[1] Neither Herodotus nor Thucydides tells us anything as to its
powers; but their silence on this point need not surprise us, as they
had no especial occasion for referring to the subject, and in general
it may be said that before the 4th century B.C. writers took little
interest in the constitutional history of the remote past. The
statement of Thucydides (i. 126. 8) that at the time of the Cylonian
insurrection the nine archons attended to a great part of the
business of government does not contradict the Aristotelian view, for
their administration may well have been under Areopagitic supervision
(see also ARCHON); and, as is stated in the text, the supremacy of
the council may have already suffered considerable limitation. _The
Eumenides of Aeschylus_ is a glorification of the institution, though
for obvious reasons it is there represented as an essentially
judicial body.
[2] It is possible also to explain the alleged absence of reference
to the Areopagitic council in the Draconian laws by the supposition
that Solon, while leaving untouched the Draconian laws concerned with
the cases of homicide which came before the Ephetae, substituted a
law of his own regarding wilful murder, which fell within the
jurisdiction of the Areopagites. This view finds strong support in
the circumstance that the copy of the Draconian laws (_C.I.A._ i.
61), made in pursuance of a decree of the people of the year 409-408
B.C., does not contain the provision for cases of premeditated
homicide; cf. G. de Sanctis, [Greek: Attis], 135. The relation of the
Ephetae to the court of the Areopagus is obscure; cf. Philippi, _Der
Areopag und die Epheten_ (Berlin, 1874); Busolt, _Griechische
Geschichte_ (2nd ed.), ii. 138 ff.
AREQUIPA, a coast department of southern Peru, bounded N. by the
departments of Ayacucho and Cuzco, E. by Puno and Moquegua, S. and W. by
Moquegua and the Pacific. It is divided into seven provinces. Area,
21,947 sq. m.; pop. (1896) 229,007. It is traversed by an important
railway line from Mollendo (Islay) to Puno, on Lake Titicaca, 325 m.
long, with extensions to Santa Rosa, Peru and La Paz, Bolivia. The
highest point reached by this line is 14,660 ft. The department includes
an arid, sand-covered region on the coast traversed by deep gorges
formed by river courses, and a partly barren, mountainous region inland
composed of the high Cordillera and its spurs toward the coast, between
which are numerous highly fertile valleys watered by streams from the
snow-clad peaks. These produce cotton, rice, sugar-cane, wheat, coffee,
Indian corn, barley, potatoes and fruit. The mountainous region is rich
in minerals, and there is a valuable deposit of borax near the capital,
Arequipa.
AREQUIPA, a city of southern Peru, capital of the department of the same
name, about 90 m. N.E. by N. of its seaport Mollendo (107 m. by rail),
and near the south-west foot of the volcano Misti which rises to a
height of 19,029 ft. above sea-level. The population was estimated at
35,000 in 1896. The city is provided with a tram line, and is connected
with the coast at Mollendo (Islay) by a railway 107 m. long, and with
Puno, on Lake Titicaca, by an extension of the same line 218 m. long.
The city occupies a green, fertile valley of the Rio Chile, 7753 ft.
above the sea, surrounded by an arid, barren desert. It is built on the
usual rectangular plan and the streets are wide and well paved. The
edifices in general are low, and are massively built with thick walls
and domed ceilings to resist earthquakes, and lessen the danger from
falling masonry. The material used is a soft, porous magnesian
limestone, which is well adapted to the purpose in view. Arequipa is the
seat of a bishopric created in 1609-1612, and possesses a comparatively
modern cathedral, its predecessor having been destroyed by fire in 1849.
It has several large churches, and formerly possessed five monasteries
and three nunneries, which have been closed and their edifices devoted
to educational and other public purposes. The religious element has
always been a dominating factor in the life of the city. A university,
founded in 1825, three colleges, one of them dating from colonial times,
a medical school, and a public library, founded in 1821, are
distinguishing features of the city, which has always taken high rank in
Peru for its learning and liberalism, as well as for its political
restlessness. The city's water-supply is derived from the Chile river
and is considered dangerous to new arrivals because of the quantity of
saline and organic matter contained. The climate is temperate and
healthy, and the fertile valley (10 m. long by 5 m. wide) surrounding
the city produces an abundance of cereals, fruits and vegetables common
to both hot and temperate regions. Pears and strawberries grow side by
side with oranges and granadillas, and are noted for their size and
flavour. The trade of the city is principally in Bolivian
products--mineral ores, alpaca wool, &c.--but it also receives and
exports the products of the neighbouring Peruvian provinces, and the
output of the borax deposits in the neighbourhood. Arequipa was founded
by Pizarro in 1540, and has been the scene of many events of importance
in the history of Peru. It was greatly damaged in the earthquakes of
1582, 1609, 1784 and 1868, particularly in the last. It was captured by
the Chileans in 1883, near the close of the war between Chile and Peru.
ARES, in ancient Greek mythology, the god of war, or rather of battle,
son of Zeus and Hera. (For the Roman god, identified with Ares, see
MARS.) As contrasted with Athena, who added to her other attributes that
of being the goddess of well-conducted military operations, he
personifies brute strength and the wild rage of conflict. His delight is
in war and bloodshed; he loves fighting for fighting's sake, and takes
the side of the one or the other combatant indifferently, regardless of
the justice of the cause. His quarrelsomeness was regarded as inherited
from his mother, and it may have been only as an illustration of the
perpetual strife between Zeus and Hera that Ares was accounted their
son. According to a later tradition, he was the son of Hera (Juno)
alone, who became pregnant by touching a certain flower (Ovid, _Fasti_,
v. 255). All the gods, even Zeus, hate him, but his bitterest enemy is
Athena, who fells him to the ground with a huge stone. Splendidly armed,
he goes to battle, sometimes on foot, sometimes in the war chariot made
ready by his sons Deimos and Phobos (Panic and Fear) by whom he is
usually accompanied. In his train also are found Enyo, the goddess of
war who delights in bloodshed and the destruction of cities; his sister,
Eris, goddess of fighting and strife; and the Keres, goddesses of death,
whose function it is especially to roam the battle-field, carrying off
the dead to Hades. In later accounts (and even in the _Odyssey_) Ares'
character is somewhat toned down; thus, in the "Homeric" hymn to Ares he
is addressed as the assistant of Themis (Justice), the enemy of tyrants,
and leader of the just. It is to be noted, however, that in this little
poem he is to some extent confounded with the planet named after him
(Ares, or Mars).
The primitive character of Ares has been much discussed. He is a god of
storms; a god of light or a solar god; a chthonian god, one of the
deities of the subterranean world, who could bring prosperity as well as
ruin upon men, although in time his destructive qualities obscured the
others. In this last aspect he was one of the chief gods of the
Thracians, amongst whom his home was placed even in the time of Homer.
In Scythia an old iron sword served as the symbol of the god, to which
yearly sacrifices of cattle and horses were made, and in earlier times
(as apparently also at Sparta) human victims, selected from prisoners of
war, were offered. Thus Ares developed into the god of war, in which
character he made his way into Greece. This theory may have been nothing
more than an instance of the Greek tendency to assign a northern or
"hyperborean" home to deities in whose character something analogous to
the stormy elements of nature was found. But it appears that the
Thracians and Scythians in historical times (Herodotus i. 59) worshipped
chiefly a war god, and that certain Thracian settlements, formed in
Greece in prehistoric times, left behind them traces of the worship of a
god whom the Greeks called Ares. The story of his imprisonment for
thirteen months by the Aloidae (_Iliad_, v. 385) points to the conquest
of this chthonian destroyer of the fields by the arts of peace,
especially agriculture, of which the grain-fed sons of Aloeus (the
thresher) are the personification.
In Homer Ares is the lover of Aphrodite, the wife of Hephaestus, who
catches them together in a net and holds them up to the ridicule of the
gods. In what appears to be a very early development of her character,
Aphrodite also was a war goddess, known under the name of Areia; and in
Thebes, the most important seat of the worship of Ares, she is his wife,
and bears him Eros and Anteros, Deimos and Phobos, and Harmonia, wife of
Cadmus, the founder of the city (Hesiod, _Theog._ 933). In the legend of
Cadmus and his family Ares plays a prominent part. His worship was not
so widely spread over Greece as that of other gods, although he was
honoured here and there with festivals and sacrifices. Thus, at Sparta,
under the name of Theritas, he was offered young dogs and even human
beings. The Dioscuri were said to have brought his image from Colchis to
Laconia, where it was set up in an old sanctuary on the road from Sparta
to Therapnae. At Athens, he had a temple at the foot of the Areopagus,
with a statue by Alcamenes. It was here, according to the legend, that
he was tried and acquitted by a council of the gods for the murder of
Halirrhothius, who had violated Alcippe, the daughter of Ares by
Agraulos. The figure of Ares appears in various stories of ancient
mythology. Thus, he engages in combat with Heracles on two occasions to
avenge the death of his son Cycnus; once Zeus separates the combatants
by a flash of lightning, but in the second encounter he is severely
wounded by his adversary, who has the active support of Athena; maddened
by jealousy, he changes himself into the boar which slew Adonis, the
favourite of Aphrodite; and stirs up the war between the Lapithae and
Centaurs. His attributes were the spear and the burning torch,
symbolical of the devastation caused by war (in ancient times the
hurling of a torch was the signal for the commencement of hostilities).
The animals sacred to him were the dog and the vulture.
The worship of Ares being less general throughout Greece than that of
the gods of peace, the number of statues of him is small; those of
Ares-Mars, among the Romans, are more frequent. Previous to the 5th
century B.C. he was represented as full-bearded, grim-featured and in
full armour. From that time, apparently under the influence of Athenian
sculptors, he was conceived as the ideal of a youthful warrior, and was
for a time associated with Aphrodite and Eros. He then appears as a
vigorous youth, beardless, with curly hair, broad head and stalwart
shoulders, with helmet and chlamys. In the Villa Ludovisi statue (after
the style of Lysippus) he appears seated, in an attitude of thought; his
arms are laid aside, and Eros peeps out at his feet. In the Borghese
Ares (also taken for Achilles) he is standing, his only armour being the
helmet on his head. He also appears in many other groups, with
Aphrodite, in marble and on engraved gems of Roman times. But before
this grouping had recommended itself to the Romans, with their legend of
Mars and Rhea Silvia, the Greek Ares had again become under Macedonian
influence a bearded, armed and powerful god.
AUTHORITIES.--H.D. Muller, Ares (1848), H.W. Stoll, _Uber die
ursprungliche Bedeutung des A. und der Athene_ (1881); F.A. Voigt,
"Beitrage zur Mythologie des Ares und Athena" in _Leipziger Studien_,
iv. 1881; W.H. Roscher, _Studien zur vergleichenden Mythologie_, i.,
1873; C. Tumpel, _Ares und Aphrodite_ (1880); articles in
Pauly-Wissowa's _Realencyclopadie_, Roscher's _Lexikon der
Mythologie_, and Daremberg and Saglio's _Dictionnaire des Antiquites_
(s.v. MARS); Preller, _Griechische Mythologie_.
ARETAEUS, of Cappadocia, a Greek physician, who lived at Rome in the
second half of the 2nd century A.D. We possess two treatises by him,
each in four books, in the Ionic dialect: _On the Causes and Indications
of Acute and Chronic Diseases, and On their Treatment_. His work was
founded on that of Archigenes; like him, he belonged to the eclectic
school, but did not ignore the theories of the "Pneumatics," who made
the heart the seat of life and of the soul.
Editions by Kuhn (1828), Ermerius (1848). English translations: Wigan
(1723); Moffat (1786); Reynolds (1837); Adams (1856). See Locher,
_Aretaeus aus Kappadocien_ (1847).
ARETAS (Arab. Haritha), the Greek form of a name borne by kings of the
Nabataeans resident at Petra in Arabia, (i) A king in the time of
Antiochus IV. Epiphanes (2 Mace. v. 8). (2) The father-in-law of Herod
Antipas (Jos. _Ant._ xviii. 5. 1, 3), In 2 Cor. xi. 32 he is described
as ruler of Damascus (q.v.) at the time of Paul's conversion. Herod
Antipas had married a daughter of Aretas, but afterwards discarded her
in favour of Herodias. This led to a war with Aretas in which Antipas
was defeated.
An Aretas is mentioned in 1 Macc. xv. 22, but the true reading is
probably Ariarathes (king of Cappadocia). See NABATAEANS.
ARETE (O. Fr. _areste_, Lat. _arista_, ear of corn, fish-bone or spine),
a ridge or sharp edge; a French term used in Switzerland to denote the
sharp bayonet-like edge of a mountain (such as the Matterhorn), that
slopes steeply upward with two precipitous sides meeting in a long
ascending ridge. Hence the word has passed into common use to denote any
sharp mountain edge denuded by frost action above the snowline, where
the consequent angular ridges give the characteristic "house-roof
structure" of these altitudes.
ARETHAS (c. 860-940), Byzantine theological writer and scholar,
archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, was born at Patrae. He was the
author of a Greek commentary on the Apocalypse, avowedly based upon that
of Andrew, his predecessor in the archbishopric. In spite of its
author's modest estimate, Arethas's work is by no means a slavish
compilation; it contains additions from other sources, and especial care
has been taken in verifying the references. His interest was not,
however, confined to theological literature; he annotated the margins of
his classical texts with numerous scholia (many of which are preserved),
and had several MSS. copied at his own expense, amongst them the Codex
Clarkianus of Plato (brought to England from the monastery of St John in
Patmos), and the Dorvillian MS. of Euclid (now at Oxford).
Most divergent opinions have been held as to the time in which Arethas
lived; the reasons for the dates given above will be found succinctly
stated in the article "Aretas," by A. Julicher in Pauly-Wissowa's
_Realencyclopadie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft_ (1896). The
text of the commentary is given in Migne, _Patrologia Graeca_, cvi.;
see also O. Gebhardt and A. Harnack, _Texte und Untersuchungen zur
Geschichte der altchristlichen Litt._ i. pp. 36-46 (1882), and _Vita
Euthymii_ (patriarch of Constantinople, d. 917), ed. C. de Boor
(1888); H. Wace, _Dictionary of Christian Biography_, i.; C.
Krumbacher, _Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur_ (1897); G.
Heinrici in Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopadie_ (1897).
ARETHUSA, in Greek mythology, a nymph who gave her name to a spring in
Elis and to another in the island of Ortygia near Syracuse. According to
Pausanias (v. 7. 2), Alpheus, a mighty hunter, was enamoured of
Arethusa, one of the retinue of Artemis; Arethusa fled to Ortygia, where
she was changed into a spring; Alpheus, in the form of a river, made his
way beneath the sea, and united his waters with those of the spring. In
Ovid (_Metam._ v. 572 foll.), Arethusa, while bathing in the Alpheus,
was seen and pursued by the river god in human form; Artemis changed her
into a spring, which, flowing underground, emerged at Ortygia. In the
earlier form of the legend, it is Artemis, not Arethusa, who is the
object of the god's affections, and escapes by smearing her face with
mire, so that he fails to recognize her (see L.R. Farnell, _Cults of the
Greek States_, ii. p. 428). The probable origin of the story is the part
traditionally taken in the foundation of Syracuse by the Iamidae of
Olympia, who identified the spring Arethusa with their own river
Alpheus, and the nymph with Artemis Alpheiaia, who was worshipped at
Ortygia. The subterranean passage of the Alpheus in the upper part of
its course (confirmed by modern explorers), and the freshness of the
water of Arethusa in spite of its proximity to the sea, led to the
belief that it was the outlet of the river. Further, according to Strabo
(vi. p. 270), during the sacrifice of oxen at Olympia the waters of
Arethusa were disturbed, and a cup thrown into the Alpheus would
reappear in Ortygia. In Virgil (_Ecl_. x. 1) Arethusa is addressed as a
divinity of poetical inspiration, like one of the Muses, who were
themselves originally nymphs of springs.
For Arethusa on Syracusan coins, see B.V. Head, _Historia Numorum_,
pp. 151, 155.
ARETINO, PIETRO (1492-1556), Italian author, was born in 1492 at Arezzo
in Tuscany, from which place he took his name. He is said to have been
the natural son of Luigi Bacci, a gentleman of the town. He received
little education, and lived for some years poor and neglected, picking
up such scraps of information as he could. When very young he was
banished from Arezzo on account of a satirical sonnet which he composed
against indulgences. He went to Perugia, where for some time he worked
as a bookbinder, and continued to distinguish himself by his daring
attacks upon religion. After some years' wandering through parts of
Italy he reached Rome, where his talents, wit and impudence commended
him to the papal court. This favour, however, he lost in 1523 by writing
a set of obscene sonnets, to accompany an equally immoral series of
drawings by the great painter, Giulio Romano. He left Rome and was
received by Giovanni de' Medici, who introduced him at Milan to Francis
I. of France. He gained the good graces of that monarch, and received
handsome presents from him. Shortly after this Aretino attempted to
regain the favour of the pope, but, having come to Rome, he composed a
sonnet against a rival in some low amour, and in return was assaulted
and severely wounded. He could obtain no redress from the pope, and
returned to Giovanni de' Medici. On the death of the latter in December
1526, he withdrew to Venice, where he afterwards continued to reside. He
spent his time here in writing comedies, sonnets, licentious dialogues,
and a few devotional and religious works. He led a profligate life, and
procured funds to satisfy his needs by writing sycophantish letters to
all the nobles and princes with whom he was acquainted. This plan proved
eminently successful, for large sums were given him, apparently from
fear of his satire. So great did Aretino's pride grow, that he styled
himself the "divine," and the "scourge of princes." He died in 1556,
according to some accounts by falling from his chair in a fit of
laughter caused by hearing some indecent story of his sisters. The
reputation of Aretino in his own time rested chiefly on his satirical
sonnets or burlesques; but his comedies, five in number, are now
considered the best of his works. His letters, of which a great number
have been printed, are also commended for their style. The dialogues and
the licentious sonnets have been translated into French, under the title
_Academie des Dames_.
AREZZO (anc. _Arretium_), a town and episcopal see of Tuscany, Italy,
the capital of the province of Arezzo, 54 m. S.E. of Florence by rail.
Pop. (1901) town, 16,780; commune, 46,926. It is an attractive town,
situated on the slope of a hill 840 to 970 ft. above sea-level, in a
fertile district. The walls by which it is surrounded were erected in
1320 by Guido Tarlati di Pietramala, its warlike bishop, who died in
1327, and is buried in the cathedral; they were reconstructed by Cosimo
I. de Medici between 1541 and 1568, on which occasion the bronze statues
of Pallas and the Chimaera, now at Florence, were discovered. The town
itself is fan-shaped, the streets, which contain some fine old houses
with projecting eaves and many towers, radiating from the citadel
(Fortezza), which was constructed in 1502, and dismantled by the French
in 1800. The cathedral, close by, is a fine specimen of Italian Gothic
begun in 1277, but not completed internally until 1511, while the facade
was not begun until 1880. The interior is spacious and contains some
fine 14th-century sculptures, those of the high altar, which contains
the tomb of St Donatus, the patron saint of Arezzo, being the best; very
good stained-glass windows of the beginning of the 16th century by
Guillaume de Marcillat, and some terra-cotta reliefs by Andrea della
Robbia. Another fine church is S. Maria della Pieve, having a campanile
and a facade of 1216, the latter with three open colonnades running for
its whole length above the doors. The interior was restored to its
original style in 1863-1865. The Romanesque choir and apse belong to the
11th century, the rest of the interior is contemporary with the facade.
In the square behind the church is a colonnade designed by Vasari. In
the cloisters of S. Bernardo, on the site of the ancient amphitheatre,
is a remarkable view of medieval Rome. S. Francesco contains famous
frescoes by Piero de' Franceschi, representing scenes from the legend of
the Holy Cross, and others by Spinello Aretino, a pupil of Giotto. There
are several other frescoes by the latter in S. Domenico. Among the
Renaissance buildings the churches of S. Maria delle Grazie and the
Santissima Annunziata may be noted. The collection of majolica in the
municipal museum is very fine, and so is that of the Funghini family. In
the middle ages Arezzo was generally on the Ghibelline side; it
succumbed to Florence in 1289 at the battle of Campaldino, but at the
end of the century recovered its strength under the Tarlati family. In
1336 it became subject to Florence for six years, and after intestine
struggles, finally came under her rule in 1384. Among the natives of
Arezzo the most famous are the Benedictine monk Guido of Arezzo, the
inventor of the modern system of musical notation (died _c_. 1050), the
poet Petrarch, Pietro Aretino, the satirist (1492-1556), and Vasari,
famous for his lives of Italian painters. The town never possessed a
distinct school of artists.
See C. Signorini, _Arezzo, Citta y Provincia, Guida illustrata_
(Arezzo,1904). (T. As,)
ARGALI, the Tatar name of the great wild sheep, _Ovis ammon_, of the
Altai and other parts of Siberia. Standing as high as a large donkey,
the argali is the finest of all the wild sheep, the horns of the rams,
although of inferior length, being more massive than those of _Ovis
poli_ of the Pamirs. There are several local races of argali, among
which _O. ammon hodgsoni_ of Ladak and Tibet is one of the best known.
There are likewise several nearly related central Asian species, such as
_O. sairensis_ and _O. littledalei_. (See SHEEP.)
ARGAO, a town on the east coast of Cebu, Philippine Islands, 36 m.
S.S.W. of the town of Cebu. Pop. (1903) 35,448. Large quantities of a
superior quality of cacao are produced in the vicinity, and rice and
Indian corn are other important products. A limited amount of cotton is
raised and woven into cloth. The language is Cebu-Visayan. Argao was
founded in 1608.
ARGAUM, a village of British India in the Akola district of the Central
Provinces, 32 m. north of Akola. The village is memorable for an action
which took place on the 28th of November 1803 between the British army,
commanded by Major-General Wellesley (afterwards duke of Wellington),
and the Mahrattas under Sindhia and the raja of Berar, in which the
latter were defeated with great loss. A medal struck in England in 1851
commemorates the victory.
ARGEI, the name given by the ancient Romans to a number of rush puppets
(24 or 27 according to the reading of Varro, _de Ling_. _lat_. vii. 44,
or 30 according to Dionysius i. 38) resembling men tied hand and foot,
which were taken down to the ancient bridge over the Tiber (_pans
sublicius_) on the 14th of May by the pontifices and magistrates, with
the flaminica Dialis in mourning guise, and there thrown into the Tiber
by the Vestal virgins. There were also in various parts of the four
Servian regions of the city a number of _sacella Argeorum_ (chapels),
round which a procession seems to have gone on the 17th of March (Varro,
_L.L._ v. 46-54; Jordan, _Rom. Topogr._ vol. ii. 603), and it has been
conjectured that the puppets were kept in these chapels until the time
came for them to be cast into the river. The Romans had no historical
explanation of these curious rites, and neither the theories of their
scholars nor the beliefs of the common people, who fancied that the
puppets were substitutes for old men who used at one time to be
sacrificed to the river, are worth serious consideration. Recently two
explanations have been given: (1) that of W. Mannhardt, who by comparing
numerous examples of similar customs among other European peoples
arrived at the conclusion that the rite was of extreme antiquity and of
dramatic rather than sacrificial character, and that its object was
possibly to procure rain; (2) that of Wissowa, who refuses to date it
farther back than the latter half of the 3rd century B.C., and sees in
it the yearly representation of an original sacrifice of twenty-seven
captive Greeks (taking Argei as a Latin form of [Greek: Argeioi]) by
drowning in the Tiber. This second theory is, however, not borne out by
any Roman historical record.
See Wissowa's arguments in the article "Argei" in his edition of
Pauly's _Realencydopadie_. For the other view see W. Mannhardt,
_Antike Wald und Feldkulte_, 178 foll.; W.W. Fowler, _Roman
Festivals_, pp. 111 foll. (W. W. F.*)
ARGELANDER, FRIEDRICH WILHELM AUGUST (1799-1875), German astronomer, was
born at Memel on the 22nd of March 1799. He studied at the university of
Konigsberg, and was attracted to astronomy by F.W. Bessel, whose
assistant he became (October 1, 1820). His treatise on the path of the
great comet of 1811 appeared in 1822; he was, in 1823, entrusted with
the direction of the observatory at Abo; and he exchanged it for a
similar charge at Helsingfors in 1832. His admirable investigation of
the sun's motion in space was published in 1837; and in the same year he
was appointed professor of astronomy in the university of Bonn, where he
died on the 17th of February 1875. He also published _Observations
Astronomicae Aboae Factae_ (3 vols., 1830-1832); _DLX Stellarum Fixarum
Positiones Mediae_ (1835); and the first seven volumes of _Astronomische
Beobachtungen auf der Sternwarte zu Benn_ (1846-1869), containing his
observations of northern and southern star-zones, and his great
_Durchmusterung_ (vols, iii,-v., 1859-1862) of 324,198 stars, from the
north pole to -2 deg. Dec. The corresponding atlas was issued in 1863.
His observations (begun in 1838) and discussions of variable stars were
embodied in vol. vii. of the same series.
See E. Schonfeld in _Vierteljahrsschrift der Astronomischen
Gesellschaft_, x. pp. 150-178.
ARGENS, JEAN BAPTISTE DE BOYER, MARQUIS D' (1704-1771), was born at Aix
in Provence on the 24th of June 1704. He entered the army at the age of
fifteen, and after a dissipated and adventurous youth settled for a time
at Amsterdam, where he wrote some historical compilations and began his
more famous _Lettres juives_ (The Hague, 6 vols., 1738-1742), _Lettres
chinoises_ (The Hague, 6 vols., 1730-1472), and _Lettres cabalistiques_
(2nd ed., 7 vols., 1769); also the _Memoires secrets de la republique
des lettres_ (7 vols., 1743-1478), afterwards revised and augmented as
_Histoire de l'esprit humain_ (Berlin, 14 vols., 1765-1768). He was
invited by Prince Frederick (afterwards Frederick the Great) to Potsdam,
and received high honours at court; but Frederick was bitterly offended
by his marrying a Berlin actress, Mlle Cochois. Argens returned to
France in 1769, and died near Toulon on the 11th of January 1771.
ARGENSOLA, LUPERCIO LEONARDO DE (1559-1613), Spanish dramatist and poet,
was baptized at Barbastro on the 14th of December 1559. He was educated
at the universities of Huesca and Saragossa, becoming secretary to the
duke de Villahermosa in 1585. He was appointed historiographer of Aragon
in 1599, and in 1610 accompanied the count de Lemos to Naples, where he
died in March 1613. His tragedies--_Filis, Isabela_ and _Alejandra_--are
said by Cervantes to have "filled all who heard them with admiration,
delight and interest"; _Filis_ is lost, and _Isabela_ and _Alejandra_,
which were not printed till 1772, are ponderous imitations of Seneca.
Argensola's poems were published with those of his brother in 1634; they
consist of excellent translations from the Latin poets, and of original
satires. His "echoing sonnets"--such as _Despues que al mundo el rey
divino vino_--lend themselves to parody; but his diction is singularly
pure.
His brother, BARTOLOME LEONARDO DE ARGENSOLA (1562-1631), Spanish poet
and historian, was baptized at Barbastro on the 26th of August 1562,
studied at Huesca, took orders, and was presented to the rectory of
Villahermosa in 1588. He was attached to the suite of the count de
Lemos, viceroy of Naples, in 1610, and succeeded his brother as
historiographer of Aragon in 1613. He died at Saragossa on the 4th of
February 1631. His principal prose works are the _Conquista de las Islas
Molucas_ (1609), and a supplement to Zurita's _Anales de Aragon_, which
was published in 1630. His poems (1634), like those of his elder
brother, are admirably finished examples of pungent wit. His
commentaries on contemporary events, and his _Alteraciones populares_,
dealing with a Saragossa rising in 1591, are lost. An interesting life
of this writer by Father Miguel Mir precedes a reprint of the _Conquista
de las Islas Molucas_, issued at Saragossa in 1891.
ARGENSON, the name, derived from an old hamlet situated in what is now
the department of Indre-et-Loire, of a French family which produced some
prominent statesmen, soldiers and men of letters.
RENE DE VOYER, seigneur d'Argenson (1596-1651), French statesman, was
born on the 21st of November 1596. He was a lawyer by profession, and
became successively _avocat_, councillor at the parlement of Paris,
_maitre des requetes_, and councillor of state. Cardinal Richelieu
entrusted him with several missions as inspector and intendant of the
forces. In 1623 he was appointed intendant of justice, police and
finance in Auvergne, and in 1632 held similar office in Limousin, where
he remained till 1637. After the death of Louis XIII. (1643) he retained
his administrative posts, was intendant of the forces at Toulon (1646),
commissary of the king at the estates of Languedoc (1647), and intendant
of Guienne (1648), and showed great capacity in defending the authority
of the crown against the rebels of the Fronde. After his wife's death he
took orders (February 1651), but did not cease to take part in affairs
of state. In 1651 he was appointed by Mazarin ambassador at Venice,
where he died on the 14th of July 1651.
His son, MARC RENE DE VOYER, comte d'Argenson (1623-1700), was born at
Blois on the 13th of December 1623. He also was a lawyer, being
councillor at the parlement of Rouen (1642) and _maitre des requetes_.
He attended his father in all his duties and succeeded him at the
embassy at Venice. In 1655 he returned from his embassy, ruined, and
lost favour with Mazarin, who removed him from his office of councillor
of state. He then gave up public affairs and retired to his estates,
where he occupied himself with good works. In September 1656 he entered
the Company of the Holy Sacrament, a secret society for the diffusion of
the Catholic religion. Besides writing the _Annals_ of the society, he
composed many pious works, which were destroyed in the fire at the
Louvre in 1871. Some of his correspondence with the once famous
letter-writer, Jean Louis Guez de Balzac (1597-1654), has been
published. He died in May 1700, leaving two sons, Marc Rene (see below),
and Francois Elie (1656-1728), who became archbishop of Bordeaux.
See Fr. Rabbe, "Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement," in the _Revue
historique_ (Nov. 1899); Beaucher-Filleau, _Les Annales de la
compagnie_ du Saint-Sacrement (Paris, 1900); R. Allier, _La Cobalt des
devots_ (Paris, 1902).
MARC RENE DE VOYER, marquis de Paulmy and marquis d'Argenson
(1652-1721), son of the preceding, was born at Venice on the 4th of
November 1652. He became _avocat_ in 1669, and lieutenant-general in the
_senechaussee_ of Angouleme (1679). After the death of Colbert, who
disliked his family, he went to Paris and married Marguerite Lefevre de
Caomartin, a kinswoman of the comptroller-general Pontchartrain. This
was the beginning of his fortunes. He became successively _maitre des
requetes_ (1694), member of the _conseil des prises_ (prize court)
(1695), _procureur-general_ of the commission of inquest into false
titles of nobility (1696), and finally lieutenant-general of police
(1697). This last office, which had previously been filled by N.G. de la
Reynie, was very important. It not only gave him the control of the
police, but also the supervision of the corporations, printing press,
and provisioning of Paris. All contraventions of the police regulations
came under his jurisdiction, and his authority was arbitrary and
absolute. Fortunately, he had, in Saint-Simon's phrase, "a nice
discernment as to the degree of rigour or leniency required for every
case that came before him, being ever inclined to the mildest measures,
but possessed of the faculty of making the most innocent tremble before
him; courageous, bold, audacious in quelling _emeutes_, and consequently
the master of the people." During the twenty-one years that he exercised
this office he was a party to every private and state secret; in fact,
he had a share in every event of any importance in the history of Paris.
He was the familiar friend of the king, who delighted in scandalous
police reports; he was patronized by the duke of Orleans; he was
supported by the Jesuits at court; and he was feared by all. He
organized the supply of food in Paris during the severe winter of 1709,
and endeavoured, but with little success, to run to earth the libellers
of the government. He directed the destruction of the Jansenist
monastery of Port Royal (1709), a proceeding which provoked many
protests and pamphlets. Under the regency, the Chambre de Justice,
assembled to inquire into the malpractices of the financiers, suspected
d'Argenson and arrested his clerks, but dared not lay the blame on him.
On the 28th of January 1718 he voluntarily resigned the office of
lieutenant-general of police for those of keeper of the seals--in the
place of the chancellor d'Aguesseau--and president of the council of
finance. He was appointed by the regent to suppress the resistance of
the parlements and to reorganize the finances, and was in great measure
responsible for permitting John Law to apply his financial system,
though he soon quarrelled with Law and intrigued to bring about his
downfall. The regent threw the blame for the outcome of Law's schemes on
d'Argenson, who was forced to resign his position in the council of
finance (January 1720). By way of compensation he was created
inspector-general of the police of the whole kingdom, but had to resign
his office of keeper of the seals (June 1720). He died on the 8th of May
1721, the people of Paris throwing taunts and stones at his coffin and
accusing him of having ruined the kingdom. In 1716 he had been created
an honorary member of the Academie des Sciences and, in 1718, a member
of the French Academy.
See the contemporary memoirs, especially those of Saint-Simon (de
Boislisle's ed.), Dangeau and Math. Marais; Barbier's _Journal_;
"Correspondance administrative sous Louis XIV." in _Coll. des doc.
ined. sur I'histoire de France_, edited by G.B. Depping (1850-1855);
_Correspondance des controleurs-generaux des finances_, pub. by de
Bois-lisle (1873-1900); _Correspondance de M. de Marville avec M. de
Maurepas_ (1896-1897); _Rapports de police de Rene d'Argenson_, pub.
by P. Cottin (Paris, undated); P. Clement, _La police sous Louis XIV_.
(1873).
RENE LOUIS DE VOYER DE PAULMY, marquis d'Argenson (1694-1757), eldest
son of the preceding, was a lawyer, and held successively the posts of
councillor at the parlement (1716), _maitre des requetes_ (1718),
councillor of state (1719), and intendant of justice, police and finance
in Hainaut. During his five years' tenure of the last office he was
mainly employed in provisioning the troops, who were suffering from the
economic confusion resulting from Law's system. He returned to court in
1724 to exercise his functions as councillor of state. At that time he
had the reputation of being a conscientious man, but ill adapted to
intrigue, and was nicknamed "la bete." He entered into relations with
the philosophers, and was won over to the ideas of reform. He was the
friend of Voltaire, who had been a fellow-student of his at the Jesuit
college Louis-le-grand, and frequented the Club de l'Entresol, the
history of which he wrote in his memoirs. It was then that he prepared
his _Considerations sur le gouvernement de la France_, which was
published posthumously by his son. He was also the friend and counsellor
of the minister G.L. de Chauvelin. In May 1744 he was appointed member
of the council of finance, and in November of the same year the king
chose him as secretary of state for foreign affairs, his brother, the
comte d'Argenson (see below), being at the same time secretary of state
for war. France was at that time engaged in the War of the Austrian
Succession, and the government had been placed by Louis XV. virtually in
the hands of the two brothers. The marquis d'Argenson endeavoured to
reform the system of international relations. He dreamed of a "European
Republic," and wished to establish arbitration between nations in
pursuance of the ideas of his friend the abbe de Saint-Pierre. But he
failed to realize any part of his projects. The generals negotiated in
opposition to his instructions; his colleagues laid the blame on him;
the intrigues of the courtiers passed unnoticed by him; whilst the
secret diplomacy of the king neutralized his initiative. He concluded
the marriage of the dauphin to the daughter of Augustus III., king of
Poland, but was unable to prevent the election of the grand-duke of
Tuscany as emperor in 1745. On the both of January 1747 the king thanked
him for his services. He then retired into private life, eschewed the
court, associated with Voltaire, Condillac and d'Alembert, and spent his
declining years in working at the Academic des Inscriptions, of which he
was appointed president by the king in 1747, and revising his
_Memoires_. Voltaire, in one of his letters, declared him to be "the
best citizen that had ever tasted the ministry." He died on the 26th of
January 1757.
He left a large number of manuscript works, of which his son, Antoine
Rene (1722-1787), known as the marquis de Paulmy, published the
_Considerations sur le gouvernement de France_ (Amsterdam, 1764) and
_Essais dans le gout de ceux de Montaigne_ (_ib._ 1785). The latter,
which contains many useful biographical notes and portraits of his
contemporaries, was republished in 1787 as _Loisirs d'un ministre
d'etat_. Argenson's most important work, however, is his _Memoires_,
covering in great detail the years 1725 to 1756, with an introductory
part giving his recollections since the year 1696. They are, as they
were intended to be, valuable "materials for the history of his time."
There are two important editions, the first, with some letters, not
elsewhere published, by the marquis d'Argenson, his great-grand-nephew
(5 vols., Paris, 1857 et seq.); the second, more correct, but less
complete, published by J.B. Rathery, for the Societe de l'Histoire de
France (9 vols., Paris, 1859 et seq.). The other works of the marquis
d'Argenson, in MS., were destroyed in the fire at the Louvre library in
1871.
See Sainte-Beuve, _Causeries du lundi_ (vols. xii. and xiv.);
Levasseur. "Le Marquis d'Argenson" in the _Memoires de l'Academie des
Sciences Morales et Politiques_ (vol. lxxxvii., 1868); and,
especially, E. Zevort, _Le Marquis d'Argenson et le ministere des
affaires etrangeres_ (Paris, 1880). See also G. de R. de Flassan,
_Histoire de la diplomatie francaise_ (2nd ed., 1811); Voltaire,
_Siecle de Louis XV_.; E. Boutaric, _Correspondance secrete inedite de
Louis XV_. (1866); E. Champion, "Le Marquis d'Argenson," in the
_Revolution francaise_ (vol. xxxvi., 1899); A. Alem, _D'Argenson
economiste_ (Paris, 1899); Arthur Ogle, _The Marquis d'Argenson_
(1893).
MARC PIEERE DE VOYER DE PAULMY, comte d'Argenson (1696-1764), younger
brother of the preceding, was born on the 16th of August 1696. Following
the family tradition he studied law and was councillor at the parlement
of Paris. He succeeded his father as lieutenant-general of police in
Paris, but held the post only five months (January 26 to June 30, 1720).
He then received the office of intendant of Tours, and resumed the
lieutenancy of police in 1722. On the 2nd of January 1724 he was
appointed councillor of state. He gained the confidence of the regent
Orleans, administering his fortune and living with his son till 1737.
During this period he opened his salon to the philosophers Chaulieu, la
Fare and Voltaire, and collaborated in the legislative labours of the
chancellor d'Aguesseau. In March 1737 d'Argenson was appointed director
of the censorship of books, in which post he showed sufficiently liberal
views to gain the approval of writers--a rare thing in the reign of
Louis XV. He only retained this post for a year. He became president of
the grand council (November 1738), intendant of the _generalite_ of
Paris (August 1740), was admitted to the king's council (August 1742),
and in January 1743 was appointed secretary of state for war in
succession to the baron de Breteuil. As minister for war he had a heavy
task; the French armies engaged in the War of the Austrian Succession
were disorganized, and the retreat from Prague had produced a disastrous
effect. After consulting with Marshal Saxe, he began the reform of the
new armies. To assist recruiting, he revived the old institution of
local militias, which, however, did not come up to his expectation. In
the spring of 1744 three armies were able to resume the offensive in the
Netherlands, Germany and Italy, and in the following year France won the
battle of Fontenoy, at which d'Argenson was present. After the peace in
1748 he occupied himself with the important work of recasting the French
army on the model of the Prussian. He unified the types of cannon,
grouped the grenadiers into separate regiments, and founded the Ecole
Militaire for the training of officers (1751). An edict of the 1st of
November 1751 granted patents of nobility to all who had the rank of
general officer. In addition to his duties as minister of war he had the
supervision of the printing, postal administration and general
administration of Paris. He was responsible for the arrangement of the
promenade of the Champs Elysees and for the plan of the present Place de
la Concorde. He was exceedingly popular, and, although the court
favourites hated him, he had the support of the king. Nevertheless,
after the attempt of R.F. Damiens to assassinate the king, Louis
abandoned d'Argenson to the machinations of the court favourites and
dismissed both him and his colleague, J.B. de Machault d'Arnouville
(February 1757). D'Argenson was exiled to his estates at Les Ormes near
Saumur, but he had previously found posts for his brother, the marquis
d'Argenson, as minister of foreign affairs, for his son Marc Rene as
master of the horse, and for his nephew Marc Antoine Rene as commissary
of war. From the time of his exile he lived in the society of savants
and philosophers. He had been elected member of the Academie des
Inscriptions in 1749. Diderot and d'Alembert dedicated the
_Encyclopedie_ to him, and Voltaire, C.J.F. Henault, and J.F. Marmontel
openly visited him in his exile. After the death of Madame de Pompadour
he obtained permission to return to Paris, and died a few days after his
return, on the 22nd of August 1764.
MARC ANTOINE RENE DE VOYER, marquis de Paulmy d'Argenson (1722-1787),
nephew of the preceding and son of Rene Louis, was born at Valenciennes
on the 22nd of November 1722. Appointed councillor at the parlement
(1744), and _maitre des requetes_ (1747), he was associated with his
father in the ministry of foreign affairs and with his uncle in the
ministry of war, and, in recognition of this experience, was
commissioned to inspect the troops and fortifications and sent on
embassy to Switzerland (1748). In 1751 his uncle recognized him as his
deputy and made over to him the reversion of the secretariate of war. He
then worked on the great reform of the army, and after the dismissal of
his uncle became minister of war (February 1757). But the outbreak of
the Seven Years' War made this post exceedingly difficult to hold, and
he resigned on the 23rd of March 1758. He was ambassador to Poland from
1762 to 1764, but failed to procure the nomination of the French
candidate to that throne. From 1766 to 1770 he was ambassador at Venice.
Failing to obtain the embassy at Rome, he retired at the age of
forty-eight and devoted the rest of his life to indulging his tastes for
history and biography. He brought together a large library, very rich in
French poetry and romance, and undertook various publications with the
help of his librarian. In 1775 he began his _Bibliotheque universelle
des romans_, of which forty volumes appeared within three years, but
subsequently handed over the publication to other editors. His great
work, _Melanges tires d'une grande bibliotheque_, was published in 65
volumes (Paris, 1779-1788). At his death he forbade his library to be
dispersed: it was bought by the comte d'Artois (afterwards Charles X.)
and formed the nucleus of the present Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal at Paris
(the marquis having been governor of the arsenal). He died on the 13th
of August 1787.
See contemporary memoirs; also Dacier's eulogium in the _Academie des
Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres_ (November 1788); and Sainte-Beuve,
_Causeries du lundi_ (vol. xii.).
MARC RENE, marquis de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson (1721-1782), known as
the marquis de Voyer, son of Marc Pierre de Voyer, the minister of war,
was born in Paris on the 20th of September 1721. He served in the army
of Italy and the army of Flanders in the War of the Austrian Succession,
and was _mestre de camp_ (proprietary colonel) of the regiment of Berry
cavalry at the battle of Fontenoy (May 10, 1745), where he was promoted
brigadier. He was associated with his father in his work of reorganizing
the army, was made inspector of cavalry and dragoons (1749), and
succeeded his father as master of the horse (1752). He introduced
English horses into France. He was lieutenant-general of Upper Alsace in
1753 and governor of Vincennes in 1754, and served afterwards under
Soubise in the Seven Years' War. He was wounded at Crefeld in 1758, and
was promoted lieutenant-general (1759). He followed his father into
exile at Les Ormes (1763), and in the last years of the reign of Louis
XV. sided with the malcontents headed by Choiseul; but on the rupture
with England he rejoined the service of the king (1775). He was
appointed inspector of the sea-board, and put the roadstead of the
island of Aix in a state of defence during the American War of
Independence. He caught marsh-fever while attempting to drain the
marshes of Rochefort, and died at Les Ormes on the 18th of September
1782.
MARC RENE MARIE DE VOYER DE PAULMY, marquis d'Argenson (1771-1842), son
of the preceding, was born in Paris in September 1771. He was brought up
by his father's cousin, the marquis de Paulmy, governor of the arsenal,
and was made lieutenant of dragoons in 1789. Although, at the age of
eighteen, he had succeeded to several estates and a large fortune, he
embraced the revolutionary cause, joining the army of the North as
Lafayette's aide-de-camp and remaining with it even after Lafayette's
defection. Leaving France to take one of his sisters to England, he was
denounced on his return as a royalist conspirator, on the charge of
having in his possession portraits of the royal family. He then went to
live in Touraine, married the widow of Prince Victor de Broglie, and
saved her and her children from proscription. He introduced new
agricultural instruments and processes on his estates, and installed
machinery imported from England in his ironworks in Alsace. He was an
enthusiastic adherent of Napoleon, by whom he was appointed in May 1809
prefect of Deux-Nethes. He helped to repel the English invasion of the
islands of South Beveland and Walcheren (August 1809), and afterwards
directed the defence works of Antwerp, but resigned this post (March
1813) in consequence of the complaints of the inhabitants and the
exacting demands of the emperor. In May 1814 he refused the prefecture
of Marseilles offered to him by the Bourbons, but was elected deputy
from Belfort in 1815 during the Hundred Days. On the 5th of July 1815 he
took part in the declaration protesting against any tampering with the
immutable rights of the nation. He was a member of the _Chambre
introuvable_, where he became one of the orators of the democratic
party. He was one of the founders of the journal _Le censeur europeen_
and of the _Club de la liberte de la presse_, and was an uncompromising
opponent of reaction. Not re-elected in 1824 on account of his liberal
ideas, he returned to the chamber under the Martignac ministry (1828),
and resolutely persisted in his championship of the liberty of the press
and of public worship. On the death of his wife he voluntarily renounced
his mandate (July 1829), and hailed the revolution of 1830 with great
satisfaction. On the 3rd of November 1830 he was elected to the chamber
as deputy from Chatellerault, and took the oath, adding, however, the
reservation "subject to the progress of the public reason." His
independent attitude resulted in his defeat in the following year at the
Chatellerault election, but he was returned for Strassburg. He wished
the incidence of the taxes to be arranged according to social condition,
and advocated a single tax proportionate to income like the English
income tax. He harped incessantly on this idea in his speeches and
articles (see his letters in _La Tribune_ of June 20, 1832). Although he
was a proprietor of ironworks he opposed the protectionist laws, which
he considered injurious to the workmen. He became the mouthpiece of the
advanced ideas; subsidized the opposition newspapers, especially the
_National_; received into his house F.M. Buonarroti, who in 1796 had
been implicated in the conspiracy of "Gracchus" Babeuf (q.v.); and
became a member of the committee of the Society of the Rights of Man. He
was even sued in the courts for a pamphlet called _Boutade d'un homme
riche a sentiments populaires_, and delivered a speech to the jury in
which he displayed very daring social theories. But he gradually grew
discouraged and retired from public affairs, refusing even municipal
office, and living in seclusion at La Grange in the forest of Guerche,
where he devoted his inventive faculty to devising agricultural
improvements. He subsequently returned to Paris, where he died on the
1st of August 1842.
CHARLES MARC RENE DE VOYER, marquis d'Argenson (1796-1862), son of the
preceding, was born at Boulogne-sur-Spine on the 20th of April 1796. He
concerned himself little with politics. He was, however, a member of the
council-general of Vienne for six years, but was expelled from it in
1840 in consequence of his advanced ideas and his relations with the
Opposition. In 1848 he was elected deputy from Vienne to the Constituent
Assembly by 12,000 votes. He was an active member of the Archaeological
Society of Touraine and the Society of Antiquaries of the West, and
wrote learned works for these bodies. He collaborated in preparing the
archives of the scientific congress at Tours in 1847; brought out two
editions of the MSS. of his great-grand-uncle, the minister of foreign
affairs under Louis XV., under the title _Memoires du marquis
d'Argenson_, one in 1825, and the other, in 5 vols., in 1857-1858; and
published _Discours et opinions de mon pere, M. Voyer d'Argenson_ (2
vols., 1845). He died on the 31st of July, 1862.
ARGENTAN, a town of north-western France, capital of an arrondissement
in the department of Orne, 27 m. N.N.W. of Alencon on the railway from
Le Mans to Caen. Pop. (1906) 5072. It is situated on the slope of a hill
on the right bank of the Orne at its confluence with the Ure. The town
has remains of old fortifications, among them the Tour Marguerite, and a
chateau, now used as a law-court, dating from the 15th century. The
church of St Germain (15th, 16th and 17th centuries) has several
features of architectural beauty, notably the sculptured northern
portal, and the central and western towers. The church of St Martin,
dating from the 15th century, has good stained glass. The handsome
modern town-hall contains among other institutions the tribunal of
commerce, the museum and the library. Argentan is the seat of a
sub-prefect, has a tribunal of first instance and a communal college.
Leather-working and the manufacture of stained glass are leading
industries. There are quarries of limestone in the vicinity. Argentan
was a viscounty from the 11th century onwards; it was often taken and
pillaged. During the Religious Wars it remained attached to the Catholic
party. Francois Eudes de Mezeray, the historian, was born near the town,
and a monument has been erected to his memory.
ARGENTEUIL, a town of northern France in the department of
Seine-et-Oise, on the Seine, 5 m. N.W. of the fortifications of Paris by
the railway from Paris to Mantes. Pop. (1906) 17,330. Argenteuil grew up
round a monastery, which, dating from A.D. 656, was by Charlemagne
changed into a nunnery; it was afterwards famous for its connexion with
Heloise (see ABELARD), and on her expulsion in 1129 was again turned
into a monastery. Asparagus, figs, and wine of medium quality are grown
in the district; and heavy iron goods, chemical products, clocks and
plaster are among the manufactures.
ARGENTINA, or the ARGENTINE REPUBLIC (officially, _Republica
Argentina_), a country occupying the greater part of the southern
extremity of South America. It is of wedge shape, extending from 21 deg.
55' S. to the most southerly point of the island of Tierra del Fuego in
55 deg. 2' 30" S., while its extremes of longitude are 53 deg. 40' on
the Brazilian frontier and 73 deg. 17' 30" W. on the Chilean frontier.
Its length from north to south is 2285 statute miles, and its greatest
width about 930 m. It is the second largest political division of the
continent, having an area of 1,083,596 sq. m. (Gotha measurement). It is
bounded N. by Bolivia and Paraguay, E. by Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay and
the Atlantic, W. by Chile, and S. by the converging lines of the
Atlantic and Chile.
_Boundaries._--At different times Argentina has been engaged in disputes
over boundary lines with every one of her neighbours, that with Chile
being only settled in 1902. Beginning at the estuary of the Rio de la
Plata, the boundary line ascends the Uruguay river, on the eastern side
of the strategically important island of Martin Garcia, to the mouth of
the Pequiry, thence under the award of President Grover Cleveland in
1894 up that small river to its source and in a direct line to the
source of the Santo Antonio, a small tributary of the Iguassu, thence
down the Santo Antonio and Iguassu to the upper Parana, which forms the
southern boundary of Paraguay. From the confluence of the upper Parana
and Paraguay the line ascends the latter to the mouth of the Pilcomayo,
which river, under the award of President R.B. Hayes in 1878, forms the
boundary between Argentina and Paraguay from the Paraguay river
north-west to the Bolivian frontier. In accordance with the
Argentine-Bolivian treaty of 1889 the boundary line between these
republics continues up the Pilcomayo to the 22nd parallel, thence west
to the Tarija river, which it follows down to the Bermejo, thence up the
latter to its source, and westerly through the Quiaca ravine and across
to a point on the San Juan river opposite Esmoraca. From this point it
ascends the San Juan south and west to the Cerro de Granadas, and thence
south-west to Cerro Incahuasi and Cerro Zapalegui on the Chilean
frontier. The boundary with Chile, extending across more than 32 deg.
lat., had been the cause of disputes for many years, which at times led
to costly preparations for war. The debts of the two nations resulted
largely from this one cause. In 1881 a treaty was signed which provided
that the boundary line should follow the highest crests of the Andes
forming the watershed as far south as the 52nd parallel, thence east to
the 70th meridian and south-east to Cape Dungeness at the eastern
entrance to the Straits of Magellan. Crossing the Straits the line
should follow the meridian of 68 deg. 44', south to Beagle Channel, and
thence east to the Atlantic, giving Argentina the eastern part of the
Tierra del Fuego and Staten Island. By this agreement Argentina was
confirmed in the possession of the greater part of Patagonia, while
Chile gained control of the Straits of Magellan, much adjacent territory
on the north, the larger part of Tierra del Fuego and all the
neighbouring islands south and west.
When the attempt was made to mark this boundary the commissioners were
unable to agree on a line across the Puna de Atacama in the north, where
parallel ranges enclosing a high arid plateau without any clearly
defined drainage to the Atlantic or Pacific, gave an opportunity for
conflicting claims. In the south the broken character of the Cordillera,
pierced in places by large rivers flowing into the Pacific and having
their upper drainage basins on the eastern side of the line of highest
crests, gave rise to unforeseen and very difficult questions. Finally,
under a convention of the 17th of April 1896, these conflicting claims
were submitted to arbitration. In 1899 a mixed commission with Hon. W.I.
Buchanan, United States minister at Buenos Aires, serving as arbitrator,
reached a decision on the Atacama line north of 26 deg. 52' 45" S. lat.,
which was a compromise though it gave the greater part of the territory
to Argentina. The line starts at the intersection of the 23rd parallel
with the 67th meridian and runs south-westerly and southerly to the
mountain and volcano summits of Rincon, Socompa, Llullaillaco, Azufre,
Aguas Blancas and Sierra Nevada, thence to the initial point of the
British award. (See _Geogr. Jour._, 1899, xiv. 322-323.) The line south
of 26 deg. 52' 45" S. lat. had been located by the commissioners of the
two republics with the exception of four sections. These were referred
to the arbitration of Queen Victoria, and, after a careful survey under
the direction of Sir Thomas H. Holdich, the award was rendered by King
Edward VII. in 1902. (See _Geogr. Jour._, 1903, xxi. 45-50.) In the
first section the line starts from a pillar erected in the San Francisco
pass, about 26 deg. 50' S. lat., and follows the water-parting southward
to the highest peak of the Tres Cruces mountains in 27 deg. 0' 45" S.
lat., 68 deg. 49' 5" W. long. In the second, the line runs from 40 deg.
2' S. lat., 71 deg. 40' 36" W. long., along the water-parting to the
southern termination of the Cerro Perihueico in the valley of the Huahum
river, thence across that river, 71 deg. 40' 36" W. long., and along the
water-parting around the upper basin of the Huahum to a junction with
the line previously determined. In the third and longest section, the
line starts from a pillar erected in the Perez Rosales pass, near Lake
Nahuel-Huapi, and follows the water-parting southward to the highest
point of Mt. Tronador, and thence in a very tortuous course along local
water-partings and across the Chilean rivers Manso, Puelo, Fetaleufu,
Palena, Pico and Aisen, and the lakes Buenos Aires, Pueyrredon and San
Martin, to avoid the inclusion of Argentine settlements within Chilean
territory, to the Cerro Fitzroy and continental water-parting north-west
of Lake Viedma, between 49 deg. and 50 deg. S. lat. The northern half of
this line does not run far from the 72nd meridian, except in 44 deg. 30'
S. where it turns eastward nearly a degree to include the upper valley
of the Frias river in Chilean territory, but south of the 49th parallel
it curves westward to give Argentina sole possession of lakes Viedma and
Argentino. The fourth section, which was made particularly difficult of
solution by the extension inland of the Pacific coast inlets and sounds
and by the Chilean colonies located there, was adjusted by running the
line eastward from the point of divergence in 50 deg. 50' S. lat. along
the Sierra Baguales, thence south and south-east to the 52nd parallel,
crossing several streams and following the crests of the Cerro Cazador.
The Chilean settlement of Ultima Esperanza (Last Hope), over which there
had been much controversy, remains under Chilean jurisdiction.