Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/823

ARARAT. uge, from which it appears that Ararat was properly the designation of an entire district. Such, however, was the general interest attach- ing to the Biblical tradition, that the name Ararat became attached to a particular moun- tain, the one called by the Armenians Masis Leusar, or "mountains of the ark"; by the Turks Aghri-Dagh, "steep mountain"; and by the Persians, Koh-i-Nüh, "Noah's mountain." It rises in two volcanic cones, known as the greater and lesser Ararat; the former, which attains the height of 16,912 feet (according to another measurement, 17,212 feet) above the level of the sea, is covered with perpetual snow. It is, next to Mount Demavend, the highest elevation of Western Asia, and since 1827 it forms the point where the Russian, Turkish, and Persian ter- ritories meet, its summit being in Russian terri- tory. In 1840 the form of the mountain was partially changed by a frightful and destructive earthquake. Previous to this period, at the base of the mountain and at a point where a stream luns from a wild gorge, there stood the village of Arguri, or Aguri. It was surrounded by gardens and orchards, and had upwards of one thousand inhabitants. In the ravine, 2300 feet above the village, stood the Armenian convent of St. James, and 1000 feet higher still a chapel dedicated to St. James. The beauty and mild air of the district made Arguri a favorite sum- mer resort of the richer inhabitants of Armenia. It was destined to undergo a great change, how- ever. On July 2, 1840, dreadful shocks of earthquake were felt. Great masses of the moun- tain were thrown into the plain, the ravine was closed, the convent and chapel disappeared, and the village and the gardens which surrounded it were buried under rocks, earth, and ice, with all the inhabitants.

ARARAT, or PI'LOT MOUN'TAIN. A mountain about 3000 feet high, situated in Surrey County, N. C.

ARARI, il-rii're, A low mountain chain forming the southwestern boundary of the States of Ceará and Piauhy, Brazil (Map: Brazil, J 5). It forms part of the mountain system that extends southward from the north- east coast at a point just to the west of the mouth of the Parahiba River. It is, besides, the watershed between that river system and the São Francisco, to the eastward.

ARAS, a-r;is'(the ancient Gk, 'Apd|t)s. Sraxt's) . A river in Armenia, formed by the junction of the Bingol-Su and the Kaleh-Su, and uniting its waters with those of the Kur (ancient Cyrus), after a course of about 500 miles. The main stream is the Bingol-Su, which rises in the Bingol-Dagh Mountains, Asiatic Turkey, in latitude 41° 30' N. and longitude 41° 10' E.; and flowing north-northeast, is joined a little below Hasan-Kaleh by the Kaleh-Su, after which the combined stream is called the Aras (Map: Turkey in Asia, M 3). About 52 miles west of Kazyman it crosses the Russian frontier, traverses the territory of Kars and the government of Erivan; then forms for a long distance the boundary line between Russia and Persia, and by a sharp turn south it flows on until it meets the Kur. On its banks are found many traces of ancient canals and other proofs that the surrounding country was once densely populated. The ancient writers claimed that the Aras flowed directly into the Caspian Sea, and modern research has proven this to have been the case. Near the village of Janfitze the old bed of the Aras is visible for about twenty miles. This former bed of the river passed through Armavir, the ancient capital of Armenia.

ARA'TOR. A Christian Latin poet of the Sixth Century. He was born in Liguria, studied at Milan, became a jurist under Theodoric, and was an official under Athalaric, Theodoric's successor. About 540 he took orders as a subdeacon of the Roman Church. He is best known for his De Actis Apostolorum, a poem in very creditable hexameters, but much overweighted with reflective and allegorical passages. He also wrote an Epistola ad Parthenium in the elegiac distich.

ARA'TUS (Gk. "Aparos, Aratos) (B.C. 271-213). A distinguished statesman and general of Sicyon. At the time of Aratus's youth, Sicyon was in the hands of tyrants, who were chiefly partisans of the Macedonian kings. Clinias, the father of Aratus, was an active supporter of the opposite side, and, in the course of a party strug- gle, he was assassinated, B.C. 246. Many mem- bers of his party were obliged to flee from the city, and Aratus was rescued by a relative and taken to Argos. Here he spent his youth and became a recognized leader of the exiled band. In his twentieth year (B.C. 251), putting himself at the head of a few followers, he made his way to Sicyon, secretly entered the town, drove out the tyrant, and reestablished a government of the people. Owing to the long rule of the ty- rants, he at first met with many difficulties in his efforts at reorganization, but he successfully overcame these, and was recognized as the first man in the state. Under his lead, Sicyon joined the Achæan League, in which it soon rose to a position of first importance. In B.C. 245 he was made general of the League, an office which he held in the course of his career seventeen times. Through his influence, many other Greek cities joined the confederacy. In B.C. 224 the League was hard pressed by the Spartans under Cleo- menes, and Aratus found himself obliged to join hands with Antigonus, King of Macedonia. An alliance was made, and the Spartans were defeated at Sellasia, in B.C. 221; but through this step the Macedonians gained a foothold in Peloponnesus. Aratus was a greater statesman than general, but he was sincere throughout his life in his efforts to enlarge and strengthen the league. He was finally poisoned, in B.C. 213, by order of Philip, the successor of Antigonus. Two annual festivals (the Aratea) were instituted by his countrymen in his honor. Near the end of his life he wrote his memoirs, in thirty books. Consult Müller, Fragmenta Historicorum Græcorum (Paris, 1868-74).

ARATUS A Greek physician and poet of Cilicia. About B.C. 270, at the request of the Macedonian king, Antigonus Gonatas, he wrote a Greek didactic poem, entitled, Phænomena, founded on the astronomical system of Eudoxus of Cnidos, and appended to it another poem, Diosemeia, giving rules for prognostication of the weather. A pure style and correct versification mark both poems, which were translated into Latin by Cicero, Cæsar Germanicus, and Rufus Festus Avienus. Aratus was a native of the same province as St. Paul, who quotes from