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near its centre. 2. The Olympian temple ereeted in honour ofJupiter, the honour of Athens, and of all Greece . 3. The Pan-theon dedicated to all the gods; a most noble structure, supportedby 120 marble pillars, and having over its great gate two horsescarved by Praxiteles. There were two places at Athens , calledCeramicus , one within the city, containing a multitude of build-ings of all sorts ; the other in the suburbs, in which was the aca-demy and other edifices. There were many Gymnasia in Athens ;the most remarkable were the Lyceum, Academia , and Cyno-sarges-

ATHERDEE, or ARDEE, a town of Ireland , 34 miles N.YY. of Dublin . I.on. 6. 40. W. Lat. 53. 54. N.

ATHERINA, in ichthyology, a genus of fishes of the orderof abdominales. The upper jaw plain ; rays of the branchiostegemembrane six; and the side-belt or line shines like silver. Thespecies are five; of which the A. hepsetus, with about 12 rays inthe fin next the anus, is found in the Mediterranean. It isalso very common in the sea near Southampton, where it iscalled a smelt. See Plate VI.

ATHERSTON, or ATHERTON, a town of Warwickshire ,situated on the Stour, three miles from Stratford upon Avon.

ATHESINI, a people of ancient Gaul, mentioned by Pliny ',who dwelt on the banks of the Athesis.

ATiiESIS, in ancient geography, a river of Cisalpine Gaul ,which, rising in the Rhelian Alps, in Mount Brenna, in the countyof Tirol, fails into the Adriatic , between Fossa Claudia and Plu-Iistina. It separated the country of the Euganei, from that ofthe Veneti. It is now called the Adige .

ATIILETrE, Gr. from a-bxo,-, a combat,] in antiquity,

persons of strength and agility, disciplined to perform in the pub-lic games.

ATHLON, [a 9 >.ov, Gr.] in antiquity, the prize adjudged tothe victor in the athletic exercises, at the public games.

ATIILONE, a town of Ireland, ' pleasantly situated on bothsides of the Shannon ; the one half of it lying in the county ofWestmeath, on the Leinster side ; and the other in that of Ros-common, on the Connaught side. It gives title of earl to thefamily of Ginckle. It is 59 miles west from Dublin . Long.7. 41. W. Lat. 53. 22. N.

ATHLOTIIETA, in antiquity, an officer appointed to super-intend the public games, and adjudge the prizes.

ATHNACII, the name of one of the principal of the Hebrew accents, which serves not only to regulate the voice, but to dis-tinguish the members of a sentence ; whence its name atlmach, i. e.respiration.

ATHOL, or ATIIOLL, the most northern district of Perth-shire in Scotland , extending in length 43 miles, and in breadth 30.

ATHOS, a mountain of Chalcidia, in Macedonia , greatly cele-brated in ancient and modern times. The modern Greeks,■struck with its singular situation, and the venerable appearance ofits towering ascent, erected so many churches, monasteries, her-mitages, &c. upon it, that it became in a manner inhabited by de-votees, and from thence received the name of Monte Santo, orHoly Mountain ; which name it still retains, though many ofthose consecrated works are now decayed.

ATHWART, in navigation, is synonymous with across the line•of the course. It is also used in other senses, such as,

Athwart IIause, expresses the situation of a ship, when sheis driven by wind or tide, or any other accident, across the fore-pert of another.

Athwart Shifs, reaching across ships from one side to theother.

Athwart the Fore Foot, denotes the flight of a cannon-ballfrom one ship across the course of another, to intercept the latter,and oblige her to shorten sail, that the former may come nearenough to examine her.

A'i'HY, a town of Ireland , in Kildare, 32 miles S. W. ofDublin ,

ATI BAR, the name by which the inhabitants of Gago in Africa call gold dust; whence the word tibir, which also signifies gold

Ul ATKINS, Sir Robert, born in 1621, and educated at Ox-ford, became eminent in the law. In 1089, he was made by kingWilliam lord chief baron of the exchequer ; and about the sametime executed the office of speaker to the house of lords. He dis-tiiv’uishcd himself by an unshaken zeal for the laws and liberties of

tl his country : and wrote several pieces which have been collectedinto one volume Svo. under the title of Parliamentary'and Poli-tical Tracts. The authors of the Biographia Britannica remark,that “ whoever inclines to be thoroughly informed of the true con-stitution of his country, of the grounds and reasons of the revolu-tion, and of the danger of suffering prerogative to jostle law, can-not read a better or plainer book than those tracts of Sir RobertAtkins.” He died in 1709, aged 88.

ATLANTIC Ocean, that immense sea bounded by Europe and Africa on the E. and by America on the W.

ATLANTIDES, in astronomy, the Pleiades , or seven stars, socalled, as being supposed to have been the daughters of Atlas ,who, the poets said, were translated into heaven.

A PLAN IIS, A FALANTIS, or ATLANTICA, an islandmentioned by Plato and some others of the ancients, concerningthe real existence of which there have been many disputes. TheAtalantis, according to some, wasa large island in the western ocean,situate opposite to the straits of Gades, which at length sunk un-der water.

Atlantis, New', the name of a fictitious philosophical common-wealth, of which a description has been given by lord Bacon .

ATLAS, an ancient king of Mauritania , and a great astrono-mer, supposed to have been contemporary' with Moses . From histaking observations of the stars from a mountain, the poets feignedhim to have been turned into a mountain, and to sustain the hea-vens on his shoulders. Being an excellent astronomer, and thefirst who taught the doctrine of the sphere, they tell us that hisdaughters were turned into stars; seven of them forming thePleiades , and the other seven the Ilyades.

Ati.as, a collection of maps, so called probably from a pictureof Atlas supporting the heavens, prefixed to some collection.

Atlas, in anatomy, the name of the first vertebra of the neck,which supports, the head. It has no spinal apophyses ; becausethe motions of the head do not turn on this vertebra, but on thesecond.

Atlas, in architecture, is a name given to those figures,"or halffigures of men, sometimes used instead of columns, or pilaster's,to support any member of architecture.

Atlas, in commerce, a silk satin , manufactured in the EastIndies.

Atlas, in geography, a chain of mountains in Africa , which se-parate Barbary from Biledulgerid, and arc supposed almost to di-vide the continent from E. to AY. They are said to have derivedtheir name from Atlas king of Mauritania . Nothing perhapswould he more interesting to the curiosity of the philosopher, orconduce more to the improvement of our knowledge in naturalhistory, than a journey over mount Atlas. The climate, thoughextremely cold in winter, is very healthy and pleasant; the valleysare well cultivated, abound in fruits, and are diversified by forestsand plentiful springs, the streams of which uniting at a little dis-tance, form great rivers, and lose themselves in the ocean. Ac-cording to the reports of the Moors, there are many quarries ofmarble, granite, and other valuable stones, in these mountains.—These mountains give name to the Atlantic Ocean , and are situatedbetween 20'' and 25° N. Lat.

Atlas , in mythology, a giant, the eldest son of Neptune, or ac-cording to Ilyginus, of .Ether and Terra, who, being the leader ofthe. Titans, in the war of the Giants against the Gods , was con-demned by J upiter to bear the whole load of the celestial hemis-phere on his shoulders.

ATMOSPHERE, [«r,uS ' J vapour, and <r;>eu»«, a sphere,] alight, thin, elastic fluid, that encompasses the earth on all sides, itcomprises the whole of tiie fluid mass consisting of air, aqueousand other vapours, electric fluids, &c. which surrounds the earthto a considerable height, and partakes of both its diurnal.motion onits axis, and its annual motion round the sun. 'I bis fluid is essen-tial to the existence of all animal and vegetable life, and by insinu-ating itself into all the pores of bodies, it becomes the great springof almost all the mutations to which the chemist and philosopherare witnesses in the changes of bodies. It will readily appt ar, thatthe atmosphere must, upon the whole, be a very heterogeneousmass, since it is the common receptacle of all the effluvia, exhala-tions, and particles, raised from innumerable, bodies upon theearth; hence it lias been compared to a vast chemical vessel inwhich the matter of all kinds of bodies is continually lloating andthus exposed to the action of the sun ; from whence proceed nmu-5 merabl