between the kings of Mauretania and Numidia to make a party of his own, composed of adventurers like himself, and who now espoused the cause of Caesar. (Appian. B. C. iv. 54; Dion Cass. xliv. 3.) Just before the close of B. c. 47, Caesar landed in Africa; and, after a brief but critical campaign, cverthrew the united forces of the other party in the battle of Thapsus, in April, 46. The kingdom of Numidia was now taken possession of by Caesar, who erected it into a province, and committed its government to Sallustius, the historian, as proconsul, "in name," says Dion Cassius, "to govern, but in deed to plunder." (Hirt. B. Afr. 97; Dion Cass. xliii. 9; Appian. B. C. ii. 100.) Henceforth Numidia became known by the name of New Africa, and the former Roman province as Old Africa. (Appian. B. C. iv. 53; Plin. v. 4. s. 3.) But further, within the province of New Africa itself, Caesar is said to have made a partition, to reward the services of Sittius and of the kings of Mauretania; giving to the latter the W. part of Numidia, as far E. (probably) as Saldae (possibly to the Ampsaga), and to the former the territory about Cirta. (Appian. B. C. iv. 54.) Very probably this partition amounted to nothing more than leaving his allies, for the present, in possession of what they had already seized, especially as, in his anxiety to return to Rome, Caesar settled the affairs of Africa in great haste. (Dion, xliii. 14, τά τε ἄλλα ἐν τῇ ̓Αφρικῇ διὰ βραχέος, ŵs évĥv μáλiota, KATAOTHσAS.) Among the exiles from Africa of the defeated party, who had taken refuge with the sons of Pompey in Spain, was a certain Arabion, whom Appian (iv. 54) calls a son of a certain Masinissa, the ally of Juba. This man, after Caesar's murder, returned to Numidia, expelled Bocchus, and slew Sittius by stratagem. This story of Appian's is confused and doubtful, even with the help of a few obscure words in a letter of Cicero which have some appearance of confirming it. (Ad Att. xv. 17, Arabioni de Sitio nihil irascor; comp. Dion Cass. xlviii. 22.)

In the arrangements of the second triumvirate, B. C. 43, the whole of Africa was assigned to Octavian. (Dion Cass. xlvi. 55; Appian. B. C. iv. 53.) T. Sextius, a former legate of Julius Caesar, was governor of the New Province; while Q. Cornificius and D. Laelius held Old Africa for the so-called republican party, and to them many betook themselves who had escaped from the cruelties of the triumvirs at Rome. A war ensued, the events of which are related differently by the historians; but it ended in the defeat and death of Cornificius and Laelius, B. c. 42. (Appian. B. C. iii. 85, iv. 36, 52-56; Dion Cass. xlviii. 21.) After another and successful struggle with C. Fango, which there is not space to relate (see Dion Cass. xlviii. 22 -24; Appian. B. C. v. 12, 26, 75), Sextius found himself obliged to give up both the African provinces to Lepidus, to whom they had been assigned in the new arrangements made by the triumvirs after the battle of Philippi, and confirmed after the war of Perusia, B. C. 41. By the surrender and retirement of Lepidus, both the African provinces came into the power of Octavian, B. C. 36. In the general settlement of the empire after the overthrow of Antony, B. C. 30, Augustus restored to the young Juba, son of Juba I., his paternal kingdom of Numidia (Dion Cass. li. 15); but shortly afterwards, B. C. 25, he resumed the possession of Numidia, giving Juba in exchange the two Mauretanias, the E. boundary of his kingdom being fixed at Saldae.

(Strab. pp. 828, 831.) [MAURETANIA.] Thus the two provinces of Africa were finally united to the Roman empire, consisting of Old Africa, or the ancient Carthaginian territory, namely, Zeugitana and Byzacium, and New Africa, or, as it was also called, Numidia Provincia; the boundaries being, on the W., at Saldae, where Africa joined Mauretania Caesariensis, and on the E., the monument of the Philaeni, at the bottom of the Great Syrtis, where Africa touched Cyrenaïca. The boundaries between Old and New Africa remained as before, namely, on the N. coast, the New Province was divided from the Old by the river Tusca, and on the E. coast by the dyke of Scipio, which terminated at Thenae, at the N. entrance of the Syrtis Minor. (Plin. v. 4. s. 3.) This province of Africa was assigned to the senate, and made a proconsular province, B. C. 27 (Strab. p. 840; Dion Cass. liii. 12).

A further change was made by Caligula, in two particulars. First, as to the western boundary: when, having put to death Ptolemy, the son of Juba II., he made his kingdom of Mauretania a Roman province, he also extended its boundary eastwards from Saldae to the river Ampsaga, which became thenceforth the W. boundary of Numidia, or New Africa. (Tac. Hist. i. 11.) But he also changed the government of the province. Under Augustus and Tiberius, the one legion (IIIa), which was deemed sufficient to protect the province against the barbarians on the S. frontier, had been under the orders of the proconsul; but Caligula, moved by fear of the power and popularity of the proconsul M. Silanus, deprived him of the military command, and placed the legion under a legatus of his own. (Tac. Hist. iv. 48.) From the account of Dion Cassius, which is, however, obviously inexact in some points, it would seem that Numidia was altogether separated from Africa, and made an imperial province under the legatus Caesaris. (Dion Cass. lix. 20: kal δίχα τὸ ἔθνος νείμας, ἑτέρῳ τό τε στρατιωτικὸν καὶ τοὺς νομάδας τοὺς περὶ αὐτὸ προσέταξε.) Tacitus does not mention this separation, but rather points out the evil results of the divided authority of the proconsul and legatus in a way which seems to imply that they had coordinate powers in the same province. A recent writer suggests that Numidia was always regarded, from the time of the settlement by Augustus, as a province distinct fro:n Old Africa; that it may have been governed by a legatus under the proconsul; and that the only change made by Caligula was the making the legatus immediately dependent on the emperor (Marquardt, Becker's Rom. Alt. vol. iii. p. 229); and certainly, in the list given by Dion Cassius (liii. 12) of the provinces as constituted by Augustus, Numidia is mentioned as well as Africa. On the whole, however, it seems that the exact relation of the New Province of Africa to the Old, from the time of Caligula to that of Diocletian, must be considered as somewhat doubtful.

The above historical review may aid in removing the difficulty often found in understanding the statements of the ancient writers respecting the limits of Africa. Mela (i. 7; comp. c. 6), writing in the reign of Claudius, gives Africa its widest extent, from the river Ampsaga and the promontory Metagonites on the W. (the same, doubtless, as the Tretum of Strabo, Ras Seba Rous, i. e. 7 Capes) to the Arae Philaenorum on the E.; while Pliny (v. 4. s. 3), making Numidia extend from the Ampsaga to the Tusca, and Africa from the Tusca to the frontier of

Cyrenaica, yet speaks of the 2 provinces in the closest connection (Numidiae et Africae ab Ampsaga longitudo DLXXX. M. P.), and seems even to include them both under the name of Africa (Africa a fluvio Ampanga populos xxvi. habet). Ptolemy (iv. 3) gives Africa the same extent as Mela, from the Ampsaga to the bottom of the Great Syrtis; while he applies the name New Numidia (Novμdía véu) to a part of the country, evidently corresponding with the later Numidia of other writers (§ 29), the epithet New being used in contradistinction to the ancient Numidia, the W. and greater part of which had been added to Mauretania. In Ptolemy's list of the provinces (viii. 29), Africa and Numidia are mentioned together.

In the 3rd century, probably under Diocletian, the whole country, from the Ampsaga to Cyrenaïca, was divided into the four provinces of Numidia, Africa Propria or Zeugitana, Byzacium or Byzacena, and Tripolis or Tripolitana. (Sext. Raf. Brev. 8.) Numidia no longer extended S. of Zengitana and Byzacium, but that part of it was added to Byzacium; while its E. part, on and between the Syrtes, formed the province of Tripolitana. We are enabled to draw the boundary-lines with tolerable exactness by means of the records of the numerous ecclesiastical councils of Africa, in which the several bishoprics have the names of their provinces appended to them. (For the fullest information, see Morcelli, Africa Christiana, Brixiae, 1817, 3 vols. 4to.) Zeugitana, to which, in the revolution of time, the name of Africa had thus come to be again appropriated, remained a senatorial province under the Proconsul Africae, and was often called simply Provincia Proconsularis; the rest were imperial provinces, Byzacium and Numidia being governed by Consulares, and Tripolis by a Praeses. The Proconsul Africae (who was the only one in the W. empire, and hence was often called simply Proconsul) had under him two legati and a quaestor, besides legati for special branches of administration. His residence was at the restored city of Carthage. The other three provinces, as well as the two Mauretanias, were subject to the praetorian praefect of Italy, who governed them by his representative, the Vicarius Africae. (Böcking, Notitia Dignitatum, vol. ii. c. 17, 19, &c.) Referring for the remaining details to the articles on the separate provinces, we proceed to a brief account of the later ancient history of Africa.

At the time referred to, the name of Africa, besides its narrowest sense, as properly belonging to the proconsular province, and its widest meaning, as applied to the whole continent, was constantly used to include all the provinces of N. Africa, W. of the Great Syrtis, and the following events refer, for the most part, to that extent of country. At the settlement of the empire under Constantine, the African provinces were among the most prosperous in the Roman world. The valleys of Mauretania and Numidia, and the plains of Zeugitana and Byzacium, had always been proverbial for their fertility; and the great cities along the coast had a flourishing commerce. The internal tranquillity of Africa was seldom disturbed, the only formidable insurrection being that under the two Gordians, which was speedily repressed, A. D. 238. The emperors Septimius Severus and Macrinus were natives of N. Africa. Amidst the prosperous population of these peaceful provinces, Christianity had early taken firm root; the records of ecclesiastical history attest the

great number of the African churches and bishoprics, and the frequency of their synods; and the fervid spirit of the Africans displayed itself alike in the steadfastness of their martyrs, the energy of their benevolence, the vehemence of their controversies, and the genius of their leading writers, as, for example, Tertullian, Cyprian, and Augustine.

But here, as on the other frontiers of the empire the diminished vitality of the extremities bore witness to the declining energy of the heart. That perfect subjection of the native tribes, which forms such a singular contrast with the modern history of Algeria, had already been disturbed; and we read of increased military forces, insurrections of native princes, and incursions of the Numidians, or, as they now came to be generally called, the Moors, even before the end of the 3rd century. There is not space to recount the wars and troubles in Africa during the struggles of Constantine and his competitors for the empire; nor those under his successors, including the revolt of Firmus, and the exploits of the count Theodosius, under the 1st and 2nd Valentinian (A. D. 373–376), the usurpation of Maximus, after the death of Valentinian II.; and the revolt of the count Gildon, after the death of Theodosius the Great, suppressed by Stilicho, A. D. 398. At the final partition of the empire, on the death of Theodosius (A. D. 395), the African provinces were assigned to the W. empire, under Honorius, whose dominions met those of his brother, Arcadius, at the Great Syrtis.

Under Valentinian III., the successor of Honorius, the African provinces were lost to the W. empire. Boniface, count of Africa, who had successfully defended the frontiers against the Moors, was recalled from his government by the intrigues of Aëtius, and on his resistance an army was sent against him (A.D. 427). In his despair, Boniface sought aid from the Vandals, who were already established in Spain; and, in May, 429, Geiserich (or Genserich) the Vandal king, led an army of about 50,000 Vandals, Goths, and Alans, across the Straits of Gades into Mauretania. He was joined by many of the Moors, and apparently favoured by the Donatists, a sect of heretics, or rather schismatics, who had lately suffered severe persecution. But, upon urgent solicitations from the court of Ravenna, accompanied by the discovery of the intrigues of Aëtius, Boniface repented of his invitation, and tried, too late, to repair his error. He was defeated and shut up in Hippo Regius; the only other cities left to the Romans being Carthage and Cirta. The Vandals overran the whole country from the Straits to the Syrtes; and those fertile provinces were utterly laid waste amidst scenes of fearful cruelty to the inhabitants. The siege of Hippo lasted fourteen months. At length, encouraged by reinforcements from the eastern empire, Boniface hazarded another battle, in which he was totally defeated, A. d. 431. But the final loss of Africa was delayed by negotiation for some years, during which various partitions of the country were made between the Romans and the Vandals; but the exact terms of these truces are as obscure as their duration was uncertain. The end of one of them was signalized by the surprise and sack of Carthage, Oct. 9, 439; and before the death of Valentinian III. the Vandals were in undisputed possession of the African provinces. Leo, the emperor of the East, sent an unsuccessful expedition against them, under Heraclius, A. D. 468; and, in 476. Zeno made a treaty with Geiseric

nains of Aluntium. The latter city may, however, be placed with much more probability at S. Marco [ALUNTIUM]: and the ruins near S. Fratello would thus be those of Agathyrna, there being no other city of any magnitude that we know of in this part of Sicily. Two objections, however, remain: 1. that the distance from this site to Tyndaris is greater than that given by any of the authorities, being certainly not less than 36 miles: 2. that both Pliny and Ptolemy, from the order of their enumeration, appear to place Agathyrna between Aluntium and Tyndaris, and therefore if the former city be correctly fixed at S. Marco, Agathyrna must be looked for to the E. of that town. Fazello accordingly placed it near Capo Orlando, but admits that there were scarcely any vestiges visible there. The question is one hardly susceptible of a satisfactory conclusion, as it is impossible on any view to reconcile the data of all our authorities, but the arguments in favour of the Acque Dolci seem on the whole to predominate. Unfortu nately the ruins there have not been examined by any recent traveller, and have very probably disappeared. Captain Smyth, however, speaks of the remains of a fine Roman bridge as visible in the Fiumara di Rosa Marina between this place and S. Marco. (Fazell. ix. 4, p. 384, 5. p. 391; Cluver. Sicil. p. 295; Smyth's Sicily, p. 97.) [E. H. B.] AGATHYRSI (Αγάθυρσοι, Αγαθύρσιοι), people of Sarmatia Europaea, very frequently mentioned by the ancient writers, but in different positions. Their name was known to the Greeks very early, if the Peisander, from whom Suidas (s. v.) and Stephanus Byzantinus (s. v.) quote an absurd mythical etymology of the name (ἀπὸ τῶν θύρσαν Toû Alóvuσov) be the poet Peisander of Rhodes, B. C. 645; but he is much more probably the younger Peisander of Larauda, A.D. 222. Another myth is repeated by Herodotus, who heard it from the Greeks on the Euxine; that Hercules, on his return from his adventure against Geryon, passed through the region of Hylaea, and there met the Echidna, who bore him three sons, Agathyrsus, Gelonus, and Scythes; of whom the last alone was able to bend a bow and to wear a belt, which Hercules had left behind, in the same manner as Hercules himself had used them; and, accordingly, in obedience to their father's command, the Echidna drove the two elder out of the land, and gave it to Scythes (Herod. iv. 7-10: comp. Tzetz. Chil. viii. 222,759). Herodotus himself, also, regards the Agathyrsi as not a Scythian people, but as closely related to the Scythians. He places them about the upper course of the river Maris (Marosch), that is, in the SE. part of Dacia, or the modern Transylvania (iv. 4: the Maris, however, does not fall directly, as he states, into the Ister, Danube, but into that great tributary of the Danube, the Theiss). They were the first of the peoples bordering on Scythia, to one going inland from the Ister; and next to them the Neuri (iv. 100). Being thus separated by the E. Carpathian mountains from Scythia, they were able to refuse the Scythians, flying before Dareius, an entrance into their country (Herod. iv. 125). How far N. they extended cannot be determined from Herodotus, for he assigns an erroneous course to the Ister, N. of which he considers the land to be quite desert. [SCYTHIA.] The later writers, for the most part, place the Agathyrsi further to the N., as is the case with nearly all the Scythian tribes; some place them on the Palus Mae

of in close connection with the Sarmatians and the Geloni, and are regarded as a Scythian tribe (Ephor. ap. Seymn. Fr. v. 123, or 823, ed. Meineke; Mela ii. 1; Plin. iv. 26; Ptol. iii. 5; Dion. Perieg. 310; Avien. Descr. Orb. 447; Steph. B. s. v.; Suid. s. v. &c.). In their country was found gold and also precious stones, among which was the diamond, àdáuas raupaivwv (Herod. iv. 104; Amm. Marc. xxii. 8; Dion. Perieg. 317). According to Herodotus, they were a luxurious race (asporáтoi, Ritter explains this as referring to fine clothing), and wore much gold: they had a community of wives, in order that all the people might regard each other as brethren; and in their other customs they resembled the Thracians (iv. 104). They lived under kingly government; and Herodotus mentions their king Spargapeithes as the murderer of the Scythian king, Ariapeithes (iv. 78). Frequent allusions are made by later writers to their custom of painting (or rather tattooing) their bodies, in a way to indicate their rank, and staining their hair a dark blue (Virg. Aen. iv. 146; Serv. ad loc.; Plin. iv. 26; Solin. 20; Avien. I. c.; Ammian. 1. c.; Mela ii. 1: Agathyrsi ora artusque pingunt: ut quique majoribus praestant, ita magis, vel minus: ceterum iisdem omnes notis, et sic ut ablui nequeant). Aristotle mentions their practice of solemnly reciting their laws lest they should forget them, as observed in his time (Prob. xix. 28). Finally, they are mentioned by Virgil (1. c.) among the worshippers of the Delian Apollo, where their name is, doubtless, used as a specific poetical synonym for the Hyperboreans in general:

"mixtique altaria circum Cretesque Dryopesque fremunt pictique Agathyrsi."

Niebuhr (Kleine Schriften, vol. i. p. 377) regards the Agathyrsi of Herodotus, or at least the people who occupied the position assigned to them by Herodotus, as the same people as the Getae or Dacians (Ukert, vol. iii. pt. 2, pp. 418-421; Georgii, vol. ii. pp. 302, 303; Ritter, Vorhalle, pp. 287, foll.) [P.S.] AGBATANA. [ECBATANA.]

AGENDICUM, or AGETINCUM in the Peutinger Table, one of the chief towns of the Senones in the time of Caesar (B. G. vi. 44, vii. 10, 57). The orthography of the word varies in the MSS. of Caesar, where there is Agendicum, Agedincum, and Agedicum. If it is the town which was afterwards called Senones (Amm. Marc. xvi. 3, Senonas oppidum), we may conclude that it is represented by the modern town of Sens, on the river Yonne. Some critics have supposed that Provins represents Agendicum. Under the Roman empire, in the later division of Gallia, Agendicum was the chief town of Lugdunensis Quarta, and it was the centre of several Roman roads. In the walls of the city there are some stones with Roman inscriptions and sculptures. The name Agredicum in the Antonine Itinerary may be a corruption of Agendicum. [G. L.]

AGINNUM or AGENNUM (Agen), was the chief town of the Nitiobriges, a tribe situated between the Garumna and the Ligeris in Caesar's time (B. G. vii. 7, 75). Aginnum was on the road from Burdigala to Argentomagus (It. Antonin.). It is the origin of the modern town of Agen, on the river Garonne, in the department of Lot and Garonne, and contains some Roman remains. Aginnum is mentioned by Ausonius (Ep. xxiv. 79); and it was the birthplace of Sulpicius Severus. [G. L.]