Æsar, or Æsāras, a river of Magna Græcia, falling into the sea near Crotona. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 15, li. 28.
Æschĭnes, an Athenian orator, who flourished about 342 B.C., and distinguished himself by his rivalship with Demosthenes. His father’s name was Atrometus, and he boasted of his descent from a noble family, though Demosthenes reproached him as being the son of a courtesan. The first open signs of enmity between the rival orators appeared at the court of Philip, where they were sent as ambassadors; but the character of Æschines was tarnished by the acceptance of a bribe from the Macedonian prince, whose tyranny had hitherto been the general subject of his declamation. When the Athenians wished to reward the patriotic labours of Demosthenes with a golden crown, Æschines impeached Ctesiphon, who proposed it; and to their subsequent dispute we are indebted for the two celebrated orations de coronâ. Æschines was defeated by his rival’s superior eloquence, and banished to Rhodes; but as he retired from Athens, Demosthenes ran after him, and nobly forced him to accept a present of silver. In his banishment, the orator repeated to the Rhodians what he had delivered against Demosthenes; and after receiving much applause, he was desired to read the answer of his antagonist. It was received with greater marks of approbation; but, exclaimed Æschines, how much more would your admiration have been raised, had you heard Demosthenes himself speak it! Æschines died in the 75th year of his age, at Rhodes, or, as some suppose, at Samos. He wrote three orations, and nine epistles, which, from their number, received the name, the first of the graces, and the last of the muses. The orations alone are extant, generally found collected with those of Lysias. An oration which bears the name of Deliaca lex, is said not to be his production, but that of Æschines, another orator of that age. Cicero, On Oratory, bk. 1, ch. 24; bk. 2, ch. 53; Brutus, ch. 17.—Plutarch, Demosthenes.—Diogenes Laërtius, bks. 2 & 3.—Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 30. Diogenes Laërtius mentions seven more of the same name.——A philosopher, disciple of Socrates, who wrote several dialogues, some of which bore the following titles: Aspasia, Phædon, Alcibiades, Draco, Erycia, Polyænus, Telauges, &c. The dialogue entitled Axiochus, and ascribed to Plato, is supposed to be his composition. The best editions are that of Leovard, 1718, with the notes of Horræus, in 8vo, and that of Fischer, 8vo, Lipscomb, 1766.——A man who wrote on oratory.——An Arcadian.——A Mitylenean.——A disciple of Melanthius.——A Milesian writer.——A statuary.
Æschrion, a Mitylenean poet, intimate with Aristotle. He accompanied Alexander in his Asiatic expedition.——An Iambic poet of Samos. Athenæus.——A physician commended by Galen. A treatise of his own husbandry has been quoted by Pliny.——A lieutenant of Archagathus, killed by Hanno. Diodorus, bk. 20.
Æschylīdes, a man who wrote a book on agriculture. Ælian, Nature of Animals, bk. 15.
Æschy̆lus, an excellent soldier and poet of Athens, son of Euphorion, and brother to Cynægirus. He was in the Athenian army at the battles of Marathon, Salamis, and Platæa. But the most solid fame he has obtained, is the offspring less of his valour in the field of battle than of his writings. Of 90 tragedies, however, the fruit of his ingenious labours, 40 of which were rewarded with the public prize, only seven have come safe to us: Prometheus vinctus, Septem duces apud Thebas, Persæ, Agamemnon, Chœphori, Eumenides, Supplices. Æschylus is the first who introduced two actors on the stage, and clothed them with dresses suitable to their character. He likewise removed murder from the stage. It is said that, when he composed, his countenance betrayed the greatest ferocity; and according to one of his scholiasts, when his Eumenides were represented, many children died through fear, and several pregnant women actually miscarried in the house, at the sight of the horrible masks that were introduced. The imagination of the poet was strong and comprehensive, but disorderly and wild: fruitful in prodigies, but disdaining probabilities. His style is obscure, and the labours of an excellent modern critic have pronounced him the most difficult of all the Greek classics. A few expressions of impious tendency in one of his plays, nearly proved fatal to Æschylus; he was condemned to death, but his brother Amynias, it is reported, reversed his sentence, by uncovering an arm, of which the hand had been cut off at the battle of Salamis in the service of his country, and the poet was pardoned. Æschylus has been accused of drinking to excess, and of never composing except when in a state of intoxication. In his old age he retired to the court of Hiero in Sicily. Being informed that he was to die by the fall of a house, he became dissatisfied with the fickleness of his countrymen, and withdrew from the city into the fields, where he sat down. An eagle, with a tortoise in her bill, flew over his bald head, and supposing it to be a stone, dropped her prey upon it to break the shell, and Æschylus instantly died of the blow, in the 69th year of his age, 456 B.C. It is said that he wrote an account of the battle of Marathon, in elegiac verses. The best editions of his works are that of Stanley, folio, London, 1663, that of Glasgow, 2 vols. in 12mo, 1746, and that of Schutz, 2 vols., 8vo, Halæ, 1782.—Horace, Art of Poetry, li. 278.—Quintilian, bk. 10, ch. 1.—Pliny, bk. 10, ch. 3.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 9, ch. 12.——The 12th perpetual archon of Athens.——A Corinthian, brother-in-law to Timophanes, intimate with Timoleon. Plutarch, Timoleon.——A Rhodian set over Egypt with Peucestes of Macedonia. Curtius, bk. 4, ch. 8.——A native of Cnidus, teacher of rhetoric to Cicero. Cicero, Brutus.
Æsculāpius, son of Apollo by Coronis, or as some say, by Larissa daughter of Phlegias, was god of medicine. After his union with Coronis, Apollo set a crow to watch her, and was soon informed that she admitted the caresses of Ischys of Æmonia. The god, in a fit of anger, destroyed Coronis with lightning, but saved the infant from her womb, and gave him to be educated to Chiron, who taught him the art of medicine. Some authors say, that Coronis left her father to avoid the discovery of her pregnancy, and that she exposed her child near Epidaurus. A goat of the flocks of Aresthanas gave him her milk, and the dog which kept the flock stood by him to shelter him from injury. He was found by the master of the flock, who went in search of his stray goat, and saw his head surrounded with resplendent rays of light. Æsculapius was physician to the Argonauts, and considered so skilled in the medicinal power of plants, that he was called the inventor as well as the god of medicine. He restored many to life, of which Pluto complained to Jupiter, who struck Æsculapius with thunder, but Apollo, angry at the death of his son, killed the Cyclops who made the thunderbolts. Æsculapius received divine honours after death, chiefly at Epidaurus, Pergamus, Athens, Smyrna, &c. Goats, bulls, lambs, and pigs were sacrificed on his altars, and the cock and the serpent were sacred to him. Rome, A.U.C. 462, was delivered of a plague, and built a temple to the god of medicine, who, as was supposed, had come there in the form of a serpent, and hid himself among the reeds in an island of the Tyber. Æsculapius was represented with a large beard, holding in his hand a staff, round which was wreathed a serpent: his other hand was supported on the head of a serpent. Serpents are more particularly sacred to him, not only as the ancient physicians used them in their prescriptions; but because they were the symbols of prudence and foresight, so necessary in the medical profession. He married Epione, by whom he had two sons, famous for their skill in medicine, Machaon and Podalirus; and four daughters, of whom Hygiea, goddess of health, is the most celebrated. Some have supposed that he lived a short time after the Trojan war. Hesiod makes no mention of him. Homer, Iliad, bk. 4, li. 193; Hymn to Æsculapius.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 10.—Apollonius, bk. 4, Argonautica.—Hyginus, fable 49.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 2, fable 8.—Pausanias, bk. 2, chs. 11 & 27; bk. 7, ch. 23, &c.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Pindar, Pythian, poem 3.—Lucian, Dialogi de Saltatione.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 1, ch. 8.—Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 3, ch. 22, says there were three of this name; the first, a son of Apollo, worshipped in Arcadia; second, a brother of Mercury; third, a man who first taught medicine.
Æsēpus, a son of Bucolion. Homer, Iliad, bk. 6, li. 21.——A river. See: [Æsapus].
Æsernia, a city of the Samnites, in Italy. Livy, bk. 27, ch. 12.—Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 567.
Æsīon, an Athenian, known for his respect for the talents of Demosthenes. Plutarch, Demosthenes.
Æsis, a river of Italy, which separates Umbria from Picenum.