A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

392 ATAULPIIITS.
second siege raised by the mock emperor Attalus
to the office of Count of the Domestics; and on
the death of Alaric in 410, he was elected to supply his place as king of the Visigoths. (Jornandes,
de Reb. Get. 32.) From this time the accounts of
his history vary exceedingly. The only undisputed
facts are, that he retired with his nation into the
south of Gaul,-that he married Placidia, sister of
Honorius, - and that he finally withdrew into
Spain, where he was murdered at Barcelona. According to Jornandes (de Reb. Get. 32), he took
Rome a second time after Alaric's death, carried off
Placidia, formed a treaty with Honorius, which was
cemented by his marriage with Placidia at Forum
Livii or Cornellii, remained a faithful ally in Gaul,
and went into Spain for the purpose of suppressing
the agitations of the Suevi and Vandals against
the empire. But the other authorities for the
time agree on the whole in giving a different representation. According to them, the capture of
Placidia had taken place before Alaric's death
(Philostorg. xii. 4; Olympiod. 1. c.; Marcellin.
C/ronicons); the treaty with the empire was not
concluded till after Ataulphus's retreat into Gaul,
where he was implicated in the insurrection of
Jovinus, and set up Attalus, whom he detained in
his camp for a musician, as a rival emperor; he
then endeavoured to make peace with Honorius
by sending him the head of the usurper Sebastian,
and by offering to give up Placidia in exchange
for a gift of corn; on this being refused, he attacked Massilia, from which he was repulsed by
Bonifacius; finally, the marriage with Placidia
took place at Narbo (Idat. Chronicon), which so
exasperated her lover, the general Constantius,
as to make him drive Ataulphus into Spain. (Orosius, vii. 43; Idat. Chronicon; Philostorg. xii. 4.)
He was remarkable as being the first independent chief who entered into alliance with Rome,
not for pay, but from respect. His original ambition had been (according to Orosius, vii. 43, who
appears to record his very words), " that what
was now Romania should become Gothia, and
what Caesar Augustus was now, that for the
future should be Ataulphus, but that his experience
of the evils of lawlessness and the advantages of
law had changed his intention, and that his
highest glory now would be to be known in after
ages as the defender of the empire." And thus
his marriage with Placidia- the first contracted
between a barbarian chief and a Roman princesswas looked upon by his contemporaries as a marked
epoch, and as the fulfilment of the prophecy of
Daniel, that the king of the North should wed the
daughter of the king of the South. (Idat. Chlronicon.)
He was a man of striking personal appearance,
and of middle stature. (Jornandes, de Reb. Get.
32.) The details of his life are best given in
Olympiodorus (ap. Phot.), who gives a curious description of the scene of his nuptials with Placidia
in the house of Ingenuus of Narbo (p. 59, b. ed.
Bekker).
His death is variously ascribed to the personal
anger of the assassin Vernulf or (Olympiod. p. 60,
a.) Dobbius (Jornandes, de Reb. Get. 32), to the intrigues of Constantius (Philostorg. xii. 4), and to
a conspiracy occasioned in the camp by his having
put to death a rival chief, Sarus (Olympiod. p. 58,
b.) It is said to have taken place in the palace at
Barcelona (Idat. Chronicon), or whilst, according

ATERIUS.
to his custom, he was looking at his stables.
(Olympiod.p. 60,a.) His first wife was a Sarmatian,
who was divorced to make way for Placidia (Philostorg. xii. 4), and by whom he had six children.
The only offspring of his second marriage was a
son, Theodosius, who died in infancy. (Olympiod.
p. 59, b.) [A. P. S.]
ATE (A7?-), according to Hesiod (Tlieog. 230),
a daughter of Eris, and according to Homer (II.
xix. 91) of Zeus, was an ancient Greek divinity,
who led both gods and men to rash and inconsiderate actions and to suffering. She once even induced Zeus, at the birth of Heracles, to take an
oath by which Hera was afterwards enabled to
give to Eurystheus the power which had been
destined for Heracles. When Zeus discovered his
rashness, he hurled Ate from Olympus and banished
her for ever from the abodes of the gods. (Hom.
II. xix. 126, &c.) In the tragic writers Ate
appears in a different light: she avenges evil deeds
and inflicts just punishments upon the offenders
and their posterity (Aeschyl. Choeph. 381), so that
her character here is almost the same as that of
Nemesis and Erinnys. She appears most prominent in the dramas of Aeschylus, and least in
those of Euripides, with whom the idea of Dike
(justice) is more fully developed. (Bliimner,
Ueber die Idee des Schickisals, jc. p. 64, &c.) [L. S.]
ATEIUS, surnamed Praetextatus, and also
Philologus, the latter of which surnames he assumed
in order to indicate his great learning, was born at
Athens, and was one of the most celebrated grammarians at Rome, in the latter half of the first
century B. c. He was a freedman, and was perhaps originally a slave of the jurist Ateius Capito,
by whom he was characterized as a rhetorician
among grammarians, and a grammarian among
rhetoricians. He taught many of the Roman
nobles, and was particularly intimate with the
historian Sallust, and with Asinius Pollio. For
the former he drew up an abstract of Roman history (Breviarium rerum omnium Romanarum),
that Sallust might select from it for his history
such subjects as he chose; and for the latter he
compiled precepts on the art of writing. Asinius
Pollio believed that Ateius collected for Sallust
many of the peculiar expressions which we find
in his writings, but this is expressly denied by
Suetonius. The commentarii of Ateius were exceedingly numerous, but only a very few were extant even in the time of Suetonius. (Sueton. de
Illustr. Grammat. 10; comp. Osann, Analecta Critic. p. 64, &c.; Madvig, Opusc/ula Academica, p.
97, &c.)
ATEIUS CA'PITO. [CAPITO.]
ATEIUS SANCTUS. [SANcTus.]
ATERIA'NUS, JU'LIUS, wrote a work upon
the Thirty Tyrants (A. D. 259-268), or at least
upon one of them, Victorinus. Trebellius Pollio
(Trig. Tyr. 6) gives an extract from his work.
A. ATE'RNIUS or ATE'RIUS consul B. c.
454, with Sp. Tarpeius. (Liv. iii. 31.) The consulship is memorable for the passing of the Lex
Aternia Tarpeia. (Diet. of Ant. s. v.) Aternius
was subsequently in B. c. 448, one of the patrician
tribunes of the people, which was the only time
that patricians were elected to that office. (Liv.
iii. 65.)
ATE'RIUS, or HATE'RIUS, a Roman jurisconsult, who was probably contemporary with
Cicero, and gave occasion to one of that great ora