Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/537

 ELIOTT 3rd, and the same year published a " Manual of United States History, 1492-1850 " (12mo, Boston). He was president of Trinity college from 1860 to 1866, and is now (1874) pro- fessor of political science and constitutional law in that institution. ELIOTT, George Augustus, Baron Heathfield, a British general, born at Stobbs, Roxburghshire, Scotland, in 1718, died in Aix-la-Chapelle in July, 1790. He was educated at the univer- sity of Leyden, and subsequently studied the art of war in the school of artillery at La Fere. He entered the British army in 1735, distinguished himself at Dettingen and in other actions in Germany and the Netherlands, ob- tained the rank of lieutenant general, and in 1775 was appointed governor of Gibraltar, which he successfully defended for more than three years against the combined French and Spanish forces. On his return to England he received the thanks of both houses of parlia- ment, and vas made a knight of the bath by George III. ; and in 1787 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Heathfield of Gibraltar. ELIS, or Elca, in ancient Greece, a division of the Peloponnesus, extending along the Ionian sea from the promontory of Araxus to the river Neda ; greatest breadth about 35 m., from the promontory of Chelonatas to the foot of Mt. Ery man thus, where the boundaries of Elis, Arcadia, and Achaia come together ; area, about 1,000 sq. m. It contained the western slopes of the Achaian and Arcadian mountains, Erymanthus, Pholoe, and Lycaaus; and though its surface was for the most part uneven, it had many valleys and hillsides of great fertility. Its principal rivers were the Alpheus (now Ruphia) and the Peneus (Gas- tuni). The whole territory included three districts: Elis, in its narrower sense, or Hol- low Elis ; Pisatis, separated from the first by a branch of the Pholoe mountains ; and Triphylia, lying S. of the Alpheus. Of these, Hollow Elis, so called from its being a vale set in a circle of mountains, was the most north- ern and the most fertile. Here, and nowhere else in Greece, grew the fine flax called byssus. At the time of the Doric invasion, Oxylus led the Heraclidoe south by the more difficult way of Arcadia, lest they should see and be at- tracted by the richness of this plain. Hollow Elis contained three cities, Elis, its port Cyl- lene, and Pylos. These were unwalled, and protected only by the sanctity of the country ; for by the common law of Greece Elis was a sacred state and inviolable, on account of its possession of the temple of the Olympian Zeus on the banks of the Alpheus. This sacred character of Elis was, however, disregarded during the Peloponnesian war by the Athe- nians. Afterward King Agis of Sparta pressed across the Larissus to attack Elis, but on the first attempt fled, alarmed by an earthquake ; and he failed in a subsequent attack. Pisatis, which was the lower valley of the Alpheus, had eight cities, two of which, Pisa and Salmone, are ELISHA 529 celebrated in the legends of (Enomaus, Pelops, and Salmoneus. In this.district was Olympia, the seat of the most famous of the Greek games| and the quadrennial scene of the most splendid of Greek assemblages. From the time of the Doric invasion there was hostility between the proper Eleans and the Pisatians, caused by the claim of the former to direct the Olympic games. This jealousy gave rise to several wars. The Eleans, finally victorious in the 52d Olympiad, destroyed the city of Pisa. Tryphylia, the smallest and the southern division of Elis, was separated from Messenia by the Neda, and was fertile only in the interior. Here was Mt. Minthe, the highest in Elis, one of the seats of the worship of Hades. The Eleans took part in the Trojan, Peloponnesian, and the other general Grecian wars, and were con- stantly in strife with some one of their neigh- bors. They retained the celebration of their renowned Olympic games till A. D. 394, when the festival was abolished by the emperor Theodosius. Two years later the country was laid waste with fire and sword by Alaric. Again in the middle ages Elis became of some importance in the hands of French adven- turers, and subsequently of the Venetians. But the memory of its ancient religious char- acter, and traditions of its cultivation and large and active population, give to it its only modern interest. Its two northern divisions now form part of the nomarchy of Achaia and Elis, and Triphylia of that of Messenia. ELISABETHGRAD, or lelisavetgrad, a fortified town of South Russia, in the government and 130 m. K of the city of Kherson, on the river Ingul; pop. in 1867, 31,968. It is hexag- onal in shape, fortified and well built, is the headquarters of the military colonies E. of the Bug, contains a large hospital and five churches, has considerable trade, and the principal an- nual fair in the government. It was founded in 1754, and named after the empress Elizabeth. ELISABETHPOL. I. A government of Asiatic Russia, in the division of Transcaucasia, bor- dering on the governments of Tiflis, Baku, and Erivan, and bounded S. by Persia ; area, 17,038 sq. m. ; pop. in 1867, 503,282. The western portion is mountainous ; the eastern is more level. The principal river is the Kur. II. A town, capital of the government, on an afflu- ent of the Kur, 90 m. S. E. of Tiflis; pop. in 1867, 14,971. It has several churches and mosques, and considerable trade in fruit. Its original name was Gansha. Here Paskevitch defeated the Persians, Sept. 25, 1826. ELISHA, a Hebrew prophet, whose history is given in the books of Kings. He was plough- ing with twelve yoke of oxen when Elijah called him to the prophetic office. At the mo- ment when Elijah disappeared from the earth, Elisha received his mantle, and was recog- nized by the other prophets as their spiritual chief. He divided the waters of the Jordan by extending over them the robe of his mas- ter; rendered the bitter fountain of Jericho