hich the antipope Anacletus II. crowned Count Roger II. king of Sicily and
Apulia. Avellino is the junction of lines to Benevento and Rocchetta S.
Antonio. The name is derived from the ancient Abellinum, the ruins of which
lie 2-1/2 m. north-east, close to the village of Atripalda, and consist of
remains of city walls and an amphitheatre in _opus reticulatum_, _i.e._ of
the early imperial period, when Abellinum appears to have been the chief
place of a tribe, to which belonged also the independent communities of the
_Abellinates cognomine Protropi_ among the Hirpini, and the _Abellinates
cognominati Marsi_ among the Apulians (Nissen, _Italische Landeskunde_, ii.
822). It lay on the boundary of Campania and the territory of the Hirpini,
at the junction of the roads from Nola (and perhaps also from Suessula) and
Salernum to Beneventum.

The Monte Vergine (4165 ft.) lies 4 m. to the N.W. of Avellino; upon the
summit is a sanctuary of the Virgin, founded in 1119, which contains a
miraculous picture attributed to S. Luke (the greatest festival is on the
8th of September). The present church is baroque in style, but contains
some works of art of earlier periods. The important archives have been
transported to Naples.

(T. AS.)

AVEMPACE [Abu Bakr Mu[h.]ammad ibn Ya[h.]ya, known as Ibn B[=a]jja or Ibn
[S.]a'igh, _i.e._ son of the goldsmith, the name being corrupted by the
Latins into Avempace, Avenpace or Aben Pace], the earliest and one of the
most distinguished of the Arab philosophers of Spain. Little is known of
the details of his life. He was born probably at Saragossa towards the
close of the 11th century. According to Ibn Kh[=a]q[=a]n, a contemporary
writer, he became a student of the exact sciences and was also a musician
and a poet. But he was a philosopher as well, and apparently a sceptic. He
is said to have rejected the Koran, to have denied the return to God, and
to have regarded death as the end of existence. But even in that orthodox
age he became vizier to the amir of Murcia. Afterwards he went to Valencia,
then to Saragossa. After the fall of Saragossa (1119) he went to Seville,
then to Xativa, where he is said to have returned to Islam to save his
life. Finally he retired to the Almoravid court at Fez, where he was
poisoned in 1138. Ibn 'Usaibi'a gives a list of twenty-five of his works,
but few of these remain. He had a distinct influence upon Averroes (see
ARABIAN PHILOSOPHY).

For his life see McG. de S