sustained three sieges, the first in 1822 by the Greeks, who carried the town by storm, and drove the Turks into the citadel, establishing a strict blockade of the fortress; but the advance of the Pacha at the head of four thousand men compelled them to abandon their enterprise, and retreat with the Athenians to Salamis and Ægina. Two months afterwards, the Greeks ventured to attack the city in the absence of the Pacha, who had left only fifteen hundred men to defend it, and compelled the Turks to take refuge in the citadel, which they prepared to besiege. They made, however, little impression on the place until they obtained possession of the well which supplied the garrison with water, when the Turks agreed to capitulate, on condition of being sent unmolested with their wives and families to Asia Minor. The Greeks agreed to the terms, but a rumour having been falsely circulated that a large Turkish force was advancing upon Athens, the former immediately rushed upon the unfortunate garrison, and indiscriminately massacred men, women, and children. This atrocity, it has been well observed, reflects indelible dishonour on the Greek character, and proves that they inherit the faithlessness of their ancestors with the innate ferocity of their former masters. The third siege of Athens was by the Turks in 1826, who carried the city, and kept possession of it and the Acropolis until the termination of the

war.

It would be altogether irrelevant were we to enter into any details respecting the war of the Greek Revolution. An arrangement was proposed by Great Britain, France, and Russia in 1827, which the Porte obstinately rejected, nor would the Sultan yield until he was humbled by numerous defeats in 1828 and 1829, and saw the Russian army within a few leagues of Constantinople. It was now determined to settle the affairs of Greece, and the Conference of London, after much deliberation, finally resolved that Greece should be erected into an independent monarchy, and be governed by

a Christian prince. Towards the end of 1829, the crown was offered to Prince John of Saxony, who declined. It was then offered to Prince Leopold of Saxe Cobourg, who accepted, but withdrew his agreement in May 1830. Greece was again falling into a state of anarchy, its provisional governor the president was barbarously assassinated at a church door in 1831, and civil war raged furiously in the provinces. This position of affairs probably accelerated the proceedings of the Conference of London, who in May 1832 fixed upon Otho, second son of the King of Bavaria, as the first sovereign of Greece. That prince, being born in 1815, was then a minor, and the government of the new kingdom was administered by a Council of Regency. In December 1834, a royal ordonnance was issued, declaring Athens to be the seat of government and the metropolis of the new kingdom of Greece. The King visited the city in person, and laid the foundation of his future residence, and Athens may yet become distinguished among the cities of Europe, while she can proudly boast of the greatness of her ancient inhabit

ants.

"The

The modern town of Athens, now called by the various names of Athene, Athinia, and Setines, was situated in the province of Livadia when under the government of the Turks, and is described as being recently a small and miserable looking place, with narrow and irregular streets, the houses for the most part mean and straggling, many of them having large courts or areas in front. ruins of the town," says Captain Trant, "form such a mass of rubbish, that it seems a fruitless task to attempt rebuilding it on the same site, especially as the ground to the westward of the walls presents a more desirable position, opening both to the land and sea-breeze, and commanding a fine view of the country." The new town is on a very beautiful and regular plan, with straight streets of sufficient breadth; and among the names of the projected new streets are those of Minerva, Theseus, and Pericles. The

population has been variously stated by different travellers. Some allege that it amounted to from eight to ten thousand inhabitants during the time that it was under the Turkish government. Dr Clarke says that when he visited the city the population amounted to "fifteen thousand, including women and children." Sir John Hobhouse, who visited the place in 1820, states the number of houses to be between twelve and thirteen hundred, and of these at that time about four hundred were inhabited by Turks, the remainder by Greeks and Albanians, the latter of whom occupied three hundred houses. If we allow ten persons to each house, the population of Athens in 1820 must have amounted to 12,000 or 13,000 persons-an estimate which must now be greatly diminished by the removal of many Turkish families from the city. The French have had a consulate at Athens since the commencement of the seventeenth century, and the various Frank families were under the protection of the consul. The harbour of the Piræus is described as almost desolate, frequented only by a few English and French vessels of small size, which occasionally resort thither for oil, the staple production of Attica. The Greeks of Athens also carry on a little traffic in wool, silk, wax, olives, honey, and other articles, and receive in return various Italian and Eng. lish manufactured goods, together with

corn.

Some cattle are also sent out of Attica. "Small craft," says Dr Clarke, "from different parts of the Archipelago occasionally visit the Piræus and the neighbouring coast for wood. The shops maintain an insignificant traffic in furs and cloth. The best blue cloth in Athens was of bad German manufacture, selling under the name of English. The silversmiths were occupied in making coarse rings for the Albanian women, and the poor remains of Grecian painters in fabricating rather than delineating pictures of saints and angels.” Since the erection of the new kingdom of Greece, however, Athens has assumed a more interesting appearance. It is true that, still feeling

VOL. 1.

the demoralizing influence of their former masters, the Athenians walk with supineness among the glorious ruins of antiquity; and such is their debasement of character, that they seem incapable of admiring the genius of their predecessors, while their selfish cunning has given rise to a proverbial saying in Greece, "From the Jews of Thessalonica, the Turks of Negropont, and the Greeks of Athens, good Lord deliver us!" But schools have been instituted, printing presses are established, and newspapers and journals are regularly published in the modern Greek and French languages; and we may reasonably hope that another generation will forget the vices of their ancestors, and literature, philosophy, and religion regulate the habits and dispositions of the Greeks in general.

The number of churches, chapels, mosques, and religious edifices of all descriptions, are said to have amounted to two hundred in number, but of these few now remain. Athens is an archbishopric of the Greek Church, the occupant of which is reckoned one of the richest of the Greek prelates, his revenue exceeding a thousand pounds sterling annually. His place is purchased from the Patriarch, and is consequently the object of many intrigues, which, says Sir John Hobhouse, not unfrequently terminate in the expulsion of the incumbent, and the election of another archbishop. The archbishop's ecclesiastical jurisdiction extends over Boeotia and some parts of the Peloponnesus. "He exercises," says Sir John Hobhouse, " an absolute authority over the whole of the clergy of his see, and has a prison near his house for the confinement of offenders, whom he may punish with the bastinado, or in any degree short of death." Some of the priests have the reputation of being learned and eloquent preachers. The Jesuits of Paris sent a missionary to Athens about the year 1645, and the Capuchins began their labours in 1658. The Jesuits have now retired to the Negropont, and the Roman service is performed in the Capuchin convent. See GREECE.

ATROTH, the name of a town rebuilt and fortified by the tribe of Gad, Numb. xxxii. 35.

ATTALIA, now called SATTalia, or ADALIA, a sea-port city of Asia-Minor, on the coast of Pamphylia, situated on a very fine bay of a gulf called the Gulf of Sattalia, about thirty miles south-west of Perga. It was built or enlarged by Attalus Philadelphus, king of Pergamus, from whom it received its name, and was the chief residence of the prefect. On account of its advantageous position the Turks preserved it from decay, and it is still a place of considerable trade. St Paul proceeded from Perga to this city, and preached the gospel, A. D. 46, Acts xiv. 25. The bishopric of Attalia was in existence in the fifth and sixth centuries. Some geographers have alleged that a place called Laara is the ancient Attalia, but the authority of Colonel Leake on this conjecture is quite conclusive: "Adalia possesses all the natural advantages likely to have made it the chief settlement of the adjacent country, when the power of Asia became embodied under the successors of Alexander. The walls and other fortifications, the magnificent gate or triumphal arch bearing an inscription in honour of Hadrian, the aquaduct, the numerous fragments of sculpture and architecture, the inscribed marbles found in many parts of the town, the Episcopal church now converted into a mosque, the European coats of arms seen upon this church and upon the city walls, and lastly the bishopric of Attalia, of which Adalia is still the see, appear to me incontrovertible evidences of identity. In regard to the names Adalia and Sattalia, applied to the place by the Turks and Italians respectively, it may not be unworthy of observation that they are both taken immediately from the Greek."

AUCHOO. See AсCHO.

AVA, a city or district of Assyria, from which Shalmanezer brought a colony to inhabit Samaria after he had carried the Ten Tribes into captivity, 2 Kings xvii. 24. Of this place nothing is known. Ptolemy places a city called Abane on

the river Drava, or Adrava, in the province of Adrabene. It was probably the same as Ivah, mentioned in 2 Kings xviii. 34. Grotius places it in Bactriana.

AVEN, or BIKATH-AVEN, which signifies the plain of vanity, the name of a plain mentioned by Amos (i. 5). This was a place in Syria remarkable for its idolatry as Bethel, which is called Bethaven for the same reason, Hos. v. 8. It is alleged that AVEN is the same with Balbec, or the Valley of Baal, which is sometimes called in Scripture the Valley of Lebanon, Josh. xi. 17. See BAAL, BETHEL, and LEBANON.

AVEN, ON, BEтHSHEMESH, or HELIOPOLIS, a city of Egypt, translated Heliopolis in the Septuagint and Vulgate, was situated on the Nile south-east of Delta, and east of Memphis, celebrated for its Temple of the Sun. In the prophecy of the desolation of Egypt and its supporters uttered by Ezekiel, the "young men of Aven" or Heliopolis, and "of Pe-beseth" or Pubastum, "shall fall by the sword, and these cities shall go into captivity," Ezek. xxx. 17. See ON.

AVIM, a city in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin, Josh. xviii. 23.

AVIM, or HIVITES, a people descended from Hevæus, a son of Canaan. They were the first inhabitants of the country of the Philistines, Deut. ii. 23. There were some of the Avim or Hivites at Gibeon, in the centre of Canaan, Josh. xi. 19, and there were also some of them at the foot of Mount Hermon, beyond the Jordan.

AVITH, the name of the capital city of the ancient kings of Edom in Idumea, one of whom was Hadad, who killed Midean in the "field of Moab," Gen.

xxxvi. 35.

AVOTH-JAIR, or HAVOTH-JAIR, hamlets or villages of Jair so called because they were conquered and possessed by Jair, the son of Manasseh and grandson of Joseph. They were situated in Bashan on the Batanea, beyond the Jordan in the Land of Gilead, and belonged to the Transjordan Manasseh, Numb. xxxii. 41; Josh. xiii. 30.

AZA, or AAZA, a town of Palestine belonging to the tribe of Ephraim.

AZANOTH. See AzNOTH-TABOR. AZEKAH, strength of walls, a town belonging to the tribe of Judah, about twelve miles distant in a southern direction from Jerusalem. The five confederated kings of the Amorites, namely, the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon, were defeated and slain here by Joshua, and their army totally destroyed by an extraordinary shower of hailstones from heaven, and "more died of the hailstones than they whom the Children of Israel slew," Josh. x. 10, 11. Here the Philistines were also routed with great slaughter, after David slew their champion Goliath, 1 Sam. xvii. 1, 52. Eusebius and Jerome relate that there was a town in their time near this place called Ezeca, which was probably the same mentioned by Joshua.

AZGAD, a strong army, or the strength of a troop; otherwise, a gang of robbers, or a troop of soldiers, mentioned by Ezra (ii. 12) as amounting to

BAAL, BEL, or BOL, he that rules and subdues; or, master, lord, or husband, a celebrated idol of antiquity, the name of which distinguished several cities, especially those subsequently mentioned, either because this idol was held in peculiar veneration by their respective inhabitants, or because they were considered the capital cities, where resided the governors or superiors of various provinces. An account of this idol, therefore, which is often mentioned in the Books of the Old Testament, and for the frequent worshipping of which the Israelites were punished in a remarkable manner, is necessary to explain the frequent allusions to it in the present work.

The idol Baal of Oriental worship is alleged by some writers with great probability to be the same with the great Bali of the Hindoo Mythology. The idol was the chief divinity of the Canaanites,

one thousand two hundred and twentytwo persons.

AZEM, a town belonging to the tribe of Simeon, Josh. xix. 3.

AZMAVETH, AzмOтн, or BETHESMOTH, a town conjectured to have been situated in the tribe of Judah, not far from Jerusalem and Anathoth. It is the city mentioned by Ezra (ii. 24), and by Nehemiah (vii. 28; xii. 29).

AZMON. See ASSEMON.

AZNOTH-TABOR, or AZANOTH, or AzNOTH, one of the boundaries of the tribe of Naphtali, Josh. xix. 34, a city which Eusebius places in the plain not far from Cæsarea-Philippi.

AZOCHIS, a town of Palestine in the province of Galilee.

AZOR, or AZON, a town in the northern part of Palestine, southward of the territory of the tribe of Dan.

AZOTUS, or AzoтH, the name by which Ashdod is designated in the New Testament, between thirty and forty miles distant from Gaza. See ASHDOD.

AZZAH, the Hebrew name for Gaza.

Phoenicians, Sidonians, Carthaginians, Babylonians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians. Some of those nations worshipped the sun under this appellation, as they did the moon under the name of Ashtaroth, and "all the host of heaven," 2 Kings xxiii. 4; and others deified one of their early kings, Nimrod or Belus, by the title of Baal, signifying lord or owner. Various opinions have been advanced es to the origin of the name. The word Baal in the Punic as well as in the Hebrew language signifies lord or master, and it doubtless originally meant the Deity, the Supreme Lord and Master of the Universe. Some critics maintain that the god Baal, or Bel, or Belus, of the Chaldeans and Babylonians, was Belus, an Assyrian king who reigned during the fabulous period of the history of that monarchy, either the father of Ninus, or a son of the famous queen Semiramis.

Other learned writers have discovered an analogy between the Baal of the Phoenicians and the Saturn of the Greeks; others are of opinion that the idol Baal was the Phoenician or Tyrian hero Hercules, a god of great antiquity in Phoenicia; and others, again, have considered Baal to be the planet Jupiter. A supreme idol might easily be compared with those of other nations. In the Septuagint, Baal is called 'Hgazλns, Hercules, who is denominated in the Phoenician language Or-cul, that is, Light of all.

There can be little doubt that the opinion first stated is the correct one, and that Baal, which is an appellative word, originally denoted the true God among those who adhered to the true religion. The Phoenicians, who were of Canaanite extraction, once possessed, like other nations of the ancient world, a general knowledge of the true God; but as the transferring of divine adoration from spiritual and invisible objects to those which are visible and tangible, is a certain characteristic of men who are left to the uncertain guidance of tradition, the Phoenicians, like the adjacent nations, gradually degenerated into idolatry, and applied this appellation to their respective idols. Thus, although the term Baal was always applied to the superior deity, it was also given in a generic sense to a variety of divinities introduced by the Phoenicians called Baalim, with some epithet annexed to it, such as Baal-Berith, Baal-Gad, BaalMoloch, Baal-Peor or Baal-Phegor, BaalZebub or Beelzebub. The learned Mede suggests that Baal, in the Chaldee dialect Bel, was the first king of Babylon after Nimrod, and being deified and worshipped as a god after his death, originated the name of Baalim as applied to other divinities of an inferior order. These Baalim, he alleges, might be the deified souls of the dead, but they might also be the deified souls of departed warriors and heroes-a practice common to all the ancient pagan mythologies. Dr Prideaux does not controvert these inferences as to the Baalim, but he differs from Mede

respecting the identity of Bel. “He is supposed," he says, "to have been the same with Nimrod, and to have been called Bel from his dominion, and Nimrod from his rebellion; for Bel or Baal, which is the same name, signifies lord, and Nimrod, a rebel, in the Jewish and Chaldean languages; the former was his Babylonish name, by reason of his empire in that place, and the latter his Scripture name, by reason of his rebellion, in revolting from God to follow his own wicked designs." Without, however, attempting to reconcile what must ever give rise to a variety of opinions, we have merely laid before the reader the views adopted by learned commentators and mythologists on this ancient system of Oriental idolatry. Some writers allege that the descendants of Ham first worshipped the sun under the appellation of Baal, founding their conclusions on 2 Kings xxiii. 4, already cited, where King Josiah is recorded as putting down "them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven;" but the enumeration here evidently denotes a multiplicity of objects which had been incorporated into those ancient mythological rites unknown to their primitive adherents. If the sun was exclusively worshipped under the appellation of Baal, that worship must have originated in the rational notion that the luminary was the representative of the Deity himself, until at length he was beheld as the real Deity worthy of adoration; and it has often been observed, that of all the systems of Pagan mythology, that of the worship of the sun was the most excusable and natural, for men in those early ages would be most sensibly influenced by those external objects which they could not comprehend, yet from which experience convinced them that they received the greatest and most essential benefits.

Baal, with the definite article the, means the deity of the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, whose complete title occurs in a Maltese inscription in Hebrew, the translation of which is Malkereth