HISTORICAL INDEX.

1

HISTORICAL INDEX.

A.

ABSYRTUS, son of Aeetes, king of Colchis, and brother of Medea.
His sister, when accompanying Jason, who was bearing off the golden
fleece, is fabled by the poets to have put to death the young prince, and
to have scattered his limbs along the route which her father would take
in pursuing her. The stratagem succeeded, and Aeetes stopped to col-
lect the mangled remains of his son, thus enabling his daughter and Jason
to make their escape.
Ovid. Trist. 3, 9.-Senec. Med. 963.-Lucan.

AFRANIUS, a celebrated Roman, consul A. U. C. 694, B. C. 60, and
one of Pompey's lieutenants during the civil wars. After the defeat at
Pharsalia, he crossed into Africa and fought at the battle of Thapsus.
Being taken prisoner along with Faustus Sylla, in the rout that ensued of
the Pompeian army, he was put to death along with that individual by
order of Caesar. Suet. Vit. Jul. 75.—Caes. B. Afric. 95.-Dio Cass.
43, 12.-Oros. 6, 16.

AHALA, Caius Servilius, master of the horse to the dictator Cincin-
natus. Spurius Melius, who had been accused of aspiring to regal power,
having refused to appear before the dictator when ordered so to do, Aha-
la, who bore the summons to him, slew him in the very midst of the as-
sembled people whom he was endeavouring to excite in his behalf. The
dictator commended the act. Ahala, though he at first incurred the resent-
ment of the populace for this bold discharge of duty, was subsequently,
however, raised to the consulship. Liv. 4, 14, and 30.-There is a great
variation, as regards the praenomen of this individual, in the MSS. and
the editions of Cicero. In the first oration against Catiline, c. 1, he is
called, in the common text, Quintus, where Muretus and Pighius give
the true reading Caius, which Ernesti adopts. In the oration pro domo,
c. 32, he is styled, on the other hand, Marcus Servilius Ahala. In this
latter passage, Cicero informs us, that he was exiled by the people for
slaying Melius, though subsequently, as above stated, advanced to the
consular office.

name.

ANTIOCHUS, surnamed the Great, king of Syria, and the third of the
He came in collision with the Romans, on attempting to reduce
under his sway the cities of Asia Minor as well as the whole of Greece.

These cities implored the protection of the Romans, who sent deputies
to Antiochus, commanding him to give up the conquests he had made in
this quarter.
Antiochus, urged on by Hannibal, to whom he had given
an asylum in his dominions, paid no regard to these orders, and became,
in consequence, involved in war with the republic. Neglecting, however,
to follow the plan of operations marked out for him by Hannibal, he soon
experienced the fatal effects of his error. Acilius Glabrio defeated him
at Thermopylae and compelled him to flee into Asia; and Scipio Asiaticus
gained a decisive victory over him at Magnesia in the latter country.
Compelled to sue for peace, he only obtained it on very hard conditions.
The Romans made the range of mount Taurus the limit of his power on
the side of lower Asia, and reduced to the form of provinces all the
countries which he had possessed on this side of the mountains just men-
tioned. They obliged him also to stipulate for the payment of an annual
tribute of two thousand talents. As his treasury could not support this
heavy tax, he resolved, in order to replenish his resources, to pillage the
temple of Belus, in Susiana, but the inhabitants of this country, irritated
at the sacrilegious attempt, slew him with his followers, B. C. 187. He
had reigned 36 years. Justin. 31, 32.-Florus, 2, 8.-Liv. 34, 59.

ANTONIUS, Caius, son of M. Antonius the orator, and brother of M.
Antonius Creticus the father of the triumvir. He was originally in
habits of very great intimacy with Catiline, and the arrangement was,
that these two should stand for the consulship, and, if they succeeded,
commence, while in this high office, their plans of revolution. Cicero
defeated this scheme, and being elected consul, with Antonius for his
colleague, succeeded in detaching the other from the conspiracy, and
from every other design formed against the state. He effected this de-
sirable object by yielding to Antonius the rich province of Macedonia,
which had fallen to his own lot. After the conspiracy was crushed, An-
tonius went to his province of Macedonia, where he continued for two
years; but, on his return to Rome, he was brought to trial, and banished,
for having been guilty of extortion and having made war beyond the
limits of his province. He was a man of very dissolute habits, and, be-
fore he obtained the consulship, had been expelled by the censors from
the senate for immoral conduct. Sallust, B. C. 26.-Liv. Epit. 103.—
Cic. in Vat. 11.-Id. pro Coel. 31.

ANTONIUS, Marcus, a celebrated Roman orator, grandfather of the
triumvir. After having been praetor, and having during his praetorship,
obtained a victory over the pirates of Cilicia, he was raised to the con-
sulship, A. U. C. 655, B. C. 99. He is more eminent, however, in Ro-
man history, as an orator than a statesman. He was the most employed
patron of his time; and, of all his contemporaries, was chiefly courted
by clients, as he was ever willing to undertake any cause which was pro-
posed to him. He possessed a ready memory, and a remarkable talent
of introducing every thing where it could be placed with most effect.
He had a frankness of manner, which precluded any suspicion of artifice,
and gave to all his orations an appearance of being the unpremeditated
effusions of an honest heart. But, though there was no apparent prep-
aration in his speeches, he always spoke so well, that the judges were
never sufficiently prepared against the effects of his eloquence. His
language was not perfectly pure, nor of a constantly sustained elegance,
but it was of a solid and judicious character, well adapted to his purpose.

His gesture, too, was appropriate; his voice strong and durable, though
naturally hoarse; but even this defect he turned to advantage, by fre-
quently and easily adopting a mournful and querulous tone, which, in
criminal cases, excited compassion, and more readily gained the belief
of his judges. He left, however, as we are informed by Cicero, hardly
any orations behind him, having resolved never to publish any of his
pleadings, lest he should be convicted of maintaining in one cause some-
thing that was inconsistent with what he had alleged in another.-During
the civil wars of Marius and Sylla, Antonius declared for the latter, and
was in consequence proscribed by Marius. His place of concealment
having been discovered through the indiscretion of a friend, a party of
soldiers was sent to put him to death. The eloquent appeal of the orator,
however, checked their murderous purpose, and drew tears from their
eyes, when Annius, their leader, who had remained without, impatient at
their delay, was compelled to enter the place himself, and despatch An-
tonius with his own hand. Dunlop's Hist. Rom. Lit. vol. 2, p. 211.—
Cic. de Orat. 2, 2.-Id. Brut. 36.-id. de Orat. 3, 3.— Val. Max. 7, 3.
ANTONIUS, Marcus, surnamed Creticus, son of Antonius the orator,
and father of the triumvir. Having obtained the praetorship, A. U. C.
678, through the interest of the consul Cotta, and the faction of Cethe-
gus, he was charged with the war against the pirates. He pillaged,
however, the provinces which had been intrusted to his defence, and
having advanced toward Crete, was defeated in an engagement off that
island. The appellation of Creticus was given him from this circum-
stance, as a mark of derision. He is said to have died of chagrin at his
defeat. Florus, 3, 7.-Liv. Epit. 99.-Cic. in Verr. 2, 3.-Id. in
Verr. 3, 91.

ARCHIAS, Aulus Licinius, a Greek poet, born at Antioch in Syria, and
better known by the discourse which Cicero pronounced in his favour,
than by any productions of his own. He came to Rome at an early age,
and passed the greater part of his life there, teaching the Greek language
and literature, and giving instruction particularly in the department of
poetical composition. Among his pupils was Cicero, who has returned
the favour by transmitting the name of his preceptor to posterity. Ar-
chias lived on terms of great intimacy with several distinguished Roman
families, and accompanied the celebrated L. Lucullus in his expedition
against Mithridates, and also in his travels through Asia, Greece, and
Sicily. It was during his visit to Magna Graecia, in company with this
illustrious patron, that he obtained the rights of citizenship at Heraclea
in Lucania, which led subsequently to his procuring the same privilege
at Rome. This latter point, however, having been contested by a cer-
tain individual named Gratius, led to the delivery of the celebrated ora-
tion in his favour, by his old pupil Cicero.-The works of Archias are
lost, except some epigrams in the Anthology. While still quite young,
he composed a poem on the Cimbric war, which gained for him the favour
of Marius, who was in general but little alive to the charms of poetic
composition. At a later period of his life, the Mithridatic war became a
theme for his Muse. In a third poem he gave a prophetic interpretation
to a circumstance which had happened to the infant Roscius; and Cicero
speaks also of a poem which he had commenced on the subject of his
consulship. The Anthology contains thirty-five epigrams under the
name of Archias, but some of them are attributed by the commentators