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A

POPULAR DICTIONARY

OF

ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE, HISTORY, POLITICS AND
BIOGRAPHY,

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CAREY, LEA, & BLANCHARD.

SOLD IN PHILADELPHIA BY E. L. CAREY AND A. HART-IN NEW YORK
BY G. & C. & H. CARVILL-IN BOSTON BY
CARTER & HENDEE.

1833.

Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1832, by

CAREY AND LEA,

In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

NOTICE.

At the commencement of this Encyclopædia, it was announced that it would be completed in twelve volumes; but, owing to the great difficulty of accommodating the length and number of so multifarious a collection of articles to the proposed limits, it was found, on approaching the end of the work, that it would be impossible strictly to adhere to these limits, without so curtailing what remained, as to make this disproportionate to the preceding parts. Under these circumstances, it became indispensable to publish a thirteenth volume; and we have taken the opportunity thus afforded to furnish a number of supplementary articles. In addition to these, the reader will find, in the Appendix, at the end of this volume, many references to articles already given. In the preparation of a work including so great an extent of subjects, it could not always be anticipated what variety of topics would be treated under particular heads; and it was thought, on examination, that the reader would be much assisted, in consulting the work, by our furnishing a considerable number of additional references.

In preparing this Encyclopædia, the conductors have endeavored to obtain the best materials and the best assistance within their power. Their labors have been lightened by the kind contributions which they have received from various quarters. To the Hon. Judge Story, and to John Pickering, Esq., of Boston, they are under peculiar obligations. The longest and most elaborate articles in the law department are from the pen of the former gentleman; and it is needless to say how much

these add to the value of the work. From Mr. Pickering they have received, in a variety of ways, the most important aid. They are also indebted for valuable contributions, or favors of other kinds, to numerous other gentlemen, among whom they may be permitted to mention Mr. Duponceau, of Philadelphia; Mr. Woodbridge, editor of the Annals of Education; James E. Heath, Esq., of Richmond, Virginia; Gov. Marcy, B. F. Butler, Esq., and Dr. Beck, of Albany; Rev. Professor Palfrey, of Cambridge, Massachusetts; Mr. De Schweinitz, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Samuel A. Eliot, Esq., of Boston; Gov. Cass, and Mr. Brush, of Michigan; Gen. Dearborn, of Roxbury, Massachusetts; Mr. James K. Paulding, of New York; Hon. Nathan Appleton, and Professor Ticknor, of Boston; Mr. Roberts Vaux, and Mr. Thomas Evans, of Philadelphia; Rev. Frederic A. Farley, of Providence, Rhode Island; Dr. Walter Channing, of Boston; Dr. Dewees, of Philadelphia; and the late Hon. Charles Ewing, chief justice of New Jersey. The friendly aid received from these and other gentlemen is most gratefully acknowledged.

Boston, Feb. 1, 1833.

ENCYCLOPÆDIA AMERICANA.

VISIGOTHS. The powerful confedera

cy of nations under the name of Goths (q. v.), was, at an early period, geographically divided into Ostrogoths, who had their seats on the Pontus, and Visigoths, who inhabited Dacia. About the middle of the fourth century, the two nations separated into distinct political bodies. The Ostrogoths, weakened by this separation, having submitted to the Huns, the Visigoths fled to the mountains, and soon after obtained from the Romans permission to settle in the desolated Thrace. The relation of the nations to each other was by this means essentially changed. Under the name of allies, the Goths formed a chief part of the Roman army; but they became hostile whenever the promises made them were violated; and scarcely was Theodosius dead, and the empire divided, when the Visigoths, under Alaric, broke forth upon Italy, and Rome fell, in 410, into the power of the Visigoths. Alaric, had he not been overtaken by death, when on the point of conquering Africa, would have founded a Germanic empire in Italy. His brother-in-law Athaulf (Ataulphus), who was placed at the head of the nation, abandoned Alaric's projects, and turned towards Gaul, to make new conquests on both sides of the Pyrenees. He reached Barcelona, where he was murdered, in 415; but his successors, in. the midst of perpetual conflicts with the previous occupants and with the Romans, founded in the south of France and in Spain the kingdom of the Visigoths. The unnatural extension of this kingdom to the north of the Pyrenees, where even the capital, and the residence of the king, Toulouse, was situated, while the Suevi still maintained

their independence on the Peninsula, was one of the causes of its internal weakness. Another cause was the difference in the religious doctrines of the conquerors and the conquered, the former professing the Arian doctrines (see Arians), which were detestable to the Catholic descendants of the Roman settlers. This circumstance gave rise to a strict separation between the Goths and Romans, and caused the Catholic clergy to become more firmly attached to each other and to Rome. Notwithstanding this, and notwithstanding the convulsions produced by frequent changes of government, and by factions, the kingdom of the Visigoths, in the first century of its existence, continued to extend itself even beyond the Pyrenees, and, by political regulations, obtained internal consistency. Euric, the fifth king, who, from 466 to 483, during the total decline of the Roman empire, made great conquests in Spain and Gaul, gave the Visigoths, who had previously been governed by customary laws, written statutes, which were extended by his successors, and reduced to a system (see Lindenbrog's Codex Legum Antiquarum, and Canciani's Barbarorum Leges Antiquæ), which is the most complete of all the German codes, and exhibits jurisprudence in a state of great advancement. His successor, Alaric, gave also to his Roman subjects in Gaul a system of laws, which he caused to be compiled, by persons well versed in jurisprudence, from the Theodosian code, from the enactments of the later emperors, and other sources, in order that the provinces might retain their ancient laws, but that the obligatory force of the law might proceed from his own authority. This code

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