Mary Astell' and 'Athenais' From Mary Hays, Female Biography (1803) in Memoirs of Women Writers, Part III

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p. 238, ll. 810:Aspasia is accused the Samian and Megarian wars: Te accusation regardingSamos is found in Plutarch,Life of Pericles,25.1. In section 30.35 Plutarch discusses theMegarian decree, and while he quotes the Greek comic passage (Aristophanes, Achar-nians, 52439, dated to 425 ) in which Aspasia is implicated, he does not assess the

passages veracity. Plutarch, in Life of Pericles, 24.2, notes the accusation that Aspasiainstigated the Samian war; it is generally attributed to the fourth-century historiog-rapher Duris of Samos (FGrH76, F65).

p. 238, l. 12:Priene: a powerful Greek city in Asia Minor.p. 239, l. 1: Xenophon: (c.430354 ), an essayist, soldier and composer of Socratic dia-

logues.p. 239, l. 6:a man of obscure birth: Aspasia is said to have married the sheep-dealer Lysicles: see

Plutarch,Life of Pericles, 24.6, citing Aeschines of Sphettos as the source.

p. 239, ll. 1213:a merchant of Newcastle-upon yne:Peter Astell (163878), a coal merchant.p. 239, l. 12: 1668: we now know that Mary Astell was born on 12 November 1666.p. 239, l. 16: her uncle: her paternal uncle, Ralph Astell (d. 1679), curate of St Nicholass,

Newcastle-upon-yne.p. 240, l. 23:A lady of fortune: Princess Anne of Denmark, later Queen Anne (16651714), an

active supporter of womens causes and defender of the Church of England, to whomASerious Proposal to the Ladies, Part II(London: R. Wilkin, 1697), is dedicated.

p. 241, l. 4:Burnet: Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury (16431715), an advocate of concili-ation between the Church of England and Protestant dissenters.

p. 241, l. 8:John Norris: (16571711), rector of Bemerton, Wiltshire, a member of the Cam-bridge Platonist circle and critic of John Lockes empirical philosophy, who corresponded

with Astell and Damaris Masham (see Hays,Female Biography, vol. 5, pp. 4927).p. 242, l. 8:a humorous essay in defence of her sex: Hays, like her sources, erroneously ascribes

the authorship of this pamphlet to Astell: recent scholarship attributes the work to

Judith Drake.p. 242, l. 10:scientical studies: Astell studied with John Flamsteed at the Royal Observatory

in Greenwich, 16978. Hayss source for this is unknown.p. 242, l. 19:Xenophon: (c.430c.354 ), an essayist, soldier and composer of Socratic dia-

logues.p. 242, l. 19: Plato: (424/423 348/347 ), a Greek philosopher, mathematician and

student of Socrates known for his philosophical dialogues.p. 242, l. 19:Hierocles: a Stoic philosopher known for his book, Elements of Ethics.p. 242, l. 20: ully: Marcus ullius Cicero (10643 ), a Roman author, politician, lawyer,

orator and philosopher.p. 242, l. 20: Seneca: Lucius Annaeus Seneca (c.4 65), philosopher, politician and

playwright; tutor and adviser to the emperor Nero.p. 242, l. 20: Epictetus: ( 55135), a Greek sage and Stoic philosopher whose teachings

were published by Arrian inDiscourses of Epictetus.

p. 242, l. 20:M. Antoninus: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ( 12180), Stoic philosopher andRoman emperor, author ofMeditations.

p. 242, l. 24:A recent disappointment: Hays here follows Ballard (Memoirs, p. 450n), thoughno subsequent biographer has been able to identify her possible suitor.

p. 243, ll. 12: Tis production provoked malignity: Astell responded to her critics in thethird, not the second, edition of Some Reections upon Marriage, to which is Added a

Preface, in Answer to Some Objections,3rd edn (London: R. Wilkin, 1706). Hays maybe referring to the sharp satirical attacks on Astell in 1709, when she was portrayed as


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p. 252, l. 27:Eudocia: Aelia Eudocia. Eudocia meant good will (especially of God). Aelia wasthe nomen of Teodosiuss inuential sister (Aelia Pulcheria) and their mother (AeliaEudoxia). John Malalas, Chronographia, 14. 353, 355, TePaschal Chronicles, s.a. 420,Cedrenus, Compendium of History,I.590, Zonaras,Epitome of History, XIII.22. For theCoin evidence, see J. Sabatier,Descriptions Gnrales des Monnaies Byzantines (Paris, Rol-lin et Feuardent, 1862),I.1202.

p. 252, l. 27: Atticus: Became Archbishop of Constantinople in 406 (d. 426). He isvenerated as a saint in the Orthodox Church.

p. 253, ll. 57: the birth of a daughter emperor of the West: She bore three children, LiciniaEudoxia (ad 42262), Flacilla (d. 431) and Arcadius: see Marcellinus Comes, Chroni-cle, s.a. 422, 431. Licinia Eudoxia was the wife of two emperors of the Western RomanEmpire: Valentinian III (r. 42555) and his successor Petronius Maximus (r. 455).

p. 253, l. 19:Daniel and Zachariah: prophets of the Hebrew Bible.p. 253, l. 20:a cento Homer: A Homeric cento is a new poem stitched together entirely fromlines or half-lines from HomersIliadand Odyssey. Eudocia herself tells us that this work

was based on an incomplete work by Patricius (who is otherwise unknown). We havenearly 800 lines as well as a paraphrase by Photius (Library, 184) of Eudocias epic poemon the martyrdom of St Cyprian. Another hexameter poem by Eudocia was discovered insitu at the ruins of the baths at Hammat Gader in Israel. See J. Green and Y. safrir, GreekInscriptions from Hammat Gader: A Poem by the Empress Eudocia and wo BuildingInscriptions,Israel Exploration Journal, 32:23 (1982), pp. 7796, on pp. 778.

p. 253, l. 21: Christ: Jesus, Christian messiah.p. 253, l. 22: St. Cyprian: (d. 258), Bishop of Carthage, writer, and martyr.p. 253, ll. 237: Her writings imperial criticism: E. Gibbon, Te History of the Decline and

Fall of the Roman Empire(London: W. Strahan and . Cadell, 1776), vol. 5, ch. 32.p. 253, l. 27p. 254, l. 4: Who, asksDu Pin studies?:Biographium Faemineum, p. 32.

p. 254, l. 12:Antioch: Te encomium in praise of Antioch was delivered there in 438. SeeTePaschal Chronicle, 585.7, Evagrius Scholasticus, History of the Church, 1.20, Nice-

phorus Callistus,History of the Church, 14.50.p. 254, l. 18:Helena: Flavia Iulia Helena Augusta (c. 248330), consort of Emperor Con-

stantius, mother of Constantine the Great.p. 254, l. 26:abb Guene: Antoine Gune (17171803), French scholar and expert on Pal-

estine and Jewish history.p. 256, l. 15: Cyrus: A Greek poet from Panopolis who won the important political posts of

Prefect of the City ( i.e. Constantinople) in 437 and Praetorian Prefect of the East in 439. He held both posts until 441 when he was banished to an insignicant rolein the church (Bishop of Cotyaeum in Phrygia): Suda s.v. Cyrus; John Lydus, On the

Magistrates, II.12; John Malalas, Chronographia, 14. 361.p. 256, l. 18: suspicions injurious to her honour: Most sources connect her banishment to the

story of the affair with Paulinus: see Marcellinus, s.a. 440; John Malalas, Chronographia,

14. 3568; Nestorius,Book of Heraclides(1925), p. 331.p. 256, l. 27p. 257, l. 1: wo ecclesiastics Saturninus: In 444 Eudocia killed Saturninus,

an offi cer of Teodosius who had murdered two of her priests (Priscus, fr. 8, Mller,FHG 4.94).

p. 257, ll. 234: by some historians: Cave and Dupin disagree on the return of Eudocia toConstantinople and Teodosius, seeBiographium Faeminium.

p. 258, l. 8: 460: Of Hayss sources, theBiographium Faeminiumgives 460 (according toDupin) or 459 (according to Cave). Gibbon notes she was sixty-seven when she died.

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Mary Astell' and 'Athenais' From Mary Hays, Female Biography (1803) in Memoirs of Women Writers, Part III