Augmenter

One who increases or augments. Au Gres' in Michigan, a post-office of Arena co. Augsburg, (anc. August a Vindelicorum,) a city of S. Germany, cap of Suabia, in the kingdom of Bavaria. It is wituated on a large and fertile plain watered by the rivers Wertach and Lech, 35 m. N.W. of Munich. A. was for ages one of the richest, most commercial, and powerful of the free cities of the German empire. The streets are narrow, but highly picturesque, and the architecture of its buildings preserves to a singular degree the quaint and ornate characteristics of the middle ages. Among them may be noted the Cathedral, Arsenal, Abbey of St. Ulric, and the Town-Hall, one of the finest edifices in Germany. At one of the educational gymnasiums here, Prince Louis Napoleon, after Napoleon III., Emperor of the French, received his early education. A. po e es a fine library, an academy of arts, a polytechnic society, .- Manf. Woollens, cottons, linens, paper, gold-lace, jewelry, printing-types, . A.'s greatest commercial importance, however, arose from its being, next to Frankfort, the chief seat of banking and exchange operations in Central Europe. A large trade is carried on in engraving, printing, and book-selling; and the celebrated All gem eine Zeitung, a leading journal of Germany, was published first in 1798. A. was once of much greater population and importance than it is at present. It was founded by the Roman emperor August us, 12 B. c. In the middle ages it became early distinguished for its trade, and in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries, its citizens-as for example the Fugger family, who rose from simple burghers to be princes of the empire - attained to almost regal power and opulence. A. has been the theatre of many memorable events. In addition to the proceedings of the Diet, with respect to the memorable Oonfe ion of Faith, (q. v..) there, in 1530, was concluded the peace which guaranteed the full enjoyment of their rights and liberties to the Protestants. A. con tinued to be a free city until 1806, when Napoleon ceded pa ed 307 в. с., opened the pontifical and the augurial it to Bavaria. Pop . (1897) about 75,000. IMG:content-0415.png:[ocr errors][merged small] colleges to the plebeians. In the latter, 5 plebeians were a ociated with 4 patricians; and this number remained to the time of Sylla, 81 B. c., who increased it to 15. In 29. B. c., the extraordinary power was conferred upon August us of electing A. at his pleasure; and in 309 A. D., the office was abolished. -v.i. To gue ; to conjecture by signs and omens; to prognosticate. "My pow'r 's a crescent, and my aug'ring hope Says it will come to the full."- Shaks . -v. a. To foretell; to predict; to presage; to forebode; as, to augur bad weather.