Stephanus, a physician of Tralles--who were all more or less
eminent in their respective departments. Dioscorus followed his father's
profession in his native place; Alexander became at Rome one of the most
celebrated medical men of his time; Olympius was deeply versed in Roman
jurisprudence; and Metrodorus was one of the distinguished grammarians
of the great Eastern capital. It is related of Anthemius that, having a
quarrel with his next-door neighbour Zeno, he annoyed him in two ways.
First, he made a number of leathern tubes the ends of which he contrived
to fix among the joists and flooring of a fine upper-room in which Zeno
entertained his friends, and then subjected it to a miniature earthquake
by sending steam through the tubes. Secondly, he simulated thunder and
lightning, the latter by flashing in Zeno's eyes an intolerable light
from a slightly hollowed mirror. Certain it is that he wrote a treatise
on burning-glasses. A fragment of this was published under the title
[Greek: Peri paradoxon maechonaematon] by L. Dupuy in 1777, and also
appeared in 1786 in the forty-second volume of the _Hist. de l'Acad. des
Inscr_.; A. Westermann gave a revised edition of it in his [Greek:
Paradoxographoi] (_Scriptores rerum mirabilium Graeci_), 1839. In the
course of constructions for surfaces to reflect to one and the same
point (1) all rays in whatever direction passing through another point,
(2) a set of parallel rays, Anthemius assumes a property of an ellipse
not found in Apollonius (the equality of the angles subtended at a focus
by two tangents drawn from a point), and (having given the focus and a
double ordinate) he uses the focus and directrix to obtain any number of
points on a parabola--the first instance on record of the practical use
of the directrix.

On Anthemius generally, see Procopius, _De Aedific_. i. 1; Agathias,
_Hist_. v. 6-9; _Gibbon's Decline and Fall_, cap. xl. (T. L. H.)

ANTHESTERIA, one of the four Athenian festivals in honour of Dionysus,
held annually for three days (11th-13th) in the month of Anthesterion
(February-March). The object of the festival was to celebrate the
maturing of the wine stored at the previous vintage, and the beginning
of spring. On the first day, called _Pithoigia_ (opening of the casks),
libations were offered from the newly opened casks to the god of wine,
all the household, including servants and slaves, joining in the
festivities. The rooms and the drink