Aetius

a Roman general, who with his rival Boniface, has justly been called by Procopius the last of the Romans. He was born at Dorostana in Moesia (Jornandes, de reb. Get. 34), and his father Gaudentius, a Scythian in the employ of the empire, having been killed in a mutiny, he was early given as a hostage to Alaric, and under him learnt the arts of barbarian war. (Philostorgius, 12.12.) After an ineffectual support of the usurper John with an army of 60,000 men (A. D. 424), he became the general of the Roman forces under Placidia, at that time guardian of her son, the emperor Valentinian III. In order to supplant in her favour his rival Boniface, by treacherous accusations of each to the other, Aetius occasioned his revolt and the loss of Africa (Procop. Bell. Vand. 1.3, 4); the empress, however, discovered the fraud, and Aetius, after having met Boniface at Ravenna, and killed him in single combat [Bonifacius], was himself compelled to retire in disgrace to the Hunnish army which in 424 he had settled in Pannonia. (Prosper. and Marcellinus, in anno 432.)

Restored with their help to Italy, he became patrician and sole director of the armies of the western empire. (Jornandes, de reb. Get. 34.) In this capacity, through his long acquaintance with the barbarian settlers, and chiefly with the Huns and Attila himself, in whose court his son Carpilio was brought up, he checked the tide of barbarian invasion, and maintained the Roman power in peace for seventeen years (433-450) in Italy, Spain, Britain, and Gaul, in which last country especially he established his influence by means of his Hun and Alan allies and by his treaty with Theodoric the Visigoth. (Sidon. Apoll. Paneg. Avit. 300.) And when in 450 this peace was broken by the invasion of Attila, Aetius in concert with Theodoric arrested it first by the timely relief of Orleans and then by the victory of Chalons (Greg. Turon. 2.7; Jornandes, de reb. Get. 36), and was only prevented from following up his successes in Italy by want of support both from Valentinian and his barbarian allies. (Idatius and Isidorus, in anno 450.) [Attila.] The greatness of his position as the sole stay of the empire, and as the sole link between Christendon and the pagan barbarians, may well have given rise to the belief, whether founded or not, that he designed the imperial throne for himself and a barbarian throne for his son Carpilio (Sid. Apoll. Paneg. Avit. 204), and accordingly in 454, he was murdered by Valentinian himself in an access of jealousy and suspicion (Procop. Bell. Vand. 1.4), and with him (to use the words of the for contemporary chronicler Marcellinus, in anno 454), "cecidit Hesperium Imperium, nec potuit relevari."

His physical and moral activity well fitted him for the life of a soldier (Gregor. Turon. 2.8), and though destitute of any high principle, he belongs to the class of men like Augustus and Cromwell, whose early crimes are obscured by the usefulness and glory of later life, and in whom a great and trying position really calls out new and unknown excellences.

(Renatus Frigeridus, in Gregor. Turon. 2.8.; Procop. Bell. Vand. 1.3, 4; Jornandes, de Reb. Get. 34, 36; Gibbon, Decline and Fall. c. 33, 35 ; Herbert's Attila, p. 322.) [A.P.S]

(Ἀέτιος), surnamed the Atheist, from his denial of the God of Revelation (St. Athanas. de Synod. § 6, p. 83, of the translation, Oxf. 1842 ; Socr. Hist. Eccl. 2.35; Sozom. Hist. Eccl. 4.29), was born in Coele Syria (Philostorg. Hist. Eccl. 3.15; St. Basil, ad v. Eunom. i. p. 10) at Antioch (Soc. 2.35; * After the first reference, the references in this article are thus abbreviated :-- St. Athanasius, de Synodis [S. Ath.]; St. Basil, adv. Eunomianos [S. Bas.]; St. Gregory Nazianzen adv. Eunomian. [S. Gr.] The Histories of Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, and Philostorgius, the Arian panegyrist of Aetius [Soc., Soz., Thdt., Phil.]; S. Epiphanius, adv. Haereses [S. Ep.]. Suidas, s. v. Ἀέτιος), and became the founder of the Anomnoean (ἀνόμοιον) form of the Arian heresy. He was left fatherless and in poverty when a child, and became the slave of a vine-dresser's wife (St. Gregory Nazianz. c. Eunom. p. 292, C. D; but see Not. Vialesii ad Philost. 3.15), then a travelling tinker (S. Gr. ibid.) or a goldsmith. (Phil. ibid.) Conviction in a fraud or h ambition led him to abandon this life, and he applied himself to medicine under a quack, and soon set up for himself at Antioch. (Soc. 3.15.) From the schools of medicine being Arian, he acquired a leaning towards heresy. He frequented the disputatious meetings of the physicians (S. Gr. p. 293, D) and made such progress in Eristicism, that he became a paid advocate for such as wished their own theories exhibited most advantageously. On his mother's death he studied under Paulinus H., Arian Bishop of Antioch, A. D. 331; but his powers of disputation having exasperated some influential persons about Eulalius, the successor of Paulinus, he was obliged to quit Antioch for Anazarbus, where he resumed the trade of a goldsmith, A. D. 331. (Phil. 3.15.) Here a professor of grammar noticed him, employed him as a servant, and instructed him; but he was dismissed in disgrace on publicly disputing against his master's interpretation of the Scripture. The Arian Bishop of the city, named Athanasius, received him and read with him the Gospels. Afterwards he read the Epistles with Antonius, a priest of Tarsus till the promotion of the latter to the Episcopate, when he returned to Antioch and studied the Prophets with the priest Leontius. His obtrusive irreligion obliged him again to quit Antioch, and he took refuge in Cilicia (before A. D. 348), where he was defeated in argument by some of the grossest (Borborian) Gnostics. He returned to Antioch, but soon left it for Alexandria, being led thither by the fame of the Manichee Aphthonius, against whom he recovered the fame disputation which he had lately lost. He now rezsumed the study of medicine under Sopolis and practised gratuitously, earning money by following his former trade by night (Phil. 3.15) or living upon others. (Theodoret, Hist. Eccl. 2.23.) His chief employment, however, was an irreverent application of logical figures and geometrical diagrams to the Nature of the Word of God. (S. Epiphan. ad v. Hacres. § 2, and comp. § 6, p. 920.) He returned to Antioch on the elevation of his former master Leontius to that See, A. D. 348, and was by him ordained Deacon (S. Ath. § 38, transl. p. 136), though he declined the ordinary duties of the Diaconate and accepted that of teaching, A. D. 350. (Phil. 3.17.) The Catholic laymen, Diodorus and Flavian, protested against this ordination, and Leontius was obliged to depose him. (Thdt. 2.19.) His dispute with Basil of Ancyra, A. D. 351 (fin.), is the first indication of the future schism in the Arian heresy. (Phil. 3.15.) Basil incensed Gallus (who became Caesar, March, A. D. 351) against Aetius, and Leontius' intercession only saved the latter from death. Soon Theophilus Blemmys introduced him to Gallus (S. Gr. p. 294), who made him his friend, and often sent him to his brother Julian when in danger of apostacy. (Phil. 3.17.) There is a letter from Gallus extant, congratulating Julian on his adesion to Christianity, as he had heard from Aetius. (Post Epist. Juliani, p. 158, ed. Boisson. Mogunt. 1828.) Aetius was implicated in the murder of Domitian and Montius (see Gibbon, c. 19), A. D. 354 (S. Gr. p. 294, B), but his insignificance saved him from the vengeance of Constantius. However, he quitted Antioch for Alexandria, where St. Athanasius was maintaining Christianity against Arianism, and in A. D. 355 acted as Deacon under George of Cappadocia, the violent interloper into the See of St. Athanasius. (St. Ep. 76.1; Thdt. 2.24.) Here Eunomius became his pupil (Phil. 3.20) and amanuensis. (Soc. 2.35.) He is said by Philostorgius (3.19) to have refused ordination to the Episcopate, because Serras and Secundus, who made the offer, had mixed with the Catholics; in A. D. 358, when Eudoxius became bishop of Antioch (Thdt. 2.23), he returned to that city, but popular feeling prevented Eudoxius from allowing him to act as Deacon.

The Aetian (Eunomian, see Arius) schism now begins to develop itself. The bold irreligion of Aetius leads a section of Arians (whom we may call here Anti-Aetians) to accuse his to Constantius (Soz. 4.13); they allege also his connexion with (Gallus, and press the emperor to summon a general Council for the settlement of the Theological question. The Aetian interest with Eusebius (Soz. 1.16), the powerful Eunuch, divides the intended council, but notwithstanding, the Aetians are defeated at Seleucia, A. D. 359, and, dissolving the council, hasten to Constantius, at Constantinople, to secure his protection against their opponents. (S. Ath. transl. pp. 73, 77, 88, 163, 164.) The Anti-Aetians (who are in fact the more respectable Semi-Arians, see Arius) follow, and charge their opponents with maintaining a Difference in Substance (ἑτεροούσιον) in the Trinity, producing a paper to that effect. A new schism ensues among the Aetians, and Aetius is abandoned by his friends (called Eusebians or Acacians, see Arius) and banished (S. Bas. 1.4), after protesting against his companions, who, holding the same principle with himself (viz. that the Son was a creature, κτίσμα), refused to acknowledge the necessary inference (viz. that He is of unlike substance to the Father, άνόμοιον). (Thdt. 2.23; Soz. 4.23; S. Greg. p. 301, D. ; Phil. 4.12.) His late friends would not let him remain at Mopsuuestia, where he was kindly received by Auxentius, the Bishop there : Acacins procures his banishment to Amblada in Pisidia (Phil. 5.1), where he composed his 300 blasphemies, captious inferences from the symbol of his irreligion, viz. that Ingenerateness (ἀγεννησία) is the essence (οὐσια) of Deity; which are refuted (those at least which St. Epiphanius had seen) in S. Ep. ad v. Haer. 76. He there calls his opponents Chronites, i.e. Temporals, with an apparent allusion to their courtly obsequiousness. (Praefat. apud S. Ep.; comp. c. 4.)

On Constantius's death, Julian recalled the various exiled bishops, as well as Aetius, whom he invited to his court (Ep. Juliani, 31, p. 52, ed. Boisson.), giving him, too, a farm in Lesbos. (Phil. 9.4.) Euzoius, heretical Bishop of Antioch, took off the ecclesiastical condemnation front Aetius (Phil. 7.5), and he was made Bishop at Constantinople. (S. Ep. 76. p. 992c.) He spreads his heresy by fixing a bishop of his own irreligion at Constantinople (Phil. 8.2) and by missionaries, till the death of Jovin, A. D. 364. Valens, however, took part with Eudoxius, the Acacian Bishop of Constantinople, and Aetius retired to Lesbos, where he narrowly escaped death at the hands of the governor, placed there by Procopius in his revolt against Valens, A. D. 365, 366. (See Gibbon. ch. 19.) Again he took refuge in Constantinople, but was driven thence by his former friends. In vain he applied for protection to Eudoxius, now at Marcianople with Valens; and in A. D. 367 (Phil. 9.7) he died, it seems, at Constantinople, unpitied by any but the equally irreligious Eunomius, who buried him. (Phil. 9.6.) The doctrinal errors of Aetius are stated historically in the article on Arius. From the Manichees he seems to have learned his licentious morals, which appeared in the most shocking Solifianism, and which he grounded on a Gnostic interpretation of St. John, 17.3. He denied, like most other heretics, the necessity of fasting and self-mortification. (S. Ep. ad v. Haer. 76.4.) At some time or other he was a disciple of Eusebius of Sebaste. (S. Bas. Epist. 223 [79] and 244 [82].) Socrates (2.35) speaks of several letters from him to Constantine and others. His Treatise is to be found ap. S. Epiphan. ad v. Haer. 76, p. 924, ed. Petav. Colon. 1682. [A.J.C]

Ἀέτιος, (Aetius), a Greek medical writer, whose name is commonly but incorrectly spelt Aetius. Historians are not agreed about his exact date. He is placed by some writers as early as the fourth century after Christ; but it is plain from his own work that he did not write till the very end of the fifth or the beginning of the sixth, as he refers (tetrab. iii. serm. 1.24. p. 464) not only to St. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria, who died A. D. 444, but also (tetrab. ii. serm. 3.110, p. 357) to Petrus Archiater, who was physician to Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, and therefore must have lived still later; he is himself quoted by Alexander Trallianus (12.8, p. 346), who lived probably in the middle of the sixth century. He was a native of Amida, a city of Mesopotamia (Photius, cod. 221) and studied at Alexandria, which was the most famous medical school of the age. He was probably a Christian, which may account perhaps for his being confounded with another person of the same name, a famous Arian of Antioch, who lived in the time of the Emperor Julian. In some manuscripts he has the title of κώμης ὀψικίου, comes obsequii, which means the chief officer in attendance on the emperor (see Du Cange, Gloss. Med. et Inf. Latin.); this title, according to Photius (l.c.), he attained at Constantinople, where he was practising medicine. Aetius seems to be the first Greek medical writer among the Christians who gives any specimen of the spells and charms so much in vogue with the Egyptians, such as that of St. Blaise (tetrab. ii. serm. 4.50, p. 404) in removing a bone which sticks in the throat, and another in relation to a Fistula. (tetrab. iv. serm. 3.14, p. 762.) Works Βιβλία Ἰατρικὰ Ἐκκαίδεκα,

The division of his work Βιβλία Ἰατρικὰ Ἐκκαίδεκα, Sixteen Books on Medicine, into four tetrabibli (τετράβιβλοι) was not made by himself, but (as Fabricius observes) was the invention of some modern translator, as his way of quoting his own work is according to the numerical series of the books. Although his work does not contain much original matter, it is nevertheless one (of the most valuable medical remains of antiquity, as being a very judicious compilation from the writings of many authors whose works have been long since lost. Editions

The whole of it has never appeared in the original Greek; one half was published at Venice, 1534, fol. "in aed. Aldi," with the title Aetii Amideni Librorum Medicinalium tomus primus; primi scilicet Libri Octo nunc primum in lucem editi, Graecè: the second volume never appeared.

Some chapters of the ninth book were published in Greek and Latin, by J. E. Hebenstreit, Lips. 4to. 1757, under the title Tentamen Philologicum Medicum super Aetii Amideni Synopsis Medicorum Veterum, &c.; and again in the same year, Aetii Amideni Ἀνεκδότων ..... Specimen alterum.

Another chapter of the same book was edited in Greek and Latin by J. Maginus a Tengström, Aboae, 1817, 4to., with the title " Commentationum in Aetii Amideni Medici Ἀνέκδοτα Specimen Primum," etc.

Another extract, also from the ninth book, is inserted by Mustoxydes and Schinas in their " Συλλογὴ Ἑλληνικῶν Ἀνεκδότων," Venet. 1816, 8vo.

The twenty-fifth chapter of the ninth book was edited in Greek and Latin by J. C. Horn, Lips. 1654, 4to.; and the chapter (tetrab. i. serm. 3.164) " De Significationibus Stellarum," is inserted in Greek and Latin by Petavius, in his " Uraxologion," p. 421, ed. Paris.

Six books (namely, from the eighth to the thirteenth, inclusive), were published at Basel, 1533, fol., translated into Latin by Janus Cornarius, with the title " Aetii Antiocheni Medici de cognoscendis et curandis Morbis Sermones Sex jam primum in lucem editi," etc.

In 1535, the remaining ten books were translated and published at Basel, by J. B. Montanus, in two volumes, so that the three volumes form together a complete and uniform edition of the work. In 1534, 4to., a complete Latin translation was published at Venice by the Juntas. In 1542, Cornarius completed and published a translation of the whole work (Basil. fol.); which was reprinted at Basel, 1549, 8vo.; Venice, 1543, 1544, 8vo. ; Lyons, 1549, fol.; and in H. Stephens's " Medicae Artis Principes," Paris. 1567, fol. Further Information

Two useful works on Aetius deserve to be mentioned ; one by C. Oroscius (Horozco), entitled " Annotationes in Interpretes Aetii," Basil. 1540, 4to.; the other an academical dissertion by C. Weigel, entitled " Aetianarum Exercitationum Specimen," Lips. 1791, 4to.

See Freind's Hist. of Physic, from whose work many of the preceding remarks have been taken; Cagnati Variae Observat. 4.18; Haller, Biblioth. Medic. Pract. vol. i. p. 200 ; Sprengel, Hist. de la Médecine ; Choulant, Handbuch der Bücherkunde für die Aeltere Medicin. [W.A.G]

(Σικάμιος ὁ Ἀέτιος), sometimes called Aetius Sicanius or Siculus. Works Περὶ Μελαγχολιάς, De Melancholia

The author of a treatise Περὶ Μελαγχολιάς, De Melancholia. His date is uncertain, but, if he be not the same person as Aetius of Amida, he must have lived after him, as his treatise corresponds exactly with part of the latter's great medical work (tetrab. ii. serm. 2.9-11, p. 250, &c.): it is compiled from Galen, Rufus, Posidonius, and Marcellus. Editions

This is commonly printed among the works of Galen. (Vol. xix. p. 699, &c.) [W.A.G]

(Ἀέτιος). (1) Of Amida in Mesopotamia, a Greek physician of the sixth century A.D., who lived at Constantinople as imperial physician in ordinary. He was the author of a great miscellany on pathology and diagnosis in sixteen books.

(2) An heresiarch of the fourth century A.D., called by his adversaries “the Atheist.” Epiphanius has preserved forty-seven heretical propositions from the work of Aëtius, among them the rejection of the authority of the prophets and apostles; the assertion that the Son of God was not like the Father; the doctrine that faith without works is sufficient; and the claim that the most culpable acts are the necessities of nature. He died A.D. 366.

(3) A Roman general born in Moesia towards the end of the fourth century A.D. He led an army of Huns to suppress the usurpation of the emperor John. In A.D. 433 he became consul and general-in-chief, and as such kept back the Western barbarians for twenty years, defeating the Goths, Burgundians, Gauls, and Franks; and at Châlons routed the famous Attila (q.v.) in the year 451. In 454, the emperor Valentinian, jealous of his fame, slew him with his own hand.

• king of Troezenia: Paus. 2.30.8
• his descendants found Halicarnassus and Myndus in Caria: Paus. 2.30.9
• founds sanctuary of Saviour Zeus: Paus. 2.31.10