Part 45

The peninsular projection of the coast of Gaul between the mouths of the Seine and the Loire, embracing modern Brittany, and a great part of Normandy, was known to the Romans as Armorica. The most important of the Armorican tribes in Cæsar's time was that of the Veneti. "In the fourth and fifth centuries, the northern coast from the Loire to the frontier of the Netherlands was called 'Tractus Aremoricus,' or Aremorica, which in Celtic signifies 'maritime country.' The commotions of the third century, which continued to increase during the fourth and fifth, repeatedly drove the Romans from that country. French antiquaries imagine that it was a regularly constituted Gallic republic, of which Chlovis had the protectorate, but this is wrong."

_B. G. Niebuhr, Lectures on Ancient Ethnography and Geography, volume 2, page 318._

ALSO IN: _E. H. Bunbury, History of Ancient Geography, volume 2, page 235._

See, also, VENETI OF WESTERN GAUL, and IBERIANS, THE WESTERN.

ARMSTRONG, General John, and the Newburgh Addresses.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1782-1783.

ARMSTRONG, General John: Secretary of War. Plan of descent on Montreal.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1813 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER).

ARMY, The Legal Creation of the British.

See MUTINY ACTS.

ARMY PURCHASE, Abolition of.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1871.

ARNÆANS, The.

See GREECE: THE MIGRATIONS.

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ARNAULD, Jacqueline Marie, and the Monastery of Port Royal.

See PORT ROYAL and the JANSENISTS: A. D. 1602-1660.

ARNAUTS, The.

See ALBANIANS, MEDIÆVAL.

ARNAY-LE-DUC, Battle of (1570).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1563-1570.

ARNOLD, Benedict, and the American Revolution.

See CANADA: A. D. 1775-1776; and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (MAY); 1777 (JULY-OCTOBER); 1780 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER); 1780-1781; 1781 (JANUARY-MAY); 1781 (MAY-OCTOBER).

ARNOLD OF BRESCIA, The Republic of.

See ROME: A. D. 1145-1155.

ARNOLD VON WINKELRIED, at the Battle of Sempach.

See SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1386-1388.

ARNULF, King of the East Franks (Germany), A. D. 888-899; King of Italy and Emperor, A. D. 894-899.

AROGI, Battle of (1868).

See ABYSSINIA: A. D. 1854-1889.

ARPAD, Dynasty of.

See HUNGARIANS: RAVAGES IN EUROPE; and HUNGARY: A. D. 972-1114; 1114-1301.

ARPAD, Siege of.

Conducted by the Assyrian Conqueror Tiglath-Pileser, beginning B. C. 742 and lasting two years. The fall of the city brought with it the submission of all northern Syria.

_A. H. Sayce, Assyria, chapter 2._

ARQUES, Battles at (1589).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1589-1590.

ARRABIATI, The.

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1490-1498.

ARRAPACHITIS.

See JEWS: THE EARLY HEBREW HISTORY.

ARRAPAHOES, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.

ARRAS: Origin.

See BELGÆ.

ARRAS: A. D. 1583. Submission to Spain.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1584-1585.

ARRAS: A. D. 1654. Unsuccessful Siege by the Spaniards under Condé.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1653-1656.

ARRAS: End----------

ARRAS, Treaties of (1415 and 1435).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1380-1415, and 1431-1453.

ARRETIUM, Battle of (B. C. 285).

See ROME: B. C. 295-191.

ARROW HEADED WRITING.

See CUNEIFORM WRITING.

ARSACIDÆ, The.

The dynasty of Parthian kings were so called, from the founder of the line, Arsaces, who led the revolt of Parthia from the rule of the Syrian Seleucidæ and raised himself to the throne. According to some ancient writers Arsaces was a Bactrian; according to others a Scythian.

_G. Rawlinson, Sixth Great Oriental Monarchy, chapter 3._

ARSEN.

In one of the earlier raids of the Seljukian Turks into Armenia, in the eleventh century the city of Arsen was destroyed. "It had long been the great city of Eastern Asia Minor, the centre of Asiatic trade, the depot for merchandise transmitted overland from Persia and India to the Eastern Empire and Europe generally. It was full of warehouses belonging to Armenians and Syrians and is said to have contained 800 churches and 300,000 people. Having failed to capture the city, Togrul's general succeeded in burning it. The destruction of so much wealth struck a fatal blow at Armenian commerce."

_E. Pears, The Fall of Constantinople, chapter 2._

ARSENE, Lake.

An ancient name of the Lake of Van, which is also called Thopitis by Strabo.

_E. H. Bunbury, History of Ancient Geography, chapter 22, section 1._

ARTABA, The.

See EPHAH.

ARTAXATA.

The ancient capital of Armenia, said to have been built under the superintendence of Hannibal, while a refugee in Armenia. At a later time it was called Neronia, in honor of the Roman Emperor Nero.

ARTAXERXES LONGIMANUS, King of Persia, B. C. 465-425. ARTAXERXES MNEMON, King of Persia, B. C. 405-359. ARTAXERXES OCHUS, King of Persia, B. C. 359-338. ARTAXERXES, or ARDSHIR, Founder of the Sassanian monarchy.

See PERSIA: B. C. 150-A. D. 226.

ARTEMISIUM, Sea fights at.

See GREECE: B. C. 480.

ARTEMITA.

See DASTAGERD.

ARTEVELD, Jacques and Philip Van: Their rise and fall in Ghent.

See FLANDERS: A. D. 1335-1337, to 1382.

ARTHUR, King, and the Knights of the Round Table.

"On the difficult question, whether there was a historical Arthur or not, … a word or two must now be devoted; … and here one has to notice in the first place that Welsh literature never calls Arthur a gwledig or prince but emperor, and it may be inferred that his historical position, in case he had such a position, was that of one filling, after the departure of the Romans, the office which under them was that of the Comes Britanniæ or Count of Britain. The officer so called had a roving commission to defend the Province wherever his presence might be called for. The other military captains here were the Dux Britanniarum, who had charge of the forces in the north and especially on the Wall, and the Comes Littoris Saxonici [Count of the Saxon Shore], who was entrusted with the defence of the south-eastern coast of the island. The successors of both these captains seem to have been called in Welsh gwledigs or princes. So Arthur's suggested position as Comes Britanniæ would be in a sense superior to theirs, which harmonizes with his being called emperor and not gwledig. The Welsh have borrowed the Latin title of imperator, 'emperor,' and made it into 'amherawdyr,' later 'amherawdwr,' so it is not impossible, that when the Roman imperator ceased to have anything more to say to this country, the title was given to the highest officer in the island, namely the Comes Britanniæ, and that in the words 'Yr Amherawdyr Arthur,' 'the Emperor Arthur,' we have a remnant of our insular history. If this view be correct, it might be regarded as something more than an accident that Arthur's position relatively to that of the other Brythonic princes of his time is exactly given by Nennius, or whoever it was that wrote the _Historia Brittonum_ ascribed to him: there Arthur is represented fighting in company with the kings of the Brythons in defence of their common country, he being their leader in war. If, as has sometimes been argued, the uncle of Maglocunus or Maelgwn, whom the latter is accused by Gilda of having slain and superseded, was no other than Arthur, it would supply one reason why that writer called Maelgwn 'insularis draco,' 'the dragon or war-captain of the island,' and why the latter and his successors after him were called by the Welsh not gwledigs but kings, though their great ancestor Cuneda was only a gwledig. {137} On the other hand the way in which Gildas alludes to the uncle of Maelgwn without even giving his name, would seem to suggest that in his estimation at least he was no more illustrious than his predecessors in the position which he held, whatever that may have been. How then did Arthur become famous above them, and how came he to be the subject of so much story and romance? The answer, in short, which one has to give to this hard question must be to the effect, that besides a historic Arthur there was a Brythonic divinity named Arthur, after whom the man may have been called, or with whose name his, in case it was of a different origin, may have become identical in sound owing to an accident of speech; for both explanations are possible, as we shall attempt to show later. Leaving aside for a while the man Arthur, and assuming the existence of a god of that name, let us see what could be made of him. Mythologically speaking he would probably have to be regarded as a Culture Hero; for, a model king and the institutor of the Knighthood of the Round Table, he is represented as the leader of expeditions to the isles of Hades, and as one who stood in somewhat the same kind of relation to Gwalchmei as Gwydion did to ILeu. It is needless here to dwell on the character usually given to Arthur as a ruler: he with his knights around him may be compared to Conehobar, in the midst of the Champions of Emain Macha, or Woden among the Anses at Valhalla, while Arthur's Knights are called those of the Round Table, around which they are described sitting; and it would be interesting to understand the signification of the term Round Table. On the whole it is the table, probably, and not its roundness that is the fact to which to call attention, as it possibly means that Arthur's court was the first early court where those present sat at a table at all in Britain. No such thing as a common table figures at Conchobar's court or any other described in the old legends of Ireland, and the same applies, we believe, to those of the old Norsemen. The attribution to Arthur of the first use of a common table would fit in well with the character of a Culture Hero which we have ventured to ascribe to him, and it derives countenance from the pretended history of the Round Table; for the Arthurian legend traces it back to Arthur's father, Uthr Bendragon, in whom we have under one of his many names the king of Hades, the realm whence all culture was fabled to have been derived. In a wider sense the Round Table possibly signified plenty or abundance, and might be compared with the table of the Ethiopians, at which Zeus and the other gods of Greek mythology used to feast from time to time."

_J. Rhys, Studies in the Arthurian Legend, chapter 1._

See, also CUMBRIA.

ARTHUR, Chester A. Election to Vice-Presidency. Succession to the Presidency.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1880 and 1881.

ARTI OF FLORENCE.

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1250-1293.

ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION (American).

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1777-1781, and 1783-1787.

ARTICLES OF HENRY, The.

See POLAND: A. D. 1573.

ARTOIS, The House of.

See BOURBON, THE HOUSE OF.

ARTOIS: A. D. 1529. Pretensions of the King of France to Suzerainty resigned.

See ITALY: A. D. 1527-1529.

ARTYNI.

See DEMIURGI.

ARVADITES, The.

The Canaanite inhabitants of the island of Aradus, or Arvad, and who also held territory on the main land.

_F. Lenormant, Manual of Ancient History, book 6, chapter 1._

ARVERNI, The.

See ÆDUI; also, GAULS, and ALLOBROGES.

ARX, The.

See CAPITOLINE HILL; also GENS, ROMAN.

ARXAMUS, Battle of.

One of the defeats sustained by the Romans in their wars with the Persians. Battle fought A. D. 603.

_G. Rawlinson, Seventh Great Oriental Monarchy, chapter 24._

ARYANS. ARYAS.

"This family (which is sometimes called Japhetic, or descendants of Japhet) includes the Hindus and Persians among Asiatic nations, and almost all the peoples of Europe. It may seem strange that we English should be related not only to the Germans and Dutch and Scandinavians, but to the Russians, French, Spanish, Romans and Greeks as well; stranger still that we can claim kinship with such distant peoples as the Persians and Hindus. … What seems actually to have been the case is this: In distant ages, somewhere about the rivers Oxus and Jaxartes, and on the north of that mountainous range called the Hindoo-Koosh, dwelt the ancestors of all the nations we have enumerated, forming at this time a single and united people, simple and primitive in their way of life, but yet having enough of a common national life to preserve a common language. They called themselves Aryas or Aryans, a word which, in its very earliest sense, seems to have meant those who move upwards, or straight; and hence, probably, came to stand for the noble race as compared with other races on whom, of course, they would look down. … As their numbers increased, the space wherein they dwelt became too small for them who had out of one formed many different peoples. Then began a series of migrations, in which the collection of tribes who spoke one language and formed one people started off to seek their fortune in new lands. … First among them, in all probability, started the Kelts or Celts, who, travelling perhaps to the South of the Caspian and the North of the Black Sea, found their way to Europe and spread far on to the extreme West. … Another of the great families who left the Aryan home was the Pelasgic or the Græco-Italic. These, journeying along first Southwards and then to the West, passed through Asia Minor, on to the countries of Greece and Italy, and in time separated into those two great peoples, the Greeks (or Hellenes, as they came to call themselves), and the Romans. … Next we come to two other great families of nations who seem to have taken the same route at first, and perhaps began their travels together as the Greeks and Romans did. These are the Teutons and the Slaves. … The word Slave comes from Slowan, which in old Slavonian meant to speak, and was given by the Slavonians to themselves as the people who could speak in opposition to other nations whom, as they were not able to understand them, they were pleased to consider as dumb. The Greek word barbaroi (whence our barbarians) arose in obedience to a like prejudice, only from an imitation of babbling such as is made by saying 'bar-bar-bar.'"

_C. F. Keary, Dawn of History, chapter 4._

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The above passage sets forth the older theory of an Aryan family of nations as well as of languages in its unqualified form. Its later modifications are indicated in the following: "The discovery of Sanscrit and the further discovery to which it led, that the languages now variously known as Aryan, Aryanic, Indo-European, Indo-Germanic, Indo-Celtic and Japhetic are closely akin to one another, spread a spell over the world of thought which cannot be said to have yet wholly passed away. It was hastily argued from the kinship of their languages to the kinship of the nations that spoke them. … The question then arises as to the home of the 'holethnos,' or parent tribe, before its dispersion and during the proethnic period, at a time when as yet there was neither Greek nor Hindoo, neither Celt nor Teuton, but only an undifferentiated Aryan. Of course, the answer at first was—where could it have been but in the East. And at length the glottologist found it necessary to shift the cradle of the Aryan race to the neighbourhood of the Oxus and the Jaxartes, so as to place it somewhere between the Caspian Sea and the Himalayas. Then Doctor Latham boldly raised his voice against the Asiatic theory altogether, and stated that he regarded the attempt to deduce the Aryans from Asia as resembling an attempt to derive the reptiles of this country from those of Ireland. Afterwards Benfey argued, from the presence in the vocabulary common to the Aryan languages of words for bear and wolf, for birch and beech, and the absence of certain others, such as those for lion, tiger and palm, that the original home of the Aryans must have been within the temperate zone in Europe. … As might be expected in the case of such a difficult question, those who are inclined to believe in the European origin of the Aryans are by no means agreed among themselves as to the spot to be fixed upon. Latham placed it east, or south-east of Lithuania, in Podolia, or Volhynia; Benfey had in view a district above the Black Sea and not far from the Caspian; Peschel fixed on the slopes of the Caucasus; Cuno on the great plain of Central Europe; Fligier on the southern part of Russia; Pösche on the tract between the Niemen and the Dnieper; L. Geiger on central and western Germany; and Penka on Scandinavia."

_J. Rhys, Race Theories (in New Princeton Review, January, 1888)._

"Aryan, in scientific language, is utterly inapplicable to race. It means language, and nothing but language; and, if we speak of Aryan race at all, we should know that it means no more than X + Aryan speech. … I have declared again and again that if I say Aryas, I mean neither blood nor bones, nor hair nor skull; I mean simply those who speak an Aryan language. The same applies to Hindus, Greeks, Romans, Germans, Celts and Slaves. … In that sense, and in that sense only, do I say that even the blackest Hindus represent an earlier stage of Aryan speech and thought than the fairest Scandinavians. … If an answer must be given as to the place where our Aryan ancestors dwelt before their separation, whether in large swarms of millions, or in a few scattered tents and huts, I should still say, as I said forty years ago, 'Somewhere in Asia,' and no more."

_F. Max Müller, Biog. of Words and Home of the Aryas, chapter 6._

The theories which dispute the Asiatic origin of the Aryans are strongly presented by Canon Taylor in _The Origin of the Aryans_, by G. H. Rendall, in _The Cradle of the Aryans_, and by Dr. O. Schrader in _Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples._

See, also, INDIA: THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS, and THE IMMIGRATION AND CONQUESTS OF THE ARYAS.

AS. LIBRA. DENARIUS. SESTERTIUS.

"The term _As_ [among the Romans] and the words which denote its divisions, were not confined to weight alone, but were applied to measures of length and capacity also, and in general to any object which could be regarded as consisting of twelve equal parts. Thus they were commonly used to denote shares into which an inheritance was divided." As a unit of weight the _As_, or Libra, "occupied the same position in the Roman system as the pound does in our own. According to the most accurate researches, the _As_ was equal to about 11.8 oz. avoirdupois, or .7375 of an avoirdupois pound." It "was divided into 12 equal parts called unciæ, and the unciæ was divided into 24 equal parts called scrupula." "The _As_, regarded as a coin [of copper] originally weighed, as the name implies, one pound, and the smaller copper coins those fractions of the pound denoted by their names. By degrees; however, the weight of the _As_, regarded as a coin, was greatly diminished. We are told that, about the commencement of the first Punic war, it had fallen from 12 ounces to 2 ounces; in the early part of the second Punic war (B. C. 217), it was reduced to one ounce; and not long afterwards, by a Lex Papiria, it was fixed at half-an-ounce, which remained the standard ever after." The silver coins of Rome were the Denarius, equivalent (after 217 B. C.) to 16 Asses; the Quinarius and the Sestertius, which became, respectively, one half and one fourth of the Denarius in value. The Sestertius, at the close of the Republic, is. estimated to have been equivalent in value to two pence sterling of English money. The coinage was debased under the Empire. The principal gold coin of the Empire was the Denarius Aureus, which passed for 25 silver Denarii.

_W. Ramsay, Manual of Roman Antiquity, chapter 13._

ASCALON, Battle of (A. D. 1099).

See JERUSALEM: A. D. 1099-1144.

ASCANIENS, The.

See BRANDENBURG: A. D. 928-1142.

ASCULUM, Battle of (B. C. 279).

See ROME: B. C. 282-275.

ASCULUM, Massacre at.

See ROME: B. C. 90-88.

ASHANTEE WAR, The (1874).

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1873-1880

ASHBURTON TREATY, The.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1842.

ASHDOD.

See PHILISTINES.

ASHRAF, Shah of Persia, A. D. 1725-1730.

ASHTI, Battle of (1818).

See INDIA: A. D. 1816-1819.

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ASIA: The Name.

"There are grounds for believing Europe and Asia to have originally signified 'the west' and 'the east' respectively. Both are Semitic terms, and probably passed to the Greeks from the Phœnicians. … The Greeks first applied the title [Asia] to that portion of the eastern continent which lay nearest to them, and with which they became first acquainted—the coast of Asia Minor opposite the Cyclades; whence they extended it as their knowledge grew. Still it had always a special application to the country about Ephesus."

_G. Rawlinson, Notes to Herodotus, volume 3, page 33._

ASIA: The Roman Province (so called).

"As originally constituted, it corresponded to the dominions of the kings of Pergamus … left by the will of Attalus III. to the Roman people (B. C. 133). … It included the whole of Mysia and Lydia, with Æolis, Ionia and Caria, except a small part which was subject to Rhodes, and the greater part, if not the whole, of Phrygia. A portion of the last region, however, was detached from it."

_E. H. Bunbury, History of Ancient Geography, chapter 20, section 1._

ASIA: Central. Mongol Conquest.

See MONGOLS.

ASIA: Turkish Conquest.

See TURKS.

ASIA: Russian Conquests.

See RUSSIA: A. D. 1859-1876, and 1869-1881.

ASIA MINOR:

"The name of Asia Minor, so familiar to the student of ancient geography, was not in use either among Greek or Roman writers until a very late period. Orosius, who wrote in the fifth century after the Christian era, is the first extant writer who employs the term in its modern sense."

_E. H. Bunbury, History of Ancient Geography, chapter 7, section 2._

The name Anatolia, which is of Greek origin, synonymous with "The Levant," signifying "The Sunrise," came into use among the Byzantines, about the 10th century, and was adopted by their successors, the Turks.

ASIA MINOR: Earlier Kingdoms and People.

See PHRYGIANS and MYSIANS. LYDIANS. CARIANS. LYCIANS. BITHYNIANS. PONTUS (CAPPADOCIA). PAPHLAGONIANS. TROJA.

ASIA MINOR: The Greek Colonies.