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 with some unimportant additions, of the cosmography—little else than a dry list of names—of Julius Honorius.

AETIOLOGY, or ETIOLOGY (from Gr. , cause, and  , discourse), strictly, the science or philosophy of causation, but generally used to denote the part of any special science (and especially of that of medicine and disease) which investigates the causes and origin of its phenomena. An aetiological myth is one which is regarded as having been invented ex post facto to explain some fact, name or coincidence, the true account or origin of which has been forgotten. Such myths were often based on grotesque philological analogies, according to which an existing connexion between two personalities (cities, &c.) was traced back to a common mythical origin. For a good example of the evolution of such myths, see the argument under or, History.

AETION, or, a Greek painter, mentioned by Cicero, Pliny and Lucian. His most noted work, described in detail by Lucian (Herodotus or Eetion, 5), was a picture representing the marriage of Alexander and Roxana. He is said to have exhibited it at the Olympic games, and by it so to have won the favour of the president that he gave him his daughter in marriage. Through a misunderstanding of the words of Lucian, Aetion has been supposed to belong to the age of the Antonines; but there can be little doubt that he was a contemporary of Alexander and of Apelles (Brunn, Geschichte der griechischen Künstler, ii. p. 243). Pliny gives his date as 350

AETIUS (fl. 350), surnamed “the Atheist,” founder of an extreme sect of Arians, was a native of Coele-Syria. After working as a vine-dresser and then as a goldsmith he became a travelling doctor, and displayed great skill in disputations on medical subjects; but his controversial power soon found a wider field for its exercise in the great theological question of the time. He studied successively under the Arians, Paulinus, bishop of Antioch, Athanasius, bishop of Anazarbus, and the presbyter Antonius of Tarsus. In 350 he was ordained a deacon by Leontius of Antioch, but was shortly afterwards forced by the orthodox party to leave that town. At the first synod of Sirmium he won a dialectic victory over the homoiousian bishops, Basilius and Eustathius, who sought in consequence to stir up against him the enmity of Caesar Gallus. In 356 he went to Alexandria with (q.v.) in order to advocate Arianism, but he was banished by Constantius. Julian recalled him from exile, bestowed upon him an estate in Lesbos, and retained him for a time at his court in Constantinople. Being consecrated a bishop, he used his office in the interests of Arianism by creating other bishops of that party. At the accession of Valens (364) he retired to his estate at Lesbos, but soon returned to Constantinople, where he died in 367. The Anomoean sect of the Arians, of whom he was the leader, are sometimes called after him Aetians. His work De Fide has been preserved in connexion with a refutation written by Epiphanius (Haer. lxxvi. 10). Its main thought is that the Homousia, i.e. the doctrine that the Son (therefore the Begotten) is essentially God, is self-contradictory, since the idea of unbegottenness is just that which constitutes the nature of God.

AETIUS, a Greek physician, born at Amida in Mesopotamia, flourished at the beginning of the 6th century He studied at Alexandria, and became court physician at Byzantium and comes obsequii, one of the chief officers of the imperial household. He wrote a large medical work in sixteen books, founded on Oribasius and compiled from various sources, especially Galen [Galenos]. Superstition and mysticism play a great part in his remedies. Eight books of the Greek original were printed at Venice, 1534, and a complete Latin translation by Cornarius appeared at Basel, 1542.

AETIUS (d. 454), a Roman general of the closing period of the Western empire, born at Dorostolus in Moesia, late in the 4th century. He was the son of Gaudentius, who, although possibly of barbarian family, rose in the service of the Western empire to be master of the horse, and later count of Africa. Aetius passed some years as hostage, first with Alaric and the Goths, and later in the camp of Rhuas, king of the Huns, acquiring in this way the knowledge which enabled him afterwards to defeat them. In 424 he led into Italy an army of 60,000 barbarians, mostly Huns, which he employed first to support the primicerius Joannes, who had proclaimed himself emperor, and, on the defeat of the latter, to enforce his claim to the supreme command of the army in Gaul upon Placidia, the empress-mother and regent for Valentinian III. His calumnies against his rival, Count Boniface, which were at first believed by the emperor, led Boniface to revolt and call the Vandals to Africa. Upon the discovery of the truth, Boniface, although defeated in Africa, was received into favour by Valentinian; but Aetius came down against Boniface from his Gallic wars, like another Julius Caesar, and in the battle which followed wounded Boniface fatally with his own javelin. From 433 to 450 Aetius was the dominating personality in the Western empire. In Gaul he won his military reputation, upholding for nearly twenty years, by combined policy and daring, the falling fortunes of the empire. His greatest victory was that of Châlons-sur-Marne (September 20, 451), in which he led the Gallic forces against Attila and the Huns. This was the last triumph of the empire. Three years later (454) Aetius presented himself at court to claim the emperor’s daughter in marriage for his son Gaudentius; but Valentinian, suspecting him of designs upon the crown, slew him with his own hand.

AETOLIA, a district of northern Greece, bounded on the S. by the Corinthian Gulf, on the W. by the river Achelous, on the N. and E. by the western spurs of Parnassus and Oeta. The land naturally falls into two divisions. The basins of the lower Achelous (mod. Aspropotamo) and Euenus (Phidharis) form a series of alluvial valleys intersected by detached ridges which mostly run parallel to the coast. This district of “Old Aetolia” lacks a suitable sea-board, but the inland, and especially the plain of central Aetolia lying to the north of Lakes Hyria and Trichonis and Mount Aracynthus, forms a rich agricultural country. The northern and eastern regions are broken by an extensive complex of chains and peaks, whose rugged limestone flanks are clad at most with stunted shrubs and barely leave room for a few precarious mule-tracks. These heights often rise in the frontier-ranges of Tymphrestus, Oxia and Corax to more than 7000 ft.; the snow-capped pinnacle of Kiona attains to 8240 ft. A few defiles pass through this barrier to the other side of the north Greek watershed.

In early legend Old Aetolia, with its cities of Pleuron and Calydon, figures prominently. During the great migrations (see ) the population was largely displaced, and the old inhabitants long remained in a backward condition. In the 5th century some tribes were still living in open villages under petty kings, addicted to plunder and piracy, and hardly recognized as Hellenes at all. Yet their military strength was not to be despised: in 426 their archers and slingers easily repelled an Athenian invasion under Demosthenes. In the 4th century the Aetolians began to take a greater part in Greek politics, and, in return for helping Epaminondas (367) and Philip of Macedon (338), recovered control of their sea-board, to which they annexed the Acarnanian coast and the Oeniadae. Aetolia’s prosperity dates from the period of Macedonian supremacy. It may be ascribed partly to the wealth and influence acquired by Aetolian mercenaries in Hellenistic courts, but chiefly to the formation of a national Aetolian league, the first effective institution of this kind in Greece. Created originally to meet the peril of an invasion by the Macedonian regents Antipater and Craterus, who had undertaken a punitive expedition against Aetolia after the Lamian War (322), and by Cassander (314–311), the confederacy grew rapidly during the subsequent period of Macedonian weakness. Since 290 it had extended its power over all the uplands