Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/198

This page needs to be proofread.
ABC — XYZ

G O M L J2GOSPOTAMI, in Ancient Geography, a small river in the Tbracian Chersonesus, running south-east, and falling into the Hellespont to the north of Sestos, with a town of the same name, and a station or road for ships, at its mouth. Here the Athenians under Conon, through the fault of his colleague Philocles, received a signal overthrow from the Lacedemonians under Lysander (B.C. 405), which involved the taking of Athens, and put an end to the Peloponnesian war. The town does not appear to have existed till after the date of the battle. ./ELFRIC, "the Grammarian," as he has been called, is one of the most voluminous of our old English writers before the Conquest. He flourished at the latter end of the 10th century and the beginning of the llth. Of his personal history little can be learned, and his birth and death are alike involved in obscurity. We know that he was a. pupil of Ethelwold, the friend of Dunstan, at Abing- don. On Ethelwold s advancement to the see of Win chester, ^Elfric accompanied him, and filled the office of chief instructor in the diocese. For the use of his scholars he wrote his Latin and English Grammar and Glossary and his Colloquium. The last of these is in Latin, with an old English interlinear translation, in which the Latin is rendered word for word. It is interesting for its account of ancient manners, and shows that ^Elfric made use of the conversational method in his teaching. The words in his Glossary are not arranged alphabetically, but grouped together into classes. JEUnc afterwards removed to Cerne Abbey, in Dorsetshire, where he composed his Homilies, the work on which his fame as an author chiefly depends. They are 80 in number, and were edited by Thorpe in 1844-46 for the ./Elfric Society. In composing them, ^Elfric drew largely from the fathers. Their style is very simple and pleasing, and obscure words are carefully avoided in order to adapt them to the capacity even of the most ignorant. Subsequent writers made great use of them, and not a few are to be found unabridged in the transition (semi-Saxon) English of the succeeding centuries. They excited great attention about the time of the Refor mation, and were appealed to especially the " Paschal Homily" to prove that the doctrines of the English Church before the Conquest were at variance with those held by the Church of Rome. Among ^Elfric s other works may be mentioned his Treatise on the Old and Neiv Testaments, and his Abridgment of the Pentateuch and the Book of Job. Of the rest of his life we have little on which we can rely. He attained to the dignity of abbot, but he seems to be a different person from ^Elfric, archbishop of Canterbury (995-1 OOG), with whom he is sometimes confounded. JELIA CAPITOLINA, a name given to the city built by the Emperor Hadrian, A.D. 134, near the spot where the ancient Jerusalem stood, which he found in ruins when he visited the eastern parts of the Roman empire. A Roman colony was settled here, and a temple was dedicated to Jupiter Capitolinus. Hence the name Capitolina, to which Hadrian prefixed that of his own family. ^ELIANUS, CLAUDIUS, born at Prrcneste, in Italy. He taught rhetoric at Rome, under the Emperor Alexander Severus, according to Perizonius, but -more probably under Hadrian. He was surnamed MeAtyAwcrcro?/ Honey-tongued," on account of the ease and accuracy with which he spoke .and wrote Greek ; and he was also named "the Sophist," from his being a teacher of rhetoric. He loved retirement, and devoted himself to study. He greatly admired and studied Plato, Aristotle, Isocrates, Plutarch, Homer, Anacreon, Archilochus, &c. ; and, though a Roman, gives preference to the writers of the Greek nation, and employs the Greek language in his works. His curious and entertaining work entitled Varia Historic has been frequently republished, as well as his treatise De Datura Animalium. A very useful edition of the latter was published by Schneider, at Leipsic, in 1784, in 8vo; another at Jena, in 1832, by Fr. Jacobs. The collected edition of his works, by Gesner, 1556, foL, contains another work ascribed to him, named Epistolae Rusticae. ^EMILIUS, PAULUS, the name of a celebrated family of the .^Emilia Gens. See PAULUS. ^EMILIUS, PAULUS, or PAOLO EMILIO, a celebrated histo rian, born at Verona, who obtained such reputation in Italy that he was invited into France by the cardinal of Bourbon, in the reign of Charles VIII., in order to write the history of the kings of France in Latin, and was presented to a canonry in Notre Dame. He enjoyed the patronage and support of Louis XII. He died at Paris on the 5th of May 1529. His work entitled De Rebus gestis Francorum was translated into French by Renard in 1581, and has also been translated into Italian and German. AENEAS, in Fabidous History, a Trojan prince, the son of Venus and Anchises. He plays a conspicuous part in the Iliad, and is represented, along with Hector, as the chief bulwark of the Trojans. Homer always speaks of ^Eneas and his descendants as destined to reign at Troy after the destruction of Priam and his house. Virgil has chosen him as the hero of his great epic, and the story of the JEneid, though not only at variance with other tradi tions, but inconsistent with itself, can never lose its place as a biography of the mythical founder of the Latin power. ^Eneas is described in the ^Eneid as escaping from the destruction of Troy, bearing his aged father on his shoulders, carrying in one hand his household gods, while with the other he leads his little son Ascanius or liilus. His wife Creiisa is separated from them and lost in the tumult. After a perilous voyage he lands in Africa, and is kindly received by Dido, queen of Carthage; who, on his forsaking her to seek a new home, destroys herself. Again escaping the dangers of the sea, he arrives in Italy, where he lands in Latium, and forms an alliance with Latinus, the king of the country, marries his daughter Lavinia, and founds a city which he calls, after her, Lavmium. Turnus, king of the Rutuli, a rejected suitor of Lavinia, makes war on Latinus, and both are slain in battle. The story of the jEneid ends with the death of Turnus. According to Livy, on the death of Latinus, ^Eneas assumes the sove reignty of Latium, and the Trojan and Latin powers are united in one nation. After a reign of three years, ./Eneas falls in a battle with the Rutuli, assisted by Mezentius, king of Etruria, and is supposed to be carried up into heaven, because his body cannot be found. After his death or disappearance he receives divine honours. AENEAS SYLVIUS, POPE. See Pius II. JEOLIM INSUL^E, the modern LIPARI ISLANDS, a group of islands between Italy and Sicily. They are so called from ^Eolus, the god of the winds, who was supposed to rule over them; but they are also frequently termed Insidae Vulcanite, or Hephwstia?, from their volcanic erup tions, and Insulai LipareoruttifiTOTO. Lipara (modern Lipari), the chief of the group. According to Pliny, the other islands arc Hiera, now Vulcano; Stronyyle, now Stromboli; J)idyme,novf Salina; Phoenicusa, now Felicudi ; Eunnymiis, probably Panaria ; and Ericiisa, n ow A licudi. Besides these there are several small islets. Homer mentions only one ^Eolian island (Od. x. 1). AEOLIAN HARP, named from ^Eolus, god of the wind, a musical instrument consisting of cat-gut strings stretched over a wooden sound-box. When exposed to a current of air, the strings produce a variety of pleasing harmonic sounds in strange succession and combination. yEOLIS, or ^EoLTA, in Ancient Geography, a country of

Asia Minor, settled by colonies of .^Eolian Greeks. The