who began the construction of
the present town and harbour in 1806. The harbour was intended to be in
connexion with a canal from Glasgow to Ardrossan, but this was only
completed as far as Johnstone. Owing to the costliness of the
undertaking, and the death of the earl in 1819, the works were suspended
after an outlay of L100,000, but his successor completed the scheme on a
reduced scale at an expense of another L100,000. The dock accommodation
has since been considerably extended, and the town enjoys great
prosperity. Steamers run every week-day to Arran and Belfast, and during
summer there is a service also to Douglas in the Isle of Man. The
exports consist principally of coal and iron from collieries and
ironworks in the neighbourhood; and the imports of timber, ores and
general goods. Shipbuilding thrives and the fisheries are important. The
town is governed by a provost and council.
SALTCOATS (pop. 8120), a mile to the south, is a popular seaside resort,
with a brisk trade, due to its proximity to Ardrossan and Stevenston;
the making of salt, once a leading industry, has ceased.
Ardrossan dates from an early period. The name Arthur of Ardrossan is
found in connexion with a charter dated 1226; and Sir Fergus of
Ardrossan accompanied Edward Bruce in his Irish expedition in 1316, and
in 1320 signed the appeal to the pope, made by the barons of Scotland,
against the aggressions of England. The family of Ardrossan is now
merged, by marriage, in that of the earl of Eglinton and Winton. The
castle where Wallace surprised the English garrison and threw their
corpses into the dungeon, grimly styled "Wallace's Larder," was finally
destroyed by Cromwell, who is said to have used part of its masonry for
the construction of the fort at Ayr; but its ruins still exist.
AREA, a Latin word, originally meaning a threshing-floor, namely a
raised space in a field exposed on all sides to the wind; now applied in
English (1) to a plot of ground on which a structure is to be erected,
(2) to the court or sunk space in the front or rear of a building, (3)
to the superficial space covered by a district, country, &c., or by a
building or court.
ARECIBO, a city and port on the north coast of Porto Rico, at the mouth
of a small stream called the Rio Grande de Arecibo, and contiguous to
one of the most fertile regions of the island. Pop. (1899) 8008; of the
tributary district, about 30,000; (1910) 9612. It is connected with San
Juan, Mayaguezand Ponce by railway. It is a well-built and active
commercial city, and has a large export trade in coffee and sugar. The
harbour is an open roadstead, very dangerous to shipping in northerly
winds, and the discharge and loading of cargoes is effected by means of
lighters at considerable risk and expense. Arecibo was founded in 1788.
AREMBERG, or ARENBERG, formerly a German duchy of the Holy Roman Empire
in the circle of the Rhine Palatinate, between Julich and Cologne, and
now belonging to the Prussian administrative district of Coblenz. The
hamlet of Aremberg is at the foot of a basalt hill 2067 ft. high, on the
summit of which are the ruins of the castle which was the original seat
of the family of Aremberg.
The lords of Aremberg first appear early in the 12th century, but had
died out in the male line by 1279. From the marriage of the heiress
Mathilda (1282-1299) with Engelbert II., count of La Marck (d. 1328),
sprang two sons. The elder of these, Adolf II, (d. 1347), inherited the
countship of La Marck; the second, Engelbert III. (d. 1387), the
lordship of Aremberg, which he increased by his marriage with Marie de
Looz, heiress of Lumain. The lordship of Aremberg remained in his family
till 1547, when it passed, by his marriage with Margaret, sister of the
childless Robert III., to John of Barbancon, of the great house of
Ligne, who assumed the name and arms of Aremberg, and was created a
count of the Empire by Charles V. He was governor of Friesland, and for
a while commanded the Spanish and Catholic forces against the "beggars,"
falling at the battle of Heiligerlee in 1568. His son Charles (d. 1618)
greatly increased the possessions of the house by his marriage with Ann
of Croy, heiress of Croy and of Chimay-Aerschot, and in 1576 was made
prince of the Empire by Maximilian II. His grandson, Philip Francis, was
made duke in 1644 by the emperor Ferdinand III., and was succeeded by
his brother Charles Eugene (d. 1681), who married Marie Henriette de
Vergy de Cusance, heiress of Perwez (d. 1700). Their son, Duke Philip
Charles Francis, was killed in 1691 fighting against the Turks, and was
succeeded by Leopold (1754), a distinguished soldier of the War of the
Spanish Succession, and patron of Rousseau and Voltaire. His son Charles
(d. 1778) was an Austrian field-marshal during the Seven Years' War, and
married Louise Margaret of La Marck-Lumain, heiress of the countship of
Schleiden and lordship of Saffenberg. By the peace of Luneville
(February 1801), the next duke, Louis Engelbert, lost the greater part
of his ancestral domain, but received in compensation Meppen and
Recklinghausen. On the establishment of the confederation of the Rhine,
his son Prosper Louis (to whom, becoming blind, he had ceded his domains
in 1803) became a member (1806), and showed great devotion to the
interests of France; but in 1810 he lost his sovereignty, Napoleon
incorporating Meppen with France and Recklinghausen with the grand-duchy
of Berg, and indemnifying him by a rent of 240,702 francs. In 1815 he
received back his possessions, which were mediatized by the congress of
Vienna, Recklinghausen falling to Prussia and Meppen to Hanover. On
account of the one portion he became a peer of the Westphalian estates,
and by the other a member of the upper house in Hanover. George IV. of
England (9th May 1826) elevated the duke's Hanoverian possessions to a
dukedom under the title of Aremberg Meppen. His brother Auguste Raymond,
Comte de la Marck (1753-1833), became famous during the early stages of
the French Revolution for his friendship with Mirabeau (q.v.). Duke
Prosper Louis died in 1861, and was succeeded by his son Engelbert (d.
1875), who was followed in his turn by his son Engelbert (b. 1872).
The duke of Aremberg is one of the wealthiest of the great continental
nobles. His feudal domain in Germany covers an area of over 1100 sq. m.,
besides which he has large estates in Belgium and France. The duke has
residences in Brussels, where he has a famous collection of pictures,
and at the chateau of Klemenswerth near Meppen.
ARENA (Lat. for "sand"), the central area of an amphitheatre on which
the gladiatorial displays took place, its name being derived from the
sand with which it was covered. The word is applied sometimes to any
level open space on which spectacles take place.
ARENDAL, a seaport of Norway, in Nedenaes _amt_ (county), on the south
coast, 46 m. N.E. from Christiansand. Pop. (1900) 11,155. It rises
picturesquely above the mouth of the river Nid, with a good harbour
protected by an island from the open waters of the Skagerrack. The town
itself occupies several islets, and some of the houses are supported
above the water on piles. The chief exports are timber (very largely
exported to Great Britain), wood-pulp, sealskins and felspar. In 1879
Arendal ranked second (after Christiania) as a ship-owning port; in 1899
it had dropped to the fifth place. In and near the town are factories
for wood-pulp, paper, cotton and joinery; and at Fevig, 8 m. north-east,
a shipbuilding yard and engineering works. The neighbourhood is
remarkable for the number of beautiful and rare minerals found there;
one of these, a variety of epidote, was formerly called Arendalite.
Louis Philippe stayed here for some time during his exile.
ARENIG GROUP, in geology, the name now applied by British geologists to
the lowest stage of the Ordovician System in Britain. The term was first
used by Adam Sedgwick in 1847 with reference to the "Arenig Ashes and
Porphyries" in the neighbourhood of Arenig Fawr, in Merioneth, North
Wales.
The rock-succession in the Arenig district has been recognized by W.G.
Fearnsides ("On the Geology of Arenig Fawr and Moel Llanfnant,"
_Q.J.G.S._ vol. lxi., 1905, pp. 608-640, with maps) as follows:--