ARUNS, a Roman historian, author of a history of the Punic war, written in imitation of the style of Sallust, lived about 60 b.c.—(Pliny's Natural History, xxix. 5.)
ARUSIANUS MESSIUS or MESSUS, a Roman grammarian, whose name is known chiefly in connection with a grammatical work entitled "Quadriga, vel exempla elocutionum ex Virgilio, Sallustio, Terentia, et Cicerone, per literas digesta," lived towards the end of the Roman empire.—(Niebuhr's edition of Fronto, p. 31, &c.)
ARVANDUS, prefect of Gaul under the Emperor Anthemius from 467 to 472, was charged with mal-administration and treason, and condemned to die by the Roman senate. His punishment was changed into perpetual exile.
ARVIDSSON or ARWIDSSON, Truls or Troils, a Swedish engraver, was born at Westervik about the year 1660, and died 3rd October, 1705.
ARVIEUX, Laurent d', a celebrated traveller, was born at Marseilles on the 21st June, 1635. At an early age he is said to have had a passion for travelling, and a great aptitude for the acquisition of languages. In 1653 he accompanied to Sidon M. Bertandier, a relation, who had been appointed consul at that place. He remained in the east for a period of twelve years, during which he resided successively in various cities of Syria and Palestine, and became well acquainted with the Syriac, Arabic, Turkish, Persian, and Hebrew languages. He died 3rd October, 1702.—G. M.
* ARWIDSSON, Adolf Iwar, a Swedish writer, keeper of the royal library of Stockholm, was born in 1791 at Padajoki, in Finland. He was professor of history at the university of Abo in the year 1817, was banished by the Russian government in 1821, for an article in a political journal, and has since resided at Stockholm, where he published in 1842 a collection of ancient Swedish songs, "Svenska fornsänger."—J. S., G.
ARYABHATTA or ARJABAR, a celebrated Indian mathematician, reputed to have anticipated many of what are considered the most important of modern discoveries in astronomy. He taught the diurnal revolution of the earth, assigning as its cause the existence of a subtle fluid surrounding our planet at a little distance from its surface; and maintained the doctrine, strange enough for his times, that the moon and the planets shine by a light borrowed from the sun. He described the planetary orbit as an ellipse, and proposed to assign to the year 365 days, 6 hours, 12 minutes, and 30 seconds. Nothing is known of his life, but he is generally believed to have lived about the beginning of our era.—J. S., G.
ARYSDAGHES or ARISTAKES, Saint, born at Cæsarea, in Cappadocia, about the year 279; succeeded his father, Gregory the Illuminator, as patriarch of Armenia in 331. He was murdered in 339 by a chief named Archelaus.
ARYSDAGHES, surnamed Bibliophilus, a grammarian of Armenia, author of a dictionary and grammar of his native tongue, which are preserved in MS. in the French National Library. Died in 1239.
ARZACHEL, Abraham Alzarachel, lived at Toledo about 1080; one of the most laborious and assiduous observers in the astronomy of those times. His tables are known as the Toledan Tables: he invented a new form of the Astrolobe; and wrote on eclipses, &c. His most useful and permanent contribution to science, however, is a large collection of observations made to determine the elements of a theory of the sun,—observations conducted by a method much preferable to that followed by Hipparchus and Ptolemy. He corrected Albategnius in several of his determinations, especially as to the sun's apogee and the eccentricity of his orbit. In the list of Arabians, Arzachel deserves a very high place.—J. P. N.
ARZAN, a pagan high-priest of Armenia, who resisted with an army the missionary enterprises of the first patriarch of Armenia, Gregory the Illuminator; beheaded 302.
ARZAN, Arzruny, a theologian of Armenia, who studied under the patriarch Isaac I., and wrote concerning the ancient worship of the Armenians. Died in 459.
ARZAO, Antonio Rodriguez, a Brazilian traveller of the seventeenth century, who explored the territory of Minas about the year 1694, and returned to Espirito Santo with some specimens of gold which he had discovered on the banks of the Rio Doce; was born at Taboata, and died at San Paulo.
ARZAO, Antonio Rodriguez, another Brazilian traveller, who set out from San Paulo in the year 1714, and in a northerly direction from that town. He discovered a country abounding in gold and diamonds, which he called Serro do Frio.
ARZERE, Stefano dell', an Italian artist, who lived about 1560. According to Ridolfi, he was a native of Padua, and painted well in fresco. Along with Domenico Campagnola and Gualteri, he adorned, with colossal figures of emperors and illustrious characters, a large hall in Padua, afterwards converted into a public library. From the gigantic size of these figures, the place received the name of Sala de' Giganti (Hall of the Giants). "The colouring," says Lanzi, "is rich, and of a fine chiaroscuro, and it would be difficult to find in all Italy a piece which appears to have suffered less from time." Several altarpieces in the churches and convent of Padua were executed by this artist.—A. M.
ARZU, Siraj Uddin-Ali-Khan, a Hindostanee poet of the eighteenth century, known also as Khan Sahib.
ASA, third king of Judah, was the son of Abijah. He reigned forty-one years, from 955 to 914 b.c.
ASADI of Tus, one of the most ancient of the Persian poets, was born about the commencement of the tenth century, in the reign of Mahmoud of Ghizni, at whose court he was chief poet. He was the preceptor of the celebrated Firdausi, and author of an epic poem called the "Gushtasp Nama," in which he relates numerous adventures of Rustam's ancestors, and of the more illustrious monarchs of the Peshdadian dynasty. This work has been almost wholly incorporated with the more extensive and famous "Shah-nama" of Firdausi. In his old age Asadi retired to Tús, his native city, where he died at a very advanced period of his life.—G. M.
ASAIRI. See Azaira.
ASAM, Cosmas Dominian or Damian, and Egid, two brothers, distinguished painters of Bavaria, flourished in the first half of the eighteenth century. Cosmas died in 1739, but the date of Egid's death is unknown.
ASAN. Three kings of Bulgaria, who reigned in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
ASANDER, a son of Philotas, and brother of Parmenio, was appointed governor of Lydia, by Alexander the Great, in 334 b.c., and after the death of Alexander became satrap of Caria.
ASANDER, a king of the Bosporus, in the Tauric Chersonese, was born in 107 b.c., and died in 14 b.c.
ASANIDES, a Bulgarian family, who founded the Wallachio-Bulgarian kingdom, of which Widdin became the capital.
ASAPH (Assembler), one of David's chief musicians, and reputed author of twelve psalms—viz., 50th and 73rd to 83rd—three of which, however, from their references to late events in the history of Israel, must rather be ascribed to one of his descendants, who were also choristers in the temple.—J. S., G.
ASAPH, St., was originally a monk of Llan-elvy, which was then presided over by Bishop Kentigern, a Scotchman, afterwards bishop of Glasgow. On Kentigern's return to his own country, Asaph succeeded him, and was so remarkable for holiness that the place took its name from him. He probably flourished about 590, but the date of his death is not known. After Asaph's death, the see was vacant more than 500 years, when Geoffrey of Monmouth was appointed, since which time it has been the seat of a bishopric. Asaph is commemorated by the Roman catholic church on May 1.—J. B., O.
ASBIORN, a name frequently met with in early Norwegian history.—Asbiorn the Noble, lived in the reign of Olaf Tryggvason, and suffered a cruel death with unwonted patience.—Asbiorn Sigurdson lived in the same reign, and was noted like his father Sigurd for hospitality. He must have possessed considerable influence at court, for we read that, when condemned to banishment for murdering an enemy in the royal presence, he successfully resisted the sentence.—Asbiorn Blak, a traitor servant of Canute IV. of Denmark. He betrayed his master into the hands of his rebellious subjects in Odensee. who put him to death.—J. B.
ASCALUS, Conrad, a German philosopher of the earlier half of the seventeenth century, author of "Physica et Ethica, Mosaica," Hanau, 1613, 8vo, in which he reproduces the doctrine of a universal soul; "Libri III. de Natura cœli triplicis," Siegen, 1597, 8vo; "De Religionis per M. Lutherum Reformatæ Origine et Progressu in Germania et Dania," Copenhagen, 1621, 4to.—A. M.
ASCANI, Pellegrino, a clever Italian painter of flowers and fruits in the 17th century. He was a native of Carpi.
