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

50 AETHICUS.
(4) Aether appears as the soul of the world, from
which all life emanates, an idea which was also
adopted by some of the early philosophers of
Greece. In later times Aether was regarded as
the wide space of Heaven, the residence of the
gods, and Zeus as the Lord of the Aether, or Aether
itself personified. (Pacuv. ap. Cic. de Nat. Deor.
ii. 36, 40; Lucret. v. 499; Virg. Aen. xii. 140,
Georg. ii. 325.) [L. S.]
AETHE'RIE. [HELIADES.]
AE'THICUS, HISTER or ISTER, a Roman
writer of the fourth century, a native of Istria according to his surname, or, according to Rabanus
Maurus, of Scythia, the author of a geographical
work, called Aethici Cosmographia. We learn
from the preface that a measurement of the whole
Roman world was ordered by Julius Caesar to be
made by the most able men, that this measurement
was begun in the consulship of Julius Caesar and
M. Antonius, i. e. B. c. 44; that three Greeks were
appointed for the purpose, Zenodoxus, Theodotus,
and Polyclitus; that Zenodoxus measured all the
eastern part, which occupied him twenty-one years,
five months, and nine days, on to the third consulship of Augustus and Crassus; that Theodotus
measured the northern part, which occupied him
twenty-nine years, eight months, and ten days, on
to the tenth consulship of Augustus; and that
Polyclitus measured the southern part, which occupied him thirty-two years, one month, and ten
days; that thus the whole (Roman) world was
gone over by the measurers within thirty-two (?)
years; and that a report of all it contained was
laid before the senate. So it stands in the edd.;
but the numbers are evidently much corrupted:
the contradictoriness of Polyclitus's share taking
more than 32 years, and the whole measurement
being made in less than (intra) 32 years is obvious.
It is to be observed that, in this introductory
statement, no mention is made of the western part
(which in the work itself comes next to the eastern), except in the Vatican MS., where the eastern
part is given to Nicodomus, and the western to
Didymus.
A census of all the people in the Roman subjection was held under Augustus. (Suidas, s. v.
Aivyovo-ros.) By two late writers (Cassiodorus,
Var. iii. 52, by an emendation of Huschke, p. 6,
iber den zur Zeit der Geburt Jesu Christi gehaltenen
Census, Breslau, 1840; and Isidorus, Orig.v. 36. ~
4), this numbering of the people is spoken of as
connected with the measurement of the land. This
work in fact consists of two separate pieces. The
first begins with a short introduction, the substance
of which has been given, and then proceeds with
an account of the measurement of the Roman world
under four heads, Orientalis, Occidentalis, Septentrionalis, Meridiana pars. Then come series of
lists of names, arranged under heads, Maria, Insulae, Montes, Provinciae, Oppida, Flumina, and
Gentes. These are bare lists, excepting that the
rivers have an account of their rise, course, and
length annexed. This is the end of the first part,
the Expositio. The second part is called Alia totius orbis Descriptio, and consists of four divisions:
(1.) Asiae Provinciae situs cum limitibus et populis
suis; (2.) Europae situs, &c.; (3.) Africae situs,
&c.; (4.) Insulae Nostri Maris. This part, the
Descriptio, occurs with slight variations in Orosius,
i. 2. In Aethicus what looks like the original
commencement, Majores nostri, &c., is tacked on

AETIHIOPS.
to the preceding part, the Expositio, by the words
Hano quadripartitam totius terrae continentiam Id
qui dimensi sunt. From this it would appear that
Aethicus borrowed it from Orosius.
The work abounds in errors. Sometimes the
same name occurs in different lists; as, for example, Cyprus and Rhodes both in the north and in
the east; Corsica both in the west and in the
south; or a country is put as a town, as Arabia;
Noricum is put among the islands. Mistakes of
this kind would easily be made in copying lists,
especially if in double columns. But from other
reasons and from quotations given by Dicuil, a
writer of the 9th century, from the Cosmographia,
differing from the text as we have it, the whole
appears to be very corrupt. The whole is a very
meagre production, but presents a few valuable
points. Many successful emendations have been
made by Salmasius in his Exercitationes Philologicae, and there is a very valuable essay on the
whole subject by Ritschl in the Rheinisches IMuseumw
(1842), i. 4.
The sources of the Cosmographia appear to have
been the measurements above described, other official lists and documents, and also, in all probability,
Agrippa's Commentarii, which are constantly referred to by Pliny (Hist. Nat. iii. iv. v. vi.) as an
authority, and his Chart of the World, which was
founded on his Commentarii. (Plin. Hist. Nat. iii.
2.)
Cassiodorus (de instit. divin. 25) describes a
cosmographical work by Julius Honorius Crator
in terms which suit exactly the work of Aethicus;
and Salmasius regards Julius Honorius as the real
author of this work, to which opinion Ritschl seems
to lean, reading Ethnicus instead of Aethicus, and
considering it as a mere appellative. In some
MSS. the appellatives Sophista and Philosophus
are found.
One of the oldest MSS., if not the oldest, is the
Vatican one. This is the only one which speaks
of the west in the introduction. But it is carelessly written: consulibus (e. g.) is several times
put for consulatum. Suis is found as a contraction (?) for suprascriptis. The introduction is very
different in this and in the other MSS.
The first edition of the Cosmographia was by
Simler, Basel, 1575, together with the Itinerarium
Antonini. There is an edition by Henry Stephens,
1577, with Simler's notes, which also contains
Dionysius, Pomponius Mela, and Solinus. The
last edition is by Gronovius, in his edition of Pomponius Mela, Leyden, 1722. [A. A.]
AETHILLA (Af6tAAa or A'6vAAa), a daughter
of Laomedon and sister of Priam, Astyoche, and
Medesicaste. After the fall of Troy she became
the prisoner of Protesilaus, who took her, together
with other captives, with him on his voyage home.
He landed at Scione in Thrace in order to take in
fresh water, While Protesilaus had gone inland,
Aethilla persuaded her fellow-prisoners to set fire
to the ships. This was done and all remained on
the spot and founded the town of Scione. (Tzetz.
ad Lycophr. 921, 1075; Conon, Narrat. 13; compare P. Mela, ii. 2. ~ 150; Steph. Byz. s. v.
KsWiV.) [L. S.]
AE'THIOPS (ALOos), the Glowing or theBlack.
1. A surname of Zeus, under which he was worshipped in the island of Chios. (Lycophron, Cass.
537, with the note of Tzetzes.)
2. A son of Hephaestus, from whom Aethiopia