Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/243

Rh E T A F E 225 Alexandria with Eunomius in order to advocate Arianism, but he was banished by Constantius. Julian the apostate recalled him from exile, bestowed upon him an estate in Lesbos, and retained him for a time at his court in Con stantinople. 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 connec tion with a refutation written by Epiphanius. AETIUS, a Greek physician, born at Amida in -Meso potamia, who lived at the end of the 5th or the beginning of the 6th century. Of his personal history little is known, except that he studied at Alexandria, and was physician to the court at Constantinople with the title comes obscqiiii. He wrote a work entitled Bi/?Aia larpiKa EKKatSe/ca, which is mainly a compilation from the works of previous authors. Eight books of this were issued from the Aldine press at Venice in 1534; various other parts have been frequently published ; and a Latin translation of the whole, by Cor- narius, appeared at Basle in 1542. yETNA. See ETNA. yETOLIA, a country of ancient Greece, bounded on the N. by Epirus and Thessaly, on the E. by the provinces of Doris and Locris, on the S. by the Gulf of Corinth, and separated on the W. from Acarnania by the river Achelous. The part which lay westward of the river Evenus, and south of a line joining Thermum and Stratus in Acar nania, was called old yEtolia, the rest of the country new or acquired yEtolia. The country is in general mountainous and woody, but along the coast from the Achelous to the Evenus, and northward to Mount Aracynthus, is a plain of great fertility; while another extensive and fertile plain stretches north from this mountain along the east bank of the Achelous as far as the northern limit of old yEtolia. The YEtolians were a restless and turbulent people, strangers to friendship or principles of honour, and they were consequently regarded by the other states of Greece as outlaws and public robbers. On the other hand, they were bold and enterprising in war, undaunted in the greatest dangers, and jealous defenders of their liberties. They distinguished themselves above all the other nations of Greece in opposing the ambitious designs of the Mace donian princes, who, after having reduced most of the other states, were forced to grant them a peace upon very honourable terms. The constitution of the yEtolian league was copied from that of the Achseans, and with a view to form, as it were, a counter alliance. The Cleomenic war, and that of the allies, called the Social War, were kindled by the yEtolians with the express purpose of humbling the Achseans. In the latter they held out, with the assistance only of the Eleans and Lacedemonians, for the space of three years, against the united forces of Achaia and Macedon, but were obliged at last to purchase a peace by yielding up to Philip all Acarnania. In order to regain this province they entered into an alliance with Rome against Philip, and proved of great service to the Romans in their war with him; but being dissatisfied with the terms of peace granted by Flaminius, they made war upon the Romans themselves. They were speedily over come, and only obtained peace on very humiliating terms. After the conquest of Macedon by yEmilius Paullus the JEtolians were reduced to a much worse condition ; for not only those among them who had openly declared for Perseus, but those svho were only suspected to have secretly favoured him, were sent to Rome to clear themselves before the senate. There they were detained, and never afterwards permitted to return to their native country. Five hundred and fifty of the chief men were barbarously assassinated by the partisans of Rome solely on the sus picion of favouring the designs of Perseus. The YEtolians appeared before yEmilius Paullus in mourning habits, and made loud complaints of such inhuman treatment, but could obtain no redress; on the contraiy, ten commis sioners, who had been sent by the senate to settle the affairs of Greece, enacted a decree, declaring that those who were killed had suffered justly, since it appeared to them that they had favoured the Macedonian party. From this time those only were raised to the chief honours and employments in the yEtolian republic who were known to prefer the interest of Rome to that of their country, and thus all the magistrates of yEtolia became the creatures and mere tools of the Roman senate. In this state of servile subjection they continued till the destruction of Corinth and the dissolution of the Achaean league, when YEtolia, with the other free states of Greece, was reduced to a Roman province, commonly called the province of Achaia. In this state, with little alteration, yEtolia con tinued under the emperors till the reign of Constantine the Great, who, in his new partition of the provinces of the empire, divided the western parts of Greece from the rest, calling them New Epirus, and subjecting the whole country to the 2M cefectus pra-torio for Illyricum. Under the succes sors of Constantine Greece was parcelled out into several principalities, especially after the taking of Constantinople by the western princes. About the beginning of the 13th century Theodoras Angelus, a noble Grecian of the im perial family, seized on yEtolia and Epirus. The former he left to Michael his son, who maintained it against Michael Palasologus, the first emperor of the Greeks, after the expulsion of the Latins. Charles, the last prince of this family, dying in 1430 without lawful issue, bequeathed yEtolia to his brother s son, named also Charles; and Acarnania to his natural sons Memnon, Turnus, and Her cules. But great disputes arising about this division, Amurath II., after the reduction of Thessalonica, laid hold of so favourable an opportunity, and expelled all the con tending heirs in 1432. The Mahometans were after wards dispossessed of this country by the famous prince of Epirus, George Castriot, commonly called Scanderbeg, who with a small army opposed the whole power of the Ottoman empire, and was victorious in twenty-two pitched battles. That hero at his death left great part of yEtolia to the Venetians; but they not being able to make head against such a mighty power, the whole country was soon reduced by Mahommed II. It is now included in the kingdom of Greece. AFANASIEF, ALEKSANDR NIKOLAEVICH, a Russian scholar, distinguished for his researches in Slavonic litera ture and archaeology, was born about 1825. He contri buted many valuable articles to the serial literature of his country, but his reputation rests chiefly on two works of more permanent interest. The first was an extensive collection, in eight parts, of Russian Popular Stories; the other a treatise, in three volumes, on the Poetical Views of the Old Slavonians about Nature, completed just before the author s death, which occurred in the autumn of 1871. AFER, DOMITIUS, orator, born at Nismes, flourished under Tiberius and the three succeeding emperors. Quin- tilian makes frequent mention of him, and commends his pleadings. But he disgraced his talents by acting as public accuser in behalf of the emperors against some of the most distinguished personages in Rome. Quintilian, in his youth, assiduously cultivated the friendship of Domitius. He tells us that his pleadings were superior in point of eloquence to any he had ever heard, and that there were public collections of his witty sayings (dicta}, some of which he quotes. He also mentions two books of his, On I. 29