tius Plancus, a disciple of Cicero, but at length became his rival. In attempting to plead causes at the bar, he brought himself into discredit by too free a use of rhetorical figures. In his old age he returned to Novara, where, being troubled with an asthma, he grew weary of life, and, after a public harangue, in which he justified his determination, he starved himself to death. Sueton. de clar. Rhetor. c. 6. Quintil. lib. ix. c. 2. Bayle.-E. ALBUTIUS, TITUS, a Roman philosopher, flourished about one hundred and twenty years before Christ. He is ranked by Cicero among the Epicureans. (De Nat. Deor. lib. i. c. 33.) Having been educated at Athens, he acquired such a fondness for Grecian manners, that he chose rather to pass for a Greek than a Roman. Scævola, when prætor at Athens, to ridicule this folly, saluted him in Greek. Cicero (De Finibus, lib. i. c. 3.) quotes some lines from a satire of Lucilius, in which Scævola is humourously introduced as thus addressing Albutius: Græce ergo prætor Athenis, Id quod maluisti, te, cum ad me accedi', saluto. When, Titus, as you wish'd your friends to speak, And by a harmless jest to lose my friend. Scævola, while he thus amused himself at the expense of his friend, exemplified the remark of Horace, dummodo risum Excutiat sibi, non hic cuiquam parcit amico. It is probable that Scævola often repeated this kind of provoking raillery: for, according to Cicero, (De Orat. lib. iii. c. 43.) Lucilius introduces him as jesting upon Albutius's style, which he compares to inlaid or mosaic work. Quam lepide lexeis composta, ut tesserulæ omnes How neatly are his polish'd words inlaid! Albutius was appointed proprætor of Sardinia, and, while he was in that office, celebrated a kind of triumph in his province. The vanity and arrogance of this measure was pu a sup nished by the senate, who refused him plicatio," or public thanksgiving to the gods in honour of his exploits. On his return from Sardinia, he was accused before the senate of corruption and peculation in his office, and was sentenced to exile. He withdrew to Athens, where he devoted the remainder of his days to the study of philosophy. Albutius appears to have possessed some talents for oratory, and to have been minutely attentive to the niceties of language: but we find nothing in his character which entitles him to respect as a statesman, or as a philosopher. He appears, in short, to have been an affected and finical trifler, on whom Cicero deservedly bestowed the sarcastic appellation of "Græcus homo." (Cic. in Bruto.) Bayle.-E. ALCEUS, a famous Greek lyric poet, of Mitylene in the isle of Lesbos, flourished in the forty-fourth Olympiad, about B. C. 600, and was contemporary with Sappho. He is by some accounted the inventor of lyric poetry, as seems to be implied by Horace, in (Ode xxxii. lib. 1.) unless it means only that he invented the barbiton, or harp. He was a strenuous assertor of the liberty of his country against Pittacus, who usurped the dominion; and he took up arms in its defence; though with little success, for he himself acknowledges that he left them behind 'him in his flight from a battle in which the Lesbians were defeated by the Athenians. Pittacus made him prisoner, but dismissed him unhurt. He was however exiled, and appears to have been at the head of a party who were expelled on a change of government. Whether he prevailed in the end, or whether he was at length put to death by Pittacus, appears uncertain. From some hints in Horace, we may conclude that he became a corsair. The subjects of his lyrics, as we learn from lian as grave and political; but he seems chiefly Horace, were as well amatory and bacchanaHorace calls his muse minax, or the threatening; to have been characterised by the last. Thus and he contrasts his verses with those of Sappho, in some fine lines which give the most distinct idea now to be had of the merits of this illustrious bard. Et te sonantem plenius aureo, Dura fugæ mala, dura belli, Utrumque sacro digna silentio Mirantur umbræ dicere: sed magis Pugnas et exactos tyrannos Densum humeris bibit aure vulgus. OD. 13. lib. ii. Alemus strikes the golden strings, And seas, and war, and exile sings: 66 ALCASAR, LEWIS, a learned theologian, was born at Seville in the year 1554. He entered, with large possessions, among the Jesuits. He taught philosophy and divinity at Corduba and Seville. His studies seem to have been almost wholly devoted to the arduous task of unfolding the mysteries of the Book of Revelation. He is said to have employed nearly twenty years in preparing a work upon this subject, entitled, Vestigatio arcani Sensûs in Apocalypsi." [An Investigation of the hidden Meaning of the Apocalypse] It was first printed at Antwerp in 1604, and afterwards reprinted at the same place in 1611, and 1614, and at Lyons in 1616. It has been thought one of the best performances on this difficult subject among the Roman catholics; yet one of his encomiasts, who speaks of it as an ingenious and elaborate work, adds, 66 Sharp and strong as his arrow may be, who will answer for him that he has hit the mark?" It has been intimated that Grotius borrowed many ideas from this work. In conti nuation of his inquiries, he wrote a commentary on such parts of the Old Testament as he judged to have any relation to the Apocalypse. The whole work, including an appendix "On sacred Weights and Measures," and another, "On bad. Physicians," forms two volumes in folio. Alcasar died at Seville in the year 1613. His "Key to the Apocalypse" has been examined by Heidegger, in his "Mysterium Babylonis magnæ." Bayle.-E.. 66 ALCHABITIUS, an Arabian astrologer, the date of whose life is not known, wrote an introduction to the knowledge of the celestial influences, entitled, " Isagoge ad Magisterium Judiciorum Astrorum;" "A Treatise on the Conjunction of the Planets;" and another "On Optics." His astrological works were printed at Venice in 1491, with explanations, by John of Seville; and, in 1521, with the corrections of Antony de Fantis. Bayle.-E.. ALCIATI, ANDREW, of Milan, an eminent civilian, was born in the year 1492. Having studied the civil law under Jason, in the university of Pavia, and under Ruini in that of Bologua, and taken his degree as doctor, he entered upon the practice of his profession at Milan in 1517. His early reputation for knowledge of the law procured him an invitation from the university of Avignon to the professorship of civil law and it appears from letters of Alciati, published at Utrecht, that he entered upon this professorship in the year 1518, when he was only twenty-six years of age. His salary in that year amounted to five hundred crowns, and he had seven hundred auditors: two years afterwards his salary was increased to six hundred crowns, and he had upwards of eight hundred auditors, among whom were some prelates, abbots, and counts. A contagious distemper having brought debts upon the city of Avignon, which occasioned a failure in the punctual payment of his stipend, he, in 1522, withdrew in displeasure from that place, and returned to Milan, where he exercised his profession at the bar.. That Alciati was incited to this removal by a sordid love of wealth, may be inferred from the mean expedient which he made use of to obtain an advance of his salary during his residence at Avignon. From his own letters it appears,. that when he had been there about two years,. he employed one of his friends to obtain for him an invitation from Bologna or Padua, not with an intention of accepting the offer, but in hopes. of increasing his income in his present situation. "Not that I would remove," says he, in a letter to a friend," to either of these academies, but because the people of Avignon, when they find that I am solicited by others, will be afraid lest I should leave them, and will augment my stipend." We shall immediately see him playing off the same artifice in another situation. a The king of France, Francis I. having been. informed of the high reputation with which Alciati had filled the professorial chair at Avignon, invited him, in 1529, to Bourges, as proper person to promote the study of the civil law in that university. After the first year, either from his great popularity, or, more probably, by some mean expedient, his salary, at first six hundred crowns, was doubled. His inconstant humour, or rather his avaricious temper, would not suffer him to remain long in any situation. At the expiration of five years, in 1533, he received from Francis Sforza, duke of Milan, an invitation to return to his native country, accompanied with a promise of a large salary, and senatorial honours. There can be little doubt that this offer was stimulated by the crafty management of Alciati. In a Latin letter of Bembo to Alciati, July 15th, 1532, he importunes him to come and take possession of the professorship, which the republic of Venice: divides between Scævola and Crassus, when he calls the latter the orator best skilled in law; and the former the lawyer who was most eloquent, is, by the consent of the learned, united in Alciati.' in Alciati." (Erasm. Ciceronian.) Posterity is indebted to hiin for some valuable works. His first essay was, "An Explication and Correction of the Greek Terms which are met with in the Digests." It was first published in Italy, and afterwards at Strasburg, in 1515. His next works were, " Paradoxes of the Civil Law;" "Dispunctiones et Prætermissa," published about the year 1517. A book of Alciati, "De Verborum Significatione," was printed at Bourges in 1529. These, with many other works on jurisprudence, were published in 1571, in six volumes folio. Besides these, this author wrote notes on Tacitus, whose language he thought harsh, and of whom he said, that in his writings energy of style contends with elegance. He also wrote "Emblems," in verse; a performance which ranks this lawyer among the poets, and upon which the elder Scaliger, who was not lavish of praise, bestows the following encomium: " They are entertaining, chaste, and elegant, and not without strength; the sentiments are such as may be useful even in civil life." They were published at Augsburg, in 8vo. in 1531, and afterwards at Padua, in 4to. with notes, in 1661. They have been translated into various languages. Other works of Alciati, not included in the folio edition, are, "Responsa," Lugd. 1561; "Historia Mediolanensis," 8vo. 1625; "De Forma Romani Imperii," 8vo. 1559; "Epigrammata," 8vo. 1629. A volume of the letters of this civilian was published at Utrecht in 1697: and at Leyden, in 1695, appeared a letter which he wrote to a friend who had turned friar, representing the imprudence of his conduct, and exposing, with great spirit, the abuses of monastic life. Hank. de Script. Rom. p. i. c. 52. ii. 52. Minos. Vit. And. Alciat. Bayle. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-E. had offered him in the university of Padua, and, to remove the objection, which kept him in suspence concerning the species of crowns in which his stipend was to be paid, assures him, that if he come, he shall in a very little time receive all the money he desires, with other advantages. Afterwards, in April 1534, when our professor had left Bourges and was at Pavia, Bembo wrote to him, saying, that the curators of the university of Padua were not satisfied with his excuses, and that they were persuaded that he had solicited the professorship of civil law among them, only in order to excite the duke of Milan to offer him a larger salary. It was probably owing to this pitiful thirst of gain that Alciati was restless and dissatisfied in every situation. Pavia, Bologna, and Ferrara, in rapid succession, enjoyed the benefit of his instructions, and lamented the loss of them. Though he was in every place attended by numerous scholars and clients, and received ample recompense for his labours, no place could detain him longer than four years. When his friends censured his frequent changes, he had the vanity to ask, whether they blamed the sun for going round to enlighten all nations; or whether, when they admired the fixed stars, they found fault with the planets? This, however, was only a flourish of oratory; for, whatever gratification he might derive from the proud idea of being a revolving luminary in the world of letters, the ruling passion of his heart was avarice. Of this he gave ample proof, when at Ferrara. Pope Paul III. invited him to Rome with the flattering promise of future honours; but he preferred the solid advantages of his profession to the flattering hope of a cardinal's robe. Why," said he in a letter to a friend, "should I, for the empty and uncertain hope of the purple, relinquish the honours of my profession, accompanied as they are with the secure enjoyment of a rich stipend?"-From Ferrara Alciati returned to Pavia, where the luminary, having completed its revolution, stopped its course and disappeared. He died in the year 1550 of a surfeit, as it is said, from over-eating. Alciati appears to have possessed brilliant talents, but their lustre was tarnished by those sure indications of a little mind, vanity, fickleness, and meanness. He contributed essentially to the improvement of his profession by mixing a taste for polite literature with the study of the law, and by bringing into discredit that barbarous latinity, which, till that time, had prevailed in the lectures and writings of the civilians. Erasmus bestows upon Alciati this high encomium: "The praise which Cicero ALCIATI, JOHN PAUL, a native of Milan, in the sixteenth century, distinguished himself among that class of protestants who receded the farthest from the catholic faith, by denying the doctrine of the Trinity, and maintaining, that Jesus Christ did not exist before he was born of Mary. In hopes of being permitted to pursue his inquiries, and profess his opinions. freely in a protestant city, Alciati, accompanied by Blandrata, a physician, Gribaud, an advovocate, Gentilis, and others, removed to Geneva. They soon, however, found protestants not less intolerant than papists. Calvin's Calvin's persecu not turn out a common youth. He soon exhibited strong passions, irregularity of conduct, and a strange mixture of levity and seriousness. His beauty rendered him a very general object of that love, which appears sometimes to have been a pure, sometimes an ambiguous, sometimes a scandalous attachment among the Greeks. It was his fortune to excite the virtuous affection of Socrates; and that philosopher took uncommon pains to correct all that was wrong in him, and train him to honourable pursuits and just principles; and though he was not entirely successful, his pupil seems never totally to have lost the benefit of his instructions. tion of Servetus, the severe proceedings against ALCIBIADES, son of Clinias, an Athenian, was one of the most splendid and remarkable characters of the age in which he lived the golden age of Greece! Nobly born, rich, handsome, vigorous, endowed with an excellent understanding, and every quality that could inspire love and esteem, he wanted only principle and steadiness to render him a truly great man. He early displayed the ruling passion of his life, that of surpassing others, and accomplishing every thing on which he set his mind. One adventure in his childhood is very characteristic of his temper. Being at play with other boys in the street, it was his turn to throw something across the way. A loaded waggon coming up at the instant, he called on the driver to stop for him. The driver, regardless of his request, whipped on his horses, and the other boys cleared the road; but Alcibiades threw himself on the ground directly before the waggon, and bade the man drive on if he thought fit. This resolution caused the waggoner, in a fright, immediately to stop his horses. Such a child could Several anecdotes of his youth display the vivacity of his temper and his understanding. Going one day into a grammar-school, he asked for a volume of Homer; and the master answering him that he had none, Alcibiades gave him a box on the ear and walked out; by which action he meant to imply, that the person who was not conversant with Homer, was unfit to superintend the education of youth. He once called at the house of Pericles, his relation and guardian, in order to speak to him; and, being told that Pericles was busy in studying the accounts he was to lay before the people, " He had better (said Alcibiades) study how to avoid giving them any account at all." One day, in a mere frolic, and in consequence of a promise to his companions, he gave a box on the ear to Hipponicus, a respectable man of rank and fortune. This act of insolence was talked of through the city, and various expectations prevailed of the event. Early next morning Alcibiades went to the house of Hipponicus, and, being admitted into his presence, stript himself, and offered his naked body to be chastised as he pleased. This humiliation disarmed the resentment and engaged the esteem of Hipponicus, so that some time after he gave him his daughter Hipparete in marriage. Alcibiades freely joined in all the pleasures and amusements of youth, both of the licentious and more allowable kinds. He was addicted to illicit amours, and to all the debaucheries common in companies of the gay and profligate. He was fond of fine horses and chariot-races; and, as he could pursue nothing with moderation, he is recorded as the first person who ever sent seven chariots at one time to the Olympic games. The prizes he won, and the magnificence he exhibited in these spectacles, rendered him extremely popular among the states of Greece; and three of them thought it an honour to join in bearing his expenses at the public shows. In Athens he occupied a large share of the discourse of the citizens; and a story is told of his cutting off the tail of a beautiful dog, which he much valued, purposely to find them something to wonder at, and divert them from prying too closely into the more serious parts of his conduct. He early engaged in the military service of his country, and made a campaign in the war which Athens carried on against Potidæa, where Socrates was his constant companion, and lodged in the same tent with him. At the principal battle, Alcibiades, after fighting valiantly, fell wounded on the field, and was indebted to Socrates for the preservation of his life. This obligation he repaid some years afterwards at the battle of Delium, when in the retreat he covered Socrates, who was on foot, and brought him off safe. The career of his ambition opened while he was yet running that of pleasure. It was impossible, indeed, in a constitution like that of Athens, that any youth of spirit and genius should not engage in public life. Alcibiades had rendered himself a great master of eloquence; and the natural quickness of his parts readily suggested those artifices by which a popular state is managed. The Athenians and Spartans, after some years of severe warfare, had made a peace; and Nicias, the leading man at Athens, who had been the author of it, was strenuous in preventing any new causes of disputes. It was It was the plan of Alcibiades to overturn his influence and the system that supported it. He began by promoting a league with Argos and some other states, the consequences of which greatly embroiled the affairs of Greece, and widened the breach between the Lacedemonian and Athenian parties. He had the command of a fleet destined to assist the Argives, and to put an end to the frequent changes of politics which had happened in their capital; and though the two leading nations did not openly declare war, they committed mutual hostilities as allies to the contending powers. The misanthrope, Timon, well foresaw the event of the influence acquired by this young and daring politician; and, on beholding him one day conducted by the people with great honour from the place of assembly, where he had carried a motion, he shook him by the hand and cried, "Go on and prosper, my brave boy; for your success will prove the destruction of all this mob at your heels." The Athenians had long cast an eye of desire upon Sicily, and had several times interfered in its internal quarrels, for the purpose of gaining a footing in the island. Alcibiades inflamed this popular passion to such a degree, that a powerful armament was voted against Syracuse, and he himself, together with Nicias and Lamachus, were appointed joint commanders,-Nicias, much against his inclination. As preparations were making for the expedition, an inci dent happened which threw the city into confusion, and was very momentous to the fortune of Alcibiades. On one night almost all the Hermæ, or half-statues of Mercury, which were very numerous in Athens, were defaced and mutilated. This action, which was probably nothing more than a mischievous frolic, gave occasion to a variety of suspicions concerning plots and conspiracies in the minds of the people; and a strict inquisition being made into every circumstance of the like nature, information was given that Alcibiades and some of his dissolute companions, in their revels, had defaced other statues, and had mimicked some of the sacred mysteries. A capital charge of impiety was thereupon made against Alcibiades; but through apprehension of the army, which was greatly attached to him, his enemies would not bring it to a trial before his departure. He had not, however, been long in Sicily, when a vessel was dispatched from Athens to bring him back. He accompanied the messengers without reluctance as far as Thurii, where, going on shore, he concealedhimself, and afterwards withdrew to Peloponnesus. On his non-appearance he was condemned, his property confiscated, and all the priests and priestesses pronounced a solemn execration against him, except Theano; who made this memorable excuse, "that she was a priestess for prayer, not for cursing." Alcibiades, now throwing off all regard for his country, had recourse to the Spartans, by whom he was well received, and whom he influenced to send succours to the Syracusans, and to declare war against Athens. During his abode at Sparta, he gave proof of his force of mind and wonderful versatility of manners, by adopting in its utmost rigour the Lacedemonian discipline, and surpassing the natives themselves in the qualities they most admired. He cut his hair short, bathed in cold water, fed upon coarse bread and black broth, and affected simplicity and gravity of demeanour. Meantime he urged the war against his countrymen with all possible inveteracy; and passing over into Ionia, induced several of the cities there to revolt from the Athenians; and engaged Tissaphernes, the great king of Persia's lieutenant, in a league with the Spartans. A relic, however, of his former manners was near effecting his ruin. He engaged in an intrigue with the wife of the Spartan king Agis; rather, as he himself confessed, through the vanity of giving a future |