T4 2 ARE 
of the balance, can eafily tell, when different liquors fill it, 
which weigh the moti. Some regard, however, is to be 
had in theft: trials to the degree of heat and cold in the 
weather; becaufe fonic liquor's rarefy with heat and con- 
riefife with cold more than otlters, and accordingly take 
up more or lets room. By mean's of this inlfrument, the 
ingenious author has m’ade a table to fhew the different 
weights of the fame bulk of the mod conliderable chemi¬ 
cal liquors, both iti fumtner and w inter, as follows-: 
Weighed 
in fummer. 
In winter. 
The areometer full of 
cz. 
dr.gr. 
oz. 
dr.gr. 
Quickfilvcr, - - 
11 
0 6 
11 
0 32 
Oil of tartar, - - 
I 
3 8 - 
I 
3 3 i 
Spirit of urine, - 1 - - 
I 
0 32. - 
1 
0 43 
Oil of vitriol, - 
I 
3 58 - 
I 
4 3 
Spirit of nitre, - - - - 
l 
1 40 - 
I 
1 70 
Spirit of fait, - - 
1 
0 39 * 
I 
0 47 
Aquafortis, - - - - - 
I 
1 38 - 
I 
1 55 
Vinegar, - - - - - 
0 
V 55 - 
0 
7 60 
Spirit of wine, - - 
0 
6 47 - 
0 
6 61 
River water, - - - 
0 
7 53 - 
0 
7 57 
Diftilled water, - - 
0 
7 5 ° - 
0 
7 54 
The dnftrument itfelf weighed, 
\Y 
hen empty, 
one dram 
twenty-eight grains. See Hydrometer. 
AREO'METRY, or Aerometry, f. the art of mea- 
furing the air, its powers and properties. Areometry in¬ 
cludes tire laws of the motion, gravitation, &c. of the at- 
mofpherical fluid ; but the word is now feldom ufed, as 
this branch of philofophy is commonly called Pneuma¬ 
tics. C. Wolfius having reduced many of the affedlions 
of this fluid to geometrical demonftration, firft publifhed 
Elements of Areometry at Leipfic in 1709 in High Dutch, 
and afterwards more largely in Latin : and thus the doc¬ 
trine of air is incorporated into the mathematical fciences. 
AREO'PAGUS, f [agEic'7rciy'&’, of up j?, Mars, and 
a hill.] A Sovereign tribunal at Athens, famous 
for the juftice and impartiality of its decrees, to which the 
gods themfeives are laid to have fubmitted their differen¬ 
ces. It was on a rock or hill, oppolite to the citadel. The 
word fignifies ftrictly, rock of Mars. In effedt, the deno¬ 
mination might either arife hence, that the areopagus was 
built in a place where had been a temple of Mars ; or, 
becaufe the firft caufe pleaded there was that of this god, 
w ho was accufed of killing Halirrhotius the fon of Nep¬ 
tune, and tried here before twelve gods, and acquitted by 
a majorityraf voices; or, finally, becaufe the Amazons, 
whom the^poets feign to have been the daughters of Mars, 
when they befieged Athens, pitched their tents and offered 
lacrifices to the god of war in this place. 
This tribunal was in great reputation among the Greeks; 
and the Romans themfeives had fo high an opinion of it, 
that they trailed many of their difficult caufes to its deci- 
fion. Authors are not agreed about the number of the 
judges who compofed this auguft court. Some reckon 
thirty-one, others fifty-one, and others five hundred ; in 
effect, their number feems not to have been fixed, but to 
have been more or lefs in different years. By an inferip- 
tion quoted by Volaterranus it appears, they were then 
three hundred. However, at firft this tribunal only con¬ 
fided of nine perfons, who had all difeharged the office of 
archons, had acquitted themfeives with honour in that 
Sraft, and had likewife given an account of their admini- 
firation before the logijla , and undergone a very rigorous 
examination. See Archon. Their falaries were equal, 
and pa>d out of the treafury of the republic : they had 
three oboli for each caufe. 
The areopagites were judges for life They never fat in 
judgment but in the open air, and that in the night-time; 
to the intent that their.minds might be more prefent and 
attentive ; and that no objeCt, either of pity or averfion, 
might make any impreffioii upon them. However, fome 
maintain, that the building in which the areopagites af- 
fembled was not wholly uncovered ; and they obferve, 
Shat among the ruins large Hones have been found, whofe 
ARE 
joints are in the fame angle with the pediment that muff 
have been ufed for a covering. All pleadings before them 
were to be in the fnnpleft and mod naked terms ; without 
exordium, epilogue, or appeal to the paffions. At firft 
they only took cognizance of criminal caufes; but in courfe 
of time their jttrifdiclion became of greater extent. Mr. 
Spon, who examined the antiquities of that illuftrious city, 
found fome remains of the areopagus Hill exifting in the 
. middle of the temple ot Thefeus, which was heretofore in 
the middle of the city, but is now without tire walls. The 
foundation of the areopagus is a fenticircle, with an efpla- 
nade of 140 paces round it, which properly made the hall 
ot the areopagus. There is a tribunal cut in the middle 
ot a rock, with feats on each fide of it, where the areopa¬ 
gites tat, expofed to the open air. 
This court by fome is laid to have been inftituted by 
Solon ; but others carry it much higher, and albert it to 
have been eftabliffied by Cecrops, about the time that 
Aaron died ; viz. in the year of the world 2553; main¬ 
taining withal, that Solon only made fome new regulations 
in it, increafed its power and privileges, and made it fu- 
perior to the ephetre, another celebrated court inftituted by 
Draco. In effefi, Demofthenes himfelf, in his oration 
againft Ctefiphon, owns himfelf at a lofs on this head. 
The edifice of the areopagus was extremely limple ; and 
its roof, which was at firft of the moll common materials, 
remained in that ftate till the time of Auguftus. This we 
learn from Vitruvius. Oreftes was the firft who thought 
of embellifiting it. He raifed in it an altar to Minerva : 
lie likewife adorned it with two feats of folid filver; on 
one of which the accufer fat, and the accufed on the other. 
Of all the judgments of the areopagus, the mod famous 
one, excepting that of Mars, was the fentence which they 
palfed on Oreftes. His trial, which happened under De- 
mophon the twelfth king of Athens, in 375 of the Attic 
era, owed all its fame to a remarkable circumftance, that 
gave rife to a ctiftoin which was obferved ever afterwards. 
Oreftes had killed his mother. He was accufed before the 
areopagus, and cited to appear in that court. He would 
have loft his life in conlequence of the equal divifion of 
the votes, had not Minerva, moved with his misfortunes, 
declared herfelf for thofe who had abfolved him, and 
joined her litffrage to theirs. Thus Oreftes was faved. 
In veneration to this miracle, the areopagites, whenever 
the fuffrages were equally divided, decided in favour of 
the accufed, by granting him what they termed the vote or 
/hell of Minerva. Cephalus and Daedalus were condemned 
by the areopagus long before the time of Oreftes. 
We find in ancient authors fome decifions of this tribu¬ 
nal, which bear the ftrongeft marks of juftice, though their 
objects are not interefting. We ffiall here quote an anec¬ 
dote from Aulus Gellius, and Valerius Maximus, of a wo¬ 
man, who was accufed of having poiloned her huffiand 
and her fon. She was taken and brought before Dola- 
bella, who was then proconful of Afia. She was no fooner 
in his prefence than (he owned the fadt; and added, that 
(he had very good reafons for putting her hufoand and her 
fon to death. “ I had (faid (lie) by my firft lmlband a fon 
whom I tenderly loved, and whofe virtues rendered him 
worthy of my affedtion. My fecond hufband, and the fon 
whom I bare to him, murdered my favourite child. I 
thought it would have been unjuft to have buffered thofe 
two monfters of barbarity to live. If you think, fir, that 
I have committed a crime, it is your province to puniffi 
it: I certainly (hall never repent of it.” This affair em- 
barraffed Dolabella. She was afterwards fent to the areo¬ 
pagus; and that court, when they had examined her a 
long time, ordered her and her accufer to appear before 
them again a hundred years after, from the firft day of her 
trial. We muff: not, however, fuppofe that the areopagus 
always preferved the purity of its early inftitution ; for 
fuch is the conftitution of human affairs, that perfedfion, 
with regard to them, is a violent, and confequently a tran- 
fitory, (late. Pericles, who lived about 100 years after 
Solon, to flatter the people and win them to his party, 
