Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/44

ACO excommunicated for unguarded indications of his real sentiments, and, after the lapse of other seven years, he submitted to the most outrageous indignities, by way of penance, to be readmitted into the Jewish communion. The severity with which he was treated completely unhinged his mind and led to suicide, about the year 1640, or, according to others, 1647.—E. M.  ACOSTER, surnamed, a tragic poet of Athens, and a contemporary of Aristophanes. Another of the same name, a sculptor of Cnossus, mentioned by Pausanias.  ACQUAVI´VA,, a Neapolitan nobleman, noted as a patron of men of letters; born in 1456. The only one of his own works ever published was a commentary on the Latin translation of one of Plutarch's moral treatises. Died in 1526.  ACQUAVI'VA,, brother of the preceding, and, like him, on terms of intimate friendship with all the distinguished authors of his age and country. He was himself author of several works.  ACQUAVIVA, and. See.  ACRAGAS, one of the four best chasers in silver in Greece, mentioned by Pliny. Nothing is known about his birthplace, or the epoch in which he lived; but the fact of works of his being found nowhere else but at Rhodes, coupled with that of his having generally treated bacchantes, hunters, and other similar subjects, induce the belief that he was established in that town, and belonged to the school which the followers of Lysippus had instituted there.—R. M.  ACREL,, a Swedish surgeon and physician, born near Stockholm early in the eighteenth century. After studying at Upsal and Stockholm, he resided in Germany and France, and served for two years in the French army. He returned to Stockholm in 1745, and published works named "A Treatise on Recent Wounds," "Observations on Surgery," "Reforms Necessary in Surgical Operations," and "On the Cataract of the Eye." Died in 1807.  ACRON or AGRON, a Greek physician, born at Agrigentum about 460 ., who, by means of fires kindled in public places of its cities, delivered Greece from the plague which devastated it at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war. <section end="44H" /> <section begin="44I" />ACRON or ACRO,, a scholiast; judging by his commentary upon the Adelphis of Terence, he lived about the end of the fourteenth century. His principal work is a commentary upon Horace. <section end="44I" /> <section begin="44J" />ACRON,, a protestant theologian, was born in a small town in Friesland in the year 1506; died in 1565. He has left several theological works. <section end="44J" /> <section begin="44K" />ACRO´NIUS or ACRON,, a Dutch physician, was born 1520, in the village of Acron in Friesland. He taught medicine and mathematics at Basle, where he died in 1562. He has left treatises on the "Motion of the Earth," &c. <section end="44K" /> <section begin="44L" />ACROPOLI´TA,, a Byzantine writer, lived at Constantinople in the end of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth centuries. He has left some discourses against the Latins, some homilies, and eulogies of the saints. <section end="44L" /> <section begin="44M" />ACROPOLI´TA,, a Byzantine chronicler, father of the preceding, was born at Constantinople in the year 1220, died 1282. He there held the office of "logothete," a sort of comptroller-general of the revenue, at the court of Michael Paleologus, from whence he took the surname of. His pupil, Theodore Lascaris, made him governor of the western provinces of the empire, and Michael Paleologus sent him as ambassador to Constantine, prince of Bulgaria, and intrusted to him many important negotiations. His History, discovered by Douza, begins at the period in which that of Nicetas ends, and extends from the year 1205 to the expulsion of the French emperors in 1261.—S. <section end="44M" /> <section begin="44N" />ACRO´TATUS, eldest son of Cleomenes II., king of Sparta, reigned in the beginning of the fourth century. According to Pausanias, he had the command of an army, which the Lacedemonians sent against Aristodemus, tyrant of Megalopolis; and perished in a sanguinary encounter, in which the Lacedemonians were defeated. <section end="44N" /> <section begin="44O" />ACTISANES, a king of Ethiopia, dethroned Amenophis, king of Egypt, and for a short period united both kingdoms under his sceptre He freed his states of robbers whom he sent to a penal colony in the desert between Egypt and Arabia. <section end="44O" /> <section begin="44P" />ACTON, in 944, bishop of Verceil. His works, consisting of a capitulary in a hundred articles, a summary of moral philosophy, letters, discourses, commentaries, &c., were collected by Baronzio in 1768. <section end="44P" /> <section begin="44Q" />ACTON,, prime minister of Naples during Lord Nelson's presence there, the son of a physician, was of Irish descent. Born at Besançon in France in 1737, he was at first an officer in the French navy, and subsequently in that of Tuscany. Employed in the Spanish expedition against the Barbary corsairs, he was the means of rescuing four thousand Spaniards from slavery. Entering the Neapolitan navy, he soon became known at court, and through the patronage of Queen Caroline was appointed successively minister of the marine, minister of war, director of the finances, and finally prime minister. Hatred of the French prompted him to the most extravagant and cruel measures, and his policy was disadvantageous alike to the king and kingdom. He was dismissed from office in 1803, and retired to Sicily, where he died in 1808.—W. A. <section end="44Q" /> <section begin="44R" />ACTUA´RIUS,, a Greek physician of the lower empire, who lived somewhere between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries. He has left several works on medical subjects, which have all been gathered together in the "Actuarii Opera," published in Paris in 1556. <section end="44R" /> <section begin="44S" />ACUNA,, bishop of Zamara, member of an ancient Spanish family, famous for the important part he took in the civil war in Spain, in the reign of Charles V. Joining the insurgents, he was received by them with boundless enthusiasm, and, becoming one of their leaders, rendered them immense service. Though a bishop, he displayed the skill of an experienced general; and, though sixty years of age, he still retained all the activity and fire of early manhood. He raised and disciplined a regiment of priests, at the head of whom he always marched to battle, and who, on all occasions, fought with amazing heroism. After the decisive defeat of the insurgents at Villalar, the warrior prelate attempted to escape to France, but was made prisoner when on the point of entering the French territory, and confined in the castle of Simancus. After remaining here for some time, treated with every respect, he killed the governor by a blow on the head with a brick he had concealed for the purpose, and had nearly escaped, but was seized, and afterwards, by special permission of the pope, tried and condemned by a secular tribunal, and executed.—E. M. <section end="44S" /> <section begin="44T" />ACUNA,, a jesuit missionary, born at Burgos in 1597. After labouring for some time among the Indians of Peru and Chili, he in 1638 accompanied a flotilla despatched to explore the river Amazon, and, on returning to Spain, published, in 1641, an interesting account of his voyage. Acuna returned to Lima, where he died about 1675. <section end="44T" /> <section begin="44U" />ACUNA,, a Spanish soldier and poet in the reign of Charles V. He belonged to a noble family, originally Portuguese. As a soldier, Acuna is noted for his services in various military exploits, but he is best known as a translator of the "Chevalier Déliberé" of Oliver de la Marche. <section end="44U" /> <section begin="44V" />ACUNA,, a Spaniard, who took a distinguished part in the wars of his country, about the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries. Among other services, he was prominent in the resistance to the attack made on Cadiz by Sir Francis Drake in 1587. He was appointed governor of Carthagena in 1593, and in 1602 was promoted to the government of the Phillipines. While occupying that position he conquered the Moluccas, which had fallen into the hands of the Dutch.—J. B. <section end="44V" /> <section begin="44W" />ACUSILA´US, one of the earliest writers of Greek prose. Most probably he lived during the sixth century ., and is sometimes said to be one of the seven wise men of Greece. He belongs to a class of authors called logographers, who collected the early Greek legends, generally local, and paved the way for the more stately historical efforts of Herodotus. The work of Acusilaus was named "Genealogies." Only a few fragments of it have come down to us.—J. D. <section end="44W" /> <section begin="44X" />ADÆUS or ADDÆUS, a Greek poet, born in Macedonia, supposed to be the author of five epigrams in the "Greek Anthology," though only one of these is expressly assigned to the Macedonian Addæus. He lived probably about 320. <section end="44X" /> <section begin="44Y" />ADAIR,, an English merchant and traveller, lived about the middle of the eighteenth century. He resided for four years amongst the savage tribes of North America, and published in 1770 an interesting work, entitled "History of the American Indians," in which he sought to prove that the tribes of the north were the descendants of a Jewish colony. <section end="44Y" /> <section begin="44Zcontin" />ADAIR,, a native of Scotland, the date of whose birth is unknown, practised for several years at Bath, <section end="44Zcontin" />