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

406 ATIUS. ATLAS.
than, the former; and this would be a sufficient Pompeian party, and had possession of Sulrmo,
reason why Sedigitus classed him among the comic when Caesar invaded Italy, B. c. 49. Caesar depoets, without having recourse to the improbable spatched. M. Antony against the town, the inconjecture of Weichert (Poet. Latin. Reliquiae, habitants of which opened the gates as soon as
p. 139), that he had turned the Electra of Sopho- they saw Antony's standards, while Atius cast
cles into a comedy. Among his other plays we himself down from the wall. At his own request
have the titles of the following: Miro'yovos (Cic. he was sent to Caesar, who dismissed him unhurt.
Tusc. Disp. iv. 11), Boeotia (Varr. L. L. vi. 89, (Caes. B. C. i. 18.) Cicero writes (ad Att. viii. 4)
ed. Miiller), "Aypouwos, and Conanorientes. (Varr. as if Atius himself had surrendered the town to
Cap. Gell. iii. 3.) According to another reading Antony.
the last three are attributed to a poet Aquillius. ATLAS ("ATrAs), according to Hesiod (Theog.
With the exception of a line quoted by Cicero (ad 507, &c.), a son of Japetus and Clymene, and a
Att. xiv. 20), and a few words preserved in two brother of Menoetius, Prometheus, and Epinmetheus;
passages of Varro (L. L. vii. 90, 106), nothing of according to Apollodorus (i. 2. ~ 3), his mother's
Atilius has come down to us. Cicero (ad Att. 1. c.) name was Asia; and, according to Hlyginus (Fab.
calls him poteta durissimuzs, and Licinius describes Praef), he was a son of Aether and Gaea. For
him as ferrous scriptor. (Cic. de Fin. 1. c.) other accounts see Diod. iii. 60, iv. 27; Plat. CriATI'LIUS FORTUNATIA'NUS. [Fon- tias, p. 114; Serv. ad Aen. iv. 247. According to
TUNATIANUS.] the description of the Homeric poems, Atlas knows
ATILLA, the mother of Lucan, was accused by the depth of all the sea, and bears the long
her own son, in A. D. 66, as privy to the conspiracy columns which keep asunder, or carry all around
against Nero, but escaped punishment, though she (dyiuls eXovrcn), earth and heaven. (Od. i. 52.)
was not acquitted. (Tac. Ann. xv. 56, 71.) Hesiod only says, that he bore heaven with hii
ATIME'TUS, a freedman and paramour of Do- head and hands. (Comp. Aeschyl. Prom. 347, &c.;
mitia, the aunt of Nero, accused Agrippina of Paus. v. 18. ~ 1, 11. ~ 2.) In these passages Atlas
plotting against her son Nero, A. D.56. Agrippina, is described either as bearing heaven alone, or as
however, on this occasion, obtained from Nero the bearing both heaven and earth; and several mopunishment of her accusers, and Atimetus accord- dern scholars have been engaged in investigating
ingly was put to death. (Tac. Ann. xiii. 19, 21, which of the two notions was the original one.
22.) Much depends upon the meaning of the H-omeric
ATIME'TUS, P. ATTIUS, a physician, expression dcls E'xovoi; if the signification is
whose name is preserved in an ancient inscription, " the columns which keep asunder heaven and
and who was physician to Augustus. Some writers earth," the columns (mountains) must be conceived
suppose that he is the same person who was a con- as being somewhere in the middle of the earth's
temporary of Scribonius Largus, in the first century surface; but if they mean " bear or support all
after Christ, and who is said by him (De Compos. around," they must be regarded as forming the cirMiledicam. c. 29. ~ 120) to have been the slave of cumference of the earth, upon which the vault of
a physician named Cassius, and who is quoted by heaven rests apparently. In either case, the meanGalen (De Compos. Medicam. sec. Locos, iv. 8, vol. ing of keeping asunder is implied. In the Homeric
xii. p. 771), under the name of Atimetruis ('A- description of Atlas, the idea of his being a superiA1rTpOs). human or divine being, with a personal existence,
A physician of the same name, who is mentioned seems to be blended with the idea of a mountain.
in an ancient inscription with the title Archiater, The idea of heaven-bearing Atlas is, according to
is most probably a different person, and lived later Letronne, a mere personification of a cosmographic
than the reign of Augustus. (Fabric. Bibl. Gr. notion, which arose from the views entertained by
vol. xiii. p. 94, ed.vet.; Rhodius, Note on Scribon. the ancients respecting the nature of heaven and its
Larg. pp. 188-9.) [W. A. G.] relation to the earth; and such a personification,
There is an epitaph on Claudia Homonoca, the when once established, was further developed and
wife of an Atimetus, who is described as the freed- easily connected with other myths, such as that of
man of Pamphilus, the freedman of the emperor the Titans. Thus Atlas is described as the leader of
Tiberius, which has been published by Burimmann the Titans in their contest with Zeus, and, being
(Antsh. Lat. vol. ii. p. 90), Meyer (Anth. Lat. n. conquered, he was condemned to the labour of bear1274), and Wernsdorf (PoUt. Lat. Min. vol. iii. ing heaven on his head and hands. (Hesiod, 1. c.;
p. 213), and is in the form of a dialogue, partly in Hygin. Fab. 150.) Still later traditions distort the
Latin and partly in Greek, between Homonoea and original idea still more, by putting rationalistic interher husband. This Atimetus is supposed by some pretations upon it, and make Atlas a man who was
writers to have been the same as the slave of metamorphosed into a mountain. Thus Ovid (Met.
Cassius, mentioned by Scribonius (Wernsdorf, vol. iv. 630, &c., comp. ii. 296) relates, that Perseus came
iii. p. 139); and Lipsius (ad Tac. Ann. xiii. 19) to him and asked for shelter, which he was refused,
imagines both to be the same as the freedman of whereupon Perseus, by means of the head of MeDomitia spoken of above; but we can come to no dusa, changed him into mount Atlas, on which
certainty on the point. rested heaven with all its stars. Others go still
ATI'NIA GENS, plebeian. None of the mem- further, and represent Atlas as a powerful king,
bers of this gens ever attained the consulship; and who possessed great knowledge of the courses of
the first who held any of the higher offices of the the stars, and who was the first who taught men
state was C. Atinius Labeo, who was praetor B. c. that heaven had the form of a globe. Hience the
188. All the Atinii bear the cognomen LABEO. expression that heaven rested on his shoulders was
A'TIUS. 1. L. ATIUs, the first tribune of the regarded as a mere figurative mode of speaking.
second legion in the war with the Istri, B. c. 178. (Diod. iii. 60, iv. 27; Paus. ix. 20. ~ 3; Serv. ad
(Liv. xli. 7.) Aen. i. 745; Tzetz. ad Lycoph'r. 873.) At first,
2. C. ATIus, the Pelignian, belonged to the the story of Atlas referred to one mountain only,