Page:EB1911 - Volume 28.djvu/212

Rh the party in consequence of his opinions. He became a member of the Bavarian Diet in 1893.

In addition to a couple of books on the preservation of forests, he published Der isolierte Soziale Staat (Zürich, 1880).

 VOLNEY, CONSTANTIN FRANÇOIS CHASSEBŒUF, (1757-1820), French savant, was born at Craon (Maine-et-Loire) on the 3rd of February 1757, of good family; he was at first surnamed Boisgirais from his father's estate, but afterwards assumed the name of Volney. He spent some four years in Egypt and Syria, and published his Voyage en Egypte et en Syrie in 1787, and Considérations sur la guerre des Turcs et de la Russie in 1788. He was a member both of the States-General and of the Constituent Assembly. In 1791 appeared Les Ruines, ou méditations sur les révolutions des empires, an essay on the philosophy of history, containing a vision which predicts the final union of all religions by the recognition of the common truth underlying them all. Volney tried to put his politico-economic theories into practice in Corsica, where in 1792 he bought an estate and made an attempt to cultivate colonial produce. He was thrown into prison during the Jacobin triumph, but escaped the guillotine. He was some time professor of history at the newly founded École Normale. In 1795 he undertook a journey to the United States, where he was accused in 1797 of being a French spy sent to prepare for the reoccupation of Louisiana by France. He was obliged to return to France in 1798. The results of his travels took form in his Tableau du climat et du sol des États-Unis (1803). He was not a partisan of Napoleon, but, being a moderate man, a savant and a Liberal, was impressed into service by the emperor, who made him a count and put him into the senate. At the restoration he was made a peer of France. He became a member of the Institute in 1795. He died in Paris on the 25th of April 1820.  VOLO, a town and seaport of Greece, on the east coast of Thessaly, at the head, of the gulf to which it gives its name. Pop. (1907) 23,319. It is the chief seaport and second industrial town of Thessaly, connected by rail with the town of Larissa. The anchorage is safe, vessels loading and discharging by means of lighters. The port has a depth of 23 to 25 ft.

The Kastro, or citadel, of Volo stands on or close to the site of Pagasae, whence the gulf took the name of Sinus Pagasaeus or Pagasicus, and which was one of the oldest places of which mention occurs in the legendary history of Greece. From this port the Argonautic expedition was said to have sailed, and it was already a flourishing place under the tyrant Jason, who from the neighbouring Pherae ruled over all Thessaly. Two miles farther south stand the ruins of Demetrias, founded (290 ) by Demetrius Poliorcetes, and for some time a favourite residence of the Macedonian kings. On the opposite side of the little inlet at the head of the gulf rises the hill of Episcopi, on which stood the ancient city of Iolcus. At Dimini, about 3 m. W. of Volo, several tombs have been found which yielded remains of the later Mycenean Age.  VOLOGAESES (Vologaesus, Vologases; on the coins Ologases; Armen. Valarsh; Mod. Pers. Balash), the name of five Parthian kings.

(1) I., son of Vonones II. by a Greek concubine (Tac. Ann. xii. 44), succeeded his father in 51 (Tac. Ann. xii. 14; cf. Joseph. Ant. xx. 3, 4). He gave the kingdom of Media Atropatene to his brother Pacorus, and occupied Armenia for another brother, Tiridates (Tac. Ann. xii. 50, xv. 2, Joseph. Ant. xx. 3, 4). This led to a long war with Rome (54–63), which was ably conducted by the Roman general Corbulo. The power of Vologaeses was weakened by an attack of the Dahan and Sacan nomads, a rebellion of the Hyrcanians, and the usurpation of Vardanes II. (Tac. Ann. xiii. 7, 37; xiv. 25; xv. 1; cf. Joseph. Ant. xx. 4, 2, where he is prevented from attacking the vassal king of Adiabene by an invasion of the eastern nomads). At last a peace was concluded, by which Tiridates was acknowledged as king of Armenia, but had to become a vassal of the Romans; he went to Rome, where Nero gave him back the diadem (Tac. Ann. xv. i ff.; Dio Cass. lxii. 19 ff., lxiii. 1 ff.); from that time an Arsacid dynasty ruled in Armenia under Roman supremacy. Vologaeses was satisfied with this

result, and honoured the memory of Nero (Suet. Nero, 57), though he stood in good relations with Vespasian also, to whom he offered an army of 40,000 archers in the war against Vitellius (Tac. Hist. iv. 51; Suet, Vespas. 6; cf. Joseph. Ant. vii. 5, 2, 7, 3; Dio Cass. lxvi. 11). Soon afterwards the Alani, a great nomadic tribe beyond the Caucasus, invaded Media and Armenia (Joseph. Bell. vii. 7, 4); Vologaeses applied in vain for help to Vespasian (Dio Cass. lxvi. 11; Suet. Domitian, 2). It appears that the Persian losses in the east also could not be repaired; Hyrcania remained an independent kingdom (Joseph. Bell. vii. 7, 4; Aurel. Vict. Epit. 15, 4). Vologaeses I. died about 77. His reign is marked by a decided reaction against Hellenism; he built Vologesocerta (Balashkert) in the neighbourhood of Ctesiphon with the intention of drawing to this new town the inhabitants of the Greek city Seleucia (Plin. vi. 122). Another town founded by him is Vologesias on a canal of the Euphrates, south of Babylon (near Hira; cf. Nöldeke in Zeitschrift der deutschen-morgenl. Gesellschaft, xxviii. 93 ff.). On some of his coins the initials of his name appear in Aramaic letters.

(2) II., probably the son of Vologaeses I., appears on coins, which bear his proper name, in 77–79, and again 121–47. During this time the Parthian kingdom was torn by civil wars between different pretenders, which reached their height during the war of Trajan, 114–17. Besides Vologaeses II. we find on coins and in the authors Pacorus (78–c. 105), Artabanus III.(80–81), Osroes (106–29), Mithradates V. (c. 129–47) and some others; thus the Parthian empire seems during this whole time to have been divided into two or three different kingdoms. By classic authors Vologaeses II. is mentioned in the time of Hadrian (c. 131), when Cappadocia, Armenia and Media were invaded by the Alani (Dio Cass. lxix. 15).

(3) III., 147–91. Under him, the unity of the empire was restored. But he was attacked by the Romans under Marcus Aurehus and Verus (162–65). In this war Seleucia was destroyed and the palace of Ctesiphon burnt down by Avidius Cassius (164); the Romans even advanced into Media. In the peace, western Mesopotamia was ceded to the Romans (Dio Cass. lxxi. 1 ff.; Capitolin. Marc. Aur. 8 f.; Verus 8, &c.). Vologaeses III. is probably the king Volgash of the Parsee tradition, preserved in the Dinkart, who began the gathering of the writings of Zoroaster.

(4) IV., 191–209. He was attacked by Septimius Severus in 195, who advanced into Mesopotamia, occupied Nisibis and plundered Ctesiphon (199), but attempted in vain to conquer the Arabic fortress Atra; in 202 peace was restored.

(5) V., 209–c. 222, son of Vologaeses IV. Soon after his accession his brother Artabanus IV., the last Arsacid king, rebelled against him, and became master of the greater part of the empire (Dio Cass. lxxvii. 12). But Vologaeses V. maintained himself in a part of Babylonia; his dated coins reach down to 222.

 VOLOGDA, a government of north-eastern Russia, having the government of Archangel on the N., Tobolsk on the E., Perm, Vyatka, Kostroma and Yaroslavl on the S., Novgorod, Olonetz and Archangel on the W. This immense government, which comprises an area of 155,218 sq. m., stretches in a north-easterly direction for 800 m., from Novgorod to the Urals, and includes the broad depression drained by the Sukhona from the S. W., and the Vychegda from the N.E., both head-waters of the N. Dvina. From the basin of the Volga it is separated by a flat, swampy, wooded swelling, where the heads of tributaries belonging to both Arctic and Caspian drainage-areas are closely intermingled. The eastern boundary of Vologda follows the main water-parting of the Urals, which has but few points over 3000 ft.; wide, parmas, or woody plateaus, fill up the space between the main chain of the Urals and the southern spurs of the Timan Mountains, in the upper basin of the Pechora. It is above the parmas—especially over those which are nearest the Urals proper—that the highest summits of the Urals rise in the form of dome-shaped mountains (Töll-poz-iz, 5535 ft.; Kozhem-iz, 4225 ft.; Shadmaha, 4115 ft.). The Timan