A G A 
cle; on the other fide, the phafes of vefper, or the even- 
ing-ftar: whence he denominated it an aphrodifian agate. 
An agate is mentioned by Kircher, on which was the re- 
prefentation of a lieroine armed ; and one in the church 
of St. Mark, in Venice, has the reprefentation of a king’s 
head adorned with a diadem. On another, in the mufae- 
um of the prince of Gonzaga, was reprefented the body 
of a man with all his clothes in a running pofture. A ftill 
more curious one is mentioned by de Boot, wherein ap¬ 
pears a circle (truck in brown, as exactly as if done with 
a pair of compalfes, and in the middle of the circle the 
exadl figure of a bithop with a mitre on: but, inverting 
the flone a little, another figure appears; and, if it is 
turned yet further, two others appear, the one of a man 
and the other of a woman. But the Inoft celebrated agate 
of this kind is that of Pyrrhus, wherein were reprefented 
the nine Mufes, each with their proper attributes, and 
Apollo in the middle playing on the harp. In the empe¬ 
ror’s cabinet is an oriental agate of a furprifing bignefs, 
being fafhioned into a cup, whofe diameter is an^ell aba¬ 
ting two inches. In the cavity is found delineated in black 
fpecks, b. xristor. s. xxx. Other agates have alfo 
been found, reprefenting the numbers 4191, 191; whence 
they were called arithmetical agates, as thofe reprefenting 
men or women have obtained the name of anthropomorphous. 
Great medicinal virtues were formerly attributed to the 
agatej fuch as refilling poifons, efpecially thofe of the 
viper, fcorpicu, and fpider; but they are now very juftly 
rejected from medicinal practice. 
Agates may be ftained artificially with folution of filver 
in fpirit of nitre, and afterwards expofing the part to the 
fun; and though thefe artificial colours difappear on lay¬ 
ing the fione for a night in aquafortis, yet a knowledge of 
the prafticability of thus fiaining agates, mull render thofe 
curious figures above-mentioned firongly fufpedfed of be¬ 
ing the work not of nature, but of art. Some account 
for thefe phenomena from natural caufes. Thus, Kir¬ 
cher, who had feen a (lone of this kind in which were de- 
pidfed the four letters ufually inferibed on crucifixes, 
I. N. R. I. apprehends that fome real crucifix had been 
buried under ground, among ftones and other rubbilh, 
where the infeription, happening to be parted from the 
crofs, and to be received among a foft mould or clay fuf- 
ceptible of the imprefiion of the letters, came afterwards 
to be petrified. In the fame manner he fuppofes the agate 
of Pyrrhus to have been formed. Others refolve much 
of the wonder into fancy, and: fuppofe thofe fiones formed 
in the fame manner with the camieux or Florentine ftones. 
The agate is ufed for making cups, rings, feals, handles 
for knives and forks, hilts for fwords and hangers, beads 
to pray with, fmelling-boxes, patch-boxes, See. being cut 
or fawed with no great difficulty. 
Confiderable quantities of thefe ftones are ftill found 
near the river Achates in Sicily. There are found in fome 
of thefe the furprifing reprefentations above-mentioned, 
or others fimilar to them. By a dexterous management 
of thefe natural ftains, medals have been produced, which 
feem mafter-pieces of nature : for this (lone bears the 
graver W'ell; and, as pieces of all magnitudes are found 
of it, they make all forts of work of it. The high altar 
of the cathedral of Meffina is all over encrufted with it. 
The lapidaries pretend that the Indian agates are finer 
than the Sicilian; but Father Labat informs us, that in 
the fame quarries, and even in the fame block, there are 
found pieces much finer than others, and thefe fine pieces 
are fold for Indian agates in order to enhance their price. 
Agate, among antiquaries, denotes a ftone of this 
kind engraven by art. In this fenfe, agates make a fpe- 
cies of antique gems; in thp workmanfhip whereof we 
find eminent proofs of the great (kill and dexterity of the 
fculptors. Several agates of exquifite beauty are prefe’rved 
in the cabinets of the curious; but the fuifts or hiftories 
reprefented on thefe antique agates, however well execu¬ 
ted, are now become fo obfeure, and their explications fo 
difficult, that feveral diverting miftakes and difputes have 
Vol. I. Mo. 13. 
arifen among thofe who undertook to give their true 
meaning. 
The great agate of the apotlieofis of Auguftus, in the 
treafury of the holy chapel, when fent from Conftantino- 
ple to St. Lewis, palled for a triumph of Jofeph. An 
agate, now in the French king’s cabinet,- had been kept 
700 years with great devotion in the Benedidtine abbey of 
St. Evre at Toul, where it palled for St. John the Evan- 
gelilh carried away by an eagle, and crowned by an angel; 
but, the Heathenifm of it having been lately detedted, the 
religious would no longer give it a place among their re¬ 
lics, but prefented it in 1684 to the king. The antiqua¬ 
ries found, it to be the apotheofis of Germanicus. In like 
manner the triumph of Jofeph was found to be a repre¬ 
fentation of Germanicus and Agrippina, under the figures 
of Ceres and Triptolemus. Another was preferved, from 
time immemorial, in one of the moft ancient churches of 
France, where it had palfed for a reprefentation of Para- 
dife and the fall of man ; there being on it two figures re¬ 
prefenting Adam and Eve, with a tree, a ferpent, and a 
Hebrew infeription round it, taken from the third chap¬ 
ter of Genefis, “ The woman faw that the tree was good, 
&c.” The French academifts, inftead of our firft parents, 
found Jupiter and Minerva reprefented by the two figures ; 
the infeription was of a modern date, written in a Rabbi¬ 
nical character, very incorredt, and poorly engraven. The 
prevailing opinion was, that this agate reprefented (imply 
the worlhip of Jupiter and Minerva at Athens. 
Agate, is alfo a name of an inftrument ufed by gold- 
wire drawers; fo called from the.agate in the middle of it, 
which forms its principal part. 
AGATHIAS, or, as he calls himfelf in his epigrams, 
Agathius, diftinguifhed by the title of Scholafticus, a 
Greek hiftorian in the 6th century under Juftinian. He 
was born at Myrina, a colony of the ancient Aiolians, in 
Alia the Lefs, at the mouth of the river Phythicus. He 
was an advocate at Smyrna. Though he had a tafte for 
poetry, he was yet more famous for his hiftory, which 
begins with the 26th year of Juftinian’s reign, where Pro¬ 
copius ends. It was printed in Greek and Latin, with 
Bonaventure Vulcanius’s, at Leyden, 1594, in 4to ; and in 
Paris at the king’s printing-office, 1660, in folio. 
AGATHO, a tragic and comic poet, difciple to Pro- 
dicus and Socrates, applauded in Plato’s Dialogues for his 
virtue and beauty. His firft tragedy obtained the prize; 
and he was crowned in the prefence of upwards of 30,000 
men, the fourth year of the 90th Olympiad. There is 
nothing now extant of his, except a few quotations in 
Ariftotle, Athenaeus, and others. 
AGATHOCLES, the famous tyrant of Sicily, was fon 
of a potter at Reggio. Fie was a thief, a common foldier, 
a centurion, a general, and a pirate, all in a regular fuc- 
ceffion. He defeated the Carthaginians feveral times in 
Sicily, and was once defeated himfelf. He firft made 
himfelf tyrant of Syracufe, and then of all Sicily; after 
which he vanquifned the Carthaginians again both in Si¬ 
cily and Africa. But at length having ill-fuccefs, and 
being in arrears with his foldiers, they mutinied, and for¬ 
ced him to fly his camp, and cut the throats of his chil¬ 
dren, whom he left behind. Recovering himfelf again, 
he relieved Corfou, belieged by Callander; burnt the 
Macedonian fleet; returned to Sicily ; murdered tire wives 
and children of thofe who had murdered his ; afterwards, 
meeting with the foldiers themfelves, he put them all to 
the fword; and, ravaging the fea-coaft of Italy, took the 
city of Hipponium. He was at length poifoned by his 
grandl’on Archagathus, in the feventy-fecond year of his 
age, 290 years before Chrift, having reigned twenty-eight 
years. 
AGATHOPI-TYLLUM,/i [aya&o;, good, and (pvXXov y 
a leaf. ] In botany, a genus of the dodccandria monogy- 
nia clafs. The generic characters are—Calyx: perian- 
thium very fmall, truncate, entire, permanent. Corolla : 
petals fix, ovate, fomewhat villofe within, inferted into the 
calyx. Stamina: filaments twelve, broadilh, very fiiort, 
3 D alternately 
