appears to correspond in site with the Roman (C.I.L. xi. p. 1082; G. Gamurrini in Notizie degli scavi, 1883, 262; 1887, 437). Vitruvius (ii. 8. 9) and Pliny (Nat. Hist. xxxv. 173) speak of the strength of its walls of bricks, but these have naturally disappeared. Many remains of Roman buildings have been discovered within the modern town, and the amphitheatre is still visible in the southern angle. Arretium appears as one of the cities which aided the Tarquins after their expulsion. It was an opponent of Rome at the end of the 4th and beginning of the 3rd century B.C., but soon sought for help against the attacks of the Gauls, against whom it was almost a frontier fortress. It was an important Roman base during the Hannibalic wars (though at one time it threatened defection—Livy xxvii. 21-24), and in 205 B.C. was able to furnish Scipio with a considerable quantity of arms and provisions (Livy xxviii. 45). In 187 B.C. the high road was extended as far as Bononia. Arretium took the part of Marius against Sulla, and the latter settled some of his veterans there as colonists. Caesar, or Octavian, added others, so that there are three classes, Arretini veteres, Fidentiores, and Iulienses. A considerable contingent from Arretium joined Catiline and in 49 B.C. Caesar occupied it. C. Maecenas[1] was perhaps a native of Arretium. Its fertility was famous in ancient times, and still more the red pottery made of the local clay, with its imitation of chased silver. The reliefs upon it are sometimes of considerable beauty, and large quantities of it, and the sites of several of the kilns, have been discovered in and near Arretium. It was also considerably exported. See Corp. Inscrip. Lat. xi. (Berlin, 1901) p. 1081, and Notizie degli scavi, passim (especially, 1884, 369, for the discovery of a fine group of the moulds from which these vases were made). The museum contains a very fine collection of these and a good collection of medieval majolica. (T. As.)
ARRHENIUS, SVANTE AUGUST (1859–), Swedish physicist and chemist, was born on the 19th of February 1859, at Schloss Wijk, near Upsala. He studied at Upsala from 1876 to 1881 and at Stockholm from 1881 to 1884, then returning to Upsala as privat-docent in physical chemistry. He spent two years from 1886 to 1888 in travelling, and visited Riga Polytechnic and the universities of Würzburg, Graz, Amsterdam and Leipzig. In 1891 he was appointed lecturer in physics at Stockholm and four years later became full professor. Arrhenius is specially associated with the development of the theory of electrolytic dissociation, and his great paper on the subject, Recherches sur la conductibilité galvanique des électrolytes—(1) conductibilité galvanique des solutions aqueuses extrêmement diluées, (2) théorie chimique des électrolytes, was presented to the Stockholm Academy of Sciences in 1883. He was subsequently continuously engaged in extending the applications of the doctrine of electrolytic conduction in relation not only to the problems of chemical action but also, on the supposition that in certain conditions the air conducts electrolytically, to the phenomena of atmospheric electricity. In 1900 he published a Lärobok i teoretik elektrokemi, which was translated into German and English, and his Lehrbuch der kosmischen Physik appeared in 1903. In 1904 he delivered at the university of California a course of lectures, the object of which was to illustrate the application of the methods of physical chemistry to the study of the theory of toxins and antitoxins, and which were published in 1907 under the title Immunochemistry. In his Worlds in the Making (1908), an English translation of Das Werden der Welten (1907), he combated the generally accepted doctrine that the universe is tending to what Clausius termed Wärmetod through exhaustion of all sources of heat and motion, and suggested that by virtue of a mechanism which maintains its available energy it is self-renovating, energy being “degraded” in bodies which are in the solar state, but “elevated” or raised to a higher level in bodies which are in the nebular state. He further put forward the conception that life is universally diffused, constantly emitted from all habitable worlds in the form of spores which traverse space for years or ages, the majority being ultimately destroyed by the heat of some blazing star, but some few finding a resting-place on bodies which have reached the habitable stage.
ARRIA, in Roman history, the heroic wife of Caecina Paetus. When her husband was implicated in the conspiracy of Scribonianus against the emperor Claudius (A.D. 42), and condemned to death, she resolved not to survive him. She accordingly stabbed herself with a dagger, which she then handed to him with the words, “Paetus, it does not hurt” (Paete, non dolet; see Pliny, Epp. iii. 16; Martial i. 14; Dio Cassius lx. 16). Her daughter, also called Arria, was the wife of Thrasea Paetus. When he was condemned to death by Nero, she would have imitated her mother’s example, but was dissuaded by her husband, who entreated her to live for the sake of their children. She was sent into banishment (Tacitus, Annals, xvi. 34).
ARRIAN (Flavius Arrianus), of Nicomedia in Bithynia, Greek historian and philosopher, was born about A.D. 96, and lived during the reigns of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. In recognition of his abilities, he received the citizenship of both Athens and Rome. He was greatly esteemed by Hadrian, who appointed him governor (legatus) of Cappadocia (131–137), in which capacity he distinguished himself in a campaign against the Alani. This is the only instance before the 3rd century in which a first-rate Roman military command was given to a Greek. Arrian spent a considerable portion of his time at Athens, where he was archon 147–148. With his retirement or recall from Cappadocia his official career came to an end. In his declining years, he retired to his native place, where he devoted himself to literary work. He died about 180. His biography, by Dio Cassius, is lost.
When young, Arrian was the pupil and friend of Epictetus, who had probably withdrawn to Nicopolis, when Domitian expelled all philosophers from Rome. He took verbatim notes of his teacher’s lectures, which he subsequently published under the title of The Dissertations (Διατριβαί), in eight books, of which the first four are extant and constitute the chief authority for Stoic ethics, and The Encheiridion (i.e. Manual) of Epictetus, a handbook of moral philosophy, for many years a favourite instruction book with both Christians and pagans. It was adapted for Christian use by St Nilus of Constantinople (5th century), and Simplicius (about 550) wrote a commentary on it which we still possess.
The most important of Arrian’s original works is his Anabasis of Alexander, in seven books, containing the history of Alexander the Great from his accession to his death. Arrian’s chief authorities were, as he tells us, Aristobulus of Cassandreia and Ptolemy, son of Lagus (afterwards king of Egypt), who both accompanied Alexander on his campaigns. In spite of a too indulgent view of his hero’s defects, and some over-credulity, Arrian’s is the most complete and trustworthy account of Alexander that we possess.
Other extant works of Arrian are: Indica, a description of India in the Ionic dialect, including the voyage of Nearchus, intended as a supplement to the Anabasis; Acies Contra Alanos, a fragment of importance for the knowledge of Roman military affairs; Periplus of the Euxine, an official account written (131) for the emperor Hadrian; Tactica, attributed by some to Aelianus, who wrote in the reign of Trajan; Cynegeticus, a treatise on the chase, supplementing Xenophon’s work on the same subject; the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, attributed to him, is by a later compiler. Amongst his lost works may be mentioned: Τὰ μετ᾽ Ἀλέξανδρον, a history of the period succeeding Alexander, of which an epitome is preserved in Photius; histories of Bithynia, the Alani and the Parthian wars under Trajan; the lives of Timoleon of Syracuse, Dion of Syracuse and a famous brigand named Timoleon. Arrian’s style is simple, lucid and manly; but his language, though pure, presents some peculiarities. He was called “Xenophon the younger” from his imitation of that writer, and he even speaks of himself as Xenophon.
- ↑ The name Cilnius was apparently never borne by Maecenas himself, though he is so described, e.g. by Tacitus, Ann. vi. II, cf. Macrob. ii. 4, 12. The Cilnii with whom Maecenas was connected were a noble Etruscan family.
