Valentinian II. His rule was most energetic; but while he favoured the barbarians in the imperial service, and appointed them to high office, Valentinian, openly jealous of his minister, sought to surround himself with Romans. As an offset to this, Arbogast allied himself with the pagan element in Rome, while Valentinian was strictly orthodox. In 392 Valentinian was secretly put to death at Vienne (in Gaul), and Arbogast, naming as his successor Eugenius, a rhetorician, descended into Italy to meet the expedition which Theodosius was heading against him. He proclaimed himself the champion of the old Roman gods, and as a response to the appeal of Ambrose, is said to have threatened to stable his horses in the cathedral of Milan, and to force the monks to fight in his army. His defeat in the hard-fought battle of the Frigidus saved Italy from these dangers. Theodosius, after a two days’ fight, gained the victory by the treachery of one of Arbogast’s generals, sent to cut off his retreat. Eugenius was captured and executed, but Arbogast escaped to the mountains, where however he slew himself three days afterwards (8th of September 394). Although we have only most distorted narratives upon which to rely—pagan eulogy and Christian denunciation—Arbogast appears to have been one of the greatest soldiers of the later empire, and a statesman of no mean rank. His energy, and his apparent disdain for the effete civilization which he protected, but which did not affect his character, make his personality one of the most interesting of the 4th century.
See T. Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders (1880), vol. i. chap. ii.
ARBOIS, a town of eastern France, in the department of Jura, on the Cuisance, 29 m. N.N.E. of Lons-le-Saunier by rail. Pop. (1906) 3454. The town is the seat of the tribunal of first instance of the arrondissement of Poligny, and has a communal college. The church of St Just, founded in the 10th century, has good wood-carving. An Ursuline convent, built in 1764, serves as hôtel de ville and law court, and a church of the 14th century is used as a market. There is an old château of the dukes of Burgundy. Arbois is well known for its red and white wines, and has saw-mills, tanneries and market gardens, and manufactures paper, oil and casks.
ARBOIS DE JUBAINVILLE, MARIE HENRI D’ (1827–1910), French historian and philologist, was born at Nancy on the 5th of December 1827. In 1851 he left the École des Chartes with the degree of palaeographic archivist. He was placed in control of the departmental archives of Aube, and remained in that position until 1880, when he retired on a pension. He published several volumes of inventorial abstracts, a Répertoire archéologique du département in 1861; a valuable Histoire des ducs et comtes de Champagne depuis le VIᵉ siècle jusqu’à la fin du XIᵉ, which was published between 1859 and 1869 (8 vols.), and in 1880 an instructive monograph upon Les Intendants de Champagne. But already he had become attracted towards the study of the most ancient inhabitants of Gaul; in 1870 he brought out an Étude sur la déclinaison des noms propres dans la langue franque à l’époque mérovingienne; and in 1877 a learned work upon Les Premiers Habitants de l’Europe (2nd edition in 2 vols. 1889 and 1894). Next he concentrated his efforts upon the field of Celtic languages, literature and law, in which he soon became an authority. Appointed in 1882 to the newly founded professorial chair of Celtic at the Collège de France, he began the Cours de littérature celtique which in 1908 extended to twelve volumes. For this he himself edited the following works: Introduction a l’étude de la littérature celtique (1883); L’Épopée celtique en Irlande (1892); Études sur le droit celtique (1895); and Les Principaux Auteurs de l’antiquité à consulter sur l’histoire des Celtes (1902). He was among the first in France to enter upon the study of the most ancient monuments of Irish literature with a solid philological preparation and without empty prejudices. We owe to him also Les Celtes depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu’à l’an 100 avant noire ère (1904), and a study of comparative law in La Famille celtique (1905). Numerous detailed studies upon the Gaulish names of persons and places took synthetic form in the Recherches sur l’origine de la propriété foncière (1890), which illumined one of the most interesting aspects of the Roman occupation of Gaul. The Recueil de mémoires concernant la littérature et l’histoire celtiques, made by the most notable among his disciples on the occasion of his seventy-eighth birthday (1906), was a well-deserved tribute to his persevering and fruitful industry. He died in February 1910. (C. B.*)
ARBOR DAY, the name applied in the United States of America to a day appointed for the public planting of trees (see Arbour). Originating, or at least being first successfully put into operation, in Nebraska in 1872 through the instrumentality of J. Sterling Morton, then president of the state Board of Agriculture, it received the official sanction of the state by the proclamation of Governor R. W. Furnas in 1874 and by the enactment in 1885 of a law establishing it as a legal holiday in Nebraska. The movement spread rapidly throughout the United States until with hardly an exception every state and territory celebrates such a day either as a legal or a school holiday. The time of celebration varies in different states—sometimes even in different localities in the same state—but April or early May is the rule in the northern states, and February, January and December are the months in various southern states. A like practice has been introduced in New Zealand.
See N. H. Egleston, Arbor Day: Its History and Observance (Washington, 1896), Robert W. Furnas, Arbor Day (Lincoln, Neb., 1888), and R. H. Schauffler (ed.), Arbor Day (New York, 1909).
ARBORETUM, the name given to that part of a garden or park which is reserved for the growth and display of trees. The term, in this restricted sense, was seemingly first so employed in 1838 by J. C. Loudon, in his book upon arboreta and fruit trees. Professor Bayley Balfour, F.R.S., the Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, has described an arboretum as a living collection of species and varieties of trees and shrubs arranged after some definite method—it may be properties, or uses, or some other principle—but usually after that of natural likeness. The plants are intended to be specimens showing the habit of the tree or shrub, and the collection is essentially an educational one. According to another point of view, an arboretum should be constructed with regard to picturesque beauty rather than systematically, although it is admitted that for scientific purposes a systematic arrangement is a sine qua non. In this more general respect, an arboretum or woodland affords shelter, improves local climate, renovates bad soils, conceals objects unpleasing to the eye, heightens the effect of what is agreeable and graceful, and adds value, artistic and other, to the landscape. What Loudon called the “gardenesque” school of landscape naturally makes particular use of trees. By common consent the arboretum in the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew is one of the finest in the world. Its beginnings may be traced back to 1762, when, at the suggestion of Lord Bute, the duke of Argyll’s trees and shrubs were removed from Whitton Place, near Hounslow, to adorn the princess of Wales’s garden at Kew. The duke’s collection was famous for its cedars, pines and firs. Most of the trees of that date have perished, but the survivors embrace some of the finest of their kind in the gardens. The botanical gardens at Kew were thrown open to the public in 1841 under the directorate of Sir William Hooker. Including the arboretum, their total area did not then exceed 11 acres. Four years later the pleasure grounds and gardens at Kew occupied by the king of Hanover were given to the nation and placed under the care of Sir William for the express purpose of being converted into an arboretum. Hooker rose to the occasion and, zealously reinforced by his son and successor, Sir Joseph, established a collection which rapidly grew in richness and importance. It is perhaps the largest collection of hardy trees and shrubs known, comprising some 4500 species and botanical varieties. A large proportion of the total acreage (288) of the Gardens is monopolized by the arboretum. Of the more specialized public arboreta in the United Kingdom the next to Kew are those in the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh and the Glasnevin Garden in Dublin. The collection of trees in the Botanic Garden at Cambridge is also one of respectable proportions. There is a small but very select collection of trees at Oxford, the oldest botanical
