Ætōlus, son of Endymion of Elis and Iphianassa, married Pronoe, by whom he had Pleuron and Calydon. Having accidentally killed Apis son of Phoroneus, he left his country, and came to settle in that part of Greece which has been called from him Ætolia. Apollodorus, bk. 1, chs. 7 & 9.—Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 1.
Æx, a rocky island between Tenedos and Chios. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 11.——A city in the country of the Marsi.——The nurse of Jupiter changed into a constellation.
Afer, an inhabitant of Africa.——An informer under Tiberius and his successors. He became also known as an orator, and as the preceptor of Quintilian, and was made consul by Domitian. He died A.D. 59.
Afrānia, a Roman matron, who frequented the forum, forgetful of female decency. Valerius Maximus, bk. 8, ch. 3.
Lucius Afrānius, a Latin comic poet in the age of Terence, often compared to Menander, whose style he imitated. He is blamed for the unnatural gratifications which he mentions in his writings, some fragments of which are to be found in the Corpus Poetarum. Quintilian, bk. 10, ch. 1.—Suetonius, Nero, ch. 11.—Horace, bk. 2, ltr. 1, li. 57.—Cicero, de Finibus, bk. 1, ch. 3.—Aulus Gellius, bk. 13, ch. 8.——A general of Pompey, conquered by Cæsar in Spain. Suetonius, Julius Cæsar, ch. 34.—Plutarch, Pompey.——Quintianus, a man who wrote a severe satire against Nero, for which he was put to death in the Pisonian conspiracy. Tacitus.——Potitus, a plebeian, who said before Caligula, that he would willingly die if the emperor could recover from the distemper he laboured under. Caligula recovered, and Afranius was put to death that he might not forfeit his word. Dio Cassius.
Afrĭca, called Libya by the Greeks, one of the three parts of the ancient world, and the greatest peninsula of the universe, is bounded on the east by Arabia and the Red sea, on the north by the Mediterranean, south and west by the ocean. In its greatest length it extends 4300 miles, and in its greatest breadth it is 3500 miles. It is joined on the east to Asia, by an isthmus 60 miles long, which some of the Ptolemies endeavoured to cut, in vain, to join the Red and Mediterranean seas. It is so immediately situate under the sun, that only the maritime parts are inhabited, and the inland country is mostly barren and sandy, and infested with wild beasts. The ancients, through ignorance, peopled the southern parts of Africa with monsters, enchanters, and chimeras; errors which begin to be corrected by modern travellers. See: [Libya]. Mela, bk. 1, ch. 4, &c.—Diodorus, bks. 3, 4, & 20.—Herodotus, bk. 2, chs. 17, 26, & 32; bk. 4, ch. 41, &c.—Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 1, &c.——There is a part of Africa called Propria, which lies about the middle, on the Mediterranean, and has Carthage for its capital.
Africānus, a blind poet, commended by Ennius.——A christian writer, who flourished A.D. 222. In his chronicle, which was universally esteemed, he reckoned 5500 years from the creation of the world to the age of Julius Cæsar. Nothing remains of this work but what Eusebius has preserved. In a letter to Origen, Africanus proved that the history of Susanna is supposititious; and in another to Aristides, still extant, he endeavours to reconcile the seeming contradictions that appear in the genealogies of Christ in St. Matthew and Luke. He is supposed to be the same who wrote nine books, in which he treats of physic, agriculture, &c.——A lawyer, disciple to Papinian, and intimate with the emperor Alexander.——An orator mentioned by Quintilian.——The surname of the Scipios, from the conquest of Africa. See: [Scipio].
Afrĭcum mare, is that part of the Mediterranean which is on the coast of Africa.
Agăgriāne portæ, gates at Syracuse, near which the dead were buried. Cicero, Tusculanæ Disputationes.
Agalasses, a nation of India, conquered by Alexander. Diodorus, bk. 17.