A T H 



^THENjEUS, m Biography, a Gieek grammarian, was 

 born at Naiicratis in Egypt, and floiiritlied in tlie tiiirJ cen- 

 tury. Suidas has erroncoufly referred him to the time of 

 Antoninus Piuj ; but it appears from his own work (Delp- 

 iiofophill. 1. xii. p. 537. ed. Cafaub.), that he wrote after 

 the death of Commodu5, and after the time of Oppian the 

 poet. (lb. 1. ii. p. 13.) He was one of tlie moll learned 

 men of the age in which he lived ; and, for the extent of 

 his reading, and tcnacioufncfs of his memory, he has not 

 been improperly called the Varro, or Pliny, of the Greeks. 

 The only work of this author extant is a valuable com- 

 pilation from various writings, to which we have now no 

 accefs, entitled Afi^vocro^iirai, " Dcipnofophiftie," or " The 

 Table Converfation of the Sophills." In this work the 

 author has introduced a great number of learned perfons of 

 all profefiions, and reprefentcd them as converfing together 

 on a variety of fubjetls at tlie table of Lai-enfms, a citizen 

 of Rome. It contains a large collection of fafts and anec- 

 dotes, forming a rich treafure of antiquities, vv'hich ferve 

 more to amufe the reader than to fupply correft information. 

 The author has interfperfed with his feveral narrations many 

 fatirical refle6tions and fcandalous flories, which tend to 

 afperfe and degrade the characters of the philofophers of 

 wliofe names and writings he has given an account ; and, 

 therefore, the work, copious as it is in ufeful inllruftion, 

 niuft be pernfed with caution. It confifts of fifteen books ; 

 but of the two firll, part of the third, and alio of the 

 lall, we have merely an abridgment. Few works have 

 luilered more from the carclefTnefs of tranfcribers, and 

 the negligence of editors. The firft edition was publilTied by 

 Aldus Manutius, in Greek, at Venice, in IJ14, fol. ; and at 

 Bafil, in 1535, with a bad Latin tranflation by Natalis 

 Comes. Dalechamp devoted his leiiure hours, for thirty 

 years, to the tranflation of Athenaeus, which vras publifhed 

 with annotations, by Caufabon, in folio, at Leyden, in 

 1583, 1597, 1612, and 1657. This vvork was alfo tranf- 

 lated into French by Marolles in 1680. Cafaubon mentions 

 an abridgment of this work by an unknown author, and at 

 a period which he could not precifely afccrtain, though he 

 fuppofes it to have been made before the time of Euftathius. 

 Prsf. Cafaub. in Ath^"- Suidas. Gen. Dift. Fabr. Bibl. 

 Graec. 1. iv. c. 20. § 5 — 8. t. iii. p. 631, &c. 



Athen^us, a popular orator and Peripatetic philofo- 

 pher, was born at Seleucia in Cilicia, had a (hare in the go- 

 vernment, and was for fome time a demagogue in his own 

 country. In the time of Augullus he caine to Rome, and 

 became an intimate friend of Murena. He was charged 

 with being concerned in his confpiracy ; but the emperor 

 not finding him guilty, fet him at liberty. Upon his return 

 to Rome after his flight on this occafion, he repeated to 

 his friends tliefe words of Euripides : 



" Hnu; vJXjja^v xtvGfiivw y.xi ayjJ]n TrilXai AiTa;v." 

 " From death's dread feats and gloomy gates I 

 come." 

 The manner of his death was tragical, as he was crufhed 

 by the fall of his houfe. Strabo, 1. xiv. t. ii. p.987. 



Athen^eus, a mathematician, flourilhed about 200 years 

 before Chrift ; but his country is unknown. His Greek 

 treatife " On Machines of War," dedicated to Marcellus, 

 who took Syracufe in the I42d Olympiad, 2iz B.C., is 

 contained in the CoUeftion of Ancient Mathematicians, 

 publifhed in folio at Paris, in 1693. Fabr. Bib. Grxc. 1. iii. 

 c. 24. § I. t. ii. p. 587. 



Athen;eus, born at Attalia, in Cilicia, in the 9tli year of 

 cur ira, as M. Goulin conjectures, was the principal of tiie 

 feft of pneumatics. Galen, who gives a particular account 

 of the dodlrines of thefe philofophers, fays, they cfteemed 

 the qualities of cold and heat, moifture and dryncfs, as four 



A T H 



element^ entering into the compofition of all bodies. To 

 thefe a fi^th was added, called fpirit, to which Athenxus 

 attributed the motion of the pulfe. Spirit was alfo fuppofcd 

 to pervade and give life and energy to body. Galen repre- 

 fents Athensus as a voluminous writer ; no part, however, 

 of his works remains, except fome chapters prcfcn-ed by 

 Oribafius, which throw very little light on the manner in 

 which he apphed his do£lnne to practice. Le Qerc, Hill, 

 de Med. 



ATHENAGARUM, \n /Indent Geography, a diftria of 

 India ; fuppofed by major RenneU, from its fituation, to b« 



Ol'DE. 



ATHENAGORAS, in Biography, a Chriftian philofo- 

 pher, was a native of Athens, and flourifiied towards tiie clofe 

 of the fecond century. His youth was fpent among the philo- 

 fophers of his time ; and removing from Athens to Alexan- 

 dria, he became a convert to Chrillianity. The manner of 

 Ms converfion, according to Philip Sidetes, a writer of the 

 fifth century held in no high eftimation, was as follows. 

 Propofing to write againll tiie Chrillians and defirous of 

 rendering his work the more complete, he read the fcrip- 

 tures, and was thus converted. Philip adds, tliat he wa» 

 the firil prefident of the catechetical fchool of Alexandria, 

 and mailer of Clement wlio wrote the Stromata. Little 

 upon which we can rely is faid concerning Athenagoras by 

 the ancients, and his character and opinions arc chieiiy dedu- 

 ced from his own works. The principal of thefe was hit 

 " Apology for C'lirin.ian3," addreffed to Marcus Aurtlius 

 Antoninus, and Lucius Aurelius Commodus, wiiofe names 

 are prefixed to it, fays Fabricius, in all the manufcripts ; and 

 probably written about tlie year 177 or 178. In thii 

 work he repels the calumnies of the pagans againil the doc- 

 trines and manners of the Cluilliauj. He alio explains the 

 notions of the Stoics and Peripatetics, concerning God and 

 divine things, and expofes witii accurate and ftrong reafon- 

 iiigs their rtipeclive errors. He difcovers much partiality 

 for the fyftem of Plato, and fupports his arguments by the 

 authority of this philofopher, and hence he has been ranked 

 among the Piatonifing lathers. In what he advances con- 

 cerning God and the Logos, or divine rcafon, he evidentlr 

 blends the doftrines of Paganifm with the doctrines of 

 Chrillianity. According to Athenagoras, God is underived, 

 indivifible, and dilbnCl from matter ; there are middle na- 

 tures between God and Matter; trom the beginning, God, the 

 eternal mind, being from eternity rational, had the Logos 

 within himfelf ; the fon of God is the reafon of the Father 

 in idea and energy ; for fincc the father and fon are one, by 

 him and through him all things arc made ; the Logos was 

 produced, that the ideas of all things might fubfiil, and 

 they are contained in his fpirit. On the imperfedl and un- 

 traAable nature of matter, on angels, demons, and other na- 

 tures compounded of matter and fpirit, and on other philo- 

 fophical topics, Athenagoras realons with all the fubtlety 

 of the Grecian feiiools, lo that in every page he is fecn to 

 have been by profcffion a philofopher ; and indeed he is faid 

 to have retained the name and habit of a philolopher with 

 a view of gaining greater credit to tlie Chrillian doctrine 

 among tiie unconverted heathens. In moral philofophy, he 

 adopted the common aullerities, particularly with refpcCl to 

 marriage. He rcprcients celiliacy as meritorious, and fe- 

 cond marriages as legalifed adultery. In Athenagoras's 

 "Difcourfe of the RefurreC'tion of the Dead," probably 

 written after the " Apology," he argues rather from reafou 

 than fcripture, in order to prove the poflibility and fitnefs 

 of a refurrcdion. His writings, upon tlic whole, manifell 

 an happy union of Attic elegance with philoCophical pene- 

 tration ; fo that he is reckoned a polite writer, and his 

 Greek i* Attic, though his llyle is rendered lefs agi-ceable 

 Bb2 by 



