AGRICOLA, CnaeusJulius, was born at Forum Julii, now Frefus, in Provence, 37 a.d., and was in Vespasian’s time made lieutenant to Vettius Bolanus in Britain. Upon his return he was ranked by that emperor among the patricians, and made governor of Aquitania. This post he held for three years; he then was recalled to Rome, and chosen consul, Britain being assigned to him as his province (78 A.D.) Here he reformed many abuses created by his predecessors, put a stop to extortion, and caused justice to be impartially administered. In the spring of 79 he marched towards the north, where he made new conquests, and ordered forts to be built for the Romans to winter in. He spent the following winter in concerting schemes to bring the Britons to conform to the Roman customs. He thought the best way of diverting them from their warlike propensities was to soften their rough manners by proposing to them new kinds of pleasure, and inspiring them with a desire of imitating the Roman manners. He encouraged the erection of magnificent temples, porticoes, baths, and other fine buildings. The British nobles at length had their sons educated; and they who before had the utmost aversion to the Roman language now began to study it with great assiduity. They likewise adopted the Roman dress; and, as Tacitus observes, they were brought to consider those things as marks of politeness which were only so many badges of slavery. Agricola, in his third campaign, advanced as far as the Solway; and in his fourth he subdued the nations betwixt the Solway and the friths of Forth and Clyde, into which the rivers Bodotria and Glotta discharged themselves; and here he built a chain of fortresses to check the nations yet unconquered. In his fifth he fixed garrisons along the western coasts, over against ...Ireland. In his sixth campaign he passed the river Bodotria; ordering his fleet, the first which the Romans ever had in those parts, to row along the coasts and take a view of the northern parts. The fleet sailed round by the northern and western coasts, and first proved Britain to be an island. In the following spring, the Britons raised an army of 30,000 men, under the command of Galgacus, to oppose the invaders. In the engagement that ensued at the foot of the Grampians the Romans gained the victory, and 10,000 of the Britons are said to have been killed. This happened in the reign of the emperor Domitian, who, growing jealous of the glory of Agricola, recalled him, under pretence of making him governor of Syria. Agricola was in Britain fully seven years, from 78 to 85 a.d.; and he died on the 23d August, 93 a.d., when he had attained the age of 55. Agricola was a man of great integrity; he possessed high military talents, together with administrative abilities of the first rank. The Life of Agricola, written by his son-in-law, the historian Tacitus, is a model of simple and dignified biography.
AGRICOLA, Christopπ Ludwig, landscape-painter, was born at Regensburg on the 5th Nov. 1667, and died at the same place in 1719. He spent a great part of his life in travel, visiting England, Holland, and France, and residing for a considerable period at Naples. His numerous landscapes, chiefly cabinet pictures, are remarkable for fidelity to nature, and especially for their skilful representation of varied phases of climate. In composition his style shows the influence of Caspar Poussin, while in light and colour he imitates Claude Lorraine. His pictures are to be found in Dresden, Brunswick, Vienna, Florence, Naples, and many other towns of both Germany and Italy.
AGRICOLA (originally Landmann), Georg, a famous mineralogist, born at Glauchau in Saxony, on the 24th March 1494. After studying at Leipsic and in Italy, he practised for some time as a physician at Joachimsthal in Bohemia. In 1531 he was enabled to gratify his natural inclination towards the study of geology and mineralogy by removing to the mining district of Chemnitz in Saxony, where he had been appointed professor of chemistry. The results of his laborious investigations are chiefly to be found in his great work De Re Metallica (Basle, 1546), which describes minutely the various methods of mining, of raising and dressing the ore, and of smelting, and contains a number of curious woodcuts. It has been several times reprinted, and a German translation by Lehmann appeared at Freyberg in 1806-10. He also wrote De Ortu et Causis Subterraneorum, De Animantibus Subterraneorum, De Natura Fossilium, besides other works. Agricola was the first to raise mineralogy to the dignity of a science, and he developed it to such an extent that no substantial advance was made upon his results until the middle of the 18th century. He died at Chemnitz on the 21st November 1555.
AGRICOLA, Johann Friedrich, musician, was born at Dobitschen in Saxe-Altenburg, on the 4th Jan. 1720, and died in 1774. While a student of law at Leipsic he studied music under John Sebastian Bach. In 1741 he went to Berlin, where he placed himself under Quanz for instruction in musical composition. He was soon generally recognised as one of the most skilful organists of his time. In 1759, on the death of Graun, he was appointed kapellmeister to Frederick II. He composed several operas of great merit, as well as instrumental pieces and church music. His reputation chiefly rests, however, on his theoretical and critical writings on musical subjects.
AGRICOLA (originally Schnitter or Schneider), Johannes, one of the foremost of the German reformera, was born on the 20th April 1492, at Eisleben, whence he is sometimes called Magister Islebius. He studied at Wittenberg, where he soon gained the friendship of Luther. In 1519 he accompanied Luther to the great assembly of German divines at Leipsic, and acted as recording secretary. After teaching for some time in Wittenberg, he went to Frankfort in 1525 to establish the worship according to the reformed religion. He had resided there only a month when he was induced to go to Eisleben, where he remained till 1526 as teacher in the school of St Andrew, and preacher in the Nicolai church, enjoying great popularity in the latter capacity. In 1536 he was recalled to Wittenberg to fill a professorial chair, and was welcomed by Luther. Almost immediately afterwards, however, a controversy, which had been begun ten years before and been temporarily silenced, broke out afresh with greater violence. Agricola was the first to teach the views which Luther was the first to stigmatise by the now well-known name Antinomian. He held that while the unregenerate were still under the law, Christians were entirely free from it, being under the gospel alone. He denied that Christians owed subjection to any part of the law, even the Decalogue, as a rule of life. Luther conducted the argument with his usual vehemence, and there was in the heat of controversy probably a good deal of misrepresentation on both sides. In 1540 Agricola left Wittenberg secretly for Berlin, where he published a letter addressed to the elector of Saxony, which was generally interpreted as a recantation of his obnoxious views. Luther, however, seems not to have so accepted it, and Agricola remained at Berlin. The elector Joachim II. of Brandenburg having taken him into his favour, appointed him court preacher and general superintendent. He held both offices until his death in 1566, and his career in Brandenburg was one of great activity and great influence. Along with tho Catholic bishops Von Pflug and Michael Halding he prepared the Augsburg Interim of 1548. Agricola wrote a number of theological works which are now of little interest. He was the first to make a collection of German proverbs, which he illustrated with an appropriate commentary. The most complete edition is that published at Wittenberg in 1592.
AGRICOLA, Rodolphus (originally Roelof Huys-mann), a distinguished scholar, born at Bafflo, near Gröningen, in 1443. He was educated at Louvain, where he graduated as master of arts. After residing for some time in Paris, he went in 1476 to Ferrara in Italy, and attended the lectures of the celebrated Theodore Gaza on the Greek language. Having visited Pavia and Rome, he returned to his native country about 1479, and was soon afterwards appointed syndic of Gröningen. In 1482, on the invitation of Dalberg, bishop of Worms, whose friendship he had gained in Italy, he accepted a professorship at Heidelberg, and for three years delivered lectures in that university and at Worms on the literature of Greece and Rome. By his personal influence much more than by his writings he did a great deal for the promotion of learning in Germany. Hallam says that “no German wrote so pure a style, or possessed so large a portion of classical learning;" and the praises of Erasmus and other critics of the generation immediately succeeding Agricola’s are unstinted. In his opposition to the scholastic philosophy he seems to have in some degree anticipated the coming of that great revolution in which many of his pupils were conspicuous actors. He died at Heidelberg in 1485. His principal work is the De Inventione Dialectica, in which he attempts to change the scholastic philosophy of the day. (See Vita et Merita Rudolphi Agricolae, by T. F. Tresling, Groningen, 1830).
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