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ABICA 246 ARIOSTO Eternal Father, He was inferior, not merely in dignity, but in essence. The views of Arius commended themselves to multitudes, while they were abhorrent to still more; fierce controversy respect- ing them broke out, and the whole Chris- tian world was soon compelled to take sides in the struggle. Constantine, the first Christian emperor, then the reign- ing sovereign, summoned a council to meet at Nice, in Bithynia, which it did in A. D. 325. It was the first general council and the most celebrated of all. It declared Christ to be homooiisios, i, e., of the same essence as the Father, whereas Arius regarded Him as only homoiotisios, of similar essence. The erring Presbyter was deposed and exiled. The Arians greatly weakened themselves by splitting into sects, and the doctrines regarding the relations of the three Divine Personages authorita- tively proclaimed at Nice were at last all but universally adopted. ABICA, a seaport of Tacna, the most southerly department of Peru. It is one of the chief outlets of the trade of Bo- livia, and has been connected since 1854, by rail, with Tacna, 38 miles inland. its exports mostly consist of copper, sil- ver, cascarilla and other barks, chin- chilla skins, alpaca, and vicuna wool. Arica has frequently suffered from earthquakes. It was almost wholly de- stroyed in 1832, but soon rebuilt. It suf- fered severely again in 1868, the earth- quake being succeeded by fearful waves, one of them 40 feet high. In the time of the Spanish supremacy, Arica was a great commercial city with 30,000 in- habitants; its present population is about 5,000. It was stormed and taken by the Chileans in 1880. For details of the long- standing dispute between Chile and Peru for the possession of Arica and Tacna see Chile and Peru. ARIEGE (ar-yazh) , a mountainous de- partment of France, on the slopes of the Pyrenees, comprising the ancient count- ship of Foix and parts of Languedoc and Gascony. The principal rivers are the Ariege, Arize, and Salat, tributaries of the Garonne. Sheep and cattle are reared; the arable land is small in quan- tity. Chief town, Foix. Area 1,890 square miles; pop. about 200,000. ABIEL, the name of several personages mentioned in the Old Testament; in the demonology of the later Jews a spirit of the waters. In Shakespeare's "Tempest," Ariel was the "tricksy spirit" whom Prospero had in his service. ARIES, in astronomy, the constellation Aries, or the Ram, one of the ancient zodiacal constellations, and generally called the first sign of the zodiac; also the portion of the ecliptic between 0° and 30° longitude, which the sun enters on March 21st (the vernal equinox). The constellation Aries, from which the re- gion derives its name, was once within its limits, but now, by the precession of the equinoxes, it has gradually moved into the space anciently assigned to Taurus. It is denoted by the Greek sym- bol, Gamma, which remotely resembles a ram's head. The first point of Aries is the spot in the heavens where the sun appears to stand at the vernal equinox. It is not marked by the presence of any star, but it is not very far from the third star of Pegasus, that called Algenib. It is the point from which the right ascensions of the heavenly bodies are reckoned upon the equator and their longitudes upon the ecliptic. ABIL, or ABILLUS, in some plants, as in the nutmeg, an extra covering of the seed, outside of the true seed coats. It is either succulent or cartilaginous, colored, elastic, rough or knotted. In the nutmeg it is known as mace. ABIMATECffiA (ar-e-ma-the'a), a town of Palestine, identified with the modem Ramleh, 22 miles W. N. W. of Jerusalem. ABION, an ancient Greek poet and musician, born at Methymna, in Lesbos, flourished about B. C. 625. He lived at the court of Periander of Corinth, and afterward visited Sicily and Italy. Re- turning from Tarentum to Corinth with rich treasures, the avaricious sailors re- solved to murder him. Apollo, however, having informed him in a dream of the impending danger, Arion in vain endeav- ored to soften the hearts of the crew by the power of his music. He then threw himself into the sea, when one of a shoal of dolphins, which had been attracted by his music, received him on his back and bore him to land. The sailors having returned to Corinth, were confronted by Arion, and convicted of their crime. The lyre of Arion, and the dolphin which rescued him, became con- stellations in the heavens. A fragment of a hymn to Poseidon, ascribed to Arion, is extant. ARIOSTO, LUDOVICO (a-re-os'to), an Italian poet, born at Reggio, Sept. 8, 1474. Was one of the three great epic poets of Italy, and styled "The Divine." He abandoned law for the study of the classics, and was introduced with diplo- matic missions by Cardinal d'Este, and his brother, Duke of Ferrara. Ariosto's