OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography/Abacaenum

​ABACAENUM (Ἀβάκαινον, Diod., Steph Byz.: Ἀβάκαινα, Ptol.: Eth. Ἀβακαινῖνος: nr. Tripi, Ru.) a city of Sicily, situated about 4 miles from the N. coast, between Tyndaris and Mylae, and 8 from the former city. It was a city of the Siculi, and does not appear to have ever received a Greek colony, though it partook highly of the influence of Greek art and civilisation. Its territory originally included that of Tyndaris, which was separated from it by the elder Dionysius when he founded that city in B. C. 396 (Diod. xiv. 78). From the way in which it is mentioned in the wars of Dionysius, Agathocles and Hieron (Diod. xiv. 90, xix. 65, 110, xxii. Exc. Hoeschel p. 499), it is clear that it was a place of power and importance: but from the time of Hieron it disappears from history, and no mention is found of it in the Verrine orations of Cicero. Its name is, however, found in Ptolemy (iii. 4. § 12), so that it appears to have still continued to exist in his day. Its decline was probably owing to the increasing prosperity of the neighbouring city of Tyndaris.
There can be little doubt that the ruins visible in the time of Fazello, at the foot of the hill on which the modern town of Tripi is situated, were those of Abacaenum. He speaks of fragments of masonry, prostrate columns, and the vestiges of walls, indicating the site of a large city, but which had been destroyed to its foundations. The locality does not seem to have been examined by any more recent traveller (Fazellus, de Reb. Sic. ix. 7; Cluver. Sicil. Ant. p. 386.)
Then are found coins of Abacaenum, both in silver and copper. The boar and acorn, which are the common type of the former, evidently refer to the great forests of oak which still cover the neighbouring mountains, and afford pasture to large herds of swine. [ E. H. B. ]
COIN OF ABACAENUM.
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography/Abasci

​ABASCI, ABASGI (Ἀβασκοί, Ἀβασγοί), a Scythian people in the N. of Colchis, on the confines of Sarmatia Asiatica (within which they are sometimes included), on the Abascus or Abasgus, one of the small rivers flowing from the Caucasus into the NE. part of the Euxine. They carried on a considerable slave-trade, especially in beautiful boys, whom they sold to Constantinople for eunuchs. These practices were suspended for a time, on their nominal conversion to Christianity, during the reign of Justinian; but the slave-trade in these regions was at least as old as the time of Herodotus (iii. 97), and has continued to the present time. (Arrian. Peripl. Pont. Eux. p. 12; Procop. B. Goth. iv. 3, B. Pers. ii. 29; Steph. B. s. v. Σάννιγαι.) [ P. S. ]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography/Abascus

​ABASCUS, ABASGUS. [Abasci.]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography/Abbassus

​ABBASSUS or AMBASUM (Abbassus, Liv.; Ἄμβασον, Steph. B. s. v.: Eth. Ἀμβασίτης), a town of Phrygia, on the frontiers of the Tolistoboii, in Galatia. (Liv. xxxviii. 15.) It is, perhaps, the same as the Alamassus of Hierocles, and the Amadasse of the Councils. (Hierocles, p. 678, with Wesseling's note.)
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography/Abalus

​ABALUS, was said by Pytheas to be an island in the northern ocean, upon which amber was washed by the waves, distant a day's sail from the aestuary called Mentonomon, on which the Gothones dwelt. This island was called Basilia by Timaeus, and Baltia by Xenophon of Lampsacus. It was probably a portion of the Prussian coast upon the Baltic. (Plin. xxxvii. 7. s. 11; Diod. v. 23; Ukert, Geographie, vol. ii. Pt. ii. p. 33, seq.)
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography/Abas

​ABAS (Ἄβας), a river of Iberia in Asia, mentioned by Plutarch (Pomp. 35) and Dion Cassius (xxxvii. 3) as crossed by Pompey, on his expedition into the Caucasian regions. Its course was E. of the Cambyses; and it seems to be the same as the Alazonius or Alazon of Strabo and Pliny (Alasan, Alacks) which fell into the Cambyses just above its confluence with the Cyrus. [ P. S. ]
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography/Abae

​ABAE (Ἄβαι; Eth. Ἀβαῖος: near Exarkhó, Ru.), an ancient town of Phocis, near the frontiers of the Opuntian Locrians, said to have been built by the Argive Abas, son of Lynceus and Hypermnestra and grandson of Danaus. Near the town and on the road towards Hyampolis was an ancient temple and oracle of Apollo, who hence derived the surname of Abaeus. So celebrated was this oracle, that it was consulted both by Croesus and by Mardonius. Before the Persian invasion the temple was richly adorned with treasuries and votive offerings. It was twice destroyed by fire; the first time by the Persians in their march through Phocis (B. C. 480), and a second time by the Boeotians in the Sacred or Phocian war (B. C. 346). Hadrian caused a smaller temple to be built near the ruins of the former one. In the new temple there were three ancient statues in brass of Apollo, Leto, and Artemis, which had been dedicated by the Abaei, and had perhaps been saved from the former temple. The ancient agora and the ancient theatre still existed in the town in the time of Pausanias. According to the statement of Aristotle, as preserved by Strabo, Thracians from the Phocian town of Abae emigrated to Euboea, and gave to the inhabitants the name of Abantes. The ruins of Abae are on a peaked hill to the W. of Exarkhó. There are now no remains on the summit of the peak; but the walls and some of the gates may still be traced on the SW. side. There are also remains of the walls, which formed the inclosure of the temple. (Paus. x. 35; Herod. i. 46, viii. 134, 33; Diod. xvi. 530; Strab. pp. 423, 445; Steph. Byz. s.v.; Gell, Itinerary, p. 226; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 163, seq.)
# Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography/Abantes

ABANTES, ABANTIS. [Euboea.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fanelli, Francesco

​FANELLI, FRANCESCO (fl. 1610–1665), statuary, a native of Florence, was celebrated in the reign of Charles I for his highly finished works in metal, which are considered as possessing higher finish, though less bold design, than the works of Hubert Le Soeur [q. v.] It is probable that he may have been among the foreign artists employed by Henry, prince of Wales, at Richmond; in this case he may have his catalogue of Charles I's works of art, and which are stated to have come to his majesty by the decease of Prince Henry. In the same collection are noted ‘a little running horse, Cupid sitting on, and another Cupid running by,’ and ‘a little St. George on horseback, with a dragon by,’ both of brass, and by the ‘one-eyed Italian Francisco Fanelli.’ He was in receipt of an annuity from the king, and enjoyed the title of ‘sculptor to the king of Great Britain.’ According to Sandrart, Fanelli first obtained the notice of the king from a small figure of Pygmalion wrought in ivory, and subsequently made many vases in ivory and marble, excelling, however, mostly in bronze. He was also patronised by William Cavendish, duke of Newcastle, who had several of his works at Welbeck, including a bust of Charles I, signed and dated 1640. Among other works by him, or ascribed to him, are the statues of Charles I and Henrietta Maria (perhaps really by Le Soeur), presented by Archbishop Laud to St. John's College, Oxford, where they stand in niches in the quadrangle; the monumental bust of Sir Robert Ayton in Westminster Abbey; the bronze bust of Charles I in the church at Hammersmith, and similar busts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, Windsor Castle, and elsewhere; the bronze fountain at Hampton Court; and in marble the tomb of Lord Cottington in Westminster Abbey, and of Penelope Noel in Campden Church, Gloucestershire. About 1642 he appears to have gone to Paris, and there is no record of his having returned to England. In that year he published a set of engravings, entitled ‘Varie Architetture di Francesco Fanelli, Fiorentino, Scultore del Re della Gran Bretagna,’ containing twenty plates of fountains, &c.; another edition of this was published in 1661; the engravings have been stated to be by W. Faithorne the elder [q. v.], but the attribution does not appear to rest on better grounds than a casual surmise of Vertue. He published some other similar works, such as ‘Fontaines et Jets d'Eau dessinés d'après les plus beaux lieux d'Italie,’ and ‘Dessins de Grottes.’
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fane, Ralph

​FANE or VANE, Sir RALPH (d. 1552), executed for alleged conspiracy, was only son of Henry Fane or Vane of Hadlow, Kent, who was sheriff of Kent in 1508, and grandson of Henry Fane or Vane of Hildenborough, Tunbridge. He distinguished himself at the siege of Boulogne in 1544, when he was knighted; was nominated under Henry VIII's will steward (with Sir William Goring) of ‘all my lord of Lincolnes lands,’ and, after fighting under the protector Somerset at Musselburgh in 1547, was created a knight-banneret. As a supporter of the protector he shared the favour of Edward VI, and received from him in 1550 a grant of the manors of Penshurst and Lyghe, the forfeited property of Edward Stafford, duke of Buckingham. In October 1551, when the Duke of Northumberland had resolved on the destruction of Somerset and his supporters, Fane was one of those charged with conspiring to murder Northumberland. He was arrested ‘in a stable of his man's at Lambeth under the straw,’ and sent to the Tower (Edward VI's Journal, 16 Oct.) On 27 Jan. 1551–2 he was put on his trial on the treasonable charge of conspiring to kill various privy councillors, and, in spite of his appeals to his past military services and his strong denial of guilt, he was sentenced to death. The king described him at the trial as ‘answering like a ruffian’ (ib. 27 Jan.). A warrant was signed by Edward, 25 Feb., and Fane was hanged the next day on Tower Hill. Of three companions executed at the same time, Sir Miles Partridge was hanged, and the other two, Sir Thomas Arundell and Sir Michael Stanhope, were beheaded. On the scaffold Fane repeated his plea of innocence, and is said to have added: ‘My blood shall be the duke's bolster as long as he liveth’ (Camden, Remains, quoting ‘Gallica Relatio,’ ed. 1870, pp. 307–8; Heylyn, Reformation, 1674, p. 117). Fane's forfeited manor of Penshurst was immediately bestowed on Sir William Sidney, and all the goods and chattels found in Fane's house at Westminster on Sir John Gate, a creature of Northumberland. Strype states that Elizabeth, Lady Fane or Vane, who proved ‘a liberal benefactor of God's saints’ during the Marian persecution, and often corresponded with Philpot and Bradford, was Fane's widow. She died in Holborn, London, in 1568 (Foxe, Acts and Monuments, 1842, vii. 234; Strype, Eccl. Mem. vol. iii. pt. i. p. 226).
[Nichols's Literary Remains of Edward VI (Roxburghe Club); Hayward's Life of Edward VI; Hasted's Kent, i. 411, 422; Collins's Peerage, ed. Brydges, iii. 284; Bradford's Works (Parker Soc.), vol. ii.; Philpot's Writings (Parker Soc.); Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1547–80.]
S. L. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fane, Robert George Cecil

​FANE, ROBERT GEORGE CECIL (1796–1864), bankruptcy commissioner, thirteenth and youngest child of the Hon. Henry Fane and Anne, daughter of Edward Buckley Batson, and brother of Sir Henry Fane [q. v.], was born 8 May 1796, and educated at the Charterhouse from 1808 to 1813. He matriculated from Balliol College, Oxford, 22 May 1813, and was afterwards a demy and fellow (1824–35) of Magdalen College, Oxford, where he proceeded B.A. 1817 and M.A. 1819. He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn 1 June 1821, and soon enjoyed a considerable practice ​as an equity barrister. In 1823 Lord Eldon appointed him one of the five commissioners of the ‘Thirteenth List,’ and on 2 Dec. 1831 he was nominated by Lord Brougham one of the six commissioners who were to hold office under the new act establishing the court of bankruptcy. In later life his judicial bearing was marked by an eccentricity of manner, but although his decisions were frequently the subject of comment, very few of his judgments were reversed on appeal. He was much interested in railway schemes, and was for some years a director of the Eastern Counties railway. As a member of the Law Amendment Society he was a constant attendant at the weekly meetings in Lancaster Place. Fane was an ardent lover of field sports, and was well known in the Leicester hunts; he was also a patron of the fine arts, and possessed a collection of paintings. He died at the Burdon Hotel, Weymouth, 4 Oct. 1864. He married first, 24 June 1835, Isabella Mary, youngest daughter of Admiral Sir Eliab Harvey, G.C.B.; she died at Rolls Park, Chigwell, 15 Dec. 1838; and secondly, 7 Sept. 1841, Harriet Anne, only daughter of Admiral the Hon. Sir Henry Blackwood, bart.; she died 31 Dec. 1869. By his first wife Fane had no issue. By his second wife he had a son, Cecil Francis William, and two daughters.
Fane was the writer of the following works: 1. ‘Letter addressed to the Attorney-General [Sir John Campbell] on his Bill for the Abolition of Imprisonment for Debt,’ 1837. 2. ‘Bankruptcy Reform, in a series of Letters addressed to Sir R. Peel,’ letters i–iii., 1838. 3. ‘Bankruptcy Reform,’ letters iv–vii., 1838. 4. ‘Observations on the proposed Abolition of Imprisonment for Debts on Mesne Process, in a Letter to Sir R. Peel,’ 1838. 5. ‘Outline of a Plan for Improving the Law of Debtor and Creditor, without Abolishing Imprisonment for Debt,’ 1844. 6. ‘A Letter to Lord Cottenham on the present position of Her Majesty's Commissioners of the Court of Bankruptcy, and suggesting a more extended use of that Court in matters of Account,’ 1846. 7. ‘Bankruptcy Reform, in a series of Letters addressed to W. Hawes, Esq.,’ letters i–iv., 1848. 8. ‘Ministry of Justice; its necessity as an Instrument of Law Reform,’ 1848. 9. ‘Sketch of an Act to Establish Tenant-Right in conformity to the principles suggested in an article in the “Law Review” for November 1848, signed C. F.,’ 1849. 10. ‘Tenant-Right, its necessity as a means of promoting good Farming,’ No. ii. 1849.
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fane, Thomas

Contains subarticle Francis Fane (1583?-1628).
​FANE, Sir THOMAS (d. 1589), politician, was the elder of two Thomas Fanes, the sons of George Fane of Badsell, in the parish of Tudeley, Kent, by his wife Joan, daughter of William Waller of Groombridge in the same county. Having engaged in Sir Thomas Wyatt's rebellion of 1554 he was committed prisoner to the Tower, attainted of high treason, and a warrant issued for his execution; but the queen, pitying his youth, pardoned him by a bill addressed to her chancellor, Stephen Gardiner, from St. James's, on 18 March 1554 (Rymer, Fœdera, edit. 1704–35, xv. 373). A week later he was restored to his liberty and estate (Stow, Annales, edit. 1615, pp. 622, 623). Fane was knighted at Dover Castle 26 Aug. 1573 by Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth. In November 1580 he was appointed a deputy-commissioner within the county of Kent for the increase and breed of horses, and for the keeping of horses and geldings to service (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1547–80, p. 685). When the Armada was expected he did good service in disposing forces along the coast of Kent (ib. 1581–90, pp. 478, 501, 502). He died on 13 March (not on 28 Feb. as on his tomb) 1588–9, and was buried at Tudeley, whence his body was afterwards removed to Mereworth, Kent. His will, signed at Badsell on 7 March 1588–9, was not proved until 10 Feb. 1590–1 (registered in P. C. C. 10, Sainberbe). Fane married, first, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Colepeper of Bedgebury, Kent, who died childless; and secondly, on 12 Dec. 1574, at Birling, Kent, Lady Mary Neville, sole daughter and heiress of Henry, baron Abergavenny, by whom he had a numerous issue. In her right he became possessed of the castle and manor of Mereworth, Kent. His widow, by letters patent bearing date at Westminster on 25 May 1604, was restored to the name, style, and dignity of Baroness Le Despencer and to the heirs of her body, with the ancient seat, place, and precedency of her ancestors. As far back as 1588 she had claimed the barony of Abergavenny against Edward Neville, the heir male. James I compromised the matter by allotting the barony of Le Despencer to the heir general, and the barony of Abergavenny to the heir male (Collins, Baronies by Writ, pp. 61, 136). Papers relating to her case, with copious marginal notes and observations by Lord Burghley, are preserved in the Record Office (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1581–90, pp. 564, 574, 1591–94, p. 404). She died 28 June 1626, aged 72, and was buried with her husband at Mereworth. Their eldest son, Francis Fane, was created K.B. at the coronation of ​James I, 15 July 1603, and was advanced to the titles of Baron Burghersh and Earl of Westmorland 29 Dec. 1624. He died 23 March 1628, aged 45.
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Garrard, Thomas

​GARRARD, THOMAS (1787–1859), biographer, born in 1787, was the eldest son of Thomas Garrard of Lambourne, Berkshire. In 1822 he was elected chamberlain of Bristol, and on 1 Jan. 1836, under the provisions of the Municipal Reform Act, became city treasurer, which office he held until March 1856. He died at Springfield Place, Bath, 18 Dec. 1859, having published in 1852 a 4to volume, entitled 'Edward Colston, the Philanthropist, his Life and Times, including a Memoir of his Father.' This work, the result of a laborious investigation into the archives of Bristol, was edited by Samuel Griffiths Tovey, who issued in 1862 a second edition, 8vo, with a slightly different title. Garrard was twice married, and left issue.
B. H. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Garrard, George

​GARRARD, GEORGE (1760–1826), animal painter and sculptor, was born on 31 May 1760. He became a pupil of Sawrey Gilpin, R.A. [q. v.], and in 1778 a student of the Royal Academy, where in 1781 he first exhibited some pictures of horses and dogs. Three years later he sent with other pictures a ‘View of a Brewhouse Yard,’ which attracted the notice of Sir Joshua Reynolds, who commissioned him to paint a similar picture. In 1793 he exhibited ‘Sheep-shearing at Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire,’ but early in 1795 it occurred to him that models of cattle might be useful to landscape painters, and from this time he combined painting with modelling. This led him in 1797, with the concurrence of the Royal Academy and some of the leading sculptors of the day, to petition parliament in support of a bill for securing copyright in works of plastic art, and in 1798 he was successful in obtaining the passing of ‘An Act for encouraging the Art of making new Models and Casts of Busts, and other Things therein mentioned’ (38 Geo. III. c. 71). In 1800 he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy, and in the same year he published a folio volume with coloured plates, entitled ‘A Description of the different varieties of Oxen common in the British Isles, embellished with engravings; being an accompaniment to a set of models of the improved breeds of Cattle, executed by George Garrard, upon an exact scale from nature, under the patronage of the Board of Agriculture.’ In 1802 he exhibited ‘A Peasant attacked by Wolves in the Snow,’ but after 1804 he appears to have restricted himself almost entirely to sculpture and modelling. He painted both in oil and water colours, and contributed also to the annual exhibitions of the Royal Academy busts, medallions, bas-reliefs, and groups of animals, such as ‘Fighting Bulls’ and ‘An Elk pursued by Wolves,’ sometimes in marble or bronze, but more often in plaster. He exhibited in all 215 works at the Royal Academy, besides a few others at the British Institution and the Society of British Artists. There is at Woburn Abbey a large picture by him representing ‘Woburn Sheep-shearing in 1804,’ and containing eighty-eight portraits of agricultural celebrities. It has considerable merit, and was engraved in aquatint by the artist himself. Garrard died at Queen's Buildings, Brompton, London, on 8 Oct. 1826.
R. E. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Garnock, Robert

​GARNOCK, ROBERT (d. 1681), covenanter, was a native of Stirling, the son of a Blacksmith there. He followed the same occupation. After the restoration of episcopacy in Scotland in 1662, Garnock frequented the presbyterian conventicles. Being required in 1678 to take arms on behalf of the government, he declined, and was obliged to leave Stirling to avoid imprisonment. He went to Glasgow, Falkirk, Bo'ness, and other towns, pursuing his calling as he could find opportunity; but, returning to Stirling, took part in a skirmish with dragoons at Ballyglass, near Fintry, on 8 May 1679. On attempting to re-enter Stirling after the fight he was apprehended and thrown into prison, where he lay until in July following he was removed with a number of other prisoners to Edinburgh, and confined in the Greyfriars churchyard. Here in a small walled-in piece of ground nearly fifteen hundred prisoners were strictly warded, most of whom had been taken after the battle of Bothwell, and among these Garnock exerted himself to prevent them taking the 'test.' He was removed on 25 Oct. for judicial examination, and, on declining to answer certain ​incriminatory questions, was incarcerated in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh. Here he remained, refusing all overtures for compliance, until 7 Oct. 1681, when he was tried before the privy council, and for declining the king's authority was found guilty of treason, and condemned to be executed along with some of his fellows on the 10th of the same month. The sentence was carried out at the Gallowlee, between Edinburgh and Leith, his head and hands being cut off and placed on spikes at the Pleasance port of the town. The bodies of Garnock and his fellow-sufferers were buried at the foot of the gibbet, but during the night they were removed by James Renwick and some friends, and reinterred in the West Church burying-ground of Edinburgh. They also took down the heads of Garnock and the others, in order to place them beside their bodies. But, the day dawning before this could be accomplished, they were compelled to bury them in the garden of a favourer of their cause, named Tweedie, in Lauriston, where in 1728 they were accidentally discovered and interred with much honour in Greyfriars churchyard, near the Martyrs' Tomb. When in prison Garnock wrote an account of his life, from the manuscript of which Mr. John Howie, in his ‘Biographia Scoticana, or Scots Worthies,’ gives several extracts. His dying testimony is printed at length in the ‘Cloud of Witnesses’ (pp. 150–6).
H. P.
# Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Agnes

​Agnes, M. a virgin, 12 or 13 years old, beheaded at Rome under Diocletian, celebrated by Ambrose (de Offic. i. 41; de Virg. ad Marcell. i. 2), Jerome (Ep. 97 ad demetriad.), Augustine (Serm. 273, 286, and 354), Sulp. Sever. (Dial. ii. 14), Prudentius (περὶ Στεφάνων, xiv.), Venant. Fortunatus (Poem. vii. iii. 35), Aldhelm (de Virgin.); and by her Acta in Syriac in Assemani, Act. Mart. ii. 148 seq.; besides Acta falsely attributed to St. Ambrose, a doubtful homily of St. Maxim. Taurin., and some verses questionably assigned to pope Damasus. Her name is in the Carthag. Cal. of c. 450, Jan. 21; in Ruinart, p. 695. A church at Rome, in her honour, said to have been built under Constantine the Great, was repaired by Pope Honorius, A.D. 625‒638, and another was built at Rome by Innocent X. (Assemani, Act. Mart. ii. 154, 155). See also Act. SS. Jan. 21, on which day her name stands in the black-letter calendar of our Prayer-book. Baeda and Usuard place it on Jan. 23; the Menolog. and Menaea on July 5.
[A.W.H.]