JE T I 



•to the aequifition- of literature at Alexandria in h'n ma- 

 turer year;; and in this city lie learned tlie art of phyfic, 

 wliiih Ik- lionourab'.y praaificl for the bonelit of ihofe who 

 •needed his advice. From Alexandria lie returned to An- 

 tioch, where he was ord lined deacon, as fome fay, by 

 Leontius, biluop of tliat city ; or, according to Epiphunius, 

 by George the Arian, bilhop of Alexandria. He Icems to 

 have been a< man of found underllandiiig and conliderable 

 knowl.-dj^c, ihonijh his acquaintance with the more an- 

 ticnt Chrii^iaii writers was partial and imperfecl. As he 

 had adopted the fcntiments of Arius, and had acquired 

 the talents of an able and invincible difputant ; whom, 

 favs Gibbon, (Hill. vol. iii. p. 340) it was impofiible either 

 to filence or to convince, he was baniflied by Coiillantius, 

 whofe timid confcience, fays the hiilorian (Id. p. 354) was 

 alarmed by the impiety of ^tius, into a remote part of 

 Phrj'Ria, I. e. fays' Gibbon, citinjj Philollorgius (iiH fupra 

 p. y/<) to Amblada, a dlllrid inhabited by favages, and 

 infeilcd by war and peftilence; but he was rcftorcd by 

 Julian, who honoured him with his patronage, and gave 

 him an eflatc neax, Mitylene in Leftos, where he fonietimes 

 rcfided; though he probably died at Conllantinople, and 

 was there buried bv Euuomiiis and his other frienifc in a 

 very refpedful manner. The difpleafure of the Catholics 

 againll yEtius was fo great, that they Itigmatized him vvitli 

 the odious appellation of Atheill. Epiphanius has pre- 

 fei-ved a fmall book of ./Etius concerning the faith, confift- 

 ing of 47 propofitions or fhort chapters, which he has an- 

 fwercd ; and he alfo fays, from report, that ^tius had 

 compofed 300 fuch chapters. He is faid to have held a 

 public difputation with Apthonius, the Manichean, of 

 Alexandria, and to have obtained fo complete a viclory 

 over him, that he died of grief feven days after. He was 

 the founder of a feci called ^ti an s. Lardner's Works, 

 vol. iii. p. 396. vol. iv. p. 122. 



.ffixius, called .,^m/V/ifm«, from yfmiila in Mefopolamia, 

 the place of his birth, flouriflied at Alexa.ndria, about the 

 end of the fifth centur)-, as Friend clearly demonftrates, 

 from feveral paflages in his works, in which reference is 

 made to St. Cyril, who died in 444 ; and to Petrus Archi- 

 ator, who was phyfician to Theodoric. He left fixteen 

 books divided-into four /c/raArWw, on the practice of phyfic 

 and furgery, principally coUefted from Galen and other 

 earlier writers, but with fome original obfervations. " We 

 find many palTages, Friend obferves, in this author, to con- 

 vince U3 how much the actual and potential cautei-y Were 

 then in ufe ; particularly in a pally. He fays from Ar- 

 chigencs, that he fhould not at all hefitate to make an 

 efchar either way, and this in feveral places ; one in the 

 nape, where the Ipinal marrow takes its rife ; two on each 

 fide of it, inc. and if the ulcers continue running a good 

 while, he fhould not doubt of a perfeft recovery." The late 

 Mr. Pott revived this practice in the palfy of the lower 

 limbs, applj-ing his caultics in thofe cafes on each fide of 

 the fpine, a little above the facnim, induced to it we have 

 no doubt, from reading this paflage ; and the practice is 

 now general, and is frequently attended with complete fuc- 

 cefs, fo that it feems wonderful phyficlans do not ufe them 

 in hemiplegia, and in other fimilar untraceable difeafes. 

 .ffitius is the earlieft writer who afcribed medical efBcacy to 

 the external ufe of the magnet. But this he does upon re- 

 port, and not from his own experience. " Tradunt (fays he) 

 magmtem delentum manu chiragrorum ac podagncorum dolores 

 ipforum Jcdare. Mqui convuljls opitulatiir. It is reported 

 that thofe who are afflided with the gout in their hands or 

 feet, or with convulfions, are relieved by holding a magnet 

 ifl tlieir hands." The works of Mum were tranflated into 



JET I 



Latin by Janus Cornarins, a phyfician of Frankfort, and 

 publifhed, accompanied with the Greek, at Bade, 1542, 

 in folio. Henry Stephens has inferted them iu his editiou 

 of Medici principes, printed at Geneva, 1567. The lad 

 and bed edition is that of Franz at Leipzig in 1777. 



^Tius, whofe father was Guudentius, an iHuilrioufS 

 citizen of the province of Scythia, and niaftcr-general of 

 the cavalry, and mother a rich and noble Italian, was one 

 of the generals of Piacldia, the mother of V'alentinian 

 III. who reigned 25 years in the name of her fon. 



jttins ferved at firft among the troops of the emperor's 

 houfehold, and after the battle of Polcntiain 403, he wak 

 delivered as an hollage to Alaric, and afterwards to the 

 Huns with whofe chiefs he became intimately acquainted. 

 His llature, which was tall and majellic, and his conftitu- 

 tion, which was robuft, litted him for the duties and toils of a 

 military' life. He is alfo co;nmcnded by the ancients for 

 his prudence and addrefs in the conduct of political bu- 

 finefo, as well as tor his intrepidity and experience in war. 

 His regard to jullice wa? fo liricl, that no temptation could 

 induce him to deviate from the exercifc of it. On his re- 

 turn from the country of the Huns he married the dau'^h- 

 ter of Carpilio, tlie captain of the guards ; and was em- 

 ployed in offices of high truH in the empire. When Mar- 

 feilles was attacked by Ataulphus, /-itius and Count Bo- 

 niface were united in its defence ; and thefe two great 

 commanders are faid to have deferved the diftinguifiiing 

 appellation of the laft Romans. They were unhappily 

 rivals, and their mutual jealoufy and diicord teiTninated in 

 the lofs of Africa and the death of Boniface. After the . 

 death of Honorius, the empire was ufurped by John his 

 chief fecretaiy, and iEtius connected himfelf with the 

 ufui-per, and was employed to procure the afiillance of the 

 Huns. John, however, was. foon cut off; and iEtius with- 

 in three days entered Italy with 60,000 Huns, who ferved 

 to fecure to him a reconciliation with Placidia, and who, by 

 a grant of the province of Pannonia, were prevailed upon 

 to return into their own countiy. Having induced Placidia 

 to recal Boniface from his government of Africa, and at 

 the fame time advifed him not to comply, he was the caufe 

 of the revolt of his rival, and the lofs of Africa; and the 

 difcovery- of this fraud produced a civil war between thefe 

 two commanders, which terminated in the death of Boni- 

 face, and in the exile of jEtius to the court of Rugilas, 

 king of the Huns, in Pannonia. He foon returned, how- 

 ever, to his own countiy; ar.d he was indebted to their 

 alliance for his fafety and relloratioii. Inflead of the fup- 

 pliant language of a guilty exile, he folicited his pardon 

 at the head of a large army of barbarians; and the em- 

 prefs Placidia was under a neceiTity of forgetting his re- 

 bellion and his treacheiy, and of delivering herfelf, her fon 

 Valentinian and the Weftern empire, into the hands of an 

 infolent fubjcCl. The fortunate TEtius, who was im.ine- 

 diately promoted to the rank of patrician, and thrice in- 

 vefted with the honours of the confulfliip, affumed, with 

 the title of Mailer of the cavalry and infantry, the whole 

 military power of the ftate ; and he is fometimes ilyled, 

 by cotemporary writers, the duke or general of the Ro- 

 mans of the Weft. The Gothic hiftorian, Jornandes, in- 

 genuoufly confeffcs, that ^tius was born for the falvation 

 of the Roman republic ; and in the eulogium which a cor- 

 temporary hiftorian" bellows upon him, he favs that his 

 mind and body were alike capable of the moft laborious 

 efforts : that he pofTefled the genuine courage, that can 

 defpile not only dangers but injuries, and that it was im- 

 poffible either to corrupt, or deceive, or intimidate the 

 tirm integrity of his foul. But thefe lavifh praifes are not 



very 



