RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Aram Arcani
die am Urmia-See und in Kurdistan, Leipsic, 1868; idem, Kurzgefasste syrische Grammatik, Leipsic, 1898; S. D. Luzzato ElementigrammaticalidelCaldeobiblico e del dialetto lalmldico babUonese, Padua, 1865, Eng. transl. by G. Goldammer New York, 1877; E. Kautzsch, Grammatik des bib- Uschen Aramaischen, Leipsic, 1884; J. Levy, Chaldaisches Wtirterbuch uber die Targumim und einen grossen Theil des rabbinischen Schriftthums, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1867-68; C Brockelmann, Lexicon Syriacum, Berlin, 1895; R. Payne Smith and J Payne Smith (Mrs. Margoliouth), Comvendious Syriac Dictionary, Oxford, 1903; A. Meyer, Jesu Muttersprache, Freiburg, 1896 For the Aramaic and Nabatsean inscriptions, CIS, i. and ii. For the important inscriptions of Senjirli in northern Syria, D. H. Miiller, Die alien semitischen Inschriften von Sendschirli, Vienna, 1893- Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli, in Mitlheilungen des kbniglichen Museums, Berlin, 1893 sqq. On the extent of the Aramean settlements and their possessions in northern Palestine consult: Schrader, KAT, pp. 28-29, 36, 182 232, 239; and H. Winckler, Orientalische Forschungen, vol. ill., part 3, Leipsic, 1905.
ARATOR, a-re'-ter: Christian poet of the middle of the sixth century. He was a Ligurian of noble family, and was educated by the archbishop Laurentius at Milan; the poet Ennodius was his friend, and the latter's nephew Parthenius was Arator's fellow student at Ravenna. He chose a diplomatic career and for a time acted as comes domesticorum, and afterward as comes privatorum of the Ostrogothic king Athalaric. He then entered the priesthood and was made subdeacon at Rome by Pope Vigilius, to whom he dedicated his epico-didactic . poem, De actibus apostolorum libri ii. (read in public in 544) In 1076 and 1250 hexameters he describes the deeds of the apostles to the martyrdom of Peter and Paul, taking the Acts of Luke as a basis. He treats his subject with some poetical skill and with rich allegorical expositions, which are often in bad taste. He aims to show the superiority of Peter to Paul, and the work contains traces of Mariolatry, hagiolatry, and relic-worship. An epistle of Arator's to Vigilius, a second to an abbot Florianus, and a third to his early friend Parthenius are also extant. His main work was much read in the Middle Ages, and exists in many manuscripts of the tenth and eleventh centuries. It and the letters are in MPL, lxviii. 46-252, and there is an edition by A. Hubner, Neisse, 1850.
K. Leimbach.
Bibliography: K. Leimbach, Ueber den Dichter Arator, in TSK, xlvi. (1873) 225 sqq., and the works on Latin literature.
ARCADIUS, or-ke'-di-us, FLAVIUS: Eastern Roman emperor 383-408; b. in Spain, about 377; d. at Constantinople May 1, 408. He was the elder son of the emperor Theodosius and the empress iElia Flavilla, and was educated in secular sciences at Constantinople by the sophist Themistius, and by Arsenius, an ascetic, in the Christian religion. In 383 his father conferred upon him the title of Augustus, and in 384 he was made consul. When in 394 Theodosius went to the West to over throw the usurper Eugenius, the government was left in care of Arcadius, with the assistance of the minister Rufinus. By the unexpected death of the emperor, Jan. 17, 395, at Milan, Arcadius became emperor of the East. By nature good-hearted and yielding, also without energy and narrow-minded, he became the weak tool of those who knew how to obtain his favor, above all of Rufinus, a cunning I.-17
and unprincipled Gaul, and, after his murder, of the eunuch Eutropius, who covered his selfish atrocities with the name of the lawful ruler, and finally till his fall (399) united all power in himself. Arcadius was also influenced by his wife Eudocia, the beautiful daughter of Bauto, a Frank. Under him the Byzantine empire assumed that oriental character, which it subsequently retained. His piety was sincere, and he worshiped the relics of saints and martyrs devoutly. Even before he was sole regent he interdicted the public worship, instruction, and organization of the heretics (Cod. Theod., XVI. v. 24; a. 394), and in the following year withdrew all former privileges (XVI. v. 25). Investigations had to be made for heretics in the imperial chancery, and among the court-officials (XVI. v. 29). Closely connected with this was his procedure against polytheism. In 397 he ordered that the material from temples in Syria should be used for the repair or construction of public roads, bridges, aqueducts, and walls (XV- i. 36), and in 399 he issued an order to the prefect of the East to destroy all rural sanctuaries. In all this Chrysostom was his hearty supporter. The most important result was probably the destruction of the Marneion and of seven other temples in Gaza in 401 (cf. the interesting account in Marcus's life of Porphyrius, bishop of Gaza, and J. Draseke, Gesammelte patristische V nter suchungen, Leipsic, 1889, pp. 208 sqq.). Yet it can not be said that Hellenism suffered much under Arcadius; compared with the policy of Theodosius, there was even a certain relaxation (cf. V. Schultze, Geschichte des Unterganges des griechischromischen Heidentums, i., Jena, 1887, 353 sqq., ii., 1892, passim). Toward the Jews Arcadius was surprisingly friendly, and it has been suspected that they secured the favor of Eutropius by money. They had a jurisdiction of their own similar to that of the bishops, and the right of sanctuary analogous to the ecclesiastical (Cod. Theod., II. i. 10; IX. xlv 2; cf. Graetz, Geschichte der Juden, iv. 387 sqq.). Seditions from within, and inroads of the barbarians from without, made the rule of the weak emperor a sad chapter of Byzantine history, which, however, must not be judged wholly according to the unfriendly or hostile heathen sources (especially Eunapius and Zosimus) Quite a number of reforms were decreed during his government which is also not lacking in other good measures.
Victor Schultze.
Bibliography: The sources are in the writings of Zosimus, Philostorgius, Socrates, Sozomen, and Chrysostom; consult further Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap, xxxi .; S. R. Sievers, Studien zur Geschichte der romischen Kaiser, 335 sqq., Berlin, 1870; F. W. TJnger, Quellen zur byzantinischenKunstgeschichte, vol. i., Vienna, 1878; A. Guldenpen ■ ■ ning, Geschichte des ostrbmischen Reiches unter den Kaisern Arcadius und Theodosius II., Halle, 1885; A. Puech, St. Jean Chrysostome et les mmurs de son temps . Paris, 1891, C. W. C. Oman, Story of the Byzantine Empire, London, 1892.
ARCANI DISCIPLINA ("Instruction in the [Sacred] Secret," i.e., initiation jinto the mystery): A term first applied by Dallaeus and G. T. Meier to the practise of maintaining a studied reticence (fides silentii) concerning the form and character of introduction into the Church, as if this were
Arcani Archbishop