chapter 11._
AGGER.
See CASTRA.
AGGRAVIADOS, The.
See SPAIN: A. D. 1814-1827.
AGHA MOHAMMED KHAN, Shah of Persia, A. D. 1795-1797.
AGHLABITE DYNASTY.
See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST AND EMPIRE: A. D.715-750.
AGHRIM, OR AUGHRIM, Battle of (A. D. 1691).
See IRELAND: A. D. 1689-1691.
AGILULPHUS, King of the Lombards. A. D. 590-616.
AGINCOURT, Battle of (1415).
See FRANCE: A. D. 1415.
AGINNUM. Modern Agen.
See NITIOBRIGES.
AGNADEL, Battle of (1509).
See VENICE: A. D. 1508-1509.
AGNATI. AGNATIC.
See GENS, ROMAN.
AGNIERS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: AGNIERS.
AGOGE, The.
The public discipline enforced in ancient Sparta; the ordinances attributed to Lycurgus, for the training of the young and for the regulating of the lives of citizens.
_G. Schömann, Antiquity of Greece: The State, part 3, chapter 1._
AGORA, The.
The market-place of an ancient Greek city was, also, the centre of its political life. "Like the gymnasium, and even earlier than this, it grew into architectural splendour with the increasing culture of the Greeks. In maritime cities it generally lay near the sea; in inland places at the foot of the hill which carried the old feudal castle. Being the oldest part of the city, it naturally became the focus not only of commercial, but also of religious and political life. Here even in Homer's time the citizens assembled in consultation, for which purpose it was supplied with seats; here were the oldest sanctuaries; here were celebrated the first festive games; here centred the roads on which the intercommunication, both religious and commercial, with neighbouring cities and states was carried on; from here started the processions which continually passed between holy places of kindred origin, though locally separated. Although originally all public transactions were carried on in these market-places, special local arrangements for contracting public business soon became necessary in large cities. At Athens, for instance, the gently rising ground of the Philopappos hill, called Pnyx, touching the Agora, was used for political consultations, while most likely, about the time of the Pisistratides, the market of Kerameikos, the oldest seat of Attic industry (lying between the foot of the Akropolis, the Areopagos and the hill of Theseus), became the agora proper, i. e., the centre of Athenian commerce. … The description by Vitruvius of an agora evidently refers to the splendid structures of post-Alexandrine times. According to him it was quadrangular in size [? shape] and surrounded by wide double colonades. The numerous columns carried architraves of common stone or of marble, and on the roofs of the porticoes were galleries for walking purposes. This, of course, does not apply to all marketplaces, even of later date; but, upon the whole, the remaining specimens agree with the description of Vitruvius."
_E. Guhl and W. Koner, Life of the Greeks and Romans, translated by Hueffer, part 1, section 26._
In the Homeric time, the general assembly of freemen was called the Agora.
_G. Grote, History of Greece, part 1, chapter 20._
AGRÆI, The.
See AKARNANIANS.
AGRARIAN LAWS, Roman.
"Great mistakes formerly prevailed on the nature of the Roman laws familiarly termed Agrarian. It was supposed that by these laws all land was declared common property, and that at certain intervals of time the state resumed possession and made a fresh distribution to all citizens, rich and poor. It is needless to make any remarks on the nature and consequences of such a law; sufficient it will be to say, what is now known to all, that at Rome such laws never existed, never were thought of. The lands which were to be distributed by Agrarian laws were not private property, but the property of the state. They were, originally, those public lands which had been the domain of the kings, and which were increased whenever any City or people was conquered by the Romans; because it was an Italian practice to confiscate the lands of the conquered, in whole or in part."
_H. G. Liddell, History of Rome, book 2, chapter 8._
See ROME: B. C. 376, and B. C. 133-121.
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AGRI DECUMATES, The.
"Between the Rhine and the Upper Danube there intervenes a triangular tract of land, the apex of which touches the confines of Switzerland at Basel; thus separating, as with an enormous wedge, the provinces of Gaul and Vindelicia, and presenting at its base no natural line of defence from one river to the other. This tract was, however, occupied, for the most part, by forests, and if it broke the line of the Roman defences, it might at least be considered impenetrable to an enemy. Abandoned by the warlike and predatory tribes of Germany, it was seized by wandering immigrants from Gaul, many of them Roman adventurers, before whom the original inhabitants, the Marcomanni, or men of the frontier, seem to have retreated eastward beyond the Hercynian forest. The intruders claimed or solicited Roman protection, and offered in return a tribute from the produce of the soil, whence the district itself came to be known by the title of the Agri Decumates, or Tithed Land. It was not, however, officially connected with any province of the Empire, nor was any attempt made to provide for its permanent security, till a period much later than that on which we are now engaged [the period of Augustus]."
_C. Merivale, History of the Roman,
"Wurtemburg, Baden and Hohenzollern coincide with the Agri Decumates of the Roman writers."
_R G. Latham, Ethnology of Europe,