[1] _L'Harmonie universelle_ (Paris, 1636), livre v. prop. iv. pp.
228-229.
EUONYMUS, in botany, a genus of deciduous or evergreen shrubs or small
trees, widely distributed in the north temperate zone, and represented
in Britain by _E. europaeus_, the spindle tree, so called from its hard
tough wood being formerly used for spindles. It is a shrub or small tree
growing in copses or hedges, with a grey smooth bark, four-angled green
twigs, opposite leaves and loose clusters of small greenish-white
flowers. The ripe fruit is a pale crimson colour and splits into four
lobes exposing the bright orange-coloured seed. _E. japonicus_ is a
hardy evergreen shrub, often variegated and well known in gardens. The
Greek name [Greek: euonymos], of good name, lucky, is probably a
euphemism; the flowering was said to foretell plague.
EUPALINUS, of Megara, a Greek architect, who constructed for the tyrant
Polycrates of Samos a remarkable tunnel to bring water to the city,
passing under a hill. This aqueduct still exists, and is one of the most
remarkable constructions in Greece (see AQUEDUCT: _Greek_).
EUPATORIA (Russ. _Evpatoria_; also known as _Kozlov_ and to the Turks as
_Gezlev_), a seaport of Russia, in the government of Taurida, on the W.
coast of the Crimea, 20 m. N.W. of Simferopol, on a sandy promontory on
the north of Kalamita Bay, in 45 deg. 12' N. and 33 deg. 40' E. Pop. (1871)
8294; (1897) 17,915. This number includes many Jews, the Karaite sect
having here their principal synagogue. Here too resides the spiritual
head (_gakhan_) of the sect. Of its numerous ecclesiastical buildings
three are of interest--the synagogue of the Karaite Jews; one of the
mosques, which has fourteen cupolas and is built (1552) after the plan
of St Sophia in Constantinople; and the Greek Catholic cathedral (1898).
The port or rather roadstead has a sandy bottom, and is exposed to
violent storms from the N.E. The trade is principally in cereals, skins,
cow-hair, felt, tallow and salt. Eupatoria has some repute as a
sea-bathing resort.
According to some authorities it was near this spot that a military
post, _Eupatorium_, was established in the 1st century A.D. by
Diophantus, the general of Mithradates the Great, king of Pontus.
Towards the end of the 15th century the Turks built the fortress of
Gezleveh on the present site, and it became the capital of a khanate. It
was occupied by the Russians under Marshal Muennich in 1736, and in 1771
by Prince Dolgorukov. Its annexation to Russia took place in 1783. In
1854 the Anglo-French troops were landed in the neighbourhood of
Eupatoria, and in February 1855 the town was occupied by the Turkish
forces.
EUPATRIDAE (Gr. [Greek: eu], well; [Greek: pater], father, i.e. "Sons of
noble fathers"), the ancient nobility of Attica. Tradition ascribes to
Theseus, whom it also regards as the author of the union (_synoecism_)
of Attica round Athens as a political centre, the division of the Attic
population into three classes, Eupatridae, Geomori and Demiurgi. The
lexicographers mention as characteristics of the Eupatridae that they
are the autochthonous population, the dwellers in the city, the
descendants of the royal stock. It is probable that after the time of
the _synoecism_ the nobles who had hitherto governed the various
independent communities were obliged to reside in Athens, now the seat
of government; and at the beginning of Athenian history the noble clans
form a class which has the monopoly of political privilege. It is
possible that in very early times the Eupatridae were the only full
citizens of Athens; for the evidence suggests that they alone belonged
to the phratries, and the division into phratries must have covered the
whole citizen body. It is indeed just possible that the term may
originally have signified "true member of a clan," since membership of a
phratry was a characteristic of each clan ([Greek: genos]). It is not
probable that the Eupatrid families were all autochthonous, even in the
loose sense of that term. Some had no doubt immigrated to Attica when
the rest had long been settled there. Traces of this union of immigrants
with older inhabitants have been detected in the combination of Zeus
Herkeios with Apollo Patrooes as the ancient gods of the phratry.
The exact relation of the Eupatridae to the other two classes has been a
matter of dispute. It seems probable that the Eupatridae were the
governing class, the only recognized nobility, the Geomori the country
inhabitants of all ranks, and the Demiurgi the commercial and artisan
population. The division attributed to Theseus is always spoken of by
ancient authorities as a division of the entire population; but Busolt
has recently maintained the view that the three classes represent three
elements in the Attic nobility, namely, the city nobility, the landed
nobility and the commercial nobility, and exclude altogether the mass of
the population. At any rate it seems certain from the little we know of
the early constitutional history of Athens, that the Eupatridae
represent the only nobility that had any political recognition in early
times. The political history of the Eupatridae is that of a gradual
curtailment of privilege. They were at the height of their power in the
period during the limitation of the monarchy. They alone held the two
offices, those of polemarch and archon, which were instituted during the
8th century B.C. to restrict the powers of the kings. In 712 B.C. the
office of king ([Greek: basileus]) was itself thrown open to all
Eupatrids (see ARCHON). They thus had the entire control of the
administration, and were the sole dispensers of justice in the state. At
this latter privilege, which perhaps formed the strongest bulwark of the
authority of the Eupatridae, a severe blow was struck (c. 621 B.C.) by
the publication of a criminal code by Draco (q.v.), which was followed
by the more detailed and permanent code of Solon (c. 594 B.C.), who
further threw open the highest offices to any citizen possessed of a
certain amount of landed property (see SOLON), thus putting the claims
of the Eupatridae to political influence on a level with those of the
wealthier citizens of all classes. The most highly coveted office at
this time was not that of [Greek: Basileus], which, like that of the
_rex sacrorum_ in Rome, had been stripped of all save its religious
authority, but that of the Archon; soon after the legislation of Solon
repeated struggles for this office between the Eupatridae and leading
members of the other two classes resulted in a temporary change. Ten
archons[1] were appointed, five of whom were to be Eupatridae, three
Agroeci (i.e. Geomori), and two Demiurgi (Arist. _Ath. Pol_. xiii. 2).
This arrangement, though short-lived, is significant of the decay of the
political influence of the Eupatridae, and it is not likely that they
recovered, even in practice, any real control of the government. By the
middle of the 6th century the political influence of birth was at an
end.
The name Eupatridae survived in historical times, but the Eupatridae
were then excluded from the cult of the "Semnae" at Athens, and also
held the hereditary office of "expounder of the law" ([Greek: exegetes])
in connexion with purification from the guilt of murder. The combination
of these two characteristics suggests some connexion with the legend of
Orestes. Again, Isocrates (xvi. 25) says of Alcibiades that his
grandfather was a Eupatrid and his grandmother an Alcmaeonid, which
suggests that in the 5th century the Eupatrids were a single clan, like
the Alcmaeonids, and that the name had acquired a new signification. A
pursuit of these two suggestions has established the probability that
this "Eupatrid" clan traced its origin to Orestes, and derived its name
from the hero, who was above all a benefactor of his father. The word
will well bear this sense in the two passages in which Sophocles
(_Electra_, 162, 859) applies it to Orestes; and it is likely enough
that after the disappearance of the old Eupatridae as a political
corporation, the name was adopted in a different sense, but not without
a claim to the distinction inherent in the older sense, by one of the
oldest of the clans.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--G. Busolt, _Die griechischen Staats- und
Rechts-altertuemer_ (Mueller, _Handbuch der klassischen
Altertumswissenschaft_, iv. I), pp. 127 et seq., 155 et seq., 248
(Munich, 1892); G. Gilbert, _Greek Constitutional Antiquities_, p. 101
et seq. (Eng. trans., London, 1895); for Eupatridae in historical
times, J. Toepffer, _Attische Genealogie_, p. 175 et seq. (Berlin,
1889). See also the articles AREOPAGUS, ARCHON. (A. M. Cl.)