Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/666

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1em  HELIODORUS, son of Theodosius, was born at Emesa in Syria, in the. He belonged to a family of priests of the Syrian sun-god Elagabalus, but he was himself a Christian, and became bishop of Tricca in Thessaly. He is famous as the author of the best of the Greek love-romances. It is called thiopica, as it relates the history of Chariclea, daughter of Hydaspes, king of thiopia, her love for Theagenes, a Thessalian of high rank, and the happy issue after a series of exciting adventures and hairbreadth escapes. The Alexandrian pastoral poets often introduced brief love episodes to give animation to their scenes of pastoral life. When rhetorical prose became the fashionable style of composition, the mere episode was expanded into a complete history of the lovers from their birth to their happy union. Antonius Diogenes, according to Photius, was the first to write a book of the kind ; and Jamblichus, about, also wrote a love romance. But the Zthiopica is the oldest work of the kind that has come down to us. It is full of the most improb- able scenes and incidents; the hero is a weak and dull character, but the heroine is well drawn and full of interest. The description of custorms and manners, especially of religious ceremonies, is minute, and often most interesting in an antiquarian point of view. ‘Tle work not only became a model for the later Greek romance writers, but has been much imitated by the French and Italian writers of romance. Tasso praises the artful development of the plot; and the early life of Clorinda (Jerusalem Delivered, c. xii.) is almost identical with that of Chariclea. Racine meditated a drama on the subject of the romance, and Raphael has made scenes from it the subject of two of his pictures. The best edition is that of Cortes (Paris, 1804). The book has been translated frequently, and imto almost all modern European languages.  HELIOGABALUS, a Grecized form of Elagabalus, the name of a Syrian deity, was the name adopted by Varius Avitus Bassianus, the Roman emperor. His pedigree is given in the accompanying table:—

Bassianus Julia Domna=Emp. Sept. Severus Julia Masa— Av itus Caracalla Julia Soewmias=S. Varius Marcellus Juwia Mammaa Emp. Heliogabalus Emp. Alcx. Severus

On the murder of Caracalla, Julia Meesa was forbidden the court by the new emperor Macrinus. She retired to her ancestral city Emesa with her daughters and grandsons. Varius Avitus, though still only a boy, was appointed high priest of the Syrian sun-god Elagabalus, one of the chief seats of whose worship was Emesa. His beauty, and the splendid ceremonials at which he presided, made him a great favourite with the troops stationed in that part of Syria, and Mesa increased his popularity by spreading reports that he was in reality the illegitimate son of Caracalla. Macrinus was very unpopular with the army ; an insurrection was easily raised, and Varius under his adopted name Heliogabalus was proclaimed emperor. The troops sent to quell the revolt joined the new emperor, and Macrinus, advancing in person against him, was defeated and soon afterwards slain. Heliogabalus was at once recognized by the senate asemperor. After spending the winter in Nicomedia, he proceeded in to Rome. He made it his business to exalt the honour of the deity whose priest he was. . The Syrian god was proclaimed the chief deity in Rome, and all other gods his servants; splendid ceremonies in his honour were celebrated, at which Helio- gabalus danced in public; and it was believed that secret rites accompanied by human sacrifice were performed in his honour. The shameless profligacy of the emperor’s life was such as to shock even a Roman public. His popularity with the army declined, and Mesa perceiving that the liking of the soldiers inclined to Alexander Severus, persuaded him to raise his cousin to the dignity of Cesar. Heliogabalus soon repented of this step. An attempt to murder Alexander was frustrated by the watchful Mesa. Another such attempt in produced a mutiny among the soldiers, in which Heliogabalus and his mother Sozemias were slain.  HELIOGRAPHY is the name applied to the method of communicating between distant points in which visual signals are obtained by reflecting the rays of the sun from a mirror or combination of mirrors in the required direction. This method can of course be only employed to advantage in places where the sky is free from clouds and the atmosphere clear for considerable periods of time, and the fact that an atmospheric change may indefinitely delay the transmission of a message is an insuperable objection to the establishment of permanent heliographic stations in most climates.