which lasted till the time of Justinian, under whom the country was recovered for the Eastern Empire, and the Vandals almost exterminated, by Belisarius, A. D. 533-534. (For an account of the Vandal kings of Africa, see VANDALI: for the history of this period, the chief authority is Procopius, Bell. Vand.) Of the state and constitution of Africa under Justinian, we have most interesting memorials in two rescripts, addressed by the emperor, the one to Archelaus, the praetorian praefect of Africa, and the other to Belisarius himself. (Böcking, Notit. Dign. vol. ii. pp. 154, foll.) From the former we learn that the seven African provinces, of which the island of Sardinia now made one, were erected into a separate praefecture, under a Praefectus Praetorio Magnificus; and the two rescripts settle their civil and military constitution respectively. It should be observed that Mauretania Tingitana (from the river Mulucha to the Ocean), which had formerly belonged to Spain, was now included in the African province of Mauretania Caesariensis. [Comp. MAURETANIA.] The seven African provinces were (from E. to W.), (1) Tripolis or Tripolitana, (2) Byzacium or Byzacena, (3) Africa or Zeugis or Carthago, (4) Numidia, (5) Mauretania Sitifensis or Zaba, (6) Mauretania Caesariensis, and (7) Sardinia: the first three were governed by Consulares, the last four by Praesides.

The history of Africa under the E. empire consists of a series of intestine troubles arising from court intrigues, and of Moorish insurrections which became more and more difficult to repel. The splendid edifices and fortifications, of which Justinian was peculiarly lavish in this part of his dominions, were a poor substitute for the vital energy which was almost extinct. (Procop.de Aedif. Justin.) At length the deluge of Arabian invasion swept over the choicest parts of the Eastern Empire, and the conquest of Egypt was no sooner completed, than the Caliph Othman sent an army under Abdallah against Africa, A. D. 647. The praefect Gregory was defeated and slain in the great battle of Sufetula in the centre of Byzacena; but the Arab force was inadequate to complete the conquest. In 665 the enterprize was renewed by Akbah, who overran the whole country to the shores of the Atlantic; and founded the great Arab city of Al-Kairwan (i. e. the caravan), in the heart of Byzacium, about 20 miles S. W. of the ancient Hadrumetum. Its inland position protected it from the fleets of the Greeks, who were still masters of the coast. But the Moorish tribes made common

cause with the Africans, and the forces of Akbah were cut to pieces. His successor, Zuheir, gained several battles, but was defeated by an army sent from Constantinople. The contest was prolonged by the internal dissensions of the successors of the prophet; but, in A. D. 692, a new force entered Africa under Hassan, the governor of Egypt, and Carthage was taken and destroyed in 698. Again were the Arabs driven out by a general insurrection of the Moors, or, as we now find them called, by the name ever since applied to the natives of N. Africa, the Berbers (from Báp6apoi); but the Greeks and Romans of Africa found their domination more intolerable than that of the Arabs, and welcomed the return of their conquerors under Musa, who subdued the country finally, and enlisted most of the Moors under the faith and standard of the prophet, A. D. 705-709. With the Arab conquest ends the ancient history of Africa. [P.S.]

AGANIPPE FONS. [HELICON.]

A'GARI (Ayapoi), a Scythian people of Sarmatia Europaea, on the N. shore of the Palus Maeotis (Sea of Azov), about a promontory Agarum and a river Agarus, probably not far E. of the Isthmus. They were skilful in medicine, and are said to have cured wounds with serpents' venom! Some of them always attended on Mithridates the Great, as physicians. (Appian. Mithr 88; Ptol. iii. 5. § 13.) A fungus called Agaricum (prob. German tinder), much used in ancient medicine, was said to grow in their country (Plin. xxv. 9. s. 57; Dioscor. iii. 1; Galen, de fac. simp. med. p. 150). Diodorus (xx. 24), mentions Agarus, a king of the Scythians, near the Cimmerian Bosporus, B. c. 240. (Böckh, Corpus Inscr. vol. ii. p. 82; Ukert, vol. iii. pt. 2, pp. 250, 433.) [P.S.]

AGASSA or AGASSAE, a town in Pieria in Macedonia, near the river Mitys. Livy, in relating the campaign of B. C. 169 against Perseus, says that the Roman consul made three days' march beyond Dium, the first of which terminated at the river Mitys, the second at Agassa, and the third at the river Ascordus. The last appears to be the same as the Acerdos, which occurs in the Tabular Itinerary, though not marked as a river. Leake supposes that the Mitys was the river of Katerina, and that Acerdos was a tributary of the Haliacmon. (Liv. xliv. 7, xlv. 27; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 423, seq.)

AGATHUSA. [TELOS.]

AGATHYRNA or AGATHYRNUM (Ayd@upra, Polyb. ap. Steph. Byz.'Ayalúpvov, Ptol.: Agathyrna, Sil. Ital. xiv. 259; Liv.; Agathyrnum, Plin.), a city on the N. coast of Sicily between Tyndaris and Calacte. It was supposed to have derived its name from Agathyrnus, a son of Aeolus, who is said to have settled in this part of Sicily (Diod. v. 8). But though it may be inferred from hence that it was an ancient city, and probably of Sicelian origin, we find no mention of it in history until after Sicily became a Roman province. During the Second Punic War it became the head-quarters of a band of robbers and freebooters, who extended their ravages over the neighbouring country, but were reduced by the consul Laevinus in B. c. 210, who transported 4000 of them to Rhegium. (Liv. xxvi. 40, xxvii. 12.) It very probably was deprived on this occasion of the municipal rights conceded to most of the Sicilian towns, which may account for our finding no notice of it in Cicero, though it is mentioned by Strabo among the few cities still subsisting on the N. coast of Sicily, as well as afterwards by Pliny, Ptolemy and the Itineraries. (Strab. vi. p. 266; Plin. iii. 8; Ptol. iii. 4. § 2; Itin. Ant. p. 92; Tab. Peut.) Its situation has been much disputed, on account of the great discrepancy between the authorities just cited. Strabo places it 30 Roman miles from Tyndaris, and the same distance from Alaesa. The Itinerary gives 28 M. P. from Tyndaris and 20 from Calacte: while the Tabula (of which the numbers seem to be more trustworthy for this part of Sicily than those of the Itinerary) gives 29 from Tyndaris, and only 12 from Calacte. If this last measurement be supposed correct it would exactly coincide with the distance from Caronia (Calacte) to a place near the seacoast called Acque Dolci below S. Filadelfo (called on recent maps S. Fratello) and about 2 miles W. of Sta Agata, where Fazello describes ruins of considerable magnitude as extant in his day: but which he, in common with Cluverius, regarded as the re

under which Ptolemy includes the whole interior of Africa S. of the Equator; which he regards as belonging to Aethiopia (i. 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, iv. 8, vii. 5). [P.S.] A'GORA ('Ayopá), a town situated about the middle of the narrow neck of the Thracian Chersonesus, and not far from Cardia. Xerxes, when invading Greece, passed through it. (Herod. vii. 58; Scylax, p. 28; Steph. B. s. v.) [L. S.] AGRA (Aypa Apacías, Ptol. vi. 7. §5; Steph. В. s. vv. 'Iά@piñжа, "Eуpa), a small district of Arabia Felix, situated at the foot of Mount Hippus, on the eastern coast of the Red Sea, in lat. 29 N. (Akra). Iathrippa or Lathrippa seems to have been its principal town.

AGRAE. [ATTICA.]

[W. B. D.]

AGRAEI (Aypało, Thuc. iii. 106; Strab. p. 449: 'Aypaeis, Pol. xvii. 5; Steph. Byz. s. v.), a people in the NW. of Aetolia, bounded on the W. by Acarnania, from which it was separated by Mount Thyamus (Spartovuni); on the NW. by the territory of Argos Amphilochicum; and on the N. by Dolopia. Their territory was called Agrais, or Agraea (Aypats, -idos, Thuc. iii. 111; 'Aypaía, Strab. p. 338), and the river Achelous flowed through the centre of it. The Agraei were a nonHellenic people, and at the commencement of the Peloponnesian war were governed by a native king, called Salynthius, who is mentioned as an ally of the Ambraciots, when the latter were defeated by the Acarnanians and Demosthenes in B. c. 426. Two years afterwards (424) Demosthenes marched against Salynthius and the Agraei, and compelled them to join the Athenian alliance. Subsequently they became subject to the Aetolians, and are called an Actolian people by Strabo. (Thuc. ii. 102, iii. 106, 114, iv. 77; Strab. p. 449; Pol. xvii. 5; Liv. xxxii. 34.) This people is mentioned by Cicero (in Pison. 37), under the name of Agrinae, which is perhaps a corrupt form. Strabo (p. 338) mentions a village called Ephyra in their country; and Agrinium would also appear from its name to have been one of their towns. [EPHYRA; AGRINIUM.] The Aperanti were perhaps a tribe of the Agraei. [APERANTIA.] The Agraei were a different people from the Agrianes, who lived on the borders of Macedonia. [AGRIANES.]

AGRAEI (Aypało, Ptol. v. 19. § 2; Eratosth. ap. Strab. p. 767), a tribe of Arabs situated near the main road which led from the head of the Red Sea to the Euphrates. They bordered on the Nabathaean Arabs, if they were not indeed a portion of that race. According to Hieronymus (Quaest. in Gen. 25), the Agraei inhabited the district which the Hebrews designated as Midian. Pliny (v. 11. s. 12) places the Agraei much further westward in the vicinity of the Laenitae and the eastern shore of [W.B.D.]

the Red Sea.

AGRAULE or AGRYLE. [ATTICA.] AGRI DECUMA'TES or DECUMA'NI (from decuma, tithe), tithe lands, a name given by the Romans to the country E. of the Rhine and N. of the Danube, which they took possession of on the withdrawal of the Germans to the E., and which they gave to the immigrating Gauls and subject Germans, and subsequently to their own veterans, on the payment of a tenth of the produce. Towards the end of the first or the beginning of the second century after Christ, the country became part of the adjoining Roman province of Rhaetia, and was thus incorporated with the empire. (Tacit. Germ. 29.) Its boundary

towards the free part of Germany was protected partly by a wall (from Ratisbon to Lorch), and partly by a mound (from Lorch to the Rhine, in the neighbourhood of Cologne) and Roman garrisons. The protection of those districts against the ever renewed attacks of the Germans required a considerable military force, and this gave rise to a number of towns and military roads, of which many traces still exist. But still the Romans were unable to maintain themselves, and the part which was lost first seems to have been the country about the river Maine and Mount Taunus. The southern portion was probably lost soon after the death of the emperor Probus (A.D 283), when the Alemanni took possession of it. The latest of the Roman inscriptions found in that country belongs to the reign of Gallienus (A. D. 260

268). (Comp. Leichtlen, Schwaben unter den Römern, Freiburg, 1825, 8vo.) The towns in the Decumates Agri were Ambiatinus vicus, ALISUM, Divitia, Gesonia, Victoria, Biberna, Aquae Mattiacae, Munimentum Trajani, Artaunum, Triburium, Bragodurum or Bragodunum, Budoris, Carithni, and others. Comp. RHAETIA. [L. S.]

AGRIA'NES ('Aypiávns: Ergina), a small river in Thrace, and one of the tributaries of the Hebrus. (Herod. iv. 89.) It flows from Mount Hieron in a NW. direction, till it joins the Hebrus. Some have supposed it to be the same as the Erigon, which, however, is impossible, the latter being a tributary of the Axius. [L. S.]

AGRIA'NES ('Aypiâves), a Paeonian people, dwelling near the sources of the Strymon. They formed excellent light-armed troops, and are frequently mentioned in the campaigns of Alexander the Great. (Strab. p. 331; Herod. v. 16; Thuc. ii. 96; Arrian, Anab. i. 1. § 11, i. 5. § 1, et alib.)

AGRIGENTUM (Аkpáуas*: Eth. and Adj. 'Akpayavтīvos, Agrigentinus: Girgenti), one of the most powerful and celebrated of the Greek cities in Sicily, was situated on the SW. coast of the island, about midway between Selinus and Gela. It stood on a hill between two and three miles from the sea, the foot of which was washed on the E. and S. by a river named the ACRAGAS, from whence the city itself derived its appellation, on the W. and SW. by another stream named the HYPSAS, which unites its waters with those of the Acragas just below the city, and about a mile from its mouth. The former is now called the Fiume di S. Biagio, the latter the Drago, while their united stream is commonly known as the Fiume di Girgenti (Polyb. ix. 27; Siefert, Akragas u. sein Gebiet, p. 20—22).

We learn from Thucydides that Agrigentum was founded by a colony from Gela, 108 years after the establishment of the parent city, or B. C. 582. The leaders of the colony were Aristonous and Pystilus, and it received the Dorian institutions of the mother country, including the sacred rites and observances which had been derived by Gela itself from Rhodes. On this account it is sometimes called a Rhodian colony. (Thuc. vi. 4; Seymn. Ch. 292; Strab. vi. p. 272, where Kramer justly reads reλówv for 'lávær; Polyb. ix. 27. Concerning the date of its foundation see Schol. ad Pind. Ol. ii. 66; and Clinton, F. H. vol. ii. p. 265.) We have very little information concerning its early history, but it appears to have very rapidly risen to great prosperity and power:

*The form ACRAGAS or AGRAGAS in Latin is found only in the Roman poets. (Virg. Aen. iii 703; Sil. Ital. xiv. 210.)

though it preserved its liberty for but a very short | period before it fell under the yoke of Phalaris (about 570 B. C.). The history of that despot is involved in so much uncertainty that it is difficult to know what part of it can be depended on as really historical. [Dict. of Biogr. art. PHALARIS, vol. iii.] But it seems certain that he raised Agrigentum to be one of the most powerful cities in Sicily, and extended his dominion by force of arms over a considerable part of the island. But the cruel and tyrannical character of his internal government at length provoked a general insurrection, in which Phalaris himself perished, and the Agrigentines recovered their liberty. (Diod. Exc. Vat. p. 25; Cic. de Off. ii. 7; Heraclides, Polit. 37.) From this period till the accession of Theron, an interval of about 60 years, we have no information concerning Agrigentum, except a casual notice that it was successively governed by Alcamenes and Alcandrus (but whether as despots or chief magistrates does not appear), and that it rose to great wealth and prosperity under their rule. (Heraclid. l. c.) The precise date when Theron attained to the sovereignty of his native city, as well as the steps by which he rose to power, are unknown to us: but he appears to have become despot of Agrigentum as early as B. C. 488. (Diod. xi. 53.) By his alliance with Gelon of Syracuse, and still more by the expulsion of Terillus from Himera, and the annexation of that city to his dominions, Theron extended as well as confirmed his power, and the great Carthaginian invasion in B. C. 480, which for a time threatened destruction to all the Greek cities in Sicily, ultimately became a source of increased prosperity to Agrigentum. For after the great victory of Gelon and Theron at Himera, a vast number of Carthaginian prisoners fell into the hands of the Agrigentines, and were employed by them partly in the cultivation of their extensive and fertile territory, partly in the construction of public works in the city itself, the magnificence of which was long afterwards a subject of admiration. (Diod. xi. 25.) Nor does the go- | vernment of Theron appear to have been oppressive, and he continued in the undisturbed possession of the sovereign power till his death, B. C. 472. His son Thrasydaeus on the contrary quickly alienated his subjects by his violent and arbitrary conduct, and was expelled from Agrigentum within a year after his father's death. (Id. xi. 53. For further details concerning the history of Agrigentum during this period, see the articles THERON and THRASYDAEUS in the Dict. of Biogr. vol. iii.)

The Agrigentines now established a democratic form of government, which they retained without interruption for the space of above 60 years, until the Carthaginian invasion in B. C. 406-a period which may be regarded as the most prosperous and flourishing in the history of Agrigentum, as well as of many others of the Sicilian cities. The great public works which were commenced or completed during this interval were the wonder of succeeding ages; the city itself was adorned with buildings both public and private, inferior to none in Greece, and the wealth and magnificence of its inhabitants became almost proverbial. Their own citizen Empedocles is said to have remarked that they built their houses as if they were to live for ever, but gave themselves up to luxury as if they were to die on the morrow. (Diog. Laert. viii. 2. § 63.)

mates the whole population (including probably slaves as well as strangers) at not less than 200,000 (Diod. xiii. 84 and 90), a statement by no means improbable, while that of Diogenes Laertius (l. c.), who makes the population of the city alone amount to 800,000, is certainly a gross exaggeration. This period was however by no means one of unbroken peace. Agrigentum could not avoid participating-though in a less degree than many other cities-in the troubles consequent on the expulsion of the Gelonian dynasty from Syracuse, and the revolutions that followed in different parts of Sicily. Shortly afterwards we find it engaged in hostilities with the Sicel chief Ducetius, and the conduct of the Syracusans towards that chieftain led to a war between them and the Agrigentines, which ended in a great defeat of the latter at the river Himera, B. C. 446. (Diod. xi. 76, 91, xii. 8.) We find also obscure notices of internal dissensions, which were allayed by the wisdom and moderation of Empedocles. (Diog. Laert. viii. 2. § 64-67.) On occasion of the great Athenian expedition to Sicily in B. c. 415, Agrigentum maintained a strict neutrality, and not only declined sending auxiliaries to either party but refused to allow a passage through their territory to those of other cities. And even when the tide of fortune had turned decidedly against the Athenians. all the efforts of the Syracusan partisans within the walls of Agrigentum failed in inducing their fellowcitizens to declare for the victorious party. (Thuc. vii. 32, 33, 46, 50, 58.)

A more formidable danger was at hand. The Carthaginians, whose intervention was invoked by the Segestans, were contented in their first expedition (B. c. 409) with the capture of Selinus and Himera: but when the second was sent in B. C. 406 it was Agrigentum that was destined to bear the first brunt of the attack. The luxurious habits of the Agrigentines had probably rendered them little fit for warfare, but they were supported by a body of mercenaries under the command of a Lacedaemonian named Dexippus, who occupied the citadel, and the natural strength of the city in great measure defied the efforts of the assailants. But notwithstanding these advantages and the efficient aid rendered them by a Syracusan army under Daphnaeus, they were reduced to such distress by famine that after a siege of eight months they found it impossible to hold out longer, and to avoid surrendering to the enemy, abandoned their city, and migrated to Gela. sick and helpless inhabitants were massacred, and the city itself with all its wealth and magnificence plundered by the Carthaginians, who occupied it as their quarters during the winter, but completed its destruction when they quitted it in the spring, B.C.405. (Diod. xiii. 80-91, 108; Xen. Hell. i. 5. § 21.)

The

and his successors, it is evident that the city was far from having recovered its previous importance, and continued to play but a subordinate part. (Diod. xiv. 46, 88, xv. 17, xvi. 9; Plut. Dion, 25, 26, 49.) In the general settlement of the affairs of Sicily by Timoleon, after his great victory over the Carthaginians on the Crimissus, B. c. 340, he found Agrigentum in a state of such depression that he resolved to recolonise it with citizens from Velia in Italy (Plut. Timol. 35.): a measure which, combined with other benefits, proved of such advantage to the city, that Timoleon was looked upon as their second founder: and during the interval of peace which followed, Agrigentum again attained to such great prosperity as to become once more the rival of Syracuse.

Shortly after the accession of Agathocles, the Agrigentines, becoming apprehensive that he was a piring to the dominion of the whole island, entered into a league with the Geloans and Messenians to oppose his power, and obtained from Sparta the assistance of Acrotatus the son of Cleomenes as their general: but the character of that prince frustrated all their plans, and after his expulsion they were compelled to purchase peace from Syracuse by the acknowledgement of the Hegemony or supremacy of that city, B.C. 314. (Diod. xix. 70,71.) Some years afterwards, in B. c. 309, the absence of Agathocles in Africa, and the reverses sustained by his partisans in Sicily, appeared again to offer a favourable opening to the ambition of the Agrigentines, who chose Xenodocus for their general, and openly aspired to the Hegemony of Sicily, proclaiming at the same time the independence of the several cities. They were at first very successful: the powerful cities of Gela and Enna joined their cause, Herbessus and Echetla were taken by force; but when Xenodocus ventured on a pitched battle with Leptines and Demophilus, the generals of Agathocles, he sustained a severe defeat, and was compelled to shut himself up within the walls of Agrigentum. Agathocles himself shortly afterwards returned from Africa, and quickly recovered almost all that he had lost: his general Leptines invaded the territory of Agrigentum, totally defeated Xenodocus, and compelled the Agrigentines once more to sue for peace. (Diod. xx. 31, 32, 56, 62.)

After the death of Agathocles, Agrigentum fell under the yoke of Phintias, who became despot of the city, and assumed the title of king. We have very little information concerning the period of his rule, but he appears to have attained to great power, as we find Agyrium and other cities of the interior subject to his dominion, as well as Gela, which he destroyed, in order to found a new city named after himself. [GELA.] The period of his expulsion is unknown, but at the time when Pyrrhus landed in Sicily we find Agrigentum occupied by Sosistratus with a strong force of mercenary troops, who however hastened to make his submission to the king of Epeirus. (Diod. xxii. Exc. Hoesch. p. 495-497.) On the commencement of the First Punic War, Agrigentum espoused the cause of the Carthaginians, and even permitted their general Hannibal to fortify their citadel, and occupy the city with a Carthaginian garrison. Hence after the Romans had secured the alliance of Hieron of Syracuse, their principal efforts were directed to the reduction of Agrigentum, and in B. c. 262 the two consuls L. Postumius and Q. Mamilius laid siege to it with their whole force. The siege lasted nearly as long

as that by the Carthaginians in B. C. 406, and the Romans suffered severely from disease and want of provisions, but the privations of the besieged were still greater, and the Carthaginian general Hanno, who had advanced with a large army to relieve the city, having been totally defeated by the Roman consuls, Hannibal who commanded the army within the walls found it impossible to hold out any longer, and made his escape in the night with the Carthaginian and mercenary troops, leaving the city to its fate. It was immediately occupied by the Romans who carried off 25,000 of the inhabitants into slavery. The siege had lasted above seven months, and is said to have cost the victorious army more than 30,000 men. (Diod. xxiii. Exc. Hoesch. p. 501 -503; Polyb. i. 17-19; Zonar. viii. 10.) At a later period of the war (B. c. 255) successive losses at sea having greatly weakened the Roman power in Sicily, the Carthaginian general Carthalo recovered possession of Agrigentum with comparatively little difficulty, when he once more laid the city in ashes and razed its walls, the surviving inhabitants having taken refuge in the temple of the Olympian Zeus. (Diod. l. c. p. 505.)

From this time we hear no more of Agrigentum till the end of the First Punic War, when it passed under the dominion of Rome: but it must have in some degree recovered from its late calamities, as it plays no unimportant part when the contest between Rome and Carthage was renewed in the Second Punic War. On this occasion it continued steadfast in its adherence to the Romans, but was surprised and taken by Himilco, before Marcellus could arrive to its support (Liv. xxiv. 35.): and from henceforth became the chief stronghold of the Carthaginians in Sicily, and held out against the Roman consul Laevinus long after the other cities in the island had submitted. At length the Numidian Mutines, to whose courage and skill the Carthaginians owed their protracted defence, having been offended by their general Hanno, betrayed the city into the hands of Laevinus, B. C. 210. The leading citizens were put to death, and the rest sold as slaves. (Liv. xxv. 40, 41, xxvi. 40.)

Agrigentum now became, in common with the rest of the Sicilian cities, permanently subject to Rome: but it was treated with much favour and enjoyed many privileges. Three years after its capture a number of new citizens from other parts of Sicily were established there by the praetor Mamilius, and two years after this the municipal rights and privileges of the citizens were determined by Scipio Africanus in a manner so satisfactory that they continued unaltered till the time of Verres. Cicero repeatedly mentions Agrigentum as one of the most wealthy and populous cities of Sicily, the fertility of its territory and the convenience of its port rendering it one of the chief emporiums for the trade in corn. (Cic. Verr. ii. 50, 62, iii. 43, iv. 33, 43.) It is certain, however, that it did not in his day rank as a Roman colony, and it is very doubtful whether it ever attained this distinction, though we find that it was allowed to strike coins, with the Latin inscription AGRIGENTUM, as late as the time of Augustus. (Eckhel, D. N. vol. i. p. 193.)* If it really obtained the title and privileges of a colony under that emperor, it must have soon lost them, as neither Pliny