The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 30

ANTIS'THENES, a Greek philosopher, a disciple of Socrates, the master of Diogenes, and founder of the Cynic school; affected to disdain the pride and pomp of the world, and was the first to carry staff and wallet as the badge of philosophy, but so ostentatiously as to draw from Socrates the rebuke, "I see your pride looking out through the rent of your cloak, O Antisthenes."

ANTI-TAURUS, a mountain range running NE. from the Taurus Mts.

ANTIUM, a town of Latium on a promontory jutting into the sea, long antagonistic to Rome, subdued in 333 B.C.; the beaks of its s.h.i.+ps, captured in a naval engagement, were taken to form a rostrum in the Forum at Home; it was the birthplace of Caligula and Nero.

ANTIVA'RI, a fortified seaport lately ceded to Montenegro.

ANTOf.a.gAS'TA (7), a rising port in Chile, taken from Bolivia after the war of 1879; exports silver ores and nitrate of soda.

ANTOMMAR'CHI, Napoleon's attached physician at St. Helena, wrote "The Last Moments of Napoleon" (1780-1838).

ANTONELLI, CARDINAL, the chief adviser and Prime Minister of Pope Pius IX., accompanied the Pope to Gaeta, came back with him to Rome, acting as his foreign minister there, and offered a determined opposition to the Revolution; left immense wealth (1806-1876).

ANTONEL'LO, of Messina, Italian painter of the 15th century, introduced from Holland oil-painting into Italy (1414-1493).

ANTONI'NUS, ITINERARY OF, a valuable geographical work supposed of date 44 B.C.

ANTONI'NUS, Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor, successor to the following, and who surpa.s.sed him in virtue, being also of the Stoic school and one of its most exemplary disciples, was surnamed the "philosopher," and has left in his "Meditations" a record of his religious and moral principles (121-180).

ANTONI'NUS PIUS, a Roman emperor, of Stoic principles, who reigned with justice and moderation from 138 to 161, during which time the Empire enjoyed unbroken peace.

ANTONI'NUS, WALL OF, an earthen rampart about 36 m. in length, from the Forth to the Clyde, in Scotland, as a barrier against invasion from the north, erected in the year 140 A.D.

ANTO'NIUS, MARCUS, a famous Roman orator and consul, slain in the civil war between Marius and Sulla, having sided with the latter (143-87 B.C.).

ANTO'NIUS, MARCUS (Mark Antony), grandson of the preceding and warm partisan of Caesar; after the murder of the latter defeated Brutus and Ca.s.sius at Philippi, formed a triumvirate with Octavius and Lepidus, fell in love with the famous Cleopatra, was defeated by Octavius in the naval battle of Actium, and afterwards killed himself (83-30 B.C.).

AN'TONY, ST., a famous anchorite of the Thebad, where from the age of thirty he spent 20 years of his life, in a lonely ruin by himself, resisting devils without number; left his retreat for a while to inst.i.tute monasteries, and so became the founder of monachism, but returned to die; festival, Jan. 17 (251-351).

ANTONY OF PADUA, a Minorite missionary to the Moors in Africa; preached to the fishes, who listened to him when no one else would; the fishes came in myriads to listen, and shamed the pagans into conversion, says the fable; festival, June 13 (1195-1234)

ANTRAIGUES, COUNT D', one of the firebrands of the French Revolution; "rose into furor almost Pythic; highest where many were high," but veered round to royalism, which he at length intrigued on behalf of--to death by the stiletto (1765-1812).

ANT'RIM (471), a maritime county in the NE. of Ulster, in Ireland; soil two-thirds arable, linen the chief manufacture, exports b.u.t.ter, inhabitants mostly Protestant.

ANTWERP (240), a large fortified trading city in Belgium, on the Scheldt, 50 m. from the sea, with a beautiful Gothic cathedral, the spire 402 ft. high; the burial-place of Rubens; has a large picture-gallery full of the works of the Dutch and Flemish artists.

ANU'BIS, an Egyptian deity with the body of a man and the head of a jackal, whose office, like that of Hermes, it was to see to the disposal of the souls of the dead in the nether world, on quitting the body.

ANWARI, a Persian lyric poet who flourished in the 12th century.

AN'YTUS, the most vehement accuser of Socrates; banished in consequence from Athens, after Socrates' death.

AOS'TA (5), a town of Italy, N. of Turin, in a fertile Alpine level valley, but where goitre and cretinism prevail to a great extent; the birthplace of Anselm.

APA'CHES, a fierce tribe of American Indians on the S. and W. of the United States; long a source of trouble to the republic.

APEL'LES, the most celebrated painter of antiquity; bred, if not born, at Ephesus; lived at the court of Alexander the Great; his great work "APHRODITe ANADYOMENE" (q. v.); a man conscious, like Durer, of mastery in his art, as comes out in his advice to the criticising shoemaker to "stick to his last."

AP'ENNINES, a branch of the Alps extending, with spurs at right angles, nearly through the whole length of Italy, forming about the middle of the peninsula a double chain which supports the tableland of Abruzzi.

APES, DEAD SEA, dwellers by the Dead Sea who, according to the Moslem tradition, were transformed into apes because they turned a deaf ear to G.o.d's message to them by the lips of Moses, fit symbol, thinks Carlyle, of many in modern time to whom the universe, with all its serious voices, seems to have become a weariness and a humbug See "PAST AND PRESENT," BK. III. CHAP. III.

APH'IDES, a family of insects very destructive to plants by feeding on them in countless numbers.

APHRODI'TE, the Greek G.o.ddess of love and beauty, wife of Hephaestos and mother of Cupid; sprung from sea-foam; as queen of beauty had the golden apple awarded her by Paris, and possessed the power of conferring beauty, by means of her magic girdle, the cestus, on others.

API'CIUS, the name of three famous Roman epicures, the first of whom was contemporary with Sulla, the second with Augustus, and the third with Trajan.

A'PION, an Alexandrian grammarian of the 1st century, and an enemy of the Jews, and hostile to the privileges conceded them in Alexandria.

A'PIS, the sacred live bull of the Egyptians, the incarnation of Osiris; must be black all over the body, have a white triangular spot on the forehead, the figure of an eagle on the back, and under the tongue the image of a scarabaeus; was at the end of 25 years drowned in a sacred fountain, had his body embalmed, and his mummy regarded as an object of wors.h.i.+p.

APOCALYPTIC WRITINGS, writings composed among the Jews in the 2nd century B.C., and ascribed to one and another of the early prophets of Israel, forecasting the judgments ordained of G.o.d to overtake the nation, and predicting its final deliverance at the hands of the Messiah.