Athenian fleet in 405 B.C., and thus brought the Peloponnesian war to an end. The name is also written Ægospotami. The ancient town was near the modern village of Jumaliköi.
ÆGYP'TUS (Gk. (
Greek characters), Aigyptos). In
Greek legend, a brother of Danaüs and King of
Arabia, who conquered the region to which he
gave the name of Egypt. His fifty sons pursued
their fifty cousins, the daughters of Danaüs, to
Argos, and, with the exception of Lynceus, were
murdered by their brides. See Danaüs; Egypt.
ÆLFRIC (iil'frik) THE GRAMMA'RIAN
(about 950-1021). The author of some of the best Old English prose extant. The only material — and it is slight — for constructing the life of this scholar is contained in his own works. The place of his birth is unknown, but the date of it must have been somewhere between 950 and 955. After studying with a poorly educated "mass-priest," he entered the Benedictine school at Winchester (about 972), where he remained "many years." In 987, then "a monk and mass-priest," he was summoned to rule over the abbey of Cernel in Dorset. There he was engaged in preaching and in giving instruction to monks and to young men. Afterward, probably in 1006, he was made abbot of Eynsham, in the valley of the Thames above Oxford. It is conjectured that he died between 1020 and 1025. Ælfric is best known by his Homilies, written in pure and vigorous English. Among his other works are: A Treatise on the Old and New Testaments, the Heptateuchus, an abridged translation of the first seven books of the Old Testament, a Latin grammar and glossary, written in English for the boys of England, and the Colloquium, which was designed to teach them to speak Latin correctly. Because of these last two books he is accorded the title of grammarian. For the best account of Ælfric and a bibliography of his works and of critical editions, consult C. L. White, Ælfric, a new study of his life and writings, in Yale Studies in English (Boston, 1898).
ÆLFTHRYTH, alf'thrith (Latinized Elfrida) (c. 945-1000). An Anglo-Saxon queen, mother of Æthelred II. Her first husband was Æthelwald, the ealdorman of the East Anglians, and after his death she married King Eadgar, the father of Æthelred II. She is said to have instigated the murder of her stepson, Eadward, at Corfe. in order to secure the accession of Æthelred II.
Æ'LIA CAP'ITOLI'NA. The name given to Jerusalem by the Emperor Hadrian (Ælius Hadrianus), who expelled the Jews after the insurrection of 132-135 A.D., and colonized the city with Romans. The name continued until the time of the Christian emperors.
Æ'LIA GENS. One of the plebeian gentes (see Gens) at Rome, to which belonged Ælius Sejanus, and the emperors Hadrian and the Antonines. It included also, among others, the families of Gallus, Lamia, Pætus, and Tubero.
Æ'LIA'NUS, Claudius. A writer who was born at Præneste in Italy and flourished about 200 A.D. He wrote exclusively in Greek in an entertaining fashion, but the information contained in his writings was drawn most uncritically from the works of his predecessors. His extant writings are: On the Nature of Animals, in seventeen books, filled with curious accounts of the nature and ways of animals, and with moral reflections on the same, and his Miscellanies (Varia Historia), in fourteen books. This is preserved only in an abbreviated form, and is almost wholly a collection of anecdotes and marvelous tales relating to men. The twenty Rustic Letters current under his name are generally reckoned spurious. His works are best edited by Hercher (1858 and 1864); the editions of the Varia Historia, by Perizonius (1701), and De Animalium Natura, by Jacobs (1831), deserve mention.
AËL'LO ( Gk. (Greek characters), storm-swift, from ((Greek characters),
aëlla, whirhvind). In Greek mythology, the name of one of the Harpies (q.v.).
AELST. See Alost.
AELST, älst, Evert Van (1602-58). A Dutch painter of still life, which he depicted with great care and close fidelity to nature. He was, however, surpassed by his nephew, William Van Aelst (1626-83), who is especially noted for his skill in reproducing the lustre of gold, silver, crystal, and mother-of-pearl.
Æ'LUROI'DEA. See Carnivora.
ÆMIL'IA. A division of Italy. See Emilia.
ÆMIL'IA GENS. A famous patrician gens at Rome (see Gens), to which belonged the family of Æmilius Lepidus, Mamercus, Paulus, Scaurus, and other well known names.
ÆMIL'IAN "WAY (Lat. Æmilia Via). A national highway in ancient Italy. It was built by the consul Marcus Æmilius Lepidus, in 187 B.C., to afford easy communication with Transpadane Gaul, as a part of the great centralizing schemes of Rome in her imperial march northward. It began at Ariminum (Rimini) by the Adriatic Sea, where the Flaminian Way terminated, and ran through Bononia (Bologna) to Mutina (Modera) and Parma, crossed the Po at Placentia (Piacenza), and ended at Mediolanum (Milan). Its total length was about 185 miles.
ÆMIL'IUS PAU'LUS (second century B.C.). A Roman general, son of the consul Æmilius Paulus, who fell in the battle of Cannæ, 216 B.C. Young Æmilius inherited his father's valor and enjoyed an unwonted degree of public esteem and confidence. In 168 B.C. he was elected consul for the second time, and intrusted with the war against Perseus, King of Macedon, whom he defeated in the battle of Pydna, which left Macedonia a Roman province.
ÆNE'AS (Gk. (Greek characters), Aineias). The hero of Vergil's Æneid. He was, according to Homer, the son of Anchises and Aphrodite (Venus), and was ranked next to Hector among the Trojan heroes. The traditions of his adventures before and after the fall of Troy are various and discordant. Vergil gives the following version: Æneas, though warned by the ghost of Hector in the night when the Greeks entered Troy to take his household gods and flee from the city, remained in the contest until Priam fell, when, taking with him his family, he escaped from the Greeks, but in the confusion of his hasty flight lost his wife, Creüsa. Having collected a fleet of twenty vessels, he sailed to Thrace, where he began building the city of Ænos, but was terrified by an unfavorable omen, and abandoned his plan of a settlement here. A mistaken interpretation of the oracle of Delphi now led him to Crete, but from this place he was driven by a pestilence.
