transition is treated theoretically in the article CONDENSATION
OF GASES, and experimentally in the article LIQUID GASES.
AGGTELEK, a village of Hungary, in the county of Gomor,
situated to the south of Rozsnyo, on the road from Budapest to
Dobsina. Pop. (1900) 557. In the neighbourhood is the
celebrated Aggtelek or Baradla cavern, one of the largest
and most remarkable stalactite grottos in Europe. It has a
length, together with its ramifications, of over 5 miles, and
is formed of two caverns--one known for several centuries,
and another discovered by the naturalist Adolf Schmidl in
1856. Two entrances give access to the grotto, an old one
extremely narrow, and a new one, made in 1890, through which
the exploration of the cavern can be made in about 8 hours,
half the time it took before. The cavern is composed of
a labyrinth of passages and large and small halls, and is
traversed by a stream. In these caverns there are numerous
stalactite structures, which, from their curious and fantastic
shapes, have received such names as the Image of the Virgin,
the Mosaic Altar, &c. The principal parts are the Paradies
with the finest stalactites, the Astronomical Tower and the
Beinhaus. Rats, frogs and bats form actually the only
animal life in the caves, but a great number of antediluvian
animal bones have been found here, as well as human bones
and numerous remains of prehistoric human settlements.
AGINCOURT (AZINCOURT), a village of northern France in
the department of Pas de Calais, 14 m. N.W. of St Pol by
road, famous on account of the victory, on the 25th of October
1415, of Henry V. of England over the French. The battle
was fought in the defile formed by the wood of Agincourt and
that of Tramecourt, at the northern exit of which the army
under d'Albret, constable of France, had placed itself so
as to bar the way to Calais against the English forces which
had been campaigning on the Somme. The night of the 24th
of October was spent by the two armies on the ground, and
the English had but little shelter from the heavy rain which
fell. Early on the 25th, St Crispin's day, Henry arrayed
his little army (about 1000 men-at-arms, 6000 archers, and a
few thousands of other foot). It is probable that the usual
three ``battles'' were drawn up in line, each with its archers
on the flanks and the dismounted men-at-arms in the centre;
the archers being thrown forward in wedge-shaped salients,
almost exactly as at Crecy (q.v..) The French, on the other
hand, were drawn up in three lines, each line formed in deep
masses. They were at least four times more numerous than the
English, but restricted by the nature of the ground to the
same extent of front, they were unable to use their full
weight (cf. Bannockburn); further, the deep mud prevented
their artillery from taking part, and the crossbowmen were as
usual relegated to the rear of the knights and men-at-arms.
All were dismounted save a few knights and men-at-arms on
the flanks, who were intended to charge the archers of the
enemy. For three hours after sunrise there was no fighting;
then Henry, finding that the French would not advance,
moved his army farther into the defile. The archers fixed
the pointed stakes, which they carried to ward off cavalry
charges, and opened the engagement with flights of arrows.
The chivalry of France, undisciplined and careless of the
lesson of Crecy and Poitiers, was quickly stung into action,
and the French mounted men charged, only to be driven back in
confusion. The constable himself headed the leading line
of dismounted men-at-arms; weighted with their armour, and
sinking deep into the mud with every step, they yet reached and
engaged the English men-at-arms; for a time the fighting was
severe. The thin line of the defenders was borne back and
King Henry was almost beaten to the ground. But at this
moment the archers, taking their hatchets, swords or other
weapons, penetrated the gaps in the now disordered French,
who could not move to cope with their unarmoured assailants,
and were slaughtered or taken prisoners to a man. The
second line of the French came on, only to be engulfed in the
melee; its leaders, like those of the first line, were
killed or taken, and the commanders of the third sought and
found their death in the battle, while their men rode off to
safety. The closing scene of the battle was a half-hearted
attack made by a body of fugitives, which led merely to the
slaughter of the French prisoners, which was ordered by Henry
because he had not enough men both to guard them and to meet
the attack. The slaughter ceased when the assailants drew
off. The total loss of the English is stated at thirteen
men-at-arms (including the duke of York, grandson of Edward
III.) and about 100 of the foot. The French lost 5000 of
noble birth killed, including the constable, 3 dukes, 5 counts
and 90 barons; 1000 more were taken prisoners, amongst them
the duke of Orleans (the Charles d'Orleans of literature).
See Sir Harris Nicolas, Battle of Agincourt;
Fortescue, History of the British Army, vol. i.;
and H. B. George, Battles of English History.
AGIO (Ital. aggio, exchange, discount, premium), a term
used in commerce in three slightly different connexions.
(a) The variations from fixed pars or rates of exchange
in the currencies of different countries. For example, in
most of the gold-standard countries, the standard coin is
kept up to a uniform point of fineness, so that an English
sovereign fresh from the mini will bear the following
constant relation to coins of other countries in a similar
condition:--L. 1 =frcs. 25.221 =mks. 2O.429=$4.867, &c. This
is what is known as the mint par of exchange. But the mint
par of exchange, say, between France and England is not
necessarily the market value of French currency in England,
or English currency in France. The balance of trade between
the various countries is the factor determining the rate of
exchange. Should the balance of trade (q.v.) be against
England, money must be remitted to France in payment of the
indebtedness, but owing to the cost for,the transmission
of specie there will be a demand for bills drawn on Paris
as a cheaper and more expeditious method of sending money,
and it therefore will be necessary, in order to procure the
one of the higher current value, to pay a premium for it,
called the agio. (b) The term is also used to denote the
difference in exchange between two currencies in the same
country; where silver coinage is the legal tender, agio is
sometimes allowed for payment in the more convenient form of
gold, or where the paper currency of a country is reduced
below the bullion which it professes to represent, an agio
is payable on the appreciated currency. (c) Lastly, in
some states the coinage is so debased, owing to the wear of
circulation, that the real is greatly reduced below the nominal
value. Supposing that this reduction amounts to 5%, then if
100 sovereigns were offered as payment of a debt in England
while such sovereigns were current there at their nominal
value, they would be received as just payment; but if they
were offered as payment of the same amount of debt in a foreign
state, they would be received only at their intrinsic value of
L. 95, the additional L. 5 constituting the agio. Where the state
keeps its coinage up to a standard value no agio is required.
AGIRA (formerly SAN FILIPPO D'ARGIRO), a town of the
province of Catania, Sicily, with a railway station 4 1/2 m.
to the south of the town, 35 m. W. of Catania. Pop. (1901)
17,738. It occupies the site of Agyrion, an ancient Sicel
city which was ruled by tyrants, one of whom, Agyris, was
the most powerful ruler in the centre of Sicily. He was
a contemporary of Dionysius I., and with him successfully
resisted the Carthaginians when they invaded the territory of
Agyrium in 392 B.C. Agira was not colonized by the Greeks
until Timoleon drove out the last tyrant in 339 B.C. and
erected various splendid buildings of which no traces remain.
Agyrion was the birthplace of the historian Diodorus Siculus.
AGIS, the name of four Spartan kings:--
(1) Son of Eurysthenes, founder of the royal house of the
Agiadae (Pausanias iii. 2.1). His genealogy was traced
through Aristodemus, Aristomachus, Cleodaeus and Hyllus
to Heracles (Herodotus vii. 204), and he belongs rather
to mythology than to history. Tradition ascribed to him
the capture of the maritime town of Helos, which resisted
his attempt to curtail its guaranteed rights, and the
institution of the class of serfs called Helots (q.v..)
Ephorus ap. Strabo, viii. p. 365.
(2) Son of Archidamus II., Eurypontid, commonly called Agis
I. He succeeded his father, probably in 427 B.C., and from
his first invasion of Attica in 425 down to the close of
the Peloponnesian war was the chief leader of the Spartan
operations on land. After the conclusion of the peace of
Nicias (421 B.C.) he marched against the Argives in defence of
Epidaurus, and after skilful manoeuvring surrounded the Argive
army, and seemed to have victory within his grasp when he
unaccountably concluded a four months' truce and withdrew his
forces. The Spartans were indignant, and when the Argives and
their allies, in flagrant disregard of the truce, took Arcadian
Orchomenus and prepared to march on Tegea, their fury knew no
bounds, and Agis escaped having his house razed and a fine
of 100,000 drachmae imposed only by promising to atone for
his error by a signal victory. This promise he brilliantly
fulfilled by routing the forces of the Argive confederacy
at the battle of Mantinea (418), the moral effect of which
was out of all proportion to the losses inflicted on the
enemy. In the winter 417-416 a further expedition to Argos
resulted in the destruction of the half-finished Long Walls
and the capture of Hysiae. In 413, on the suggestion of
Alcibiades, he fortified Decelea in Attica, where he remained
directing operations until, after the battle of Aegospotami
(405), he took the leading part in the blockade of Athens,
which was ended in spring 404 by the surrender of the city.
Subsequently he invaded and ravaged Elis, forcing the Eleans
to acknowledge the freedom of their perioeci and to allow
Spartans to take part in the Olympic games and sacrifices.
He fell ill on his return from Delphi, where he had gone to
dedicate a tithe of the spoils, and, probably in 401, died at
Sparta, where he was buried with unparalleled solemnity and pomp.
Thuc. iii. 89, iv. 2. 6, v., vii. 19. 27, viii.; Xenophon,
Hellenica, i 1. ii. 2. 3, iii. 2. 3; Diodorus xii. 35, xiii.
72, 73, 107; Pausanias iii. 8. 3-8; Plutarch, Lysander
ix. 14. 22, Alcibiades 23-25, Lycurgus 12, Agesilaus
i. 3, de Tranquill. Anim. 6. (See PELOPONNESIAN WAR.)
(3) Son of Archidamus III., of the Eurypontid line, commonly
called Agis II. He succeeded his father in 338 B.C., on
the very day of the battle of Chaeronea. During Alexander's
Asiatic campaign he revolted against Macedonia (333 B.C.)
and, with the aid of Persian money and ships and a force
of 8000 Greek mercenaries, gained considerable successes in
Crete. In the Peloponnese he routed a force under Corragus
and, although Athens held aloof, he was joined by Elis, Achaea
(except Pellene) and Arcadia, with the exception of Megalopolis,
which the allies besieged. Antipater marched rapidly to its
relief at the head of a large army, and the allied force was
defeated after a desperate struggle (331) and Agis was slain.
Pausanias iii. 10. 5; Diodorus xvii. 48, 62, 63; Justin xii. 1;
