=Arăbia=, a large country of Asia, forming a peninsula between the Arabian and Persian gulfs. It is generally divided into three different parts, Petræa, Deserta, and Felix. It is famous for its frankincense and aromatic plants. The inhabitants were formerly under their own chiefs, an uncivilized people, who paid adoration to the sun, moon, and even serpents, and who had their wives in common, and circumcised their children. The country has often been invaded, but never totally subdued. Alexander the Great expressed his wish to place the seat of his empire in their territories. The soil is rocky and sandy, the inhabitants are scarce, the mountains rugged, and the country without water. In Arabia, whatever woman was convicted of adultery was capitally punished. The Arabians for some time supported the splendour of literature which was extinguished by the tyranny and superstition which prevailed in Egypt, and to them we are indebted for the invention of algebra, or the application of signs and letters to represent lines, numbers, and quantities, and also for the numerical characters of 1, 2, 3, &c., first used in Europe, A.D. 1253.――_Herodotus_, bks. 1, 2, 3.――_Diodorus_, bks. 1 & 2.――_Pliny_, bks. 12 & 14.――_Strabo_, bk. 16.――_Xenophon._ ――_Tibullus_, bk. 2, poem 2.――_Curtius_, bk. 5, ch. 1.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 57.――――Also the name of the wife of Ægyptus. _Apollodorus._ =Arabĭcus sinus=, a sea between Egypt and Arabia, different, according to some authors, from the Red sea, which they supposed to be between Æthiopia and India, and the Arabian gulf further above, between Egypt and Arabia. It is about 40 days’ sail in length, and not half a day’s in its most extensive breadth. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 11.――_Strabo._ =Arăbis=, =Arabius=, =Arbis=, an Indian river. _Curtius_, bk. 9, ch. 10. =Arabs= and =Arăbus=, a son of Apollo and Babylone, who first invented medicine, and taught it in Arabia, which is called after his name. _Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 56. =Aracca= and =Arecca=, a city of Susiana. _Tibullus_, bk. 4, poem 1. =Arachne=, a woman of Colophon, daughter to Idmon a dyer. She was so skilful in working with the needle, that she challenged Minerva, the goddess of the art, to a trial of skill. She represented on her work the amours of Jupiter with Europa, Antiope, Leda, Asteria, Danae, Alcmene, &c.; but though her piece was perfect and masterly, she was defeated by Minerva, and hanged herself in despair, and was changed into a spider by the goddess. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, fable 1, &c.――――A city of Thessaly. =Arachosia=, a city of Asia, near the Massagetæ. It was built by Semiramis.――――One of the Persian provinces beyond the Indus. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 23.――_Strabo_, bk. 11.