that which was one day to become the glorious city of Venice. Upon Milan and the cities of western Lombardy the hand of Attila seems to have weighed more lightly, plundering rather than utterly destroying; and at last when Pope Leo I., at the head of a deputation of Roman senators, appeared in his camp on the banks of the Mincio, entreating him not to pursue his victorious career to the gates of Rome, he yielded to their entreaties and consented to cross the Alps, with a menace, however, of future return, should the wrongs of Honoria remain unredressed. As he himself jokingly said: he knew how to conquer men, but the Lion and the Wolf (Leo and Lupus) were too strong for him. No further expeditions to Italy were undertaken by Attila, who died suddenly in 453, in the night following a great banquet which celebrated his marriage with a damsel named Ildico. Notwithstanding some rumours of violence it is probable that his death was natural and due to his own intemperate habits.
Under his name of Etzel, Attila plays a great part in Teutonic legend (see Nibelungenlied) and under that of Atli in Scandinavian Saga, but his historic lineaments are greatly obscured in both. He was short of stature, swarthy and broad-chested, with a large head which early turned grey, snub nose and deep-set eyes. He walked with proud step, darting a haughty glance this way and that as if he felt himself lord of all.
The chief authorities for the life of Attila are Priscus, Jordanes, the Historia Miscella, Apollonius Sidonius and Gregory of Tours. (T. H.)
ATTIS, or Atys, a deity worshipped in Phrygia, and later throughout the Roman empire, in conjunction with the Great Mother of the Gods. Like Aphrodite and Adonis in Syria, Baal and Astarte at Sidon, and Isis and Osiris in Egypt, the Great Mother and Attis formed a duality which symbolized the relations between Mother Earth and her fruitage. Their worship included the celebration of mysteries annually on the return of the spring season. Attis was also known as Papas, and the Bithynians and Phrygians, according to evidence of the time of the late Empire, called him Zeus. He was never worshipped independently, however, though the worship of the Great Mother was not always accompanied by his. He was confused with Pan, Sabazios, Men and Adonis, and there were resemblances between the orgiastic features of his worship and that of Dionysus. His resemblance to Adonis has led to the theory that the names of the two are identical, and that Attis is only the Semitic companion of Syrian Aphrodite grafted on to the Phrygian Great Mother worship (Haakh, Stuttgarter-Philolog.-Vers., 1857, 176 ff.). It is likely, however, that Attis, like the Great Mother, was indigenous to Asia Minor, adopted by the invading Phrygians, and blended by them with a deity of their own.
Legends.—According to Pausanias (vii. 17), Attis was a beautiful youth born of the daughter of the river Sangarius, who was descended from the hermaphroditic Agdistis, a monster sprung from the earth by the seed of Zeus. Having become enamoured of Attis, Agdistis struck him with frenzy as he was about to wed the king’s daughter, with the result that he deprived himself of manhood and died. Agdistis in repentance prevailed upon Zeus to grant that the body of the youth should never decay or waste. In Arnobius (v. 5-8) Attis emasculates himself under a pine tree, which the Great Mother bears into her cave as she and Agdistis together wildly lament the death of the youth. Zeus grants the petition as in the version of Pausanias, but permits the hair of Attis to grow, and his little finger to move. The little finger, digitus, δάκτυλος, is interpreted as the phallus by Georg Kaibel (Göttinger Nachrichten, 1901, p. 513). In Diodorus (iii. 58, 59) the Mother is the carnal lover of Attis, and, when her father the king discovers her fault and kills her lover, roams the earth in wild grief. In Ovid (Fasti, iv. 223 ff.) she is inspired with chaste love for him, which he pledges himself to reciprocate. On his proving unfaithful, the Great Mother slays the nymph with whom he has sinned, whereupon in madness he mutilates himself as a penalty. Another form of the legend (Paus. vii. 17), showing the influence of the Aphrodite-Adonis myth, relates that Attis, the impotent son of the Phrygian Caläus, went into Lydia to institute the worship of the Great Mother, and was there slain by a boar sent by Zeus.
See Great Mother of the Gods; J. G. Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris (1906). (G. Sn.)
ATTLEBOROUGH, a township of Bristol county, in south-east Massachusetts, U.S.A. Pop. (1890) 7577; (1900) 11,335, of whom 3237 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 16,215 It is traversed by the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway, and by inter-urban electric lines. It has an area of 28 sq. m. The population is largely concentrated in and about the village which bears the name of the township. In Attleborough are the Attleborough Home Sanitarium, and a public library (1885). The principal manufactures of the township are jewelry, silverware, cotton goods, cotton machinery, coffin trimmings, and leather. In 1905 the total value of the township’s factory products was $10,050,384, of which $5,544,285 was the value of jewelry, Attleborough ranking fourth among the cities of the country in this industry, and producing 10·4% of the total jewelry product of the United States. Attleborough was incorporated in 1694, though settled soon after 1661 (records since 1672) as part of Rehoboth. In 1887 the township was divided in population, wealth and area by the creation of the township of North Attleborough—pop. (1890) 6727; (1900) 7253, of whom 1786 were foreign-born; (1905, state census) 7878. This township produced manufactured goods in 1900 to the value of $3,990,731, jewelry valued at $2,785,567; it maintains the Richards memorial library.
See J. Daggett, A Sketch of the History of Attleborough to 1887 (Boston, 1894).
ATTOCK, a town and fort of British India, in the Rawalpindi district of the Punjab, 47 m. by rail from Peshawar, and situated on the eastern bank of the Indus. Pop. (1901) 2822. The place is of both political and commercial importance, as the Indus is here crossed by the military and trade route through the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan. Alexander the Great, Tamerlane and Nadir Shah are believed to have successively crossed the Indus at or about this spot in their respective invasions of India. The river runs past Attock in a deep rapid channel about 200 yds. broad, but is easily crossed in boats or on inflated skins of oxen. The rocky gorges through which it flows, with a distant view of the Hindu Kush, form some of the finest scenery in the world. In 1883 an iron girder bridge of five spans was opened, which carries the North-Western railway to Peshawar, and has also a subway for wheeled traffic and foot passengers. The fort of Attock was built by the emperor Akbar in 1581, on a low hillock beside the river. The walls are of polished stone, and the whole structure is handsome; but from a military point of view it is of little importance, being commanded by a hill, from which it is divided only by a ravine. On the opposite side of the river is the village of Khairabad, with a fort, also erected by Akbar according to some, or by Nadir Shah according to others. The military importance of Attock has diminished, but it still has a small detachment of British troops.
ATTORNEY (from O. Fr. atorné, a person appointed to act for another, from atourner, legal Lat. attornare, attorn, literally to turn over to another or commit business to another), in English law, in its widest sense, any substitute or agent appointed to act in “the turn, stead or place of another.” Attorneys are of two kinds, attorneys-in-fact and attorneys-at-law. An attorney-in-fact is simply an agent, the extent of whose capacity to act is bounded only by the powers embodied in his authority, his power of attorney. An attorney-at-law was a public officer, conducting legal proceedings on behalf of others, known as his clients, and attached to the supreme courts of common law at Westminster. Attorneys-at-law corresponded to the solicitors of the courts of chancery and the proctors of the admiralty, ecclesiastical, probate and divorce courts. Since the passing of the Judicature Act of 1873, however, the designation “attorney” has become obsolete in England, all persons admitted as solicitors,
