Page:Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (Seyffert, 1901).pdf/43

Rh these lay mingled without order; but the divine spirit—simple, pure, passionless reason—set the unarranged matter into motion, and thereby created out of chaos an orderly world. This movement, proceeding from the centre, works on for ever, penetrating farther and farther the infinite mass. But the application of the spiritual principle was rather indicated than fully carried out by Anaxagoras; he himself commonly explains phenomena by physical causes, and only when he cannot find these, falls back on the action of divine reason.

 Anaxandrĭdēs. A Greek poet of the Middle Comedy, a Rhodian, flourished in 376 He is stated to have been the first who made love affairs the subject of comedy. His plays were characterized by brightness and humour, but only fragments of them are preserved.

 Anaxĭmander (Gfr. -mandrŏs). A Greek philosopher of Milētus; born 611; a younger contemporary of Thalēs and Pherecȳdēs. He lived at the court of Polycrătēs of Samos, and died 547. In his philosophy the primal essence, which he was the first to call principle, was the immortal-imperishable, all-including infinite, a kind of chaos, out of which all things proceed, and into which they return. He composed, in the Ionic dialect, a brief and somewhat poetical treatise on his doctrine, which may be regarded as the earliest prose work on philosophy; but only a few sentences out of it are preserved. The advances he had made in physics and astronomy are evidenced by his invention of the sun-dial, his construction of a celestial globe, and his first attempt at a geographical map.

 Anaxĭmĕnēs. (1) A Greek philosopher of Milētus, a younger contemporary and pupil of Anaximander, who died about 502 He supposed air to be the fundamental principle, out of which everything arose by rarefaction and condensation. This doctrine he expounded in a work, now lost, written in the Ionian dialect.

(2) A Greek sophist of Lampsăcus, a favourite of Philip of Măcĕdōn and Alexander the Great. He composed orations and historical works, some treating of the actions of those two princes. Of these but little remains. On the other hand, he is the author of the Rhetoric dedicated to Alexander, the earliest extant work of this kind, which was once included among the works of Aristotle.

 Anchīsēs. Son of Capys, of the royal house of Troy by both parents, ruler of Dardănus on Mount Ida. Aphrodītē loved him for his beauty, and bore him a son, Ænēās. But having, in spite of her warnings, boasted of her favour, he is (according to various versions of the story) paralysed, killed, or struck blind by the lightning of Zeus. Vergil represents the disabled chief as borne out of burning Troy on his son's shoulders, and as sharing his wanderings over the sea, and aiding him with his counsel, till they reach Drĕpănum in Sicily, where he dies, and is buried on Mount Eryx.

 Ancīlĕ. The small oval sacred shield, curved inwards on either side, which was said to have fallen from heaven in the reign of Numa. There being a prophecy that the stability of Rome was bound up with it, Numa had eleven others made exactly like it by a cunning workman, Mamurius Veturius, so that the right one should not be stolen. The care of these arms, which were sacred to Mars was entrusted to the Salii (q.v.) who had to carry them through the city once a year with peculiar ceremonies. At the conclusion of their songs Mamurius himself was invoked, and on March 14th they held a special feast, the Mamurālia, at which they sacrificed to him, beating on a hide with staves, probably to imitate a smith's hammering. It is likely that the name Mamurius conceals that of the god Mars (or Mamers) himself.

 Ancȳrānum Monumentum. The monument of Ancȳra (now Angora), a marble slab, of which the greater part is preserved. It belonged to the temple of Augustus at Ancyra, and contained the Latin text of a Greek translation of the report drawn up by that emperor himself on the actions of his reign (Index Rērum a se Gestārum). By the terms of his will this report, engraved in bronze, was set