The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 10

AGESILA'US, a Spartan king, victorious over the Persians in Asia and over the allied Thebans and Athenians at Coronea, but defeated by Epaminondas at Mantinea after a campaign in Egypt; _d_. 360 B.C., aged 84.

AGGAS, RALPH, a surveyor and engraver of the 16th century, who first drew a plan of London as well as of Oxford and Cambridge.

AGGLUTINATE LANGUAGES, languages composed of parts which are words glued together, so to speak, as cowherd.

AGINCOURT', a small village in Pas-de-Calais, where Henry V. in a b.l.o.o.d.y battle defeated the French, Oct. 25, 1415.

A'GIS, the name of several Spartan kings, of whom the most famous were Agis III. and IV., the former famous for his resistance to the Macedonian domination, _d_. 330 B.C.; and the latter for his attempts to carry a law for the equal division of land, _d_. 240 B.C.

AGLAIA. See GRACES.

AG'NADEL, a Lombard village, near which Louis XII. defeated the Venetians in 1509, and Vendome, Prince Eugene in 1705.

AGNA'NO, LAKE OF, a lake near Naples, now drained; occupied the crater of an extinct volcano, its waters in a state of constant ebullition.

AGNELLO, COL D', pa.s.sage by the S. of Monte Viso between France and Italy.

AGNES, an unsophisticated maiden in Moliere's _L'ecole des Femmes_, so unsophisticated that she does not know what love means.

AGNES, ST., a virgin who suffered martyrdom, was beheaded because the flames would not touch her body, under Diocletian in 303; represented in art as holding a palm-branch in her hand and a lamb at her feet or in her arms. Festival, Jan. 21.

AGNES DE MeRANIE, the second wife of Philip Augustus by a marriage in 1193, declared null by the Church, who, being dismissed in consequence, died broken-hearted in 1201.

AGNES SOREL, surnamed _Dame de beaute_, mistress of Charles VII. of France (1409-1450).

AGNE'SI, MARIA GaeTANA, a native of Milan, a woman of extraordinary ability and attainments, prelected for her father in mathematics in the University of Bologna under sanction of the Pope; died a nun at her birthplace (1718-1799).

AG'NI, the G.o.d of fire in the Vedic mythology, begets the G.o.ds, organises the world, produces and preserves universal life, and throughout never ceases to be fire. One of the three terms of the Vedic trinity, Soma and Indra being the other two.

AGNOLO, a Florentine artist, friend of Michael Angelo and Raphael, distinguished for his carvings in wood (1460-1543).

AGNOSTICISM, the doctrine which disclaims all knowledge of the supersensuous, or denies that we know or can know the absolute, the infinite, or G.o.d.

AGNUS DEI, the figure of a lamb bearing a cross as a symbol of Christ, or a medal with this device; also a prayer in the Ma.s.s beginning with the words, "Lamb of G.o.d."

AGONIC LINE, line along which the needle points due north and south.

AGORA, the forum of a Grecian town.

AGOS'TA, a city on east coast of Sicily.

AGOULT, COUNTESS OF, a French auth.o.r.ess under the pseudonym of Daniel Stern (1805-1876).

AGOUST, CAPT. DE, a "cast-iron" captain of the Swiss Guards, who on May 4, 1788, by order of the Court of Versailles, marched the Parliament of Paris out of the Palais de Justice and carried off the key. See CARLYLE'S "FRENCH REVOLUTION," BK. I. CHAP. VIII.

AGOU'TI, a rodent, native of Brazil, Paraguay, and Guiana; very destructive to roots and sugar-canes.

A'GRA (168), a handsome city on the Jumna, in NW. Province of India, famous for, among other monuments, the Taj Mahal, a magnificent mausoleum erected near it by the Emperor Shah Jehan for himself and his favourite wife; it is a centre of trade, and seat of manufactures of Indian wares.

AG'RAM, (37), a Hungarian town, the capital of Croatia, with a fine Gothic cathedral and a university; is subject to earthquakes.

AGRARIAN LAWS, laws among the Romans regulating the division of lands.

AGRIC'OLA, a Roman general, father-in-law of Tacitus, who conquered Great Britain in 80, recalled by the Emperor Domitian in 87, and retired into private life (37-93).

AGRICOLA, JOHANN, a follower and friend of Luther, who became his antagonist in the matter of the binding obligation of the law on Christians (1492-1566).

AGRICOLA, RUDOLPHUS, a learned and accomplished Dutchman, much esteemed by Erasmus, and much in advance of his time; his most important work, "Dialectics," being an attack on the scholastic system (1442-1485).

AGRIGEN'TUM, an ancient considerable city, now Girgenti, on the S.

of Sicily, of various fortune, and still showing traces of its ancient grandeur.

AGRIPPA, H. CORNELIUS, a native of Cologne, of n.o.ble birth, for some time in the service of Maximilian, but devoted mainly to the study of the occult sciences, which exposed him to various persecutions through life (1486-1535).

AGRIPPA, HEROD. See HEROD.