Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/285

F L A F L A 273 MS. the names Setinus Ballus are appended, whence it is probable that he was born at Setia in Campania. The sole notice of him found in classical authors is a chert sentence of Quintilian (/<., x. 1, 90), " Multum in Valerio Flacco nuper amisimus," whence we gather that he must have died before 90 A.D., though it does not follow, as is commonly stated, that he was cut off by an untimely death. If we turn for information to his only known work, the Argonautica, we learn from the dedication, which is addressed to Vespasian, that it was written during the siege or shortly after the fall of Jerusalem, 70 A.D. The Argonautica is an epic on the quest of the golden fleece The poem is unfinished, the eighth book terminating abruptly with the request of Medea to accompany Jason on his homeward voyage. It is a free imitation and in parts a translation of the w r ork of Apollonius of Rhodes, which had already been made familiar to the Romans by the popular version of Varro Atacinus. Various estimates have been formed of the genius of Flaccus, and some competent critics, such as Scaliger, Heinsius,and Weichart, have ranked him above his original. His diction is pure, his style correct, his versification smooth though monotonous, and he has some descriptive power, as is shown in the storm of the eighth book, and the picture of the dragon lulled to sleep by Medea s charms. On the other hand, he is wholly with out originality, and his poetry reads as if made to order. It is free from glaring defects, but is rendered all but worthless by its monotony, artificiality, and elaborate dul- ness. He deserves, no less than Silius Italicus, to be called the ape of Virgil. One instance wall suffice to show how he has vulgarized the great poet. The desertion of Hypsipylc by Jason in the second book is closely modelled on the desertion of Dido by J^neas, but instead of " Si quis mihi parvulus aula luderet ^Eneas," we have " Per hunc utero quern linquis lasona nostro"; instead of " Quern sese ore gerens," &c., " Tales humeros ea terga relinquit." The corruptions of the text, and the obscurity of the mythologi cal and geographical allusions, have attracted commentators and critics, but few except professed scholars will care to read a second-rate copy of a second-rate poet. Bibliography. The Argonautica was imknown till the first three books and half of the fourth were discovered by Poggio at St Gall when attending the council of Constance. Tho editio princcps was published at Bologna, 1474, from the Vatican US. 3277. Among other editions we may mention Burmann s Variorum, Leyden, 1724 ; J. A. Wagner s, Gottingen, 1805 ; G. Thilo s, Halle, 1863 (the first careful collation of the Vatican MS. ); C. Schenkl s, Berlin, 1871 ; and the 8th book annotated by A. Weichert, Meissen, 1817. There are translations into French prose by J. J. A. Caussin de Perceval in the JBibliothcquc Latinc-Fran^aisc ; into French verse by Bureau de la Malle, Paris, 1811 ; and into Spanish verse by D. J. de Leon Bcndicho y Quilty, Madrid, 1868 ; into Italian by Pindemonte, Verona, 1776 ; into German by Wunderlich, Erfurt, 1805. Wartou speaks doubtfully of an English version: "We seem to have had a version of Valerius Flaccus in 1565 ; for in that year, I know not if in verse or prose, was entered to Purfoote The story of Jason, how he gotte the golden flece, and how he did begyle Media, out of Latin into Englische, by Ny.cholas Whyte. " The book is not recorded by Watt, nor is it in the British Museum. FLACIUS (in German VLACICH), MATTHIAS, surnamed Illyricus (1520-1575), a celebrated German theologian of the time of the Reformation, was born at Albona in Illyria in 1520. Having lost his father in early childhood, he owed his education almost wholly to his own unaided perseverance. At the age of seventeen he had resolved to enter a convent in order to devote his life to sacred learn ing ; but on the advice of one of his relations, who had imbibed Reformation principles, he abandoned his intention, and pursued his studies successively at Basel, Tubingen, and Wittenberg. At Wittenberg he fell for a time into religious despondency, and sought the advice of Martin Luther, who was successful not only in removing his doubts, but in inspiring him with much of his own Refor mation zeal. In 1544 he became professor of Old Testa ment literature at Wittenberg, and soon began to take an active and prominent part in the theological discussions of the time. He strenuously opposed the Augsburg Interim and also the compromise of Melanchthon, known as the Leipsic Interim, and was compelled on that account to resign his professorship. From Wittenberg he proceeded to Magdeburg, and in 1557 he was appointed professor of theology at Jena, but soon became involved in a controversy with his colleague Strigel on the power of the human will in conversion. Being a strong upholder of the doctrine of man s natural inability, he was induced by controversial straits to fall unwittingly into the Manichxan heresy of affirming that original sin was not an accident in human nature, but now belonged to its substance ; and as ho would not submit to ecclesiastical censure, he was compelled in 1562 to resign his office. After staying for five years in retirement at llatisbon, he accepted the charge of a con gregation in Antwerp, but was soon compelled by religious persecution to leave that city for Strasburg. Here his views regarding original sin again exposed him to eccle siastical censure, and he went to Frankfort-on-the-Maine, in the hospital of which city he died in 1575, having spent the latter years of his life in great poverty. Though the keen and uncompromising controversial spirit of Flacius ultimately deprived him of the sympathy of almost all his friends, he is better known to posterity for his labours in hermeneutics and church history than as a controversialist. He may almost bo called the founder of the science of hermeneutics, and in the department of church history he rendered important service by tracing to their source the legends and superstitious traditions by which, in the annals of the church, truth had in a great measure been either concealed or superseded. Among his numerous worka may be mentioned his Clavis Scripturce Sacra?, and the Catalogus Testium Veritatis, which he contributed to the Maydebury Centuries. See Eitter, Flacius s Lebcn und Tod, Frankfort, 1725 ; Twesten, Matth. Flacius Illyricus, Berlin, 1844 ; Preger, Matth. Flacius Illyricus und seine Zcit, 2 vols. Erlangen, 1859-61 ; and Mattix Flacio Istriano di Albonc, notizic e documcnli, Pola, 1860. FLACOURT, ETIEJTXE DE (1G07-1660), a French governor of Madagascar, was born at Orleans in 1607. When he w r as named governor of Madagascar by the East India Company in 1648, the French troops had mutinied against the former governor, and a large number of them had also been massacred by the natives. Flacourt soon restored order among the soldiers, but in his dealings with the natives he was less successful, and their intrigues and attacks kept him in continual harassment during all his term of office. As ho was in uncertainty regarding tho affairs of the company, he returned in 1655 to France. Not long after he was appointed director general of tho company ; but, having again returned to Madagascar, ho was drowned on his voyage home, 10th June 1660. Several unknown districts of Madagascar and some small islands in its neighbourhood were explored by the orders of Flacourt, and he also in 1649 took possession of the island of Mascareigne, which he named Bourbon. He is the author of a Ilistoire de la grande isle Madagascar (1st edition 1658, 2d edition 1661), which is divided into two parts, the first containing an account of tho island, its inhabitants, and its natural history, and the second detail ing the history of the events connected with its occupation by the French. Of this work the only portion of much value is the natural history section, which gives evidence of a considerable amount of minute and careful observation. He published also in 1658 a dictionary of tho language of the island, which, however, is very incomplete and full of mistakes.