Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/320

AUR he would receive would be that they had been punished for capital crimes. There was, however, no instance of martyrdom in Rome, the city of martyrs, during the time in which Marcus lived there. Marcus's treatment of the Christians is often said to be the only stain on his. character. He has been universally regarded as one of earth's noblest sons, full of kindness, very patient, very indulgent to the faults of others, dealing very harshly with his own, respectful and attentive to all, and combining in no common degree the thoughtfulness of a philosopher with the practical power of a statesman and a general. Unfortunately the facts of his life are narrated by very superficial writers, so that they seldom give us insight into the real man. He is best seen in his work, commonly called "The Meditations." These are jottings in his diary. We find him now examining himself, now strengthening his mind for endurance, now consoling himself amid trials, and now bracing himself for manly exertion. His philosophy was stoicism, softened and sweetened by his own gentle nature. The two poles of his creed were, that the happiness of a human being was entirely dependent on himself, and that every one is sent into this world to work for the common good. By the first he became the thorough stoic. All depended upon one's own opinions. Pain was not pain, if one could only think that it was not pain. "See to your opinions," therefore, is his perpetual advice. And this mischievous element in his philosophy he seems to have introduced into his life; for he resolutely shut his eyes to the conduct of his wife, adopted brother, and son, and made himself think, or pretended to think, differently from what any man with ordinary discernment could think. The tendency too of this stoical sentiment was isolation. He felt he was independent of the world, of its opinions and its passions, and he would have looked down upon it, had there not been a counterpoise. There was a strong counterpoise, and therefore there is little of intellectual haughtiness in the Meditations. He deeply felt that he was only a small part of the whole—one chord in the great harmony of the universe, and that it was his bounden duty on all occasions to forget himself and work for the human race. And believing, as he did, that no soul was willingly deprived of the truth, he is always charitable towards the mistakes and failings of his fellow-men. Besides this, he is deeply Impressed with the shortness of life. A calm melancholy pervades the whole of the Meditations, as if the writer were impressed with the idea that all things here are full of change, that he and his fellow-men, with all their passions and triflings, will soon give way to others, and that only the ruling faculty of the mind, that which emanates from and belongs to the Director of the universe, will never perish. Besides the Meditations, Marcus wrote Constitutions which are frequently referred to by lawyers of a later era; and recently a considerable number of his letters, addressed to Fronto, have been discovered and published. His Meditations have been translated into English, French, German, and Italian, having always been admired by noble and deeply religious minds.—J. D.  AUREOLUS,, or , a usurper, who proclaimed himself emperor of Rome in the reign of Gallienus,. 267. He was originally a shepherd, but entered the military service and attained the rank of general in the reign of Valerian. Gallienus defeated him in a pitched battle, fought, it is supposed, somewhere between Milan and Bergamo. He resumed his arms in the succeeding reign, but was obliged to surrender to Claudius II., who put him to death,. 268.  AURIA,, a distinguished Neapolitan sculptor of the sixteenth century. He was a pupil and fellow-labourer of Giovanni da Nola. Amongst the many works he contributed to the embellishment of Naples, the Fontanæ Medina, on the "largo" of Castel Nuovo, stands foremost.—R. M.  AURIA,, a Neapolitan of the middle of the sixteenth century. He belongs to the class of geometers which contains Commandin, Maurolycus, Barozzi, &c., &c., who did Europe the invaluable service of translating the best scientific works of antiquity. Auria published the interesting treatise of Theodosius, "De Diebus et Noctibus."  AURIA,, a celebrated Sicilian antiquary and poet, born at Palermo in 1625. He studied law at the university of Catania, and took his degree of doctor in 1652, but shortly after abandoned his views towards the legal profession, and devoted himself to letters. His published works are exceedingly numerous. He died in 1710.  AURIFABER (GOLDSCHMID),, a German divine, was an intimate friend of Luther, and took an active interest in the publication of the reformer's works. He edited the "Letters of Luther" in two volumes, and the "Table Talk." Died at Erfurt in 1575.  AURIFERI,, a Sicilian botanist, born in 1739; published in 1789 "Hortus Panormitanus," a valuable account of the plants in the royal gardens of Palermo. Died in 1796.  AURIOL,, a French jurist and poet, professor of canon law in the university of Toulouse, died in 1548. He was created a knight on the occasion of Francis the First's visit to Toulouse. He left some poems and some professional works. <section end="320H" /> <section begin="320I" />AURIOL (AUREOLUS),, a celebrated French theologian of the fourteenth century, was a native of Toulouse, and belonged to the order of the Cordeliers. He succeeded Duns Scotus in one of the chairs of the university of Paris, and afterwards filled the archiepiscopal see of Aix. <section end="320I" /> <section begin="320J" />AURISPA,, a learned Italian, was born at Noto, in Sicily, about 1369; collected a number of Greek MSS. at Constantinople, became apostolic secretary to the popes Eugenius IV. and Nicholas V., and died in 1459. He took a very prominent part in the revival of learning in modern Europe. <section end="320J" /> <section begin="320K" />AURIVILLIUS,, a distinguished Oriental scholar, was born at Stockholm in 1717, and studied at Jena, Paris, Leyden, and Upsala, of which latter he became secretary, after the death of Linnæus in 1767. In 1773 he was appointed one of the commissioners for preparing a new Swedish version of the Bible, for which he translated the greater part of the Old Testament. <section end="320K" /> <section begin="320L" />AURIVILLIUS,, a Swedish theologian, who was born in 1673, attended Charles XII. as chaplain at Pultowa and Bender, and was afterwards a member of the court which condemned Baron Görtz to death for assisting Charles. <section end="320L" /> <section begin="320M" />AURIVILLIUS,, the son of Karl, was born in 1756, and studied at the university of Upsala, where he became librarian, and professor of classical literature, posts which he retained until his death in 1829. His arrangement of the library appears to have been inconvenient. <section end="320M" /> <section begin="320N" />AUROGALLUS, (, a philologian, who was born in Bohemia, became the friend of Luther, and rector of the university of Wittenberg, where he died in 1543. <section end="320N" /> <section begin="320O" />AUROGALLUS,, a grammarian of the era of the Reformation, born in 1480 at Commettau in Bohemia. He seems to have Latinized his Bohemian name, in compliance with a custom common in those times. (Melancthon, Greek form of Schwartzerdt, black earth; Œcolampadius, Greek for Hauschein, house-light.) Aurogallus was professor of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew in the university of Wittenberg, of which seat of learning he became rector in 1542, but died the following year. He was intimate with Luther, and materially aided him by his scholarship when the reformer was engaged in translating the Bible into German. Aurogallus published the following works:—"De Ebræis urbium, regionum, populorum, fluminum, montium, et aliorum locorum nominibus," &c., Wittenberg, 1526, 8vo; "Grammatica Hebræae Chaldæaeque Linguæ," Bâle, 1539, 8vo; "Psalmi Davidis cum versione interlineari Santis Pagnini," Antwerp, 1608, 8vo; "Collectio Gnomicorum, cum Callimachi Hymnis, Græcisque in illos Scholiis," Basil, 1532, 4to. There is extant an intimation of the death of Aurogallus, made by his successor in the chair, to the other members of the university of Wittenberg, inviting them to assemble before the house of the deceased scholar, and accompany the corpse to the place of interment. Mr. Robert Browning has, with singular power and originality, thrown into a poetic form precisely such an invitation as this in his work entitled "Men and Women."—A. M. <section end="320O" /> <section begin="320P" />AURUNCUS,, a Roman who lived in the fifth century ., and was consul at the time when the Plebs withdrew to the Mons Sacer. <section end="320P" /> <section begin="320Zcontin" />AURUNGZEBE, or AURANGZIB, Mogul emperor of Hindostan, born 22nd October, 1618, ascended the throne of Delhi in August, 1658, and died at Ahmednuggur on the 21st of February, 1707, in the eighty-ninth year of his age and fiftieth of his reign. His proper name was Mohammed, but he received from his grandfather the designation Aurangzib, or "ornament of the throne," to which on his accession he added Mohi-eddin, "reviver of religion," and Alem-gir, "the conqueror of the world." He was the son of Shah-Djehan and the empress Mehd-Alia, and the great-grandson of Akbar Khan. His mother, the empress, died in 1631, leaving four sons—Dara, the eldest and heir to the throne, Shujah, Aurungzebe, and Murad; <section end="320Zcontin" />