Volume 2, Slice 2 Part 19 (1/2)

Diodorus Siculus xviii., xx. 46-86; Plutarch, _Demetrius, Eumenes_; Nepos, _Eumenes_; Justin xv. 1-4. See MACEDONIAN EMPIRE; and Kohler, ”Das Reich des Antigonos,” in the _Sitzungsberichte d. Berl. Akad._, 1898, p. 835 f.

ANTIGONUS GONATAS (c. 319-239 B.C.), Macedonian king, was the son of Demetrius Poliorcetes, and grandson of Antigonus Cyclops. On the death of his father (283), he a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of king of Macedonia, but did not obtain possession of the throne till 276, after it had been successively in the hands of Pyrrhus, Lysimachus, Seleucus, and Ptolemy Ceraunus. Antigonus repelled the invasion of the Gauls, and continued in undisputed possession of Macedonia till 274, when Pyrrhus returned from Italy, and (in 273) made himself master of nearly all the country. On the advance of Pyrrhus into Peloponnesus, he recovered his dominions. He was again (between 263 and 255) driven out of his kingdom by Alexander, the son of Pyrrhus, and again recovered it. The latter part of his reign was comparatively peaceful, and he gained the affection of his subjects by his honesty and his cultivation of the arts. He gathered round him distinguished literary men--philosophers, poets, and historians. He died in the eightieth year of his age, and the forty-fourth of his reign. His surname was usually derived by later Greek writers from the name of his supposed birthplace, Gonni (Gonnus) in Thessaly; some take it to be a Macedonian word signifying an iron plate for protecting the knee; neither conjecture is a happy one, and in our ignorance of the Macedonian language it must remain unexplained.

Plutarch, _Demetrius, Pyrrhus, Aratus_; Justin xxiv. 1; xxv. 1-3; Polybius ii. 43-45, ix. 29, 34. See Thirlwall, _History of Greece_, vol viii. (1847); Holm, _Griech. Gesch._ vol. iv. (1894); Niese, _Gesch. d. griech. u. maked. Staaten_, vols. i. and ii. (1893, 1899); Beloch, _Griech. Gesch._ vol. iii. (1904); also Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, _Antigonos von Karystos_ (1881).

ANTIGONUS OF CARYSTUS (in Euboea), Greek writer on various subjects, flourished in the 3rd century B.C. After some time spent at Athens and in travelling, he was summoned to the court of Attalus I. (241-197) of Pergamum. His chief work was the _Lives of Philosophers_ drawn from personal knowledge, of which considerable fragments are preserved in Athenaeus and Diogenes Laertius. We still possess his _Collection of Wonderful Tales_, chiefly extracted from the [Greek: Thaumasia Akousmata] attributed to Aristotle and the [Greek: Thaumasia] of Callimachus. It is doubtful whether he is identical with the sculptor who, according to Pliny (_Nat. Hist._ x.x.xiv. 19), wrote books on his art.

Text in Keller, _Rerum Naturalium Scriptores Graeci Minores_, i.

(1877); see Kopke, _De Antigono Carystio_ (1862); Wilamowitz-Mollendorff, ”A. von Karystos,” in _Philologische Untersuchungen_, iv. (.1881).

ANTIGUA, an island in the British West Indies, forming, with Barbuda and Redonda, one of the five presidencies in the colony of the Leeward Islands. It lies 50 m. E. of St Kitts, in 17 6' N. and 61 45' W., and is 54 m. in circ.u.mference, with an area of 108 sq. m. The surface is comparatively flat, and there is no central range of mountains as in most other West Indian islands, but among the hills in the south-west an elevation of 1328 ft. is attained. Owing to the absence of rivers, the paucity of springs, and the almost complete deforestation, Antigua is subject to frequent droughts, and although the average rainfall is 45.6 in., the variations from year to year are great. The dryness of the air proves very beneficial to persons suffering from pulmonary complaints.

The high rocky coast is much indented by bays and arms of the sea, several of which form excellent harbours, that of St John being safe and commodious, but inferior to English Harbour, which, although little frequented, is capable of receiving vessels of the largest size. The soil, especially in the interior, is very fertile. Sugar and pineapples are the chief products for export, but sweet potatoes, yams, maize and guinea corn are grown for local consumption. Antigua is the residence of the governor of the Leeward Islands, and the meeting place of the general legislative council, but there is also a local legislative council of 16 members, half official and half unofficial. Until 1898, when the Crown Colony system was adopted, the legislative council was partly elected, partly nominated. Elementary education is compulsory.

Agricultural training is given under government control, and the Cambridge local examinations and those of the University of London are held annually. Antigua is the see of a bishop of the Church of England, the members of which predominate here, but Moravians and Wesleyans are numerous. There is a small volunteer defence force. The island has direct steam communication with Great Britain, the United States and Canada, and is also served by the submarine cable. The three chief towns are St John, Falmouth and Parham. St John (pop. about 10,000), the capital, situated on the north-west, is an exceedingly picturesque town, built on an eminence overlooking one of the most beautiful harbours in the West Indies. Although both Falmouth and Parham have good harbours, most of the produce of the island finds its way to St John for s.h.i.+pment.

The trade is chiefly with the United States, and the main exports are sugar, mola.s.ses, logwood, tamarinds, turtles, and pineapples. The cultivation of cotton has been introduced with success, and this also is exported. The dependent islands of Barbuda and Redonda have an area of 62 sq. m. Pop. of Antigua (1901), 34,178; of the presidency, 35,073.

Antigua was discovered in 1493 by Columbus, who is said to have named it after a church in Seville, called Santa Maria la Antigua. It remained, however, uninhabited until 1632, when a body of English settlers took possession of it, and in 1663 another settlement of the same nation was effected under the direction of Lord Willoughby, to whom the entire island was granted by Charles II. It was ravaged by the French in 1666, but was soon after reconquered by the British and formally restored to them by the treaty of Breda. Since then it has been a British possession.

ANTILEGOMENA ([Greek: antilegomena], contradicted or disputed), an epithet used by the early Christian writers to denote those books of the New Testament which, although sometimes publicly read in the churches, were not for a considerable time admitted to be genuine, or received into the canon of Scripture. They were thus contrasted with the _h.o.m.ologoumena_, or universally acknowledged writings. Eusebius (_Hist.

Eccl._ iii. 25) applies the term _Antilegomena_ to the Epistle of James, the Epistle of Jude, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, the Acts of Paul, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Teaching of the Apostles, the Apocalypse of John, and the Gospel according to the Hebrews. In later usage it describes those of the New Testament books which have obtained a doubtful place in the Canon. These are the Epistles of James and Jude, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, the Apocalypse of John, and the Epistle to the Hebrews.

ANTILIA or ANTILLIA, sometimes called the Island of the Seven Cities (Portuguese _Isla das Sete Cidades_), a legendary island in the Atlantic ocean. The origin of the name is quite uncertain. The oldest suggested etymology (1455) fancifully connects it with the name of the Platonic Atlantis, while later writers have endeavoured to derive it from the Latin _anterior_ (i.e. the island that is reached ”before” c.i.p.ango), or from the _Jezirat al Tennyn_, ”Dragon's Isle,” of the Arabian geographers. Antilia is marked in an anonymous map which is dated 1424 and preserved in the grand-ducal library at Weimar. It reappears in the maps of the Genoese B. Beccario or Beccaria (1435), and of the Venetian Andrea Bianco (1436), and again in 1455 and 1476. In most of these it is accompanied by the smaller and equally legendary islands of Royllo, St Atanagio, and Tanmar, the whole group being cla.s.sified as _insulae de novo repertae_, ”newly discovered islands.” The Florentine Paul Toscanelli, in his letters to Columbus and the Portuguese court (1474), takes Antilia as the princ.i.p.al landmark for measuring the distance between Lisbon and the island of c.i.p.ango or Zipangu (j.a.pan). One of the chief early descriptions of Antilia is that inscribed on the globe which the geographer Martin Behaim made at Nuremberg in 1492 (see MAP: _History_). Behaim relates that in 734--a date which is probably a misprint for 714--and after the Moors had conquered Spain and Portugal, the island of Antilia or ”Septe Cidade” was colonized by Christian refugees under the archbishop of Oporto and six bishops. The inscription adds that a Spanish vessel sighted the island in 1414. According to an old Portuguese tradition each of the seven leaders founded and ruled a city, and the whole island became a Utopian commonwealth, free from the disorders of less favoured states. Later Portuguese tradition localized Antilia in the island of St Michael's, the largest of the Azores. It is impossible to estimate how far this legend commemorates some actual but imperfectly recorded discovery, and how far it is a reminiscence of the ancient idea of an elysium in the western seas which is embodied in the legends of the Isles of the Blest or Fortunate Islands.

ANTILLES, a term of somewhat doubtful origin, now generally used, especially by foreign writers, as synonymous with the expression ”West India Islands.” Like ”Brazil,” it dates from a period anterior to the discovery of the New World, ”Antilia,” as stated above, being one of those mysterious lands, which figured on the medieval charts sometimes as an archipelago, sometimes as continuous land of greater or lesser extent, constantly fluctuating in mid-ocean between the Canaries and East India. But it came at last to be identified with the land discovered by Columbus. Later, when this was found to consist of a vast archipelago enclosing the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, _Antilia_ a.s.sumed its present plural form, _Antilles_, which was collectively applied to the whole of this archipelago.

A distinction is made between the Greater Antilles, including Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, and Porto Riro; and the Lesser Antilles, covering the remainder of the islands.

ANTILOCHUS, in Greek legend, son of Nestor, king of Pylos. One of the suitors of Helen, he accompanied his father to the Trojan War. He was distinguished for his beauty, swiftness of foot, and skill as a charioteer; though the youngest among the Greek princes, he commanded the Pylians in the war, and performed many deeds of valour. He was a favourite of the G.o.ds, and an intimate friend of Achilles, to whom he was commissioned to announce the death of Patroclus. When his father was attacked by Memnon, he saved his life at the sacrifice of his own (Pindar, _Pyth._ vi. 28), thus fulfilling an oracle which had bidden him ”beware of an Ethiopian.” His death was avenged by Achilles. According to other accounts, he was slain by Hector (Hyginus, _Fab._ 113), or by Paris in the temple of the Thymbraean Apollo together with Achilles (Dares Phrygius 34). His ashes, with those of Achilles and Patroclus, were deposited in a mound on the promontory of Sigeum, where the inhabitants of Ilium offered sacrifice to the dead heroes (_Odyssey_, xxiv. 72; Strabo xiii. p. 596). In the _Odyssey_ (xi. 468) the three friends are represented as united in the underworld and walking together in the fields of asphodel; according to Pausanias (iii. 19) they dwell together in the island of Leuke.

ANTIMACa.s.sAR, a separate covering for the back of a chair, or the head or cus.h.i.+ons of a sofa, to prevent soiling of the permanent fabric. The name is attributable to the unguent for the hair commonly used in the early 19th century,--Byron calls it ”thine incomparable oil, Maca.s.sar.”

The original antimaca.s.sar was almost invariably made of white crochet-work, very stiff, hard, and uncomfortable, but in the third quarter of the 19th century it became simpler and less inartistic, and was made of soft coloured stuffs, usually worked with a simple pattern in tinted wools or silk.

ANTIMACHUS, of Colophon or Claros, Greek poet and grammarian, flourished about 400 B.C. Scarcely anything is known of his life. His poetical efforts were not generally appreciated, although he received encouragement from his younger contemporary Plato (Plutarch, _Lysander_, 18). His chief works were: a long-winded epic _Thebais_, an account of the expedition of the Seven against Thebes and the war of the Epigoni; and an elegiac poem _Lyde_, so called from the poet's mistress, for whose death he endeavoured to find consolation by ransacking mythology for stories of unhappy love affairs (Plutarch, _Consol. ad Apoll._ 9; Athenaeus xiii. 597). Antimachus was the founder of ”learned” epic poetry, and the forerunner of the Alexandrian school, whose critics allotted him the next place to Homer. He also prepared a critical recension of the Homeric poems.

Fragments, ed. Stoll (1845); Bergk, _Poetae Lyrici Graeci_ (1882); Kinkel, _Fragmenta epicorum Graecorum_ (1877).