An enormous trade in agate-working is carried on in a small district in Germany, around Oberstein on the Nahe, a tributary of the Rhine at Bingen. Here the industry was located many centuries ago, in consequence of the abundant occurrence of agates in the amygdaloidal melaphyre of the district, notably in the Galgenberg, or Steinkaulenberg, overlooking the village of Idar, on the Idar Bach, about two miles from Oberstein. The abundant water-power in the neighbourhood had also a share in the determination of the industrial site. At the present time, however, steam power and even electricity are employed in the mills of the Oberstein district. Although the agateindustry is still carried on there, especially at Idar, the stones operated on are not of indigenous origin, but are imported mostly from Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul) and from Uruguay, where they were discovered in 1827. Agate-working is also carried on to a limited extent at Waldkirch in the Black Forest.

Most commercial agate is artificially stained, so that stones naturally unattractive by their dull grey tints come to be valuable for ornamental purposes. The art of staining the stone is believed to be very ancient. Possibly referred to by Pliny (bk. xxxvii. cap. 75), it was certainly practised at an early date by the Italian cameo-workers, and from Italy a knowledge of the art—long kept secret and practised traditionally—passed in the early part of the 19th century to the agate-workers in Germany, by whom it has since been greatly developed. The colouring matter is absorbed by the porosity of the stone, but different stones and even different layers in the same stone exhibit great variation in absorptive power. The Brazilian agates lend themselves readily to coloration, while the German agates are much less receptive.

To produce a dark brown or black colour, the stone is kept perhaps for two or three weeks in a saccharine solution, or in olive oil, at a moderate temperature. After removal from this medium, the agate is well washed and then digested for a short time in sulphuric acid, which entering the pores chars or carbonizes the absorbed sugar or oil. Certain layers of chalcedony are practically impermeable, and these consequently remain uncoloured, so that an alternation of dark and white bands is obtained, thus giving rise to an onyx. If stained too dark, the colour may be "drawn,'' or lightened, by the action of nitric acid.

Agate is stained red, so as to form carnelian and sardonyx, by means of ferric oxide. This may be derived from any iron compound naturally present in the stone, especially from limonite by dehydration on baking. Some stones are "burnt'' by mere exposure to the heat of the sun, whereby the brown colour passes to red. Usually, however, an iron-salt, like ferrous sulphate, is artificially introduced in solution and then decomposed by heat, so as to form in the pores a rich red pigment.

A blue colour, supposed to render the agate rather like lapis lazuli, is produced by using first an iron salt and then a solution of ferrocyanide or ferricyanide of potassium; a green colour, like that of chrysoprase, is obtained by means of salts of nickel or of chromium; and a yellow tint is developed by the action of hydrochloric acid.

Among the uses to which agate is applied may be mentioned the formation of knife-edges of delicate balances, small mortars and pestles for chemical work, burnishers and writing styles, umbrella-handles, paper-knives, seals, brooches and other trivial ornaments. Most of these are cut and polished in the Oberstein district, at a very cheap rate, from South American stones.

Numerous localities in the United States and Canada yield agates, as described by Dr G. F. Kunz. They are abundant in the trap rocks of the Lake Superior region, some of the finest coming from Michipicoten Island, Ontario. A locality on the shore of the lake is called Agate Bay. Wood agate, or agatized wood, is not infrequently found in Colorado, California and elsewhere in the West, the most notable locality being the famous "silicified forest'' known as Chalcedony Park, in Apache county, Arizona. Here there are vast numbers of water-rolled logs of silicified wood, in rocks of Triassic age, but only a small quantity of the wood is fine enough for ornamental purposes. The cellular tissue of the vegetable matter is filled, or even replaced, by various siliceous minerals like chalcedony, jasper, crystalline quartz and semi-opal, the silica having probably been introduced by thermal waters. Some of the agate shows the microscopic structure of araucarian wood. The agatized wood is sometimes known by the Indian name of shinarump.

In India agates occur abundantly in the amygdaloidal varieties of the Deccan and Rajmahal traps, and as pebbles in the detritus derived from these rocks. Some of the finest are found in the agate-gravels near Ratanpur, in Rajpipla. The trade in agates has been carried on from early times at Cambay, where the stones are cut and polished. Agates are also worked at Jubbulpore.

In many parts of New South Wales, agates, resulting from the disintegration of trap rocks, are common in the river-beds and old drifts. They occur also in Queensland, as at Agate Creek, running into the Gilbert river. South Africa likewise yields numerous agates, especially in the gravels of the Orange and Vaal rivers.

It should be noted that in England agates are found not only in old lavas, like the andesites of the Cheviots, but also to a limited extent in the Dolomitic Conglomerate, an old beachdeposit of Triassic age in the Mendips and the neighbourhood of Bristol. They are also found as weathered pebbles in the drift of Lichfield in Staffordshire.

For Scottish agates see M. F. Heddle, "On the Structure of Agates,'' Trans. Geolog. Soc. Glasgow, vol. xi. part ii., 1900, p. 153; and Mineralogy of Scotland (1901), vol. i. p. 58; J. G. Goodchild, Proc. Phys. Soc. Edinburgh, vol. xiv., 1899, p. 191. For the agate-industry see G. Lange, Die Halbedelsteine (Kreuznach, 1868). For American agates, G. F. Kunz, Gems and Precious Stones of North America (1890), p. 128. For agates in general see Max Bauer's Precious Stones, translated by L. J. Spencer (London, 1904). (F. W. R.n)

AGATHA, SAINT, the patron saint of Catania, Sicily, where her festival is celebrated on the 5th of February. The legend is that she was a native of Sicily (probably of Catania, though Palermo also claims her), of noble birth and great beauty. She repelled the advances of the Roman prefect sent by the emperor Decius to govern Sicily, and was by his orders brutally tortured and finally sent to the stake. As soon as the fire was lighted, an earthquake occurred, and the people insisted on her release. She died in prison on the 5th of February 251. The rescue of Catania from fire during an eruption of Mount Etna was later attributed to St Agatha's veil.

AGATHANGELUS, AGATHANGE or AKATHANKELOS, Armenian historian, lived during the 4th century, and wrote a History of the Reign of Dertad, or Tiridates, and of the Preaching of St Gregory the Illuminator. The text of this history has been considerably altered, but it has always been in high favour with the Armenians. It has been translated into several languages, and Greek and Latin translations are found in the Acta Sanctorum Bollandistarum, tome viii. As known to us the history consists of three parts, a history of St Gregory and his companions, the doctrine of Gregory, and the conversion of Armenia to Christianity.

See V. Langlois, Collection des historiens anciens et modernes de l'Armenie (Paris, 1868).

AGATHARCHIDES, or AGATHARCHUS, of Cnidus, Greek historian and geographer, lived in the time of Ptolemy Philometor (181-146 B.C.) and his successors. Amongst other works, he wrote treatises on Asia, Europe and The Red Sea. Interesting extracts from the last, of some length, are preserved in Photius (cod. 213), who praises the style of the author, which was modelled on that of Thucydides.

See H. Leopoldi, De Agatharchide Cnidio Dissertatio (1892); C. W. Muller, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, iii., and Geographi Graeci Minores, i.; E. H. Bunbury, Hist. of Ancient Geography, ii. (1879).

AGATHARCHUS, an Athenian painter of the 5th century B.C. He is said by Vitruvius to have been the first to paint a scene for the acting of tragedies. Hence some writers, such as Karl Woermann, have supposed that he introduced perspective and illusion into painting. This is a mistaken view, for ancient writers know nothing of canvas scenes; the background painted by Agatharchus was the wooden front of the stage building, and it was painted, not with reference to any particular play, but as a permanent decorative background, representing no doubt a palace or temple. Agatharchus is said to have been seized by Alcibiades and compelled by him to paint the interior of his house, which shows that at the time (about 435 B.C.) decorative painting of rooms was the fashion.

AGATHIAS (c. A.D. 536-582), of Myrina in Aeolis, Greek poet and historian. He studied law at Alexandria, completed his training at Constantinople and practised as an advocate (scholasticus) in the courts. Literature, however, was his favourite pursuit. He wrote a number of short love-poems in epic metre, called Daphniaca. He next put together a kind of anthology, containing epigrams by earlier and contemporary poets and himself, under the title of a Cycle of new Epigrams. About a hundred epigrams by Agathias have been preserved in the Greek Anthology and show considerable taste and elegance. After the death of Justinian (565), some of Agathias's friends persuaded him to write the history of his own times. This work, in five books, begins where Procopius ends, and is the chief authority for the period 552-558. It deals chiefly with the struggles of the Byzantine army, under the command of the eunuch Narses, against the Goths, Vandals, Franks and Persians. The author prides himself on his honesty and impartiality, but he is lacking in judgment and knowledge of facts; the work, however, is valuable from the importance of the events of which it treats. Gibbon contrasts Agathias as "a poet and rhetorician'' with Procopius "a statesman and soldier.''

AUTHORITIES.—Editio princeps, by B. Vulcanius (1594); in the Bonn Corpus Scriptorum Byz. Hist., by B. G. Niebuhr (1828); in Migne, Patrologia Graeca, lxxxviii.; L. Dindorf, Historici Graeci Minores (1871); W. S. Teuffel, "Agathias von Myrine,'' in Philolegus (i. 1846); C. Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur (2nd ed. 1897).

AGATHO, pope from 678 to 681, was born in Sicily. He is noteworthy as the pope who ordered St Wilfrid to be restored to his bishopric at York in 679, and as the first to cease payment of the tribute hitherto paid on election to the emperor at Constantinople. It was during his pontificate that the 6th oecumenical council was held at Constantinople, to which he sent his legates and those from a Roman council held in 679. Agatho died on the 10th of January 681.

AGATHOCLES (361-289 B.C.), tyrant of Syracuse, was born at Thermae Himeraeae (mod. Termini Imerese) in Sicily. The son of a potter who had removed to Syracuse, he learned his father's trade, but afterwards entered the army. In 333 he married the widow of his patron Damas, a distinguished and wealthy citizen. He was twice banished for attempting to overthrow the oligarchical party in Syracuse (q.v.); in 317 he returned with an army of mercenaries under a solemn oath to observe the democratic constitution which was then set up. Having banished or murdered some 10,000 citizens, and thus made himself master of Syracuse, he created a strong army and fleet and subdued the greater part of Sicily. War with Carthage followed. In 310 Agathocles, defeated and besieged in Syracuse, took the desperate resolve of breaking through the blockade and attacking the enemy in Africa. After several victories he was at last completely defeated (306) and fled secretly to Sicily. After concluding peace with Carthage, Agathocles styled himself king of Sicily, and established his rule over the Greek cities of the island more firmly than ever. Even in his old age he displayed the same restless energy, and is said to have been meditating a fresh attack on Carthage at the time of his death. His last years were harassed by ill-health and the turbulence of his grandson Archagathus, at whose instigation he is said to have been poisoned; according to others, he died a natural death. He was a born leader of mercenaries, and, although he did not shrink from cruelty to gain his ends, he afterwards showed himself a mild and popular "tyrant.''

See Justin xxii., xxiii.; Diodorus Siculus xix., xxi., xxii. (follows generally Timaeus who had a special grudge against Agathocles); Polybius ix. 23; Schubert, Geschichte des Agathokles (1887); Grote, History of Greece, ch. 97; also SICILY, History. AGATHODAEMON; in Greek mythology, the "good spirit'' of cornfields and vineyards. It was the custom of the Greeks to drink a cup of pure wine in his honour at the end of each meal (Aristophanes, Equites, 106). He was also regarded as the protecting spirit of the state and of individuals. He was often accompanied by 'Agathe Tuche (good fortune), and in this aspect may be compared with the Roman Bonus Eventus (Pliny, Nat Hist. xxxvi. 23), and Genius. He is represented in works of art in the form of a serpent, or of a young man with a cornucopia and a bowl in one hand, and a poppy and ears of corn in the other.

See Gerhard, Uber Agathodamon und Bona Dea (Berlin, 1849).

AGATHODAEMON, of Alexandria, map designer, probably lived in the 2nd century A.D. Some MSS. of the Geography of Ptolemy contain twenty-seven maps, which are stated to have been drawn by Agathodaemon of Alexandria, who "delineated the whole world according to the eight books of Ptolemy's geography.'' As Ptolemy speaks of IIinakes to accompany his treatise, these maps were probably the work of a contemporary acting under his instructions. About 1470 Nicolaus Doris, a Benedictine monk, brought out a revised edition of them, the names being inserted in Latin instead of Greek.

See Bunbury, History of Ancient Geography, ii.

AGATHON (c. 448-400 B.C.), Athenian tragic poet, friend of Euripides and Plato, best known from his mention by Aristophanes (Thesmophoriazusae) and in Plato's Symposium, which describes the banquet given to celebrate his obtaining a prize for a tragedy (416). He probably died at the court of Archelaus, king of Macedonia. He introduced certain innovations, and Aristotle (Poetica, 9) tells us that the plot of his 0Antho1 was original, not, as usually, borrowed from mythological subjects.

See Aristophanes, Thesmoph. 59, 106, Eccles. 100; Plato, Symp. 198 c; Plutarch, Symp. 3; Aelian, Var. Hist. xiv. 13; Ritsch, Opuscula, i.; fragments in Nauck, Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta.

AGATHYRSI, a people of Thracian origin, who in the earliest historical times occupied the plain of the Maris (Maros), in the region now known as Transylvania. Thyrsi is supposed to be a Scythian form of Trausoi (Trausi), a Thracian tribe mentioned by Stephanus of Byzantium. They are described by Herodotus (iv. 104) as of luxurious habits, wearing gold ornaments (the district is still auriferous) and having wives in common. They tattooed their bodies (picti, Aeneid iv. 136), degrees of rank being indicated by the manner in which this was done, and coloured their hair dark blue. Like the Gallic Druids, they recited their laws in a kind of sing-song to prevent their being forgotten, a practice still in existence in the days of Aristotle (Problemata, xix. 28). Valerius Flaccus (Argonautica, vi. 135) calls them Thyrsagetae, probably in reference to their celebration of orgiastic rites in honour of some divinity akin to the Thracian Dionysus. In later times the Agathyrsi were driven farther north, and their name was unknown to the Romans in their original home.

[26]. 88; Pomponius Mela ii. 1. 10: W. Tomaschek, "Die alten Thraker,'' in Sitzungsber. der philosophisch-historischen Klasse der kaiserl. Akad. der Wiss. cxxviii. (Vienna, 1893).

AGAVE, a large botanical genus of the natural order Amaryllidaceae, chiefly Mexican, but occurring also in the southern and western United States and in central and tropical South America. The plants have a large rosette of thick fleshy leaves generally ending in a sharp point and with a spiny margin; the stout stem is usually short, the leaves apparently springing from the root. They grow slowly and flower but once after a number of years, when a tall stem or "mast'' grows from the centre of the leaf rosette and bears a large number of shortly tubular flowers. After development of fruit the plant dies down, but suckers are frequently produced from the base of the stem which become new plants. The most familiar species is Agave americana (see fig.), a native of tropical America, the so-called century plant or American aloe (the maguey of Mexico). The number of years before flowering occurs depends on the vigour of the individual, the richness of the soil and the climate; during these years the plant is storing in its fleshy leaves the nourishment required for the effort of flowering. During the development of the inflorescence there is a rush of sap to the base of the young flowerstalk. In the case of A. americana and other species this is used by the Mexicans to make their national beverage, pulque; the flower shoot is cut out and the sap collected and subsequently fermented. By distillation a spirit called mescal is prepared. The leaves of several species yield fibre, as for instance, A. rigida var. sisalana, sisal hemp (q.v.), A. decipiens, false sisal hemp; A. americana is the source of pita fibre, and is used as a fibre plant in Mexico, the West Indies and southern Europe. The flowering stem of the last named, dried and cut in slices, forms

Agave americana, Century plant or American aloe. About 1/40 nat. size. 1, Flower; 2, same flower split open above the ovary; 3, ovary cut across; 1, 2, and 3, about 1/2 nat. size.

From the Botanical Magazine, by permission of Lovell Reeve and Co.

natural razor strops, and the expressed juice of the leaves will lather in water like soap. In the Madras Presidency the plant is extensively used for hedges along railroads. Agave americana, century plant, was introduced into Europe about the middle of the 16th century and is now widely cultivated for its handsome appearance; in the variegated forms the leaf has a white or yellow marginal or central stripe from base to apex. As the leaves unfold from the centre of the rosette the impression of the marginal spines is very conspicuous on the still erect younger leaves. The plants are usually grown in tubs and put out in the summer months, but in the winter require to be protected from frost. They mature very slowly and die after flowering, but are easily propagated by the offsets from the base of the stem.

AGDE, a town of southern France, in the department of Herault, on the left bank of the river of that name, 2 1/2 m. from the Mediterranean Sea and 32 m. S.W. of Montpellier on the Southern railway. Pop. (1906) 7146. The town lies at the foot of an extinct volcano, the Montagne St Loup, and is built of black volcanic basalt, which gives it a gloomy appearance. Overlooking the river is the church of St Andre, which dates partly from the 12th century, and, till the Revolution, was a cathedral. It is a plain and massive structure with crenelated walls, and has the aspect of a fortress rather than of a church. The exterior is diversified by arched recesses forming machicolations, and the same architectural feature is reproduced in the square tower which rises like a donjon above the building. The Canal du Midi, or Languedoc canal, uniting the Garonne with the Mediterranean, passes under the walls of the town, and the mouth of the Herault forms a harbour which is protected by a fort. The maritime commerce of the town has declined, owing partly to the neighbourhood of Cette, partly to the shallowness of the Herault. The fishing industry is, however, still active. The chief public institutions are the tribunal of commerce and the communal college.

Agde is a place of great antiquity and is said to have been founded under the name of agathe polis (Good City) by the Phocaeans. The bishopric was established about the year 400 and was suppressed in 1790.

SYNOD OF AGDE (Concilium Agathense.)—With the permission of the West Goth Alaric II. thirty-five bishops of southern Gaul assembled in person or sent deputies to Agde on the 11th of September 506. Caesarius, bishop of Arles, presided. The forty seven genuine canons of the synod deal with discipline, church life, the alienation of ecclesiastical property and the treatment of Jews. While favouring sacerdotal celibacy the council laid rather rigid restrictions on monasticism. It commanded that the laity communicate at Christmas, Easter and Whitsuntide. The canons of Agde are based in part on earlier Gallic, African and Spanish legislation; and some of them were re-enacted by later councils, and found their way into collections such as the Hispana, Pseudo-Isidore and Gratian.

See Mansi viii. 319 ff.; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, 2nd edition, ii. 649 ff. (English translation, iv. 76 ff.); Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie, i. 242.

AGE (Fr. age, through late Lat. aetaticum, from aetas), a term used (1) of the divisions into which it is suggested that human history may be divided, whether regarded from the geological, cultural or moral aspects, e.g. the palaeolithic age, the bronze age, the dark ages; (2) of an historic epoch or generation; (3) of any period or stage in the physical life of a person, animal or thing; (4) of that time of life at which the law attributes full responsibility for his or her acts to the individual.

(1) From the earliest times there would appear to have been the belief that the history of the earth and of mankind falls naturally into periods or ages. Classical mythology popularized the idea. Hesiod, for example, in his poem Works and Days, describes minutely five successive ages, during each of which the earth was peopled by an entirely distinct race. The first or golden race lived in perfect happiness on the fruits of the untilled earth, suffered from no bodily infirmity, passed away in a gentle sleep, and became after death guardian daemons of this world. The second or silver race was degenerate, and refusing to worship the immortal gods, was buried by Jove in the earth. The third or brazen race, still more degraded, was warlike and cruel, and perished at last by internal violence. The fourth or heroic race was a marked advance upon the preceding, its members being the heroes or demi-gods who fought at Troy and Thebes, and who were rewarded after death by being permitted to reap thrice a year the free produce of the earth. The fifth or iron race, to which the poet supposes himself to belong, is the most degenerate of all, sunk so low in every vice that any new change must be for the better. Ovid, in his Metamorphoses, follows Hesiod exactly as to nomenclature and very closely as to substance. He makes the degeneracy continuous, however, by omitting the heroic race or age, which, as Grote points out, was probably introduced by Hesiod, not as part of his didactic plan, but from a desire to conciliate popular feeling by including in his poem the chief myths that were already current among the Greeks. Varro recognized three ages: (1) from the beginning of mankind to the Deluge, a quite indefinite period; (2) from the Deluge to the First Olympiad, called the Mythical Period; (3) from the First Olympiad to his own time, called the Historic Period. Lucretius divided man's history into three cultural periods: (1) the Age of Stone; (2) the Age of Bronze; (3) the Age of Iron. He thus anticipated the conclusions of some of the greatest of modern archaeologists.

(2) A definite period in history, distinguished by some special characteristic, such as great literary activity, is generally styled, with some appropriate epithet, an age. It is usual, for example, to speak of the Age of Pericles, the Augustan, the Elizabethan or the Victorian Ages; of the Age of the Crusades, the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, the Age of Steam. Such isolated periods, with no continuity or necessary connexion of any kind, are obviously quite distinct from the ages or organically related periods into which philosophers have divided the whole course of human history. Auguste Comte, for instance, distinguishes three ages according to the state of knowledge in each, and he supposes that we are now entering upon the third of these. In the first age of his scheme knowledge is supernatural or fictitious; in the second it is metaphysical or abstract; in the third it is positive or scientific. Schemes somewhat similar have been proposed by other philosophers, chiefly of France and Germany, and seem to be regarded by them as essential to any complete science of history.

(3) The subject of the duration of human and animal life does not fall within the scope of this article, and the reader is referred to LONGEVITY. But the word "age'' has been used by physiologists to express certain natural divisions in human development and decay. These are usually regarded as numbering five, viz. infancy, lasting to the seventh year; childhood to the fourteenth; youth to the twenty-first; adult life till fifty; and old age.

(4) The division of human life into periods for legal purposes is naturally more sharp and definite than in physiology. It would be unscientific in the physiologist to name any precise year for the transition from one of his stages to another, inasmuch as that differs very considerably among different nations, and even to some extent among different individuals of the same nation. But the law must necessarily be fixed and uniform, and even where it professes to proceed according to nature, must be more precise than nature. The Roman law divided human life for its purposes into four chief periods, which had their subdivisions—(1) infantia, lasting till the close of the seventh year; (2) the period between infantia and pubertas, males becoming puberes at fourteen and females at twelve; (3) adolescentia, the period between puberty and majority; and (4) the period after the twenty-fifth year, when males became majores. The first period was one of total legal incapacity; in the second period a person could lawfully do certain specified acts, but only with the sanction of his tutor or guardian; in the third the restrictions were fewer, males being permitted to manage their own property, contract marriage and make a will; but majority was not reached until the age of twenty-five. By English law there are two great periods into which life is divided—infancy, which lasts in both sexes until the twenty-first year, and manhood or womanhood. The period of infancy, again, is divided into several stages, marked by the growing development both of rights and obligations. Thus at twelve years of age a male may take the oath of allegiance; at fourteen both sexes are held to have arrived at years of discretion, and may therefore choose guardians, give evidence and consent or disagree to a marriage. A female has the last privilege from the twelfth year, but the marriage cannot be celebrated until the majority of the parties without the consent of parents or guardians. At fourteen, too, both sexes are fully responsible to the criminal law. Between seven and fourteen there is responsibility only if the accused be proved doli capax, capable of discerning between right and wrong, the principle in that case being that malitia supplet aetatem. At twenty-one both males and females obtain their full legal rights, and become liable to all legal obligations. A seat in the British parliament may be taken at twenty-one. Certain professions, however, demand as a qualification in entrants a more advanced age than that of legal man. hood. In the Church of England a candidate for deacon's orders must be twenty-three (in the Roman Catholic Church, twenty-two) and for priest's orders twenty-four years of age; and no clergyman is eligible for a bishopric under thirty. In Scotland infancy is not a legal term. The time previous to majority, which, as in England, is reached by both sexes at twenty-one, is divided into two stages: pupilage lasts until the attainment of puberty, which the law fixes at fourteen in males and twelve in females; minority lasts from these ages respectively until twenty-one. Minority obviously corresponds in some degree to the English years of discretion, but a Scottish minor has more personal rights than an English infant in the last stage of his infancy, e.g he may dispose by will of movable property, make contracts, carry on trade, and, as a necessary consequence, is liable to be declared a bankrupt. In France the year of majority is twenty-one, and the nubile age eighteen for males and fifteen for females, with a restriction as to the consent of guardians. Age qualification for the chamber of deputies is twenty-five and for the senate forty years. In Germany, majority is reached at twenty-one, the nubile age is twenty for males and sixteen for females, subject to the consent of parents. Without the consent of parents, the age is twenty-five for males and twenty-four for females. The age qualification for the Reichstag is twenty-five. In Austria the age of majority is twenty-four, and the nubile age fourteen for either sex, subject to the consent of the parents. In Denmark, qualified majority is reached at eighteen and full majority at twenty-five. The nubile age is twenty for males and sixteen for females. In Spain, majority is reached at twenty-three; the nubile age is eighteen for males and sixteen for females. In Greece the age of majority is twenty-one, and the nubile age sixteen for males and fourteen for females. In Holland the age of majority is twenty-one, and the nubile age eighteen for males and sixteen for females. In Italy, majority is reached at twenty-one; the nubile age is eighteen for males and fifteen for females. In Switzerland the age of majority is twenty, and the nubile age is eighteen for males and sixteen for females. In the United States the age qualification for a president is thirty-five, for a senator thirty and for a representative twenty-five.

AGELADAS, or (as the name is spelt in an inscription) HAGELAIDAS, a great Argive sculptor, who flourished in the latter part of the 6th and the early part of the 5th century B.C. He was specially noted for his statues of Olympic victors (of 520, 516, 508 B.C.); also for a statue at Messene of Zeus, copied on the coins of that city. Ageladas was said to have been the teacher of Myron, Phidias and Polyclitus; this tradition is a testimony to his wide fame, though historically doubtful. We have no work of Ageladas surviving; but we have an inscription which contains the name of his son Argeiadas.

AGEN, a city of south-western France, capital of the department of Lot-et-Garonne, 84 m. S.E. of Bordeaux by the Southern railway between Bordeaux and Toulouse. Pop. (1906) 18,640. It is skirted on the west by the Garonne itself, and on the north by its lateral canal. The river is crossed by a stone bridge, by a suspension bridge for foot-passengers, and by a fine canal bridge, carrying the lateral canal. Pleasant promenades stretch for some distance along the right bank. The town is a medley of old narrow streets contrasting with the wide modern boulevards which cross it at intervals. The chief building in Agen is the cathedral of St Caprais, the most interesting portion of which is the apse of the 12th century with its three apse-chapels; the transept dates from the 12th and 13th centuries, the nave from the 14th to the 16th centuries; the tower flanking the south facade is modern. The interior is decorated with modern paintings and frescoes. There are several other churches, among them the church of the Jacobins, a brick building of the 13th century, and the church of St Hilaire of the 16th century, which has a modern tower. In the prefecture, a building of the 18th century, once the bishop's palace, is a collection of historical portraits. The hotel de ville occupies the former Hotel du Presidial, an obsolete tribunal, and contains the municipal library. Two houses of the 16th century, the Hotel d'Estrades and the Hotel de Vaurs, are used as the museum, which has a rich collection of fossils, prehistoric and Roman remains, and other antiquities and curiosities. The poet Jacques Jasmin was a native of the town, which has erected a statue to him. Through its excellent water communication it affords an outlet for the agricultural produce of the district, and forms an entrepot of trade between Bordeaux and Toulouse. Agen is the seat of a bishop. It is the seat of a court of appeal and a court of assizes, and has tribunals of first instance and of commerce and a chamber of commerce. There are also ecclesiastical seminaries, lycees for boys and girls, training-colleges, a school of commerce and industry, and a branch of the Bank of France. Agen is the market for a rich agricultural region. The chief articles of commerce are fattened poultry, prunes (pruneaux d'Agen) and other fruit, cork, wine, vegetables and cattle. Manufactures include flour, dried plums, pate de foie gras and other delicacies, hardware, manures, brooms, drugs, woven goods tiles.

Agen (Aginnum) was the capital Of the Celtic tribe of the Nitiobroges, and the discovery of extensive ruins attests its importance under the Romans. In later times it was the capital of the Agenais. Its bishopric was founded in the 4th century. Agen changed hands more than once in the course of the Albigensian wars, and at their close a tribunal of inquisition was established in the town and inflicted cruel persecution on the heretics. During the religious wars of the 16th century Agen took the part of the Catholics and openly joined the League in 1589.

See Labenazie, Histoire de la ville d'Agen et pays d'Agenois, ed. by A.-G. de Dampierre (1888); A. Ducom, La Commune d'Agen: essai sur son histoire et son organisation depuis son origine jusqu'au traite de Bretigny (1892).

AGENAIS, or AGENOIS, a former province of France. In ancient Gaul it was the country of the Nitiobroges with Aginnum for its capital, and in the 4th century it was the Civitas Agennensium which was a part of Aquitania Secunda and which formed the diocese of Agen. Having in general shared the fortunes of Aquitaine during the Merovingian and Carolingian periods, Agenais next became an hereditary countship in the part of the country now called Gascony (Vasconia.) In 1038 this countship was purchased by the dukes of Aquitaine and counts of Poitiers. The marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine with Henry Plantagenet in 1152 brought it under the sway of England; but when Richard Coeur-de-Lion married his sister Joan to Raymund VI., count of Toulouse, in 1196, Agenais formed part of the princess's dowry; and with the other estates of the last independent count of Toulouse it lapsed to the crown of France in 1271. This, however, was not for long; the king of France had to recognize the prior rights of the king of England to the possession of the countship, and restored it to him in 1279. During the wars between the English and the French in the 14th and 15th centuries, Agenais was frequently taken and retaken, the final retreat of the English in 1453 at last leaving the king of France in peaceable possession. Thenceforth Agenais was no more than an administrative term. At the end of the ancien regime it formed part of the "Gouvernement'' of Guienne, and at the Revolution it was incorporated in the department of Lot-et-Garonne, of which it constitutes nearly the whole. The title of count of Agenais, which the kings of England had allowed to fall into desuetude, was revived by the kings of France, and in 1789 was held by the family of the dukes of Richelieu.

There is no good history of Agenais; that published by Jules Andrieu in 1893 (Histoire de l'Agenais, 2 vols.) being quite inadequate. The Bibliographie generale de l'Agenais, by the same author (1886-1891, 3 vols.), may be found useful. (C. B.n)

AGENT (from Lat. agere, to act), a name applied generally to, any person who acts for another. It has probably been adopted from France, as its function in modern civil law was otherwise expressed in Roman jurisprudence. Ducange (s.v. Agentes) tells us that in the later Roman empire the officers who collected the grain in the provinces for the troops and the household, and afterwards extended their functions so as to include those of government postmasters or spies, came to be called agentes in rebus, their earlier name having been frumentarii. In law an agent is a person authorized, expressedly or impliedly, to act for another, who is thence called the principal, and who is, in consequence of, and to the extent of, the authority delegated by him, bound by the acts of his agent. (See PRINCIPAL AND AGENT; FACTOR, &c.)

In Scotland the procurators or solicitors who act in the preparation of cases in the various law-courts are called agents. (See SOLICITOR.)

In France the agents de change were formerly the class generally licensed for conducting all negotiations, as they were termed, whether in commerce or the money market. The term has, however, become practically limited to those who conduct transactions in public stock. The laws and regulations as to courtiers, or those whose functions were more distinctly confined to transactions in merchandise, have been mixed up with those applicable to agents de change. Down to the year 1572 both functions were free; but at that period, partly for financial reasons, a system of licensing was adopted at the suggestion of the chancellor, l'Hopital. Among the other revolutionary measures of the year 1791, the professions of agent and courtier were again opened to the public. Many of the financial convulsions of the ensuing years, which were due to more serious causes, were attributed to this indiscriminate removal of restrictions, and they were reimposed in 1801. From that period regulations have been made from time to time as to the qualifications of agents, the security to be found by them and the like. They are now regarded as public officers, appointed, with certain privileges and duties, by the government to act as intermediaries in negotiating transfers of public funds and commercial stocks and for dealing in metallic currency. (See STOCK EXCHANGE: France.)

In diplomacy the term "agent'' was originally applied to all "diplomatic agents,'' including ambassadors. With the evolution of the diplomatic hierarchy, however, the term gradually sank until it was technically applied only to the lowest class of "diplomatic agents,'' without a representative character and of a status and character so dubious that, by the regulation of the congress of Vienna, they were wholly excluded from the immunities of the diplomatic service. (See DIPLOMACY.)

AGENT-GENERAL, the term given to a representative in England of one of the self-governing British colonies. Agents-general may be said to hold a position mid-way between agents of provinces and ambassadors of foreign countries. They are appointed, and their expenses and salaries provided, by the governments of the colonies they represent, viz. Cape of Good Hope, Natal, the Transvaal, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, New Zealand and Canada (whose representatives are termed high commissioners). Their duties are to look after the political and economic interests of their colonies in London, to assist in all financial and commercial matters in which their colonies may be concerned, such as shipping arrangements and rates of freight, cable communications and rates, tenders for public works, &c., and to make known the products of their colonies. Those colonies which are not under responsible government are represented in London by crown agents.

AGESANDER, a Rhodian sculptor, whose title to fame is that he is mentioned by Pliny (Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 37) as author (with Polydorus and Athenodorus) of the group of the Laocoon. Inscriptions recently found at Lindus in Rhodes date Agesander and Athenodorus to the period 42-21 B.C. The date of the Laocoon seems thus finally settled, after long controversy. It represents the culmination of a sentimental or pathetic tendency in art, which is prominent in the somewhat earlier sculpture of Pergamum. (See GREEK ART.)

AGESILAUS II., king of Sparta, of the Eurypontid family, was the son of Archidamus II. and Eupolia, and younger step-brother of Agis II., whom he succeeded about 401 B.C. Agis had, indeed, a son Leotychides, but he was set aside as illegitimate, current rumour representing him as the son of Alcibiades. Agesilaus' success was largely due to Lysander, who hoped to find in him a willing tool for the furtherance of his political designs; in this hope, however, Lysander war disappointed, and the increasing power of Agesilaus soon led to his downfall. In 396 Agesilaus was sent to Asia with a force of 2000 Neodamodes (enfranchized Helots) and 6000 allies to secure the Greek cities against a Persian attack. On the eve of sailing from Aulis he attempted to offer a sacrifice, as Agamemnon had done before the Trojan expedition, but the Thebans intervened to prevent it, an insult for which he never forgave them. On his arrival at Ephesus a three months' truce was concluded with Tissaphernes, the satrap of Lydia and Caria, but negotiations conducted during that time proved fruitless, and on its termination Agesilaus raided Phrygia, where he easily won immense booty since Tissaphernes had concentrated his troops in Carla. After spending the winter in organizing a cavalry force, he made a successful incursion into Lydia in the spring of 395. Tithraustes was thereupon sent to replace Tissaphernes, who paid with his life for his continued failure. An armistice was concluded between Tithraustes and Agesilaus, who left the southern satrapy and again invaded Phrygia, which he ravaged until the following spring. He then came to an agreement with the satrap Pharnabazus and once more turned southward. It was said that he was planning a campaign in the interior, or even an attack on Artaxerxes himself, when he was recalled to Greece owing to the war between Sparta and the combined forces of Athens, Thebes, Corinth, Argos and several minor states. A rapid march through Thrace and Macedonia brought him to Thessaly, where he repulsed the Thessalian cavalry who tried to impede him. Reinforced by Phocian and Orchomenian troops and a Spartan army, he met the confederate forces at Coronea in Boeotia, and in a hotly contested battle was technically victorious, but the success was a barren one and he had to retire by way of Delphi to the Peloponnese. Shortly before this battle the Spartan navy, of which he had received the supreme command, was totally defeated off Cnidus by a powerful Persian fleet under Conon and Pharnabazus.

Subsequently Agesilaus took a prominent part in the Corinthian war, making several successful expeditions into Corinthian territory and capturing Lechaeum and Piraeum. The loss, however, of a mora, which was destroyed by Iphicrates, neutralized these successes, and Agesilaus returned to Sparta. In 389 he conducted a campaign in Acarnania, but two years later the Peace of Antalcidas, which was warmly supported by Agesilaus, put an end to hostilities. When war broke out afresh with Thebes the king twice invaded Boeotia (378, 377), and it was on his advice that Cleombrotus was ordered to march against Thebes in 371. Cleombrotus was defeated at Leuctra and the Spartan supremacy overthrown. In 370 Agesilaus tried to restore Spartan prestige by an invasion of Mantinean territory, and his prudence and heroism saved Sparta when her enemies, led by Epaminondas, penetrated Laconia that same year, and again in 362 when they all but succeeded in seizing the city by a rapid and unexpected march. The battle of Mantinea (362), in which Agesilaus took no part, was followed by a general peace: Sparta, however, stood aloof, hoping even yet to recover her supremacy. In order to gain money for prosecuting the war Agesilaus had supported the revolted satraps, and in 361 he went to Egypt at the head of a mercenary force to aid Tachos against Persia. He soon transferred his services to Tachos's cousin and rival Nectanabis, who, in return for his help, gave him a sum of over 200 talents. On his way home Agesilaus died at the age of 84, after a reign of some 41 years.

A man of small stature and unimpressive appearance, he was somewhat lame from birth, a fact which was used as an argument against his succession, an oracle having warned Sparta against a "lame reign.'' He was a successful leader in guerilla warfare, alert and quick, yet cautious—a man, moreover, whose personal bravery was unquestioned. As a statesman he won himself both enthusiastic adherents and bitter enemies, but of his patriotism there can be no doubt. He lived in the most frugal style alike at home and in the field, and though his campaigns were undertaken largely to secure booty, he was content to enrich the state and his friends and to return as poor as he had set forth. . The worst trait in his character is his implacable hatred of Thebes, which led directly to the battle of Leuctra and Sparta's fall from her position of supremacy.

See lives of Agesilaus by Xenophon (the panegyric of a friend), Cornelius Nepos and Plutarch; Xenophon's Hellenica and Diodorus xiv., xv. Among modern authorities, besides the general histories of Greece, J. C. F. Manso, Sparta, iii. 39 ff.; G. F. Hertzberg, Das Leben des Konigs Agesilaos II. von Sparta (1856); Buttmann, Agesilaus Sohn des Archidamus (1872); C. Haupt, Agesilaus in Asien (1874); E. von Stern, Geschichte der spartanischen und thebanischen Hegemonie (1884). (M. N. T.)

AGGLOMERATE (from the Lat. agglomerare, to form into a ball, glomus, glomeris), a term used in botany, meaning crowded in a close cluster or head, and, in geology, applied to the accumulations of coarse volcanic ejectamenta such as frequently occur near extinct or active volcanoes. Agglomerates in the geological sense, with which this article is concerned, consist typically of blocks of various igneous rocks, mixed often with more or less material of rudimentary origin and embedded in a finer-grained matrix, similar in nature to the coarser fragments. As distinguished from ordinary ash beds or tuffs, they are essentially coarser, less frequently well-bedded; they are less persistent and tend to occur locally, but may attain a very great thickness. Showers of fine ash may be distributed over a wide area of country and will form thin layers of great extent. Coarser accumulations gather only near the actual foci of eruption (craters, fissures, &c.). When the activity of a volcanic vent comes to an end, the orifice is often choked by masses of debris, which will in time become compacted into firm agglomerates. Hence rocks of this type very commonly mark the sites of necks, the remains of once-active volcanic craters. In this connexion they are of especial interest to geologists, as it is always important to be able to locate the exact points at which volcanic products, such as lavas and ash-beds, were emitted.

The blocks in agglomerates vary greatly in size. Some are thirty or forty feet in diameter, and weigh many tons; these are usually pieces of the strata through which the volcano has forced an outlet. They are never far from the crater; most of them, in fact, lie within its boundaries, and cases are known in which enormous masses of this kind (half an acre in area) have been found in such situations. They are masses which have been dislodged, by fissures and landslides, from the crater's walls and have tumbled into the cavity. Pieces of sandstone, limestone and shale occur in the agglomerates mixed with volcanic materials, and very often have been baked and partly recrystallized by contact with the hot igneous rocks and the gases discharged by the volcano. At Vesuvius such blocks of altered limestone are rich in new minerals and are well known to collectors.

Agglomerates also are usually full of volcanic bombs. These are spongy globular masses of lava which have been shot from the crater at a time when liquid molten lava was exposed in it, and was frequently shattered by the sudden outbursts of steam. These bombs were more or less viscous at the moment of ejection and by rotation in the air acquired their spheroidal form. They are commonly one or two feet in diameter, but specimens as large as nine or twelve feet have been observed. There is less variety in their composition at any volcanic centre than in the case of the foreign blocks above described. They correspond in nature to the lava which at the time fills the crater of the volcano, and as this varies only very slowly the bombs belong mostly to only a few kinds of rock and are similar in composition to the lava flows.

Crystalline masses of a different kind occur in some numbers in certain agglomerates. They consist of volcanic minerals very much the same as those formed in the lavas, but exhibiting certain peculiarities which indicate that they have formed slowly under pressure at considerable depths. Hence they bear a resemblance to plutonic igneous rocks, but are more correctly to be regarded as agglomerations of crystals formed within the liquid lava as it slowly rose towards the surface, and at a subsequent period cast out by violent steam explosions. The sanidinites of the Eifel belong to this group. At Vesuvius, Ascension, St Vincent and many other volcanoes, they form a not inconsiderable part of the coarser ash-beds. Their commonest minerals are olivine, anorthite, hornblende, augite, biotite and leucite.

Agglomerates occur wherever volcanoes are known. In many parts of Britain they attain a great development either in beds alternating with lavas or as the material occupying necks. In the latter case they are often penetrated by dikes. They also show a steep, angular, funnel-shaped dip (e.g. Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh), and may contain thin layers of clay or ashy sand-stone, which gathered in the crater during intervals of repose. (J. S. F.)

AGGLUTINATION (Lat. ad, and gluten, glutinare, literally to fasten together with glue), a term used technically in philology for the method of word-formation by which two significant words or roots are joined together in a single word to express a combination of the two meanings each of which retains its force. This juxtaposition or conjoining of roots is characteristic of languages such as the Turkish and Japanese, which are therefore known as agglutinative, as opposed to others, known generically as inflexional, in which differences of termination or combinations in which all separate identity disappears are predominant.

The term was also formerly used by associationist philosophers for those mental associations which were regarded as peculiarly close. Combination in its simplest form has been called Agglutination by W. Wundt.

AGGRAVATION (from Lat. ad, increasing, and gravis, heavy), the making anything graver or more serious, especially of offences; also used as synonymous with "irritation.'' In the canon law "aggravation'' was a form of ecclesiastical censure, threatening excommunication after three disregarded admonitions.

AGGREGATION (from the Lat. ad, to, gregare, to collect together), in physics, a collective term for the forms or states in which matter exists. Three primary "states of aggregation'' are recognized—gaseous, liquid and solid. Generally, if a solid be heated to a certain temperature, it melts or fuses, assuming the liquid condition (see FUSION); if the heating be continued the liquid boils and becomes a vapour (see VAPORIZATION.) On the other hand, if a gas be sufficiently cooled and compressed, it liquefies; this transition is treated theoretically in the article CONDENSATION OF GASES, and experimentally in the article LIQUID GASES.

AGGTELEK, a village of Hungary, in the county of Gomor, situated to the south of Rozsnyo, on the road from Budapest to Dobsina. Pop. (1900) 557. In the neighbourhood is the celebrated Aggtelek or Baradla cavern, one of the largest and most remarkable stalactite grottos in Europe. It has a length, together with its ramifications, of over 5 miles, and is formed of two caverns—one known for several centuries, and another discovered by the naturalist Adolf Schmidl in 1856. Two entrances give access to the grotto, an old one extremely narrow, and a new one, made in 1890, through which the exploration of the cavern can be made in about 8 hours, half the time it took before. The cavern is composed of a labyrinth of passages and large and small halls, and is traversed by a stream. In these caverns there are numerous stalactite structures, which, from their curious and fantastic shapes, have received such names as the Image of the Virgin, the Mosaic Altar, &c. The principal parts are the Paradies with the finest stalactites, the Astronomical Tower and the Beinhaus. Rats, frogs and bats form actually the only animal life in the caves, but a great number of antediluvian animal bones have been found here, as well as human bones and numerous remains of prehistoric human settlements.

AGINCOURT (AZINCOURT), a village of northern France in the department of Pas de Calais, 14 m. N.W. of St Pol by road, famous on account of the victory, on the 25th of October 1415, of Henry V. of England over the French. The battle was fought in the defile formed by the wood of Agincourt and that of Tramecourt, at the northern exit of which the army under d'Albret, constable of France, had placed itself so as to bar the way to Calais against the English forces which had been campaigning on the Somme. The night of the 24th of October was spent by the two armies on the ground, and the English had but little shelter from the heavy rain which fell. Early on the 25th, St Crispin's day, Henry arrayed his little army (about 1000 men-at-arms, 6000 archers, and a few thousands of other foot). It is probable that the usual three "battles'' were drawn up in line, each with its archers on the flanks and the dismounted men-at-arms in the centre; the archers being thrown forward in wedge-shaped salients, almost exactly as at Crecy (q.v..) The French, on the other hand, were drawn up in three lines, each line formed in deep masses. They were at least four times more numerous than the English, but restricted by the nature of the ground to the same extent of front, they were unable to use their full weight (cf. Bannockburn); further, the deep mud prevented their artillery from taking part, and the crossbowmen were as usual relegated to the rear of the knights and men-at-arms. All were dismounted save a few knights and men-at-arms on the flanks, who were intended to charge the archers of the enemy. For three hours after sunrise there was no fighting; then Henry, finding that the French would not advance, moved his army farther into the defile. The archers fixed the pointed stakes, which they carried to ward off cavalry charges, and opened the engagement with flights of arrows. The chivalry of France, undisciplined and careless of the lesson of Crecy and Poitiers, was quickly stung into action, and the French mounted men charged, only to be driven back in confusion. The constable himself headed the leading line of dismounted men-at-arms; weighted with their armour, and sinking deep into the mud with every step, they yet reached and engaged the English men-at-arms; for a time the fighting was severe. The thin line of the defenders was borne back and King Henry was almost beaten to the ground. But at this moment the archers, taking their hatchets, swords or other weapons, penetrated the gaps in the now disordered French, who could not move to cope with their unarmoured assailants, and were slaughtered or taken prisoners to a man. The second line of the French came on, only to be engulfed in the melee; its leaders, like those of the first line, were killed or taken, and the commanders of the third sought and found their death in the battle, while their men rode off to safety. The closing scene of the battle was a half-hearted attack made by a body of fugitives, which led merely to the slaughter of the French prisoners, which was ordered by Henry because he had not enough men both to guard them and to meet the attack. The slaughter ceased when the assailants drew off. The total loss of the English is stated at thirteen men-at-arms (including the duke of York, grandson of Edward III.) and about 100 of the foot. The French lost 5000 of noble birth killed, including the constable, 3 dukes, 5 counts and 90 barons; 1000 more were taken prisoners, amongst them the duke of Orleans (the Charles d'Orleans of literature).

See Sir Harris Nicolas, Battle of Agincourt; Fortescue, History of the British Army, vol. i.; and H. B. George, Battles of English History.

AGIO (Ital. aggio, exchange, discount, premium), a term used in commerce in three slightly different connexions. (a) The variations from fixed pars or rates of exchange in the currencies of different countries. For example, in most of the gold-standard countries, the standard coin is kept up to a uniform point of fineness, so that an English sovereign fresh from the mini will bear the following constant relation to coins of other countries in a similar condition:—L. 1 =frcs. 25.221 =mks. 2O.429=$4.867, &c. This is what is known as the mint par of exchange. But the mint par of exchange, say, between France and England is not necessarily the market value of French currency in England, or English currency in France. The balance of trade between the various countries is the factor determining the rate of exchange. Should the balance of trade (q.v.) be against England, money must be remitted to France in payment of the indebtedness, but owing to the cost for,the transmission of specie there will be a demand for bills drawn on Paris as a cheaper and more expeditious method of sending money, and it therefore will be necessary, in order to procure the one of the higher current value, to pay a premium for it, called the agio. (b) The term is also used to denote the difference in exchange between two currencies in the same country; where silver coinage is the legal tender, agio is sometimes allowed for payment in the more convenient form of gold, or where the paper currency of a country is reduced below the bullion which it professes to represent, an agio is payable on the appreciated currency. (c) Lastly, in some states the coinage is so debased, owing to the wear of circulation, that the real is greatly reduced below the nominal value. Supposing that this reduction amounts to 5%, then if 100 sovereigns were offered as payment of a debt in England while such sovereigns were current there at their nominal value, they would be received as just payment; but if they were offered as payment of the same amount of debt in a foreign state, they would be received only at their intrinsic value of L. 95, the additional L. 5 constituting the agio. Where the state keeps its coinage up to a standard value no agio is required.

AGIRA (formerly SAN FILIPPO D'ARGIRO), a town of the province of Catania, Sicily, with a railway station 4 1/2 m. to the south of the town, 35 m. W. of Catania. Pop. (1901) 17,738. It occupies the site of Agyrion, an ancient Sicel city which was ruled by tyrants, one of whom, Agyris, was the most powerful ruler in the centre of Sicily. He was a contemporary of Dionysius I., and with him successfully resisted the Carthaginians when they invaded the territory of Agyrium in 392 B.C. Agira was not colonized by the Greeks until Timoleon drove out the last tyrant in 339 B.C. and erected various splendid buildings of which no traces remain. Agyrion was the birthplace of the historian Diodorus Siculus.

AGIS, the name of four Spartan kings:—

(1) Son of Eurysthenes, founder of the royal house of the Agiadae (Pausanias iii. 2.1). His genealogy was traced through Aristodemus, Aristomachus, Cleodaeus and Hyllus to Heracles (Herodotus vii. 204), and he belongs rather to mythology than to history. Tradition ascribed to him the capture of the maritime town of Helos, which resisted his attempt to curtail its guaranteed rights, and the institution of the class of serfs called Helots (q.v..)

Ephorus ap. Strabo, viii. p. 365.

(2) Son of Archidamus II., Eurypontid, commonly called Agis I. He succeeded his father, probably in 427 B.C., and from his first invasion of Attica in 425 down to the close of the Peloponnesian war was the chief leader of the Spartan operations on land. After the conclusion of the peace of Nicias (421 B.C.) he marched against the Argives in defence of Epidaurus, and after skilful manoeuvring surrounded the Argive army, and seemed to have victory within his grasp when he unaccountably concluded a four months' truce and withdrew his forces. The Spartans were indignant, and when the Argives and their allies, in flagrant disregard of the truce, took Arcadian Orchomenus and prepared to march on Tegea, their fury knew no bounds, and Agis escaped having his house razed and a fine of 100,000 drachmae imposed only by promising to atone for his error by a signal victory. This promise he brilliantly fulfilled by routing the forces of the Argive confederacy at the battle of Mantinea (418), the moral effect of which was out of all proportion to the losses inflicted on the enemy. In the winter 417-416 a further expedition to Argos resulted in the destruction of the half-finished Long Walls and the capture of Hysiae. In 413, on the suggestion of Alcibiades, he fortified Decelea in Attica, where he remained directing operations until, after the battle of Aegospotami (405), he took the leading part in the blockade of Athens, which was ended in spring 404 by the surrender of the city. Subsequently he invaded and ravaged Elis, forcing the Eleans to acknowledge the freedom of their perioeci and to allow Spartans to take part in the Olympic games and sacrifices. He fell ill on his return from Delphi, where he had gone to dedicate a tithe of the spoils, and, probably in 401, died at Sparta, where he was buried with unparalleled solemnity and pomp.

Thuc. iii. 89, iv. 2. 6, v., vii. 19. 27, viii.; Xenophon, Hellenica, i 1. ii. 2. 3, iii. 2. 3; Diodorus xii. 35, xiii. 72, 73, 107; Pausanias iii. 8. 3-8; Plutarch, Lysander ix. 14. 22, Alcibiades 23-25, Lycurgus 12, Agesilaus i. 3, de Tranquill. Anim. 6. (See PELOPONNESIAN WAR.)

(3) Son of Archidamus III., of the Eurypontid line, commonly called Agis II. He succeeded his father in 338 B.C., on the very day of the battle of Chaeronea. During Alexander's Asiatic campaign he revolted against Macedonia (333 B.C.) and, with the aid of Persian money and ships and a force of 8000 Greek mercenaries, gained considerable successes in Crete. In the Peloponnese he routed a force under Corragus and, although Athens held aloof, he was joined by Elis, Achaea (except Pellene) and Arcadia, with the exception of Megalopolis, which the allies besieged. Antipater marched rapidly to its relief at the head of a large army, and the allied force was defeated after a desperate struggle (331) and Agis was slain.

Pausanias iii. 10. 5; Diodorus xvii. 48, 62, 63; Justin xii. 1; Quintus Curtius iv. 1, 39, vi. 1; Arrian, Anabasis, ii. 13.

(4) Son of Eudamidas II., of the Eurypontid family, commonly called Agis III. He succeeded his father probably in 245 B.C., in his twentieth year. At this time the state had been brought to the brink of ruin by the growth of avarice and luxury; there was a glaring inequality in the distribution of land and wealth, and the number of full citizens had sunk to 700, of whom about 100 practically monopolized the land. Though reared in the height of luxury he at once determined to restore the traditional institutions of Lycurgus, with the aid of Lysander, a descendant of the victor of Aegospotami, and Mandrocleidas, a man of noted prudence and courage; even his mother, the wealthy Agesistrata, threw herself heartily into the cause. A powerful but not disinterested ally was found in the king's uncle, Agesilaus, who hoped to rid himself of his debts without losing his vast estates. Lysander as ephor proposed on behalf of Agis that all debts should be cancelled and that Laconia should be divided into 19,500 lots, of which 4500 should be given to Spartiates, whose number was to be recruited from the best of the perioeci and foreigners, and the remaining 15,000 to perioeci who could bear arms. The Agiad king Leonidas having prevailed on the council to reject this measure, though by a majority of only one, was deposed in favour of his son-in-law Cleombrotus, who assisted Agis in bearing down opposition by the threat of force. The abolition of debts was carried into effect, but the land distribution was put off by Agesilaus on various pretexts. At this point Aratus appealed to Sparta to help the Achaeans in repelling an expected Aetolian attack, and Agis was sent to the Isthmus at the head of an army. In his absence the open violence and extortion of Agesilaus, combined with the popular disappointment at the failure of the agrarian scheme, brought about the restoration of Leonidas and the deposition of Cleombrotus, who took refuge at the temple of Apollo at Taenarum and escaped death only at the entreaty of his wife, Leonidas's daughter Chilonis. On his return Agis fled to the temple of Athene Chalcioecus at Sparta, but soon afterwards he was treacherously induced to leave his asylum and, after a mockery of a trial, was strangled in prison, his mother and grandmother sharing the same fate (241). Though too weak and good-natured to cope with the problem which confronted him, Agis was characterized by a sincerity of purpose and a blend of youthful modesty with royal dignity, which render him perhaps the most attractive figure in the whole of Spartan history.

See Plutarch's biography. Pausanias' accounts (ii. 8. 5, vii. 7. 3, viii. 10. 5-8, 27. 13) of his attack on Megalopolis, his seizure of Pellene and his death at Mantinea fighting against the Arcadians, Achaeans and Sicyonians are without foundation (J. C. F. Manso, Sparta, iii. 2. 123-127). See also Manso, op. cit. iii. 1. 276-302; B. Niese, Geschichte der griechischen und makedonischcn Staaten, ii. 299-303. (M. N. T.)

AGISTMENT. To "agist'' (from O. Fr. agister, derived from gesir—Lat. jacere—to lie) is, in law, to take cattle to graze, for a renumeration. "Agistment,'' in the first instance, referred more particularly to the proceeds of pasturage in the king's forests, but now means either (a) the contract for taking in and feeding horses or other cattle on pasture land, for the consideration of a weekly payment of money, or (b) the profit derived from such pasturing. Agistment is a contract of bailment, and the bailer is bound to take reasonable care of the animals entrusted to him; he is responsible for damages and injury which result from ordinary casualties, if it be proved that such might have been prevented by the exercise of great care. There is no lien on the cattle for the price of the agistment, unless by express agreement. Under the Agricultural Holdings Act 1883, agisted cattle cannot be distrained on for rent if there be other sufficient distress to be found, and if such other distress be not found, and the cattle be distrained, the owner may redeem them on paying the price of their agistment. The tithe of agistment or "tithe of cattle and other produce of grass lands,'' was formally abolished by the act of union in 1707, on a motion submitted with a view to defeat that measure.

AGITATORS, or ADJUTATORS, the name given to representatives elected in 1647 by the different regiments of the English Parliamentary army. The word really means an agent, but it was confused with "adjutant,'' often called "agitant,'' a title familiar to the soldiers, and thus the form "adjutator'' came into use. Early in 1647 the Long Parliament wished either to disband many of the regiments or to send them to Ireland. The soldiers, whose pay was largely in arrear, refused to accept either alternative, and eight of the cavalry regiments elected agitators, called at first commissioners, who laid their grievances before the three generals, and whose letter was read in the House of Commons on the 30th of April 1647. The other regiments followed the example of the cavalry, and the agitators, who belonged to the lower ranks of the army, were supported by many of the officers, who showed their sympathy by signing the Declaration of the army. Cromwell and other generals succeeded to some extent in pacifying the troops by promising the payment of arrears for eight weeks at once; but before the return of the generals to London parliament had again decided to disband the army, and soon afterwards fixed the 1st of June as the date on which this process was to begin. Again alarmed, the agitators decided to resist; a mutiny occurred in one regiment and the attempt at disbandment failed. Then followed the seizure of the king by Cornet Joyce, Cromwell's definite adherence to the policy of the army, the signing of the manifestoes, a Humble Representation and a Solemn Engagement, and the establishment of the army council composed of officers and agitators. Having, at an assembly on Thriplow Heath, near Royston, virtually refused the offers made by parliament, the agitators demanded a march towards London and the "purging'' of the House of Commons. Subsequent events are part of the general history of England. Gradually the agitators ceased to exist, but many of their ideas were adopted by the Levellers (q.v.), who may perhaps be regarded as their successors. Gardiner says of them, "Little as it was intended at the time, nothing was more calculated than the existence of this elected body of agitators to give to the army that distinctive political and religious character which it ultimately bore.''

See S. R. Gardiner, History of the Great Civil War, vols. iii. and iv. (London, 1905).

AGLIARDI, ANTONIO (1832- ), papal diplomatist, was born at Cologno (Bergamo), Italy, on the 4th of September 1832. He studied theology and canon law, and, after acting as parish priest in his native diocese for twelve years, was sent by the pope to Canada as a bishop's chaplain. On his return he was appointed secretary to the Propaganda. In 1884 he was created by Leo XIII. archbishop of Caesarea in partibus and sent to India to report on the establishment of the hierarchy there. In 1887 he again visited India, to carry out the terms of the concordat arranged with Portugal. The same year he was appointed secretary to the Congregation super negotiis ecclesiae extraordinariis, in 1889 became papal nuncio at Munich and in 1892 at Vienna. Allowing himself to be involved in the ecclesiastical disputes by which Hungary was divided in 1895, he was made the subject of formal complaint by the Hungarian government and in 1896 was recalled. His services were rewarded by a Cardinalate and the archbishopric of Ferrara. In 1903 he was named vice-chancellor of the Roman Church.

AGNANO, LAGO DI, a circular lake, 5 m. W. of Naples, Italy. It was apparently not formed until the middle ages, as it is not mentioned by ancient writers; it was drained in 1870. It occupied the crater of an extinct volcano, 4 m. in circumference. On the south bank are the Stufe di S. Germano, natural sulphureous vapour baths, and close by is the Grotta del Cane, from the floor of which warm carbonic acid gas constantly rises to a height of 18 in., the fumes of which render a dog insensible in a few seconds. It is mentioned by Pliny (Nat. Hist. ii. 93). Remains of an extensive Roman building and some statues have been discovered close by.

AGNATES (Agnati), in Roman law, persons related through males only, as opposed to cognates. Agnation was founded on the idea of the family held together by the patria potestas; cognatio involves simply the modern idea of kindred.

AGNES, SAINT, a virgin martyr of the Catholic Church. The legend of St Agnes is that she was a Roman maid, by birth a Christian, who suffered martyrdom when but thirteen during the reign of the emperor Diocletian, on the 21st of January 304. The prefect Sempronius wished her to marry his son, and on her refusal condemned her to be outraged before her execution, but her honour was miraculously preserved. When led out to die she was tied to a stake, but the faggots would not burn, whereupon the officer in charge of the troops drew his sword and struck off her head. St Agnes is the patron saint of young girls, who, in rural districts, formerly indulged in all sorts of quaint country magic on St Agnes' Eve (20th-21st January) with a view to discovering their future husbands. This superstition has been immortalized in Keats's poem, "The Eve of St Agnes.'' St Agnes's bones are supposed to rest in the church of her name at Rome, originally built by Constantine and repaired by Pope Honorius in the 7th century. Here on her festival (21st of January) two lambs are specially blessed after pontifical high mass, and their wool is later woven into pallia (see PALLIUM.)

AGNES OF MERAN (d. 1201), queen of France, was the daughter of Bertold IV., duke of Meran in Tirol. She is called Marie by some of the chroniclers. In June 1196 she married Philip II., king of France, who had repudiated Ingeborg of Denmark in 1193. The pope espoused the cause of Ingeborg; but Philip did not submit until 1200, when, interdict having been added to excommunication, he consented to a separation from Agnes. She died in July of the next year, at the castle of Poissy, and was buried in the church of St Corentin, near Nantes. Her two children by Philip II., Philip, count of Clermont (d. 1234), and Mary, who married Philip, count of Namur, were legitimized by Innocent III. in 1201 on the demand of the king. Little is known of the personality of Agnes, beyond the remarkable influence which she exercised over Philip II. She has been made the heroine of a tragedy by Francois Ponsard, Agnes de Meranie.

See the notes of Robert Davidsohn in Philipp II. August von Frankreich und Ingeborg (Stuttgart, 1888). A genealogical notice is furnished by the Chronicon of the monk Alberic (Aubry) of Fontaines, (Albericus Trium Fontium) in Pertz, Scriptores, vol. xxiii. pp. 872 f., and by the Genealogia Wettinensis, ibid. p. 229.

AGNESI, MARIA GAETANA (1718-1799), Italian mathematician, linguist and philosopher, was born at Milan on the 16th of May 1718, her father being professor of mathematics in the university of Bologna. When only nine years old she had such command of Latin as to be able to publish an elaborate address in that language, maintaining that the pursuit of liberal studies was not improper for her sex. By her thirteenth year she had acquired Greek, Hebrew, French, Spanish, German and other languages. Two years later her father began to assemble in his house at stated intervals a circle of the most learned men in Bologna, before whom she read and maintained a series of theses on the most abstruse philosophical questions. Records of these meetings are given in de Brosse's Lettres sur l'Italie and in the Propositiones Philosophicae, which her father caused to be published in 1738. These displays, being probably not altogether congenial to Maria, who was of a retiring disposition, ceased in her twentieth year, and it is even said that she had at that age a strong desire to enter a convent. Though the wish was not gratified, she lived from that time in a retirement almost conventual, avoiding all society and devoting herself entirely to the study of mathematics. The most valuable result of her labours was the Instituzioni analitiche ad uso della gioventu italiana, a work of great merit, which was published at Milan in 1748. The first volume treats of the analysis of finite quantities. and the second of the analysis of infinitesimals. A French translation of the second volume by P. T. d'Antelmy, with additions by Charles Bossut (1730-1814), appeared at Paris in 1775; and an English translation of the whole work by John Colson (1680-1760), the Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge, was published in 1801 at the expense of Baron Maseres. Madame Agnesi also wrote a commentary on the Traite analytique des sections coniques of the marquis de l'Hopital, which, though highly praised by those who saw it in manuscript, was never published. She invented and discussed the curve known as the "witch of Agnesi'' (q.v.) or versiera. In 1750, on the illness of her father, she was appointed by Pope Benedict XIV. to the chair of mathematics and natural Philosophy at Bologna. After the death of her father in 1752 she carried out a long-cherished purpose by giving herself to the study of theology, and especially of the Fathers. After holding for some years the office of directress of the Hospice Trivulzio for Blue Nuns at Milan, she herself joined the sisterhood, and in this austere order ended her days on the 9th of January 1799.

Her sister, MARIA TERESA AGNESI (1724-1780), a well-known Italian pianist and composer, was born at Milan in 1724. She composed several cantatas, two pianoforte concertos and five operas, Sofenisbe, Ciro in Armenia, Nitocri, Il Re Pastore and Insubria consolata.

See Antonio Francesco Frisi, Eloge historique de Mademoiselle Agnesi, translated by Boulard (Paris, 1807); Milesi-Mojon, Vita di M. G. Agnesi (Milan, 1836); J. Boyer, "La Mathematicienne Agnesi'' in the Revue Catholique des revues francaises et etrangeres (Paris, 1897).

AGNEW, DAVID HAYES (1818-1892), American surgeon, was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, on the 24th of November 1818. He graduated from the medical department of the university of Pennsylvania in 1838, and a few years later set up in practice at Philadelphia and became a lecturer at the Philadelphia School of Anatomy. He was appointed surgeon at the Philadelphia Hospital in 1854 and was the founder of its pathological museum. For twenty-six years (1863-1889) he was connected with the medical faculty of the university of Pennsylvania, being elected professor of operative surgery in 1870 and professor of the principles and practice of surgery in the following year. From 1865 to 1884—except for a brief interval —he was a surgeon at the Pennsylvania Hospital. During the American Civil War he was consulting surgeon in the Mower Army Hospital, near Philadelphia, and acquired considerable reputation for his operations in cases of gun-shot wounds. He attended as operating surgeon when President Garfield was fatally wounded by the bullet of an assassin in 1881. He was the author of several works, the most important being The Principles and Practice of Surgery (1878-1883). He died at Philadelphia on the 22nd of March 1892.

AGNI, the Hindu God of Fire, second only to Indra in the power and importance attributed to him in Vedic mythology. His name is the first word of the first hymn of the Rig-veda: "Agni, I entreat, divine appointed priest of sacrifice.'' The sacrifices made to Agni pass to the gods, for Agni is a messenger from and to the gods; but, at the same time, he is more than a mere messenger, he is an immortal, for another hymn runs: "No god indeed, no mortal is beyond the might of thee, the mighty One. . . .'' He is a god who lives among men, miraculously reborn each day by the fire-drill, by the friction of the two sticks which are regarded as his parents; he is the supreme director of religious ceremonies and duties,and even has the power of influencing the lot of man in the future world. He is worshipped under a threefold form, fire on earth, lightning and the sun. His cult survived the metamorphosis of the ancient Vedic nature-worship into modern Hinduism, and there still are in India fire-priests (agnihotri) whose duty is to superintend his worship. The sacred fire-drill for procuring the temple-fire by friction—symbolic of Agni's daily miraculous birth—is still used. In pictorial art Agni is always represented as red, two-faced, suggesting his destructive and beneficent qualities, and with three legs and seven arms.

See W. J. Wilkins, Hindu Mythology (London, 1900); A. A. Macdonell, Vedic Mythology (Strassburg, 1897).

AGNOETAE (Gr. agnoeo, to be ignorant of), a monophysite sect who maintained that Christ's human nature was like other men's in all respects, including limited knowledge. Its founder was Themistius, a deacon in Alexandria in the 6th century. The sect was anathematized by Gregory the Great.

AGNOIOLOGY (from Gr. agnoi-a, ignorance), the science or study of ignorance, which determines its quality and conditions.

AGNOSTICISM. The term "agnostic'' was invented by Huxley in 1869 to describe the philosophical and religious attitude of those who hold that we can have scientific or real knowledge of phenomena only, and that so far as what may lie behind phenomena is concerned—God, immortality, &c.—there is no evidence which entitles us either to deny or aflirm anything. The attitude itself is as old as Scepticism (q.v.); but the expressions "agnostic'' and "agnosticism'' were applied by Huxley to sum up his deductions from those contemporary developments of metaphysics with which the names of Hamilton ("the Unconditioned'') and Herbert Spencer ("the Unknowable'') were associated; and it is important, therefore, to fix precisely his own intellectual standpoint in the matter. Though Huxley only began to use the term "agnostic'' in 1869, his opinions had taken shape some time before that date. In a letter to Charles Kingsley (September 23, 1860) he wrote very fully concerning his beliefs:—

"I neither affirm nor deny the immortality of man. I see no reason for believing it, but, on the other hand, I have no means of disproving it. I have no a priori objections to the doctrine. No man who has to deal daily and hourly with nature can trouble himself about a priori difficulties. Give me such evidence as would justify me in believing in anything else, and I will believe that. Why should I not? It is not half so wonderful as the conservation of force or the indestructibility of matter. . . .

"It is no use to talk to me of analogies and probabilities. I know what I mean when I say I believe in the law of the inverse squares, and I will not rest my life and my hopes upon weaker convictions. . . .

"That my personality is the surest thing I know may be true. But the attempt to conceive what it is leads me into mere verbal subtleties. I have champed up all that chaff about the ego and the non-ego, noumena and phenomena, and all the rest of it, too often not to know that in attempting even to think of these questions, the human intellect flounders at once out of its depth.''

And again, to the same correspondent, the 5th of May 1863:—

"I have never had the least sympathy with the a priori reasons against orthodoxy, and I have by nature and disposition the greatest possible antipathy to all the atheistic and infidel school. Nevertheless I know that I am, in spite of myself, exactly what the Christian would call, and, so far as I can see, is justified in calling, atheist and infidel. l cannot see one shadow or tittle of evidence that the great unknown underlying the phenomenon of the universe stands to us in the relation of a Father—loves us and cares for us as Christianity asserts. So with regard to the other great Christian dogmas, immortality of soul and future state of rewards and punishments, what possible objection can I—who am compelled perforce to believe in the immortality of what we call Matter and Force, and in a very unmistakable present state of rewards and punishments for our deeds—have to these doctrines? Give me a scintilla of evidence, and I am ready to jump at them.''