

67 



AGATH ARCH IDES. 



AGATHOCLES. 



68 



Amidst all his original labours, Professor Agnssiz has found time to 

 devote himself to the general literature of natural history. Ill 1842 

 he published hia ' Nomenolator Zoologicus," which contains the syste- 

 matic names of the genera of animals both living and fossil, with 

 references to the authors and the books in which they are described. 

 He also laid the foundations of the great work entitled ' Bibliographia 

 Zoologise et Geologise," which has been published in England, edited 

 by the late Hugh E. Strickland and Sir W. Jardine, Bart., in the series 

 of works issued by the Ray Society. It consists of four volumes, 

 comprising an alphabetical list of all writers on Geology and Zoology, 

 with a list of their works. We must refer to this work for a com- 

 plete list of Professor Agassiz's own writings up to the time the first 

 volume was published in 1848. 



When the chair of natural history in Edinburgh became vacant by 

 the death of the late Professor Edward Forbes, it was offered to 

 Professor Agassiz ; but he declined accepting it, preferring his honour- 

 able and wide sphere of usefulness in the New World to returning to 

 Europe, where he won the first triumphs of his great reputation. 



AGATHARCHIDES, a Greek writer on geography, a native of 

 Cnidos in Asia Minor. He lived in the time of Ptolemy Philometer, 

 king of Egypt (who reigned from B.C. 181 to 145), and wrote 

 numerous works on geography, and among them one on the 

 Erythrcean Sea. 



This work is only kuown to us by extracts from the first and fifth 

 books preserved by the Greek patriarch Photius, and some extracts in 

 Diodorus. The works of Agatharchides contained a great deal of 

 seful information, as we may fairly infer from the fragments which 

 remain. He is the earliest writer who attributes the annual rise of 

 the Nile to the periodical rains in the upper regions of that river. 

 (DiodoruB, i 41.) He has left a very minute account of the mode of 

 working the gold-mines which lay between the Nile and the Red Sea ; 

 and he is the first writer who mentioned the giraffe, a quadruped 

 peculiar to the African continent. His remarks on the mode of 

 hunting elephants, and ou the inhabitants of the Red Sea coasts, 

 prove him to have been an inquisitive and careful writer. 



What remains of Agatharchides may be seen in Hudson's 'Minor 

 Greek Geographers,' vol. i. The description of the gold-mines is also 

 to be found in Diodorus, iii. 12. 



AGATHARCHUS, a Greek painter, who apparently, from a passage 

 in Vitriivius, may be considered, if not the inventor, at least the first 

 artist who applied the laws of perspective practically in painting. He 

 painted a dramatic scene for /Eschylus in perspective, which was the 

 first work of the kind exhibited to the Greeks ; as the contemporary 

 of jEschylus therefore, he was a man of mature years about B.C. 480. 



The words " scenam fecit," in the passage in Vitruvius referred to, 

 have been interpreted, "he constructed a stage," but this interpretation 

 is shown by the context to be incorrect The whole passage is as 

 follows : " When -EschyluB was exhibiting tragedies at Athens, 

 Agatharchus made a scene, and left a treatise upon it With the 

 assistance of this treatise, Democritus and Anaxagoras wrote on the 

 same subject, showing how the extension of rays from a fixed point of 

 sight should be made to correspond to lines according to (natural 

 reason, so that the images of buildings in painted scenes might have 

 the appearance of reality ; and although painted upon flat vertical 

 surfaces, some parts should seem to recede and others to come 

 forward." 



This kind of scene-painting was termed Scenography (amivayfatftia.) 

 by the Greeks, and was sometimes practised by architects; Diogenes 

 I.aertius mentions Clisthenes of Eretria as scenograph and architect. 

 Aristotle gives Sophocles the credit of introducing scene-painting ; he 

 may have first treated it as indispensable in a dramatic representation, 

 and rendered the practice common, or Vitruvius may have erroneously 

 ascribed its introduction to /Eschylua instead of Sophocles. 



There was another Greek painter of the name of Agathitrchus, who 

 live 'd about half a century later than the above. He was contem- 

 porary with Zeuxis, and Plutarch relates an anecdote of the two, how 

 Xeuxirt reproved Agatharchus for boasting in company of the rapidity 

 with which he painted, by quietly observing that he (Zeuxis) painted 

 very slowly. This Agatharchus is the painter whom Alcibiades shut 

 up in his house until he had painted certain pictures in it The 

 circumstance is noticed by Plutarch and by Andocides, but they give 

 different accounts of the conclusion of the affair. 



(Vitruvius, viL, Pnef.; Diogenes, ii. 125; Aristotle, Poetic., iv. ; 

 Plutarch, Periclet, 13, AIM., 16; Andocides, Oral, in Alcib., 7.) 



AiiATHEMEUUS, a Greek writer who lived about the middle of 

 the 3rd century, and wrote a short treatise on general geography. 

 His work, as we possess it, is a collection of heads, or rather a kind 

 of syllabus for a set of lectures. There are two books extant, of 

 which the second is so confused and contradictory, that critics are 

 disposed to assign it to a pupil of Agatbemerus. His first chapter 

 HIS a sketch of the history of geography, with the names of 

 those who haxl rendered the moat eminent services to the science. 

 His sixth chapter treats of the spherical figure of the earth, and what 

 is now called the doctrine of the sphere, &c. (Hudson, Minor Qeo- 

 ijrapheri, vol. ii.) 



AGATHIAS, a Greek historian and poet, who lived under the 



11 .lii.-.tiniiiii und Justinus the Younger. Ho was a sou of 



McinuoniuH, and born at Myrina in Asia Minor, about A. D. 030, but 



he received his education at Alexandria, whence he went in A.D. 554 to 

 Constantinople, where his father seems to have settled during his son's 

 stay at Alexandria. Agathias now commenced studying the law, and 

 afterwards distinguished himself as a speaker in the courts of justice. 

 The title of Scholasticus (SXO^CWTIKIJS), which some writers give him, 

 and which appears in the manuscripts of his work, refers to his pro- 

 fession of advocate, for Scholasticus at that time signified an advocate. 

 But notwithstanding the great reputation he acquired, he never liked 

 his profession, which he practised, according to his own account, only 

 for the sake of gaining a livelihood : his favourite pursuits were poetry 

 and history. He was esteemed by many of the most distinguished 

 men of the time, and seems to have been rather given to courting the 

 great. Some of his epigrams contain incontrovertible proofs that 

 Agathias was a Christian. He died a short timo before the death of 

 Tiberius Thrax and the accession of Mauritius, A.D. 582. 



Agathias was the author of the following works: 'Daphniaca' 

 (Aa^piaKa), or a collection of erotic poems in hexameter verse. It 

 consisted of nine books, but is completely lost. He calls it a juvenile 

 production. 2. ' Cyclus ' (KwcAos), a poetical anthology, in which he 

 collected the poems of his contemporaries, especially of his illustrious 

 friends, and also many of his own. The collection is lost, with the 

 exception of the introduction. His epigrams, which are still extant 

 in the ' Greek Anthology," may have formed a part of the ' Cyclus : ' 

 they show that Agathias had considerable poetical talent and wit. 

 3. ' History of his Own Time,'' is the most important among hia works, 

 and is complete. It breaks off abruptly in the 25th chapter of the 

 fifth book, probably in consequence of the author's death ; for he states 

 that this history was commenced at a late period of his life. It con- 

 tains the history of the short period from A.D. 553 to 559. He appears 

 throughout this work as a good and honest man, and as a faithful 

 writer, but wanting in historical and geographical knowledge, especially 

 with regard to the West of Europe. HU language is a compound of 

 nearly all the dialects of ancient Greece, in which however the Ionic 

 predominates. Among the editions of this work the most important 

 are that of Bonaventura Vulcanius (Lugdun. 1594), those in the Paris 

 and Venice collections of the Byzantine writers, and above all that of 

 B. G. Niebuhr, which forms the third volume of the ' Corpus Scrip- 

 torum Histories Byzantinao" (Bonn, 1828, 8vo.), and contains a good 

 account of the life of Agathias, and also his Epigrams. 



AGATHOCLES, a Syracusan of low extraction, who became ruler 

 of Syracuse and great part of Sicily. The principal events in hia life 

 range between B.C. 330 and 289. He was the sou of a potter, and is 

 said to have worked at his father's trade. He was remarkable for 

 beauty, strength, and capacity for enduring labour. In the outset 

 of life he belonged to a baud of robbers ; afterwards he served as a 

 private soldier, and in that capacity gained the favour of a patron 

 named Dainas, who, being chosen general of Agrigeutum, advanced 

 him to the rank of chiliarch, or commander of a thousand men. On 

 the death of Dainas, who bequeathed his great wealth to his wife, 

 Agathocles married the widow, and became one of the richest citizens 

 of Syracuse. In this state of his fortune he distinguished himself by 

 his eloquence in the assembly of the people. But his conduct now 

 was as seditious as his former life had been profligate. 



The constitution of Syracuse, as established by Timoleon, was 

 democratical ; but in the outset of Agathocles' political life, the 

 aristocratical party, headed by Sosistratus, a personal enemy of his 

 own, drove him into exile ; and he retreated into Italy, where for some 

 time he lived as a soldier of fortune. The restoration of democracy, 

 and the banishment of Sosistratus and his friends, enabled him to 

 return. The Carthaginians interfered in behalf of these new exiles ; 

 and a war ensued, in which Agathocles bore a distinguished part : but 

 he was suspected of aiming at the tyranny, and was a second timo com- 

 pelled to quit Syracuse. In banishment he collected an army which 

 overawed both Carthage and Syracuse. After frequently defeating the 

 troops of the former, he was recalled, under the pledge of an oath 

 that he would attempt nothing against the democracy; and he was 

 chosen general and protector, for the ostensible purpose of reconciling 

 or putting down faction. Strong in the support of his own mercenary 

 troops, united with some of the poorest and most desperate of the 

 citizens, he proceeded to arrest and execute by military process the 

 leaders of the aristocratical party, and gave up their adherents to the 

 fury of his soldiery. Four thousand persons are said to have been 

 murdered, and six thousand to have fled. The wives aud children of 

 the latter, those of them who were unable to accompany the fugitives, 

 fell victims to the soldiery. 



Agathocles now declared his intention of retiring into private life ; 

 but he knew that the partners of his crimes could not maintain them- 

 selves without his countenance. At their call he consented to retain 

 his office, on condition of holding it without a colleague (B.C. 317). 

 He did not assume the state of a monarch, but exercised the powers 

 of the most absolute king, with the title of ' autocrator ; ' that is, 

 ruler according to his own pleasure. He had risen as the champion of 

 the poor; and he. fulfil led his promises by the abolition of debts aud 

 the distribution of lands. He aimed at the dominion of the whole 

 island ; and succeeded in reducing all except the subjects of Carthage. 

 Hut the Carthaginians made a strong effort to crush him. He was 

 defeated with great slaughter (B.C. 309), his subjects nearly all revolted, 

 aud he was obliged to shut himself up in Syracuse. In the following 



