Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/66

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AFFAROSI CAMILLO, a Benedictine monk, was born at Reggio in Lombardy, 1680; died 1763. He has left a history of his native city.

AFFELEN, Johann, a publicist of the end of the sixteenth century. He has left a treatise entitled "Vir Politicus."

AFFELMAN, Johann, a theologian, was born at Soest in Westphalia, 1588. For twenty-one years he was professor of theology at Rostock, where he died in 1624.

AFFICHARD, Thomas l', the author of some plays and romances, born at Pont Floh, 1698; died at Paris, 1753.

AFFLECK, Sir Edmund, a distinguished officer, who served in the British navy during the reigns of the second and third Georges. He gradually rose to the rank of admiral, and was made a baronet for the services he rendered on board the Bedford, in the celebrated encounters with the Count de Grasse in 1782. He died in November, 1787.—J. B.

AFFLECK, Phillip, a younger brother of Sir Edmund, and distinguished in the same profession. His exploits were not so brilliant, but he was known as an officer of great daring.

AFFLITTO, Cæsare d', born in 1615, was originally intended for holy orders, but, at the request of his father, became a lawyer. In 1654, however, he returned to the cloister, and was appointed advocate for the poor. He was raised to the bishopric of Cava in 1670. Died in 1682.

AFFLITTO, Eustachio d', (or Father Eustace d'), a Dominican friar, died at Naples in 1790. In 1782 he published the first part of a great work on the literary history of Southern Italy; a second part appeared in 1792, but it has never been completed.

AFFLITTO, Giovanni Maria, a Dominican friar, born about the end of the sixteenth century; died at Naples, 1673. Having devoted himself to mathematics and the art of fortification, he was invited into Spain by John, duke of Austria, where he wrote works on fortification, philosophy, and theology.

AFFLITTO, Matteo d', an Italian jurist, born at Naples about 1448, died 1524. He applied himself early to the study of law, and became professor of civil law, and president of the royal chamber. He has left many works on jurisprudence.

AFFLITTO, Matteo Ignazio d', born in 1710, was vicar-general of the Principato Citra in the kingdom of Naples; was afterwards doctor of theology, and died insane in 1771.

AFFLITTO, Tomaso, a Neapolitan jurist, born 1570, died 1645. He taught philosophy at Rome.

AFFO, Ireneus, an Italian writer, born at Busetto, 1742; died about 1805. He was professor of philosophy at Guastalla, and afterwards director of the library at Parma.

AFFRE, Denis Auguste, was born at Saint Rome de Tarn, September, 1793. In 1839 he was appointed archbishop of Paris, and was killed by a chance shot at the barricade in the Faubourg St. Antoine, Paris, in the month of June, 1848, during the revolution which overthrew the Orleans dynasty. He has left many writings, in particular a small pamphlet respecting the insufficiency of Champollion's method of explaining the Egyptian hieroglyphics.—S.

AFHACKER, Gilles, a Dutch theologian, was professor of theology at Utrecht, about the beginning of the seventeenth century. He is the author of a curious history of the disputes between the Gormarists and the Remonstrants in Holland.

AFRA, St., a Christian convert, burnt at Augsburg in 304, during the Diocletian persecution. Little else is known of her.

AFRANIO, said by Albonesio to have invented the bassoon, was a native of Pavia, and canon of Ferrara in the middle of the sixteenth century.

AFRANIUS, L., a Roman comic poet, who flourished about 93 b.c., according to some 153 b.c. His comedies were great favourites with the Romans, and were acted even down to the time of Nero. Their subjects were principally scenes of common, especially low life in Rome. He himself confesses that he borrowed not only from Menander, to whom he has been often compared, but from any one who had anything to suit his purpose. Only fragments of his plays remain, which are in the Collectio Poetarum of Mattaire; London, 1713.—J. D.

A´FRASIA´B, the ninth king of Persia of the Peshdádian dynasty. The period of his reign is not certainly known, but it is supposed that he was a contemporary of King Solomon. He was descended from Ferídún, a celebrated king of ancient Persia, but through a branch of the family which had been long exiled for rebellion, and had reigned over the Tartars. He defeated Naudar, the prince in the direct line of succession, and ruled over Persia for twelve years with the most tyrannical cruelty. As last his subjects rose in revolt, and placed another descendant of Ferídún on the throne. Afrasiab made several unsuccessful attempts to regain the sovereignty, and at last fell into the hands of his enemies at Azerbiján, and was put to death.—J. B.

AFRICA´NER, Christian, a South African chief, the story of whose life forms one of the most interesting pages in the annals of modern Christian missions. He was the head of a Hottentot family, whose territory had become occupied by the settlers at the Cape of Good Hope, and who were employed as shepherds on the farm of a Dutch boor. The tyranny of their masters exasperated the chieftain and his men, and hints having reached them of a plot for their destruction, they broke out in open rebellion, and, having killed the farmer and several members of his family, they made their escape, under the leadership of the subject of our sketch, then called Jager, to the banks of the Orange river, where they obtained possession of a territory in Great Namaqualand. Africaner became the terror of the whole surrounding country, making frequent inroads, not only on the colonists, but also on the neighbouring native tribes. He was outlawed by the colonial government, and a large sum was offered for his head. He first came into contact with missions at Warm Bath, a station established within 100 miles of his kraal; but a quarrel having arisen, in which the people of Warm Bath took part against Africaner, he blamed the missionaries, and the whole settlement was destroyed by his infuriated followers. Soon after this, the Rev. J. Campbell having occasion to pass through the territory of the dreaded chief, sent him a conciliatory letter, which was well received, and which resulted in Mr. Ebner being sent as missionary to Africaner's own kraal. Under his teaching, and that of Mr. Moffat, his successor, the chief embraced Christianity, and became distinguished for his gentleness and zeal in behalf of the mission. Mr. Moffat bears testimony to the noble qualities for which the brave South African was distinguished, even as an outlawed warrior, and which, after his conversion, made him of the utmost service in the improvement of his people. He visited the colony with Mr. Moffat, where the appearance of the man at whose name all had once trembled excited the greatest interest. Africaner continued faithful to the cause he had espoused, and was often known to be the peacemaker between hostile tribes. He died in 1823.—J. B.

AFRICA´NUS, Sextus Cecilius, a Roman jurist, cited by Paulus and Ulpian, the author of nine books of Quæstiones. He was the contemporary, perhaps the pupil, of the jurist Salvius Julianus, and has been thought to be identical with the Sextus Cæcilius who discussed the subject of the Twelve Tables with the philosopher Favorinus; but this is doubtful.—J. B.

AFRICANUS, Sextus Julius, a Greek Christian historian, was born at Emmaus in Palestine about the middle of the second century; died probably about a.d. 232. He was deputed to obtain from Heliogabalus authority to rebuild his native city, which had fallen into decay, and which from that time received the name of Nicopolis. He is the author of a chronology which extends from the creation of the world to the third year of the Emperor Heliogabalus, adopted by almost all the churches of the East, and known as "The Era of the Alexandrian Historians."—S.

AFZELIUS, Adam, a Swedish naturalist, was born on 8th October, 1750, at Larf in West Gothland, and died on 26th January, 1837. He studied under Linnæus, and in 1785 was appointed botanical demonstrator in the university of Upsal. He visited the western coast of Africa in 1792, and made large collections of plants in the neighbourhood of Siena Leone. The greater part of his collections were lost when that colony was taken possession of by the English. Some of his specimens of plants were obtained by Sir Joseph Banks and Sir J. E. Smith. In 1796 he was appointed secretary of the Swedish embassy in London, and in 1812 he was elected professor of materia medica in the university of Upsal. He published the "Autobiography of Linnæus," as well as various botanical papers on the plants of Guinea, on the species of cultivated clover, and on Swedish roses. The genus Afzelia is named after him. His herbarium was given to the university of Upsal.—J. H. B.

AFZELIUS, a Swedish author, was born 6th May, 1785. In concert with Geiger, he has published a collection of the popular songs of his country.

A´GABUS, an early Christian prophet, of whom we read in the "Acts of the Apostles." At Antioch he foretold a coming famine, and induced the Christians there to send aid to their