analogies, according to which an existing connexion between
two personalities (cities, &c.) was traced back to a common
mythical origin. For a good example of the evolution of
such myths, see the argument under AEGINA, History.
AETION, or EETION, a Greek painter, mentioned by Cicero,
Pliny and Lucian. His most noted work, described in detail by
Lucian (Herodotus or Eetion, 5), was a picture representing
the marriage of Alexander and Roxana. He is said to have
exhibited it at the Olympic games, and by it so to have won
the favour of the president that he gave him his daughter in
marriage. Through a misunderstanding of the words of Lucian,
Aetion has been supposed to belong to the age of the Antonines;
but there can be little doubt that he was a contemporary of
Alexander and of Apelles (Brunn, Geschichte der griechischen
Kunstler, ii. p. 243). Pliny gives his date as 350 B.C.
AETIUS (fl. 350), surnamed ``the Atheist,'' founder of an
extreme sect of Arians, was a native of Cocle-Syria. After
working as a vine-dresser and then as a goldsmith he became a
travelling doctor, and displayed great skill in disputations
on medical subjects; but his controversial power soon found
a wider field for its exercise in the great theological
question of the time. He studied successively under the
Arians, Paulinus, bishop of Antioch, Athanasius, bishop of
Anazarbus, and the presbyter Antonius of Tarsus. In 350 he
was ordained a deacon by Leontius of Antioch, but was shortly
afterwards forced by the orthodox party to leave that town.
At the first synod of Sirmium he won a dialectic victory over
the homoiousian bishops, hasilius and Eustathius, who sought
in consequence to stir up against him the enmity of Caesar
Gallus. In 356 he went to Alexandria with Eunomius (q.v.)
in order to advocate Arianism, but he was banished by
Constantius. Julian recalled him from exile, bestowed upon
him an estate in Lesbos, and retained him for a time at his
court in Constantinople. Being consecrated a bishop, he used
his office in the interests of Arianism by creating other
bishops of that party. At the accession of Valens (364)
he retired to his estate at Lesbos, but soon returned to
Constantinople, where he died in 367. The Anomoean sect of
the Arians, of whom he was the leader, are sometimes called
after him Aetians. His work De Fide has been preserved
in connexion with a refutation written by Epiphanius (Haer.
lxxvi. 10). Its main thought is that the Homousia, i.e.
the doctrine that the Son (therefore the Begotten) is
essentially God, is self-contradictory, since the idea of
unbegottenness is just that which constitutes the nature of God.
See A. Harnack, History of Dogma, vol. iv. passim.
AETIUS, a Greek physician, born at Amida in Mesopotamia,
flourished at the beginning of the 6th century A.D. He studied
at Alexandria, and became court physician at Byzantium and
comes obsequii, one of the chief officers of the imperial
household. He wrote a large medical work in sixteen books,
founded on Oribasius and compiled from various sources,
especially Galen [Galenos]. Superstition and mysticism
play a great part in his remedies. Eight books of the
Greek original were printed at Venice, 1534, and a complete
Latin translation by Cornarius appeared at Basel, 1542.
See Weigel, Aetianarum exercitationum specimen (1791);
Danelius, Beitrag zur Augenheilkunde des Aetius (1889); Zernos,
Aetii sermo sextidecimus et ultimus, editio princeps (1901).
AETIUS (d. 454), a Roman general of the closing period of
the Western empire, born at Dorostolus in Moesia, late in
the 4th century. He was the son of Gaudentius, who, although
possibly of barbarian family, rose in the service of the
Western empire to be master of the horse, and later count of
Africa. Aetius passed some years as hostage, first with Alaric
and the Goths, and later in the camp of Rhuas, king of the
Huns, acquiring in this way the knowledge which enabled him
afterwards to defeat them. In 424 he led into Italy an army
of 60,000 barbarians, mostly Huns, which he employed first to
support the primicerius Joannes, who had proclaimed himself
emperor, and, on the defeat of the latter, to enforce his claim
to the supreme command of the army in Gaul upon Placidia, the
empress-mother and regent for Valentinian III. His calumnies
against his rival, Count Boniface, which were at first believed
by the emperor, led Boniface to revolt and call the Vandals to
Africa. Upon the discovery of the truth, Boniface, although
defeated in Africa, was received into favour by Valentinian;
but Aetius came down against Boniface from his Gallic wars,
like another Julius Caesar, and in the battle which followed
wounded Boniface fatally with his own javelin. From 433
to 450 Aetius was the dominating personality in the Western
empire. In Gaul he won his military reputation, upholding
for nearly twenty years, by combined policy and daring, the
falling fortunes of the empire. His greatest victory was that
of Chalons-sur-Marne (September 20, 451), in which he led
the Gallic forces against Attila and the Huns. This was the
last triumph of the empire. Three years later (454) Aetius
presented himself at court to claim the emperor's daughter in
marriage for his son Gaudentius; but Valentinian, suspecting
him of designs upon the crown, slew him with his own hand.
See T. Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, vols. i. and ii. (1880).
AETOLIA, a district of northern Greece, bounded on the S.
by the Corinthian Gulf, on the W. by the river Achelous, on
the N. and E. by the western spurs of Parnassus and Oeta. The
land naturally falls into two divisions. The basins of the
lower Achelous (mod. Aspropotamo) and Euenus (Phidharis)
form a series of alluvial valleys intersected by detached
ridges which mostly run parallel to the coast. This district
of ``Old Aetolia'' lacks a suitable sea-board, but the inland,
and especially the plain of central Aetolia lying to the north
of Lakes Hyria and Trichonis and Mount Aracynthus, forms a
rich agricultural country. The northern and eastern regions
are broken by an extensive complex of chains and peaks, whose
rugged limestone flanks are clad at most with stunted shrubs
and barely leave room for a few precarious mule-tracks. These
heights often rise in the frontierranges of Tymphrestus, Oxia
and Corax to more than 7000 ft.; the snow-capped pinnacle
of Krona attains to 8240 ft. A few defiles pass through
this barrier to the other side of the north Greek watershed.
In early legend Old Aetolia, with its cities of Pleuron and
Calydon, figures prominently. During the great migrations
(see DORIANS) the population was largely displaced, and the
old inhabitants long remainedin a backward condition. In the
5th century some tribes were still living in open villages
under petty kings, addicted to plunder and piracy, and hardly
recogniged as Hellenes at all. Yet their military strength
was not to be despised: in 426 their archers and slingers
easily repelled an Athenian invasion under Demosthenes. In
the 4th century the Aetolians began to take a greater part
in Greek politics, and, in return for helping Epaminondas
(367) and Philip of Macedon (338), recovered control of their
sea-board, to which they annexed the Acarnanian coast and the
Oeniadae. Aetolia's prosperity dates from the period of
Macedonian supremacy. It may be ascribed partly to the wealth
and influence acquired by Aetolian mercenaries in Hellenistic
courts, but chiefly to the formation of a national Aetolian
league, the first effective institution of this kind in
Greece. Created originally to meet the peril of an invasion
by the Macedonian regents Antipater and Craterus, who had
undertaken a punitive expedition against Aetolia after the
Lamian War (322), and by Cassander (314-311), the confederacy
grew rapidly during the subsequent period of Macedonian
weakness. Since 290 it had extended its power over all the
uplands of central Greece, where its command over Heracleia
(280) provided it with an important defensive position against
northern invaders, its control of Delphi and the Amphictyonic
council with a useful political instrument. The valour of the
Aetolians was conspicuously displayed in 279, when they broke the
strength of the Celtic irruption by slaughtering great hordes of
marauders. The commemorative festival of the Soteria, which
the league established at Delphi, obtained recognition from
many leading Greek states. After annexing Boeotia (by 245)
the Aetolians controlled all central Greece. Endeavouring
next to expand into Peloponnesus, they allied themselves with
Antigonus Gonatas of Macedonia against the Achaean league
(q.v.), and besides becoming protectors of Elis and Messenia
won several Arcadian cities. Their naval power extended to
Cephalonia, to the Aegaean islands and even to the Hellespont.
The league at its zenith had thus a truly imperial status.
Later in the century its power began to he sapped by Macedonia.
To check King Demetrius (239-229) the Aetolians joined arms
with the Achaeans. In 224 they held Heracleia Trachis against
Antigonus Doson, but lost control of Boeotia and Phocis.
Since 228 their Arcadian possessions had been abandoned to
Sparta. At the same time a new enemy arose in the Illyrian
pirate fleets, which outdid them in unscrupulousness and
violence. The raids of two Aetolian chiefs in Achaean
territory (220) led to a coalition between Achaea and Philip
V. of Macedon, who assailed the invaders with great energy,
driving them out of Peloponnesus and marching into Aetolia
itself, where he surprised and sacked the federal capital
Thermon. After buying peace by the cession of Acarnania
(217) the league concluded a compact with Rome, in which
both states agreed to plunder ruthlessly their common enemies
(211). In the great war of their Roman allies against Philip
the federal troops took a prominent part, their cavalry being
largely responsible for the victory of Cynoscephalae (197). The
Romans in return restored central Greece to the league, but by
withholding its former Thessalian possessions excited its deep
resentment. The Aetolians now invited Antiochus III. of
Syria to European Greece, and so precipitated a conflict with
Rome. But in the war they threw away their chances. In 192
they wasted themselves in an unsuccessful attempt to secure
Sparta. In 191 they supported Antiochus badly, and by their
slackness in the defence of Thermopylae made his position
in Greece untenable. Having thus isolated themselves the
Aetolians stood at bay behind their walls against the Romans,
who refused all compromises, and, after the general surrender
in 189, restricted the league to Aetolia proper and assumed
control over its foreign relations. In 167 the country suffered
severely from the intrigues of a philo-Roman party, which
caused a series of judicial murders and the deportation of
many patriots to Italy. By the time of Sulla, when the league
is mentioned for the last time, its functions were purely
nominal. The federal constitution closely resembled that of
the Achaean league (q.v.), for which it doubtless served as a
model. The general assembly, convoked every autumn at Thermon
to elect officials, and at other places in special emergencies,
shaped the league's general policy; it was nominally open
to all freemen, though no doubt the Aetolian chieftains
really controlled it. The council of deputies from the
confederate cities undertook the routine of administration and
jurisdiction. The strategus (general), aided by 30 apocleti
