. 



ATKYX? 



OBERT. 



ATTAU-.- 1. 



400 



a new edition, for which John Leusden wrote the summaries and a 

 preface; The aeoond edition of thu Bible, published in 1667, in two 

 volumes octavo, raoeired considerable correction*. The editions of 

 the Bible published by Athiai were more correct than any former 

 editions: they nevertheless contain many inaccuracies, especially in 

 the rowel point*, and Mill more in the accent*. The edition of Athiai 

 waf bitterly attacked by Samuel Mareiiut, in a letter published in 

 1669. A reply to this letter wat published under the following title : 

 ' CSKUI de Coloribus, hoc eat, Joseph! Athiio justa Defensio contra 

 inepUm, absurdam, et indoctam Reprehanaionem Viri celeb. D. Sam. 

 Hareeii,' Ac. It baa been supposed that Leusden, writing in the name 

 of Xlhiaa, was the author of this reply. Notwithstanding its defects, 

 the Hebrew Bible of Athias had great merit, and bits been the basia 

 of all subsequent editions. The editions of Clodius, Jablonski, Van 

 der Hooght, Opitx, Michaclii, Hahn. Uoubirant, Simonis, Reineccius, 

 Hurwitz, and other*, may be considered as improvements upon that 

 of Athias. The Bible of Allans was the first in which verses were 

 marked with Arabic cyphers, all former editions having ouly the 

 JewUh method of notation. 



Athiu printed the Bible also in Spanish, Jewish German (or that 

 jargon miked with Hebrew which is spokeu by the Russian and Polish 

 and some German Jew*), and Engli.-h. On the completion of his 

 Hebrew Bible, the States General of Holland presented a gold chain 

 and medal to Athiaa. His death took place in 1700, when he was 

 carried off by the plague. His son Emanuel Ben Joseph Athias suc- 

 ceeded him in hi* business, and fully maintained the reputation of the 

 establishment The most celebrated production of his press was an 

 elesant liltle edition of the Hebrew Bible, edited by Nunez Torres, 

 with the commentary of Rashi, 4 vols. 18uio, A.M. 5460-6463 (1700- 

 1703.) 



(Woolfi, Iliklir,(/irca llrbraica, torn. L p. 552-554 ; Le Long, Bibliolh. 

 Sac., part L p. 116, &c. ; Emlcitung in dot Alle Tatament, von Eich- 

 horn.) 



A.TKYNS, SIR ROBERT, a judge of the Court of Common Pleas 

 during the reign of Charles II., and Lord Chief Baron after the revo- 

 lution, was an eminent lawyer, duttinguUhed for attachment to popular 

 rights and for uprightness and independence of conduct during a 

 period of judicial profligacy and subserviency. He was descended 

 from an ancient and opulent family in Gloucestershire ; and it has 

 been remarked as a singular circumstance, that for more than 300 

 years consecutively, some member of this family always presided in 

 one of the superior courts of law. His father, Sir Edward Atkyns, 

 was a judge of the Court of Common Pleas during the Common- 

 wealth, and shared with Hale, Rolle, Wyndham, and other juilgen, 

 the merit of the various improvement* in the administration of the 

 law which took place at that period. Immediately after the Restora- 

 tion, Sir Edward Atkyns was named as one of the judges in the special 

 commission for the trial of the regicides, and appointed a Baron of 

 the Exchequer. He continued to hold the office of Baron of the Ex- 

 chequer till hi* death, which took place in 1669, at the age of 82. 

 Sir Robert Atkyns was born in 1621; he received the rudiments of 

 hi* education at hi father's house in Gloucestershire, and was after- 

 wards entered at Ballio! College, Oxford, where he spent several yean. 

 He was called to the bar in 1646 by the Society of Lincoln's Inn, 

 of which his grandfather and father had been members. He was 

 made a Knight of the Bath at the coronation of Charles II., and 

 was returned to the first parliament of Charles II. for the borough 

 of East Looe. He continued to hold his seat till he was raised to 

 the Bench; and from the frequent mention of his name on com- 

 mittee*, and in the general busineas of the House, he appear* to 

 have devoted much of bis time to parliamentary duties. Long 

 before hi* appointment to the Bench he had acquired extensive prac- 

 tice and a high reputation at the bar. In 1661 h was chosen recorder 

 of Bristol ; and in the early part of the year 1672 he was made a 

 judge of the Court of Common Pleas, having been for some time 

 before Solicitor-General to the Queen. In his judicial station he main- 

 tained hi* general character for learning and independence, though, 

 from hi* language and conduct on the trial* of the Jesuit priests and 

 other persons charged with the Popish Plot in 1679, he appear* to 

 have partaken of the delusion which pervaded the country respecting 

 that transaction. 



Io 1680 however the conduct of the court party, who were then 

 preparing the way by the corruption of the judge* for the introduction 

 of arbitrary meaaureo, drove him from the bench : but whether he 

 was oUmiaaed or resigned voluntarily is unknown. In 1682 be re- 

 signed the recordership of Bristol Having taken part in a civic 

 lection there, the proceedings of which were alleged to be irregular, 

 thf virulence of party-spirit led the mayor and corporation, who were 

 violent opponent* of Sir Robert Atkyns, to indict him, with two other 

 persons, for a riot and conspiracy. He was tried at tho Bristol asaiie* 

 and found guilty ; but on moving the case into tho court of King's 

 Bench, judgment waa arrested upon a technical error in the 

 nwnt Hut the party object was effected, for Sir Robert immediately 

 raigned hi* neordenhip. 



On leaving the beach. Sir Robert Atkyns withdrew from all public 

 occupation to hi* seat in Gloucestershire, where ho lived for some 

 year, in great seclusion. It is clear however from his writings, that 

 during hi* retirement h* viewed with deep interest the political tran- 



sactions of the time ; and he cannot be supposed to have been indif- 

 ferent to the desperate course which the government were pursuing. 

 In 1683, when the memorable trial of Lord William Ruascl took place, 

 Sir Robert Atkyns furnished the accused with a detailed note of such 

 pointa of law and fact a* he might legally and prudently insist upon 

 on hi* trial After the revolution he published two pamphleta/cntitled 

 ' A Defence of Lord Russet's Innocency,' in which he argue* against 

 the sufficiency of the indictment and the evidence, and justifies the 

 reversal of the attainder, with great force of language and solidity of 

 reasoning. In 1689 he published a tract, entitled 'The Power, Juris- 

 diction, and Privilege of Parliament, and the Antiquity of the House 

 of Commons, asserted.' The occasion of this tract was the prosecu- 

 tion of Sir William Williams by the attorney-general, for having, as 

 s|>eaker of the House of Commons, and by express order of the House, 

 directed Dangerfield's 'Narrative' to be printed. The object of 

 Atkyns's argument, which displays much research and great legal and 

 historical learning, was to show that this was entirely a question of 

 parliamentary jurisdiction, of which the Court of King's Bench ought 

 not to take cognisance. The statement of Howell ('State Trial,' xiii. 

 p. 1380), that Sir Robert Atkyns personally argued the case for the 

 defendant, is undoubtedly a mistake. 



In the reign of James II. he composed another legal argument, the 

 subject of which was the king's power to dispense with penal statutes, 

 and which was suggested by tho well-known case of Sir Edward 

 Hales. In this treatise, he considers at large the doctrine of the king's 

 dispensing power. It is clearly and candidly written, and the truth 

 of the reasoning against the royal prerogative contended for by the 

 judges in Hales'* case will hardly be denied at the present day. Sir 

 Robert Atkyns was returned to the ouly parliament called by James II., 

 as representative of the county of Gloucester; but he does not appear 

 to have taken any active part in the debates. 



After the revolution, Sir Robert Atkyns received numerous marks 

 of distinction. In 1689 ho was appointed Chief Baron of the Ex- 

 chequer, and later in the same year, he was chosen speaker of the 

 House of Lords. During the long vacation in 1694, Sir Robert 

 Atkyus, being then in his 74th year, retired from public life and took 

 up his abode at his Beat, Saperto'n Hall, near Cirencester, in tiloucester- 

 shire. He died early in the year 1709. In 1784 his published 

 writings were collected into one volume, under the title of ' Parlia- 

 mentary and Political Tracts.' By his second wife Anne, daughter of 

 Sir Thomas Dacres, of Clieshunt, in Hertfordshire, he had a son, 

 Robert, who was knighted upon a visit of Charles II. to Bristol coon 

 after the Restoration, and who was the author of the ' History of 

 Glo'stershire.' He died in 1711, aged 65. 



A'TTALUS, emperor of the West for one year, was bora in Ionia, 

 and brought up a pagan, but received baptism from an Ariun bishop. 

 He was a senator of Rome, under the reign of Honorius, and was sent 

 by the Romans to that emperor at Ravenna, to represent to him the 

 difficult situation of the capital, threatened at that time by Aluric, 

 and to advise him to fulfil the conditions of a treaty which he had 

 concluded with that Gothic chief. Honoriua refused, and Alaric being 

 joined by his brother-in-law, Ataulphus, laid siege to Rome, of which 

 Attains was then prefect Alaric proclaimed Attains emperor instead 

 of Honorius, and required the Romans to swear allegiance to him, 

 A.D. 409. On his coins he is called Flaviua Priscus Attains. After 

 assuming the title he went with an army of Romans and Goths to 

 besiege Honorius in liavenna, when the emperor sent him messengers 

 offering to associate him in the empire, but Attains refused to 

 to tho proposals. Attains however having opposed Alaric in some of 

 his view*, was immediately deposed ty the Gothic chief. After this, 

 Alaric again besieged Rome, took it, and gave it up to pillage in August, 

 410. Upon Alaric'a death, Attains accompanied his successor, Ataul- 

 phus, into Gaul. When, in 414, Ataulphus married Placidia, the 

 sister of Honorius, in the town of Narbo, Attains song an epitha- 

 lamium which he had composed for the occasion. Ataulphus seeing 

 Honoriu* persisting in his hostility to him, proclaimed Attalus emperor 

 once more; but hi* restored dignity was merely nominal. After the 

 death of Ataulphus, his successor, Vallia, concluded peace with Hono- 

 rius ; and Attalus endeavoured to escape the emperor's vengeance, but 

 was taken at sea in 416, and, by Honorius's order, banished to the 

 island of Lipari, after having had the thumb and forefinger of his 

 right hand out off a punishment with which he had threatened 

 Honoriu*. (Zoaimu* ; Orosiui ; Gibbon.) 



A'TTALUS 1., king of a small but wealthy and populous country in 

 the north- western part of Asia Minor, of which Pergamus (properly 

 Pergamum) was the capital. The name of Asia was specially applied 

 by tho Romans to this country. Attalus was the son of Attalus, 

 youngest brother of Philetrorus, and cousin to Kumencs L, whom ho 

 succeeded B.C. 241. His mother'* name was Autiochis, daughter of 

 Acheous (Strab., 624). Before B.C. 226 he had extended his authority 

 over the whole of Alia Minor, west of Mount Taurus (Polyb. iv. 48). 



He first assumed the regal title after a victory over the Gauls, who 

 had taken possession of that part of the country called after them 

 Galatia (Liv. ; Polyb.; Strabo). At the time when the Rhodians and 

 inhabitants of Byzantium were preparing to make war on each other, 

 in consequence of the Byzantines having imposed a tax on all vessels 

 entering the Euxine (about B.C. 221), Attalus espoused tho cause of 

 the Byaantines, though he could be of no essential service, as he had 



