NARSES. 



NASH, JOHN. 



430 



more congenial to a man of retired habits and moderate desires, and 

 cue in which the prosecution of his studies might be more imme- 

 diately consistent With his daily occupations ; and having given some 

 lessons in mathematics to the lute General Sir Charles Napier, he wa., 

 by the kindness of that distinguished officer, then a major in the army, 

 recommeuded as an Englishman competent to teach the art of fortifi- 

 cation in the Koyal Military College at Sandhurst ; and to that post, 

 which had till then always been filled by natives of France or 

 Germany, he was appointe.d in the beginning of 1817. A reduction in 

 the number of teachers in that branch of military art taking place 

 shortly after his appointment, he was transferred to the department 

 of mathematics in the tame institution, and he continued to act in 

 that capacity till 1820, when the senior department of the college, 

 which had been till then a separate establishment, located at Faruham, 

 was united to the junior department at Sandhurst ; and from that 

 time he conducted, in mathematics, natural philosophy, and military 

 science, the studies of commissioned officers who enter the institution 

 for the purpose of qualifying themselves to serve on the general .-taff 

 of the army. 



In 1S;JB Mr. Narrien published 'An Historical Account of the Origin 

 and Progress of Astronomy' (Baldwin and Cradock), in which an effort 

 is made to truce the gradual advances made by the human mind in 

 the attempt to account for the phenomena of the heavens, from the 

 iir-t rude conceptions of an untaught spectator, through the complex 

 machinery invented by the Egyptians or Greeks, to the sublime 

 simplicity of the system devised by Copernicus', Kepler, and Newton. 

 The work had only a limited sale, but it has not been without its use 

 in having been the means of directing many to the study of astrono- 

 mical science. He subsequently published a ' Treatise on J 'radical 

 Astronomy and Geodesy ' (Longmans, 1845), in which are contained 

 descriptions of the principal instruments employed in making astrono- 

 mical and nautical observations, and investigations of the rules by 

 which the principal phenomena of the heavens, the problems of nautical 

 astronomy, and the figure of the earth are computed. 



This last work is more immediately intended for the purposes of 

 {Detraction ; and fur the lika purpose he published his ' Plane and 

 Solid Geometry ' (Longmans). Part of this work is from the text of 

 Simpson's Euclid, the rest consisting of tracts embodying in proposi- 

 tion.-) the subject of proportion, the geometry of circles, and the 

 elementary solids, to which is added a tract on spherical geometry : 

 the first edition was published in 1842. He afterwards published a 

 work on ' Analytical Geometry and the Conic .Section.*,' to which is 

 appended ix tract on 'Descriptive Geometry" (Longman*, 1847). He 

 also contributed largely to the ' Outlines of Lectures on Fortification*,' 

 which was printed only for circulation among the students at the 

 Royal Military College. 



Mr. Narrieu wrote the article ' Architecture' which is published in 

 the 'Encyclopedia Metropolitans ;' a review of the 'Life of Napier 

 of Merchi-ton ' in the ' Westminster Review ; ' of Colonel Sabine's 

 'Pendulum Experiments' in the 'Monthly Review ;' and the article 

 'Army' in the 'Dictionary of Greek and Koman Antiquities.' In the 

 year 1835 he began to write for the ' Penny Cyclopaedia; ' and to that 

 work he contributed the articles on Fortification and the Military Art 

 in general. Many articles relating to natural philosophy in the ' Penny 

 Cj cloprcdia ' were written by him, together with notices of the lives 

 of many celebrated scientific men. He was employed on that work 

 till its completion. 



Mr. Narrien was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society 

 in 1833, and of the Royal Society in 1840. 



Except himself, and a sister who lived to the age of fifty-five, and 

 died in 1843, all the children of hia father died at early ages. In 1814 

 he married the daughter of a medical gentleman, and had the mis- 

 fortune to become a widower, without a child, in 1852. 



NARSES, the name of a eunuch who became one of the most suc- 

 cessful generals of the emperor Justinian I., and rivalled Belisarius in 

 his military triumphs. His origin and parentage are unknown. He 

 was probably by birth an Asiatic, emasculated, and sold, according to 

 the old barbarous custom of that part of the world, and employed in 

 his youth iu menial services in the imperial household of Coustau- 

 tinvi'le. Hia natural abilities and insinuating manners attracted the 

 attention of Justinian, who had certainly the tact of discerning meiit 

 in those about him. Justinian employed Nar*es about his pcrson,'and 

 raited him successively to the office of ' cubicularius,' or 'groom of the 

 bedchamber,' and afterwards to that of keeper of the emperor's privy 

 purse. 



Narses seems to have known and practised the arts of a courtier, 

 but at the name time he was also capable of better things. He was 

 cent on several mission', and at last, in A.D. 538, he was appointed to 

 the command of a body of troops which were sent to Italy to act 

 under Belinarius. [BELISARICS.] The two generals acted in concert 

 at first, and obliged the Goths to raise the si>ge of Ariminum ; but 

 they toon quarrelled, and Narses, who was supported by a party at the 

 court of Justinian, chose to act for himself: the consequence was, 

 that Belisarius was cramped in his operation*, and meanwhile the 

 Goth* and Biirgundiani took and ravaged Milan. (Procopiu*, 'Do 

 Hello Gothico,' xl. 21.) In the year 539 Justinian recalled Naiser, who 

 resumed bis places at the imperial palace. Several years after, Bell-a- 

 rias having been recalled from Italy, the state of that country fell 



I again in utter confusion ; the Goths under Totila overran the whole 



! country ; and Germanus, a nephew of the emperor, being sent with 



an army to prevent the total loss of Italy, fell ill in Daluiatia and 



I died. In 552, Justinian determined to make a last effort : he appointed 



Narses commander-in-chief of the Italian expedition, and supplied him 



I plentifully with money, with which he collected a number of auxi- 



l liaries, Herculi, Longobardi, Gepidse, and others, whom he united 



with the army of Germanus, and assembled them all near Solona. 



1 Not having sufficient vessels to embark his troops, he marched aloiu' 



| the shores of the Adriatic, through Dalmatia, Istria, and Venetia, and 



thus arrived at Ravenna, from whence, after some days' rest, he moved 



j on across the Apennines, and met Totila, who was advancing from Rome, 



at a place called Tagina, or Tadiuse, where a desperate battle took 



place, in which the Goths were completely defeated and Totila was killed . 



Narses advanced to Rome, which he took, whilst the Goths, having 



retired to Pavia, elected for their king Ttias, who moved with a fresh 



army to encounter Narses. The two armies met on the banks of the 



river Sarno, near Nocera in Campania : Teias was killed in the fight, and 



the remaining Goths entered into a convention with Narses, by which 



they laid down their arms snd withdrew to North Italy, where they 



dispersed in various parts of the country. Notlorjg after however part 



of them joined a host of Franks and Alemanui who bad crossed the 



Alps, under two brothers, called Lotheraud Buceliu,and the whole made 



an irruption into South Italy whilst Narses was besieging Lucca. The 



barbarian host advanced as far as Calabria, plundering and committing 



1 all sorts of excesses ; but on returning northwards loaded with booty, 



! they were met by Narses on the banks of the Volturno, and totally 



destroyed. The Gothic kingdom in Italy was now at an end, and the 



whole country acknowledged the authority of Justinian, who appointed 



Narses exarch of Italy, A.D. 553. Narses fixed hia residence at 



Ravenna, as the most convenient place for a prompt communication 



with Constantinople. 



During his fifteen years' administration, Narses did much to re- 

 establish order throughout Italy ; he checked the licentiousness of his 

 troope, dismissed the most turbulent of his barbarian auxiliaries, 

 appointed governors with the title of dukes to the different provinces, 

 and repressed faction and religious schism. He has been accused of 

 only one vice avarice ; he is charged with accumulating a largo 

 treasure during his residence in Italy. After the death of Justinian, 

 iu 565, the enemies of Narses obtained his recal from the emperor 

 Ju.-tirm.s II., who sent Longinus to supersede him as exarch of 

 Ravenna. It is said that Sophia, the wife of Justinus, added to the 

 letters of recal an insulting message to the purport that he ought to 

 leave to men the command over other men, and return to the use of 

 the distaff among the women of the palace ; to which Narses is said 

 to have retorted, that he would spiu~her a thread that she should not 

 be able to unravel. He is accused of having entered into a corres- 

 pondence with Alboiu, king of the Lougobards, inviting him to invado 

 Italy. This however rests upon dubious report. Narses, after giving 

 up bis command, withdrew to Naples; but soon after, upon the urgent 

 application of the Roman people, forwarded through their bishop, he 

 removed to Rome, where he died at a very advanced age in 568. 

 About the same time Alboin was crossing the Noric Alps to invade 

 Italy. (Agathias ; Paulus Diaconus ; Gibbon.) 



NARLSZEW1CZ, ADAM STANISLAUS, a voluminous Polish 

 writer, was born October 20th, 1733, and at the age of fifteen entered 

 a seminary of the Jesuits, where his abilities and application so 

 greatly recommended him to his instructors that he was sent to the 

 college of Jesuits at Lyon, and on quitting it was enabled, by the 

 liberality of his patron, Prince Czartorysky, to travel through Italy, 

 France, and Germany. Having employed the opportunity thus 

 afforded him in acquiring information and perfectiug himself iu 

 various branches of study, on his return to his native country he was 

 appointed professor of poetry at the University of Wilnn. Within n 

 short time afterwards he wus promoted to a similar professorship iu 

 the College of Nobles at Warsaw. The reputation of his talents now 

 procured for him also the notice of the king, Stanislaus Augustus, who, 

 besides other repeated marks of his favour, conferred upon him the 

 bishopric of Smolensk after the suppression of the order of the 

 Jesuits, and in 1790 that of Lukow. He died on the 6th of July 1796, 

 in hu sixty-third year. 



Besides his poems, which consist of fables, satires, pastorals, and 

 books of odea and other lyrical pieces, including several imitated 

 from Anacreon and Horace, he wrote a ' History of Poland,' in 6 vols., 

 a translation of Tacitus, a description of Taurida, a history of the 

 Grim Tartars, a translation of all the odes of Horace, and Stanislaus 

 Augustus's Journey to Kaniow iu 1786, which contains au account of 

 the origin of the Kossaks. 



NASH, JOHN, architect, was born in London in the year 1752, of 

 Welsh parents. His father was an engineer and millwright in Lam- 

 beth, who died when Nash had not reached seven years of age. 

 Nash appears to have commenced the preparation for his profes- 

 sion at an early period of life, when he wus articled to Sir Robert 

 Taylor, and he served his time in company with other young men 

 who became afterwards well known as architects. He could scarcely 

 however have had the opportunity which might have been opm to him 

 for profiting from tho school iu which he was, at least as regards the 

 grammar of architecture, iu which whatever were his merits other- 



