63 



AFFRE, DENIS AUQUSTE. 



AGAMEMNON. 



ning of the 6th century of our era, aa we may infer from the persons) 

 whom he mentions in hia work. He studied medicine at Alexandria, 

 then the seat of the moat celebrated medical school, and afterwards 

 he went to Constantinople, where he appears to have been raised to a 

 high office at the court, since Photius (' Biblioth. Cod.' 221) calls him 

 K&fiTls o^dffou, comes obsequii, a title belonging to the principal officer 

 attending on the emperor. Aetiua waa a Christian, but not free from 

 the superstitions which at that time were introduced into Christianity 

 from Egypt, and which were connected with his profession. His work 

 contains some curious examples of the pretension to cure diseases by 

 means of superstitious ceremonies. The work of Aetius which has 

 come down to us entire bears the title of Bi0A.ia i'aTpik or ySi/SAi'ov 

 larpiK^v, and consists of 16 books. The whole however was afterwards 

 divided by some editor into four sections, each of which contained 

 four books, from which the work is also called Tetrabibli (TfTpdf3tf)\oi). 

 According to Photiua (1. c.), who gives a brief summary of the work, 

 it is a compilation made from the writings of Oribasius, Galen, Archi- 

 genes, Rufus, Dioscorides, Herodotus, and other eminent medical 

 authors; but the compilation ia made with judgment, and Ae'tius 

 appears to have introduced into it some original matter. The book 

 is a kiud of systematic encyclopaedia of medicine, embracing the whole 

 ranse of medical and surgical knowledge of the ancients. A complete 

 edition of the Greek original has never been published. The first 

 eight books appeared at Venice (1534, foL), and particular chaptera 

 have been edited at different times. Complete translations of the 

 whole work appeared at Venice (1534, 4to., 1543, &c., 8vo.), Easle 

 (1534 and 1539, foL), Lyon (1549, fpl.\ and at Paris (1567, foL) 

 among H. Stephens'a 'Medicss Artis Principes.' (Fabricius, 'Biblioth. 

 Gncc.' a. p. 228, &e., where a full account of the modern literature 

 on Aetius is given.) 



AFFRE, DENIS AUGUSTE, archbishop of Paris, was born nt 

 St.-Rf.me, in the department of Tarn, Sept. 27, 1793. At an early 

 age he evinced a desire to devote himself to the Church, and he 

 became a student at the seminary of St.-Sulpice. He waa ordained 

 priest in 1S18, and discharged a variety of ecclesiastical functions till 

 he became archbishop of Paris in 1840. Although a man of ability 

 and learning, and the author of several treatises (amongst which WHS 

 one on Egyptian hieroglyphics), he would scarcely have found a 

 place in the history of his times, but for the lamentable circumstance 

 of his deatli on the 27th June, 1848. Paris was then the scene of a 

 fearful contest between the soldiery and a vast body of insurgents. 

 The archbishop was induced to apply to General Cavaii^iac, proposing 

 to stand between the contending bodies ns a messenger of peace. 

 The general told him that the course was full of danger. " My life," 

 he replied, "is of small consequence." Some hours afterwards the 

 firing of the soldiery having ceased at his desire, the archbishop 

 mounted a barricade erected at the entrance of the Faubourg St. 

 Antoine : he was preceded by M. Albert, a national guard, wearing a 

 workman's dress, carrying in his hand a green branch aa an emblem 

 of peace; and he bad nt bis aide a faithful servant named Pierre 

 Sellier. The devoted ecclesiastic was not received with the confidence 

 that he expected to inspire. Some indeed of the combatants stretched 

 out their hands, but others remained silent, while others groaned and 

 hooted. The prelate endeavoured to speak a few words; but the 

 insurgents, fancying themselves betrayed, opened a fire upon the Garde 

 Mobile, and the archbishop fell. Then a cry of horror went up from 

 the crowd, and many, even of the insurgents, rushed to his aid. 

 Albert and Sellier were leading him away, when Sellier was also 

 struck by a ball. The insurgents who surrounded the archbishop 

 cried out that the Garde Mobile had inflicted the wound, and that 

 they would avenge him. " No, no, my friends," he replied ; " there 

 has been blood enough shed ; let mine be the last that is spilt." He 

 was carried to the archiepiscopal palace, and died the same day. The 

 National Assembly issued a decree announcing its profound grief at 

 the event of his death, and his public funeral took place on the 7th 

 of July, amidst the deepest feelings of popular regret. (Nouvelle 

 flioyrapkie Univerielle, 1852.) 



AFRICANUS, LEO. [LEO, JOHN.] 



AFRICANUS, SEXTUS CJ3CILIUS, a Roman jurist. Many 



excerpts from his Nine Books of ' Qutestiones ' are contained ia the 



'Digest.' He was a pupil or friend of Salviua Julianus, whose 



>ns he often cites. ('Digest' 25, tit. 3, a. 3.) This fixes the 



: of Africanua to the reign of Hadrian, who died A.D. 138, and 



t of bis successor Antoninus Pius. As Julianus belonged to 



the legal sect of the Sabiniani, it is probable that Africanus also 



ii'l. Aulus Gelliua (xx. 1) has given the substance of a discussion 



between .iSextus Cfecilius, a distinguished jurist, and Favorinus, a 



philosopher, on the Twelve Tables; and the date of the Twelve 



Tables is fixed in thia discussion aa near 700 years prior to the 



time of Gellius. As Golliua probably was not living later than 



'70, and the Laws of the Twelve Tables were finally enacted 



B.C. 449, the number of 700 is too much by a century for the age of 



us. This error is no objection to our concluding that the Sextus 



Csccilius mentioned by Gellius is Sextus Caecilius Africanus. Lam- 



priding ('Alex.Sev.' 68) makes Africanus a disciple of Papinian and 



a friend of Alexander Severus, but Cujacius exposes the anachronism 



liy mi extract from Africanus founded on a legal maxim which was no 



' in force in the time of Papinian. The Excerpts of Africanua 



treat of many subtle legal points, and have been well illustrated by 

 Cujacius (' Opera,' torn. i.. tract 9). 



AFRICANUS, SEXTUS JULIUS, a Christian writer of the 3rd 

 century, is considered by some authors to have been a native of 

 Africa, and was, according to Cave, bishop of Emmaus, A.D. 232. 

 Clavier, in the 'Biographie Uuiverselle,' makes him the descendant 

 of an African family, and born in Palestine. Between 218 and 222 

 Africanus was employed in an embassy to the Emperor Heliogabalus 

 for the restoration of Emmaus, which city, in consequence of hia 

 entreaties, was rebuilt under the name of Nicopolis. He attended the 

 lectures of Bishop Heracliua at Alexandria before the year 231. 



Eusebius ascribes to Africanus a work which contains, under the 

 title 'Kesti* (embroidered girdles), a collection of passages from 

 various authors, chiefly on physical and mathematical questions, and 

 topics which belong to domestic economy ; medicine, botany, minera- 

 logy, and the military sciences. Fragments of thia work are printed 

 among the 'Mathematical Veteres," Paris, 1693, folio, and reprinted 

 in the 7th volume of the works of Meursius, Florence, 1746, but it is 

 not quite certain whether this work contains the real ' Kesti ' of 

 Africanus. The section on the military art has been translated by 

 Guischardt, in his ' Mdmoires Militaires des Grecs et des Remains," 

 1758, 4to. There is a translation by Africanus of the book of Abdias 

 of Babylon, under the title ' Historia Certamiuis Apostolici,' 1566, 8vo. 



Africanua wrote a chronological work in five sections under the 

 title of ' Pentabiblos,' containing, as some learned men think, an 

 abridgment and a continuation of Manetho's work. The ' Peutabiblos ' 

 was a sort of universal history, composed to prove the antiquity of 

 true religion and the novelty of paganism. Fragments of this chro- 

 nology are extant in the works of Eusebius, Syncellus, Malala, 

 Theophanes, Cedrenus, and in the 'Chronicou Paachale.' The 'Penta- 

 biblos' commences with the creation, B.C. 5499, and closes with A.D. 

 221. The chronology of Africanua places the birth of Chriat three 

 years before the commencement of our era. But under the reign of 

 Diocletian ten years were taken from the number which had elapsed, 

 and thus the computation of the churches of Alexandria and Antioch 

 were reconciled. According to Fabricius, 'BibL Gr,' ed. nova, viii. 

 p. 9, there exista at Paris a manuscript containing an abstract of the 

 ' Pentabibloa.' Scaliger has borrowed, in hia edition of Eusebiu-;, the 

 chronology of Africanua extant in ' Geo. Syncelli Chronographia ab 

 Adamo ad Dioclesianum, a Jac. Goar, Gr. et Lat.,' Paris, 1652, fol. 



Africanus wrote a learned letter to Origen, in which he disputes the 

 authenticity of the apocryphal history of Susannah. This letter has 

 been printed at Baale, in Greek and Latin, 1674, 4to. A great part 

 of another letter of Africanus to Aristides, reconciling the disagree- 

 ment between the genealogies of Christ iu Matthew and Luke, is 

 extant in Etisebius's ' Ecclesiastical History." In order to reconcile 

 the difference between the genealogies, he has recourse to the law of 

 adoption among the Jews, by which brothers were obliged to marry 

 the wives of their brothers who died without children. 



The fact of a man so learned and intelligent aa the chronologor 

 Africanus being a Christian, refutes the error of those who think that 

 all Christians iu the first centuries of our era were illiterate. The 

 criticisms of Africanus upon the apocryphal books seem to attest that 

 he did not receive the canonical writings of the Now Testament 

 without previous examination ; and from hia manner of reconciling 

 the different genealogies of Chriat, it appears certain that ha recog- 

 nised the authenticity of the Gospels in which they occur. 



AGAMEMNON, king of Mycenoo, and commander-iu-chief of the 

 Grecian army at tho siege of Troy. According to the fabulous 

 genealogies of the poets, he was fourth in descent from Jupiter, and 

 grandson to Pelops, who came from Asia into Greece, and laid the 

 foundation of a new dynasty of princes, which soon supplanted the 

 older race of the Danai. Pelops acquired the kingdom of Pisa by 

 marriage. Atrexis, son of Pelops, beiug banished from his father's 

 house for having slain his brother Chrysippus, fled to Myoenaj, where 

 his sister's son Eurystheus, grandson of Perseus, then reigned. He 

 ingratiated himself so much with the people, that he was chosen king 

 on the death of Eurystheus, and left the sceptre to his eldest son 

 (or, some have said, grandson) Agamemnon. The dominion of 

 Myceute comprehended the northern part of Argolis, Corinth and 

 Sicyon, with the territories annexed to them, and ^Egialos, afterwards 

 called Acliaia ; thus including the whole northern coast of Pelopon- 

 nesus. Menelaus, second son of Atreus, obtained the kingdom of 

 LacediBmon by marriage with Helena, daughter of Tyndareus and 

 Leda. The southern and larger portion of Argolis, though governed 

 by a monarch of its own, was probably dependent to a great degree 

 on its more powerful neighbour of Mycenoo. It does not appear who 

 inherited tho kingdom of Pisa after Pelops ; none of the four chiefs 

 who led the Eleians to Troy were of hia family, so that the degree of 

 influence which thePelopid princes possessed over Elis can hardly bo 

 ascertained. A large portion of Measenia, according to Strabo, was 

 occupied by colonists who followed Pelops from Asia. Thus, in at 

 leaat four, probably in fivo, of the six principal divisions of Pelopon- 

 nesus (Arcadia being the one excepted), the house of Atreua had a 

 direct family interest and influence. 



The history of Agamemnon, before tho Trojan war, is comprised iu 

 two sentences : he was the son of Atreus, whence he and his brother 

 were called Atridso; and he married G'lytemnestra, sister of Helen. 



