Attĭca, a country of Achaia or Hellas, at the south of Bœotia, west of the Ægean sea, north of the Saronicus Sinus, and east of Megara. It received its name from Atthis, the daughter of Cranaus. It was originally called Ionia, from the Ionians, who settled there; and also Acte, which signifies shore, and Cecropia, from Cecrops the first of its kings. The most famous of its cities is called Athens, whose inhabitants sometimes bear the name of Attici. Attica was famous for its gold and silver mines, which constituted the best part of the public revenues. The face of the country was partly level and partly mountainous, divided into the 13 tribes of Acamantis, Æantis, Antiochis, Attalis, Ægeis, Erechtheis, Adrianis, Hippothoontis, Cecropis, Leontis, Æneis, Ptolemais, and Pandionis; whose inhabitants were numbered in the 116th olympiad, at 31,000 citizens, and 400,000 slaves, within 174 villages, some of which were considerable towns. See: [Athenæ].
Attĭcus, one of Galba’s servants, who entered his palace with a bloody sword, and declared he had killed Otho. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 1.——Titus Pomponius, a celebrated Roman knight, to whom Cicero wrote a great number of letters, which contained the general history of the age. They are now extant, and divided into 17 books. In the time of Marius and Sylla, Atticus retired to Athens, where he so endeared himself to the citizens, that after his departure they erected statues to him in commemoration of his munificence and liberality. He was such a perfect master of the Greek writers, and spoke their language so fluently, that he was surnamed Atticus; and, as a proof of his learning, he favoured the world with some of his compositions. He behaved in such a disinterested manner, that he offended neither of the inimical parties at Rome, and both were equally anxious of courting his approbation. He lived in the greatest intimacy with the illustrious men of his age, and he was such a lover of truth, that he not only abstained from falsehood even in a joke, but treated with the greatest contempt and indignation a lying tongue. It is said that he refused to take aliments when unable to get the better of a fever; and died in the 77th year, B.C. 32, after bearing the amiable character of peacemaker among his friends. Cornelius Nepos, one of his intimate friends, has written a minute account of his life. Cicero, Letters to Atticus, &c.——Herodes, an Athenian in the age of the Antonines, descended from Miltiades, and celebrated for his munificence. His son of the same name was honoured with the consulship, and he generously erected an aqueduct at Troas, of which he had been made governor by the emperor Adrian, and raised, in other parts of the empire, several public buildings as useful as they were magnificent. Philostratus, Lives of the Sophists, bk. 2, p. 548.—Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticæ.——A consul in the age of Nero, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 15.
Attĭla, a celebrated king of the Huns, a nation in the southern parts of Scythia, who invaded the Roman empire in the reign of Valentinian, with an army of 500,000 men, and laid waste the provinces. He took the town of Aquileia, and marched against Rome; but his retreat and peace were purchased with a large sum of money by the feeble emperor. Attila, who boasted in the appellation of the scourge of God, died A.D. 453, of an uncommon effusion of blood, the first night of his nuptials. He had expressed his wish to extend his conquests over the whole world; and he often feasted his barbarity by dragging captive kings in his train. Jornandes, Getica.
Attilius, a Roman consul in the first Punic war. See: [Regulus].——Calatinus, a Roman consul who fought the Carthaginian fleet.——Marcus, a poet who translated the Electra of Sophocles into Latin verse, and wrote comedies whose unintelligible language procured him the appellation of Ferreus.——Regulus, a Roman censor who built a temple to the goddess of concord. Livy, bk. 23, ch. 23, &c.——The name of Attilius was common among the Romans, and many of the public magistrates are called Attilii; their life, however, is not famous for any illustrious event.
Attinas, an officer set over Bactriana by Alexander. Curtius, bk. 8.
Attius Pelignus, an officer of Cæsar. Cæsar, Civil War, bk. 1.——Tullius, the general of the Volsci, to whom Coriolanus fled when banished from Rome. Livy.——Varius seized Auxinum in Pompey’s name, whence he was expelled. After this he fled to Africa, which he alienated from Julius Cæsar. Cæsar, bk. 1, Civil War.——A poet. See: [Accius].——The family of the Attii was descended from Atys, one of the companions of Æneas, according to the opinion which Virgil has adopted, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 568.
Atūrus, a river of Gaul, now the Adour, which runs at the foot of the Pyrenean mountains into the bay of Biscay. Lucan, bk. 1, li. 420.
Atyădæ, the descendants of Atys the Lydian.
Atys, an ancient king of Lydia, who sent away his son Tyrrhenus with a colony of Lydians, who settled in Italy. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 7.——A son of Crœsus king of Lydia. He was forbidden the use of all weapons by his father, who had dreamt that he had been killed. Some time after this, Atys prevailed on his father to permit him to go to hunt a wild boar which laid waste the country of Mysia, and he was killed in the attempt by Adrastus, whom Crœsus had appointed guardian over his son, and thus the apprehensions of the monarch were realized. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 34, &c. See: [Adrastus].——A Trojan who came to Italy with Æneas, and is supposed to be the progenitor of the family of the Atti at Rome. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 568.——A youth to whom Ismene the daughter of Œdipus was promised in marriage. He was killed by Tydeus before his nuptials. Statius, Thebiad, bk. 8, li. 598.——A son of Limniace the daughter of the river Ganges, who assisted Cepheus in preventing the marriage of Andromeda, and was killed by Perseus with a burning log of wood. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 47.——A celebrated shepherd of Phrygia, of whom the mother of the gods, generally called Cybele, became enamoured. She entrusted him with the care of her temple, and made him promise that he always would live in celibacy. He violated his vow by an amour with the nymph Sangaris, for which the goddess made him so insane and delirious, that he castrated himself with a sharp stone. This was afterwards intentionally done by his sacerdotal successors in the service of Cybele, to prevent their breaking their vows of perpetual chastity. This account is the most general and most approved. Others say that the goddess became fond of Atys, because he had introduced her festivals in the greatest part of Asia Minor, and that she herself mutilated him. Pausanias relates, in Achaia, ch. 17, that Atys was the son of the daughter of the Sangar, who became pregnant by putting the bough of an almond tree in her bosom. Jupiter, as the passage mentions, once had an amorous dream, and some of the impurity of the god fell upon the earth, which soon after produced a monster of a human form, with the characteristics of the two sexes. This monster was called Agdistis, and was deprived by the gods of those parts which distinguished the male sex. From the mutilated parts which were thrown upon the ground, rose an almond tree, one of whose branches a nymph of the Sangar gathered, and placed in her bosom as mentioned above. Atys, as soon as born, was exposed in a wood, but preserved by a she-goat. The genius Agdistis saw him in the wood, and was captivated with his beauty. As Atys was going to celebrate his nuptials with the daughter of the king of Pessinus, Agdistis, who was jealous of his rival, inspired by his enchantments the king and his future son-in-law with such an uncommon fury, that they both attacked and [♦]mutilated one another in the struggle. Ovid says, Metamorphoses, bk. 10, fable 2, &c., that Cybele changed Atys into a pine tree as he was going to lay violent hands upon himself, and ever after that tree was sacred to the mother of the gods. After his death, Atys received divine honours, and temples were raised to his memory, particularly at Dymæ. Catullus, the Adventures of Atys [Attis] and Berecynthia [Cybele].—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 10, fable 3; Fasti, bk. 4, li. 223, &c.—Lucian, Deâ Syriâ.——Sylvius, son of Albius Sylvius, was king of Alba. Livy, bk. 1, ch. 3.
[♦] ‘multilated’ replaced with ‘mutilated’