ATHEX.l 



out to SM by hi* orders in tempestuous weather in an open and 

 battered boat, with only a tingle companion ; but the (tor? U beset 

 with difficultirs. At far as the events of tboee time* hare come down 

 to ns, it would aeem that Athelstan oonUmplated making himself 

 mulnr of the whole Uland of Britain, not excepting the parti which 

 farmed the kingdom of Scotland. He did not accomplish all this, but 

 he gained territory from the chief* who held Cornwall, and tribute (if 

 not territory) from iioel, the then sovereign of Wale*. The chroni- 

 cler* represent him a* permitting llool still to reign, and aaying that 

 U wa more gloriout to make king* than to b a king. After eome 

 sucorssful attacks upon Sigtrio, king of Northurubria, be consented to 

 term* of peace, and gave one of hit suters in marriago to that king. 

 Sigtric however soon died, whin AtheliUn seised upon his dominions, 

 AnUff, the son of Sigtric, and another son, being compelled to abandon 

 the Uland. Neither Scotland, nor any other of the neighbouring states 

 which still maintained a political independence, saw with satisfaction 

 the growing power of Atbelttan ; and Aulaff, the exiled son of Sigtnc, 

 made every exertion to regain the sceptre which had been forcibly 

 wrested from him. A largo portion of the inhabitants of Northunrbrm 

 were of the Danish race, aud they yielded on that account the more 

 reluctantly to their new muter. There was a national sympathy aud 

 community of interest with the Danes and Northmen generally, of 

 which Anlaff took advantage, and prevailed with them to send a very 

 powerful foros to assist him in re-establishing the Northumbrian 

 sovereignty. On this occasion the Welsh, the Scots, and the Irish, all 

 combined to assist Anlaff. Athelstan had however by that time con- 

 solidated his power by his prudent couutels and good government, and 

 the issue of the war contributed to establish still more securely his 

 power at home, and to extend his reputation abroad. lie marched 

 against the confederated chiefs ; the armies engaged at a place called 

 by the early chroniclers Bruuenburgh, and Atheistau gained a com- 

 plete victory. The victory at Brunenburgh became known as the 

 Great Battl-, and is celebrated alike in Suxon history and Saxon song, 

 and among the Saxon poems which have come down to us is a very 

 remarkable one devoted to the battle of Bruneuburgh and the glory 

 of AtheUtan. 



One effect of this victory was to extend the name and reputation of 

 AtheUtan beyond his own shores, lie had from that time great 

 influence in the affairs of neighbouring kingdoms. His sisters were 

 given in marriage to the sou of the emperor of Germany, to the 

 princes of France and Aquitaine, and to a northern chief. Louis, 

 afterwards Louis IV., Hucoa, afterwards king of Norway, and an 

 expelled duke of Brittany took refuge in England, and sought 

 AtheUtan' s assistance for the recovery of their dominions; and the 

 evidence of foreign contemporary historians, as collected by Mr. 

 Sharon Turner in his ' History of the Anglo-Saxons,' shows the high 

 respect in which Athelstan was held by the continental sovereigns and 

 nation*, lie may indeed almost be said to have held the balance of 

 power for some years among the kings of the continent. 



AtheUtan died at Gloucester, October 25, 941, being only in his 

 47th year. lie was buried under the altar of the abbey at Maliues- 

 bury. His life, as William of Malmesbury said, " was in time little, 

 in action great ; " and there cannot be a doubt that under him England 

 was advancing in consequence as one of the powers of Europe, and in 

 civilisation and improvement in her internal affairs. Athelstan had 

 no family and was succeeded by Edmund, his brother. 



AtbeUtan did not labour more to secure his throne and to extend 

 his powrr and political influence than to give security and legal govern- 

 ment to his people. Alfred had left a code of laws to which AtueUtan 

 mad* additions, the principle on which he proceeded being to bring all 

 classes, the ecclesiastics as well as others, within the scope of certain 

 great principles. There are traces in bis laws of a public provision 

 for some of the poorest and most destitute of his subjects. Himself 

 of a studious as well as religious turn, he promoted the erection of 

 monasteries, which was in fact at once to provide seats and centres of 

 religious ministration, aud places for retirement and security to persons 

 devoted to study; and he encouraged the translation of the Holy 

 Scriptures into the vernacular tongue. Two very ancient manuscripts, 

 which there U sufficient reason to believe once belonged to Athelstan, 

 re preserved among the (ottoman Manuscripts in the British Museum. 

 On* of them is supposed to be the very copy of the QospeU on which 

 the Saxon kings took the oath at their coronation. 



ATIIKNJIUS. 



silver, nrltiih Ma 

 OB (Ids sola the name U written < Kdolnan.' 



ATHF.N^US, a native of Naucratis in the Delta of Bgypt, was a 

 contemporary of the Emperor Commodns, for be saw Commodus 

 riHing in a chariot, equipped in the style of Hercules ( Deipnosoph.,' 

 xii. 687). Athensous went from Egypt to Rome ; but of his life nothing 



further is known. Besides a history of the Syrian kings (v. 211), 

 which is lost, he wrote a work, in fifteen books, entitled AdTroffo^iOTa/, 

 or ' Feast of the Wise Men,' as it is generally translated, although it 

 would be more conformable to the analogy of the language to translate 

 it the ' Feast-learned,' that is, the skilled in devising what is good for 

 a feast: it has also been rendered 'Contrivers of Feasts.' The first 

 two books and the beginning of the third are only extant in the form 

 of an epitome ; the rest of the work u complete, or nearly so. The 

 author represents himself as describing to bis friend Timocrates an 

 entertainment at the house of Larensius, a wealthy and learned Uoman, 

 who had been promoted by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius to the super- 

 intendence of sacred things and sacrifices. Larensius, it is also said, 

 was well acquainted with the learning of the Greeks, was the compiler 

 of a body of law from old enactments, and he possessed an unrivalled 

 collection of Greek books. The entertainment was not confined to 

 eating aud drinking ; it was also a feast of words. Larensius collected 

 at Ina banquet many distinguished men, and proposed to them various 

 curious matters for discussion. In an introduction prefixed to the 

 first book, the epitomist gives a list of these distinguished guests, 

 among whom were Masurius, an expounder of law ; ,Eimli.umi of 

 Mauritania; Zoilus; Ulpiauus of Tyre; Galenua of Pergamus, the 

 author of numerous philosophical and medical treatises; Itufiuus of 

 Nicfflo, and others. The death of Ulpian U mentioned in the work 

 (xv. 689), and it is generally assumed that this Ulpian is the < 

 guished Roman jurist. Ulpian, the jurist, was murdered by the 

 Prsetorian soldiers in the presence of the emperor Alexander Severus 

 and his mother, in A D. 22S. But there are no sufficient reasons for 

 supposing that this Ulpian is the jurist; aud on the supposition that 

 he is, the chronological difficulties as to the date of the feast are con- 

 siderable, for the feast would be held, according to that supposition, 

 in A.D. 228, at the house of Lareusius, a man who had received the 

 highest honours from Marcus Aurelius, at least forty-eight years 

 before; and Athenteus represents himself as present at the entertain- 

 ment. But in fact the passage in which Atheureus speaks of Larcusius 

 being honoured by Marcus, rather implies that Larensius was then 

 enjoying hU honours under Marcus, which would fix the supposed 

 date of the feast in the reign of Aurelius, and altogether dispose of 

 Ulpian the j'urist And this passage is probably the foundation of the 

 statement in Suidas that Atheuaous lived in the time of Marcus. Com- 

 modus also was associated with hu father in the empire, and Athentnus 

 might therefore properly cull him luiperator in his father's lifetime. 



Athemcus dramatised his dialogue, as his epitomist says, in imita- 

 tion of Plato. The first few lines of the first book are given in the 

 epitome in their origins! form, which begins with a conversation 

 between Athenams and Timocrates, and U manifestly an imitation of 

 the ' Phtodon ' of Plato. Timocratex asks Athenams to report to him 

 the conversation at the table of Lareusius, and accordingly Athenacus 

 begins. The dramatic interest of a work could not be sustained on 

 such a plan, and in tliis respect the ' Deipnosophists ' has no value. 

 The speakers discourse at great length, and are continually quoting 

 passages from the Greek writers. The object of the author was to 

 exhibit his extensive and multifarious reading, and with this view he 

 makes the conversation turn on all subjects. The summaries that are 

 printed in the editions of Schweighaeuser and Diudorf give as good a 

 notion of the diversified matter of the book as any longer description. 

 The first book begins, according to the epitome, with a list of the 

 guests, which is followed by a panegyric on the host ; it then men- 

 tions the libraries of certain persons, certain great banquets, verses 

 adapted to different dishes, the ' Gatronomia ' of Archestratus, writers 

 on feasts, the gluttony of Philoxenus and Apicius, and so on. The 

 latter part of the first book treats of various kinds of wines, and the 

 subject is continued hi the second book. This second book is curious 

 for the long list of vegetable products which wore used at the tables of 

 the ancients. Though the pleasures of the table, and the eatables and 

 drinks that contribute thereto, are the main matter of the work (the 

 seventh book, for instance, is nearly all about fish), an infinite variety 

 of anecdotes and curious facts are interspersed. But the most valuable 

 part of the work consuls in the numerous extracts from lost writers. 

 It is said that tho number of lost works which Atlicmum mentions is 

 fifteen hundred; and the whole number of writers that he cites is 

 about seven hundred, many of whom would be otherwise unknown. 

 Of the poets of the middle comedy, he says that he had read and 

 extracted above eight hundred plays (viii. 330). Such a work as this 

 enables us to form some estimate of the prodigious mass of Greek 

 literature, of which we only possess a small portion. 



The authors from whom he gave extracts comprise a period extend- 

 ing from Homer; tho lyric poeta Alcams and Sappho and A nacreon; 

 the philosophical poets Xenophanes of Colophon and Krapedocles ; the 

 historians Xanthus, llecatoma of Miletus, and Herodotus, down to 

 1 1 erodes Atticus, the rhetorician, who died probably about n.c. 180. 

 Hephtcetion, the grammarian, U also mentioned as a contemporary 

 by Athemeus. Though there is much about Alexander the Great, 

 Athenams does not quote Arrian, but this involves no difficulty, for 

 A rriau's work would not contain so much to his purpose as the then 

 extant works on Alexander's period. The quotations from the poets, 

 and especially the Attic comic writers, are the most numerous, but 

 there is also a considerable amount of extract from the orators and 

 historians. The fifteenth book contains many soolia aud other email 



