plants as growing on the island, but none of them are peculiar to it, though there are one or two local varieties. The sandy-bottomed shallow sea supplies abundance of flat fish, and in the deeper water crabs, lobsters, haddock, &c., abound. There are, however, not many fishing-boats, and these of small size. Most of the men act as pilots.
The trade of the island is insignificant. The only time when it enjoyed any commercial prosperity was during the Napoleonic wars, when, by the ‘‘ Continental system,” the European ports were sup- posed to be shut to England. During that period smuggling pros- pered, and the island was crowded with soldiers and adventurers. In 1878 the revenue was £7236, the expenditure £7548, and the public debt £2115. The imports are mostly from Bremen and Hamburg, those from Britain being valued at only £72; the exports, consisting chiefly of goods bought by visitors, are ladies’ feathers, hats, muffs, fish, &c. The government is vested in a governor appointed by the English crown, aided by a council,—the former mode of government having been more democratic, but less conducive to the islanders’ peace than the present. The taxes are few, and consist chiefly of a duty on wine, beer, and spirits, a small house tax, and the ‘ kur- tax,” levied on all visitors who reside beyond three days.[1]
History.—The history of Heligoland, ‘‘the holy island,” is interesting. ‘‘Sunt et alice insule contra Friesiam et Daniam, sed nulla earum tam memorabilis,” writes Adam of Bremen. ‘‘ Multa regna, multas regiones et insulas perlustravi, nec unquam similem huic sacre vidi,’ are the words of Pontanus. Here Hertha[2] had her great temple, and hither came from the mainland the Angles to worship at her shrine. Here lived King Radbod, a pagan, and on this isle St Willebrod, 1200 years ago, first preached Christianity; and for its ownership, before and after that date, many sea-rovers have fought. Finally it settled down to be a fief of the dukes of Schleswig or Holstein, though often in pawn for loans advanced to these impecunious princes by the free city of Hamburg. The island thus happened in 1807 to be a Danish posses- sion, when the English seized and held it until it was formally ceded to them in 1814. In these days of swift steamers the value of Heligoland as a military position commanding the Elbe mouth has been doubted. There is not, with the exception of wells, the rain collecting in ths ‘‘Sapskulen” or hollows, and that caught in casks, any water on the island, while the shelter afforded by the north and south harbours formed by the sand point on which the Unterland is built is but indifferent. It is only vessels of small size that can approach the shore, and passengers by the steamers have to land in open boats at the end of a long jetty (the Laster-Allee, or ‘‘ Misery Walk”). Under British rule the islanders enjoy the utmost freedom, and in return for this privilege are subjected to a trifling taxation for local purposes, and escape the compulsory military service to which they would be liable were they to become German or Danish subjects.
Bibliography.—Von der Decken, Philosophisch-historisch-geographische Unter- suchungen iiber die Insel Helgoland oder Heiligeland und thre Bewohner (Hanover, 1826); Wiebel, Die Insel Helgoland, Untersuchungen ilber deren Grésse in Vorzeit und Gegenwart vom Standpunkte der Geschichte und Geologie (Hamburg, 1848; from Gebiete dr Naturwissenchaften herausgegeben von dem naturwissenschaftlichen Verein in Hamburg, vol. ii.; it contains a good bibliography up to date); Ostker, elgoland, Schilderungen und Erérterungen (Berlin, 1855); Hallier, TIeigoland, Nordseestudien, (Hamburg, 1869); the botanical part is also printed separately, Die Vegetation auf Helgoland). See also Hansen, Chronik der friesischen Uthlande (Gaarding, 1877); Wicgelt, Die nordfriesischen Inseln (Hamburg, 1873); Berenberg, Die Nordsee-Inselu an der deutschen Kiiste (Norden and Norderney, 1875); Hansen, Die Friesen (Gaarding, 1876); and the local guide books.
HELIODORUS, son of Theodosius, was born at Emesa in Syria, in the second half of the 4th century. He belonged to a family of priests of the Syrian sun-god Elagabalus, but he was himself a Christian, and became bishop of Tricca in Thessaly. He is famous as the author of the best of the Greek love-romances. It is called thiopica, as it relates the history of Chariclea, daughter of Hydaspes, king of thiopia, her love for Theagenes, a Thessalian of high rank, and the happy issue after a series of exciting adventures and hairbreadth escapes. The Alexandrian pastoral poets often introduced brief love episodes to give animation to their scenes of pastoral life. When rhetorical prose became the fashionable style of composition, the mere episode was expanded into a complete history of the lovers from their birth to their happy union. Antonius Diogenes, according to Photius, was the first to write a book of the kind ; and Jamblichus, about 100 a.d., also wrote a love romance. But the Zthiopica is the oldest work of the kind that has come down to us. It is full of the most improb- able scenes and incidents; the hero is a weak and dull character, but the heroine is well drawn and full of interest. The description of custorms and manners, especially of religious ceremonies, is minute, and often most interesting in an antiquarian point of view. ‘Tle work not only became a model for the later Greek romance writers, but has been much imitated by the French and Italian writers of romance. Tasso praises the artful development of the plot; and the early life of Clorinda (Jerusalem Delivered, c. xii.) is almost identical with that of Chariclea. Racine meditated a drama on the subject of the romance, and Raphael has made scenes from it the subject of two of his pictures. The best edition is that of Cortes (Paris, 1804). The book has been translated frequently, and imto almost all modern European languages.
HELIOGABALUS, a Grecized form of Elagabalus, the name of a Syrian deity, was the name adopted by Varius Avitus Bassianus, the Roman emperor. His pedigree is given in the accompanying table:—
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Bassianus Julia Domna=Emp. Sept. Severus Julia Masa— Av itus Caracalla Julia Soewmias=S. Varius Marcellus Juwia Mammaa Emp. Heliogabalus Emp. Alcx. Severus
On the murder of Caracalla (217 a.d.), Julia Meesa was forbidden the court by the new emperor Macrinus. She retired to her ancestral city Emesa with her daughters and grandsons. Varius Avitus, though still only a boy, was appointed high priest of the Syrian sun-god Elagabalus, one of the chief seats of whose worship was Emesa. His beauty, and the splendid ceremonials at which he presided, made him a great favourite with the troops stationed in that part of Syria, and Mesa increased his popularity by spreading reports that he was in reality the illegitimate son of Caracalla. Macrinus was very unpopular with the army ; an insurrection was easily raised, and Varius under his adopted name Heliogabalus was proclaimed emperor. The troops sent to quell the revolt joined the new emperor, and Macrinus, advancing in person against him, was defeated and soon afterwards slain (218). Heliogabalus was at once recognized by the senate asemperor. After spending the winter in Nicomedia, he proceeded in 219 to Rome. He made it his business to exalt the honour of the deity whose priest he was. . The Syrian god was proclaimed the chief deity in Rome, and all other gods his servants; splendid ceremonies in his honour were celebrated, at which Helio- gabalus danced in public; and it was believed that secret rites accompanied by human sacrifice were performed in his honour. The shameless profligacy of the emperor’s life was such as to shock even a Roman public. His popularity with the army declined, and Mesa perceiving that the liking of the soldiers inclined to Alexander Severus, persuaded him to raise his cousin to the dignity of Cesar (221). Heliogabalus soon repented of this step. An attempt to murder Alexander was frustrated by the watchful Mesa. Another such attempt in 222 produced a mutiny among the soldiers, in which Heliogabalus and his mother Sozemias were slain.
- ↑ The tax is at present—for one person three marks (Hamburg), for a family of ‘wo to three persons four marks, and for larger families six marks; after a stay of four weeks the visitors are free of ‘‘ kur-tax.”
- ↑ Fossite, after whom in pre-Christian days the rock was called Fossite-land, was not, as is often asserted, the goddess herself, but only the priestess of Hertha.
