by them from the Siculians, others apparently new settlements. Little historical dependence can of course be placed on these statements, but they were probably meant to distinguish the cities in question from those which were designated by tradition as of Pelasgian origin, or colonies of Alba. Sallust (Cat. 6) speaks of the Aborigines as a rude people, without fixed laws or dwellings, but this is probably a mere rhetorical exaggeration: it is clear that Varro at least regarded them as possessed of fortified towns, temples, oracles, &c.; and the native traditions of the Latins concerning Janus and Saturn indicate that they had acquired all the primitive arts of civilisation before the period of the supposed Trojan colony. [E. H. B] ABORRHAS. [CHABORAS.] ABRAUANNUS (Aspaovávvos, Ptol. ii. 3. § 2), a river of Britannia Barbara, which discharged itself a little northward of the Promontorium Novantum, or Mull of Galloway into Luce-Bay. Abravannus is probably the stream which flows through Loch Ryan into the sea-Ab-Ryan, or the offspring of Byan, being easily convertible into the Roman form of the word Ab-Ryan-us-Abravannus. [W. B. D.] ABRETTE'NE. [MYSIA.] ABRINCATUI, a Gallic tribe (Plin. iv. 18), not mentioned by Caesar, whose frontier was near the Curiosolites. Their town Ingena, called Abrincatae in the Notitia Imperii, has given its name to the modern Avranches; and their territory would probably correspond to the division of Avranchin. [G. L.] ABRO'TONUM ('Aspóтovov), a Phoenician city on the coast of N. Africa, in the district of Tripolitana, between the Syrtes, usually identified with SABRATA, though Pliny makes them different places. (Scylax, p. 47; Strab. p. 835; Steph. B. s. v.; Plin. v. 4.) [P. S.] ABSYRTIDES or APSY'RTIDES ('Avpríões: Eth. 'Ayupreus, "Alupros: Cherso and Osero), the name of two islands off the coast of Illyricum, so called because, according to one tradition, Absyrtus was slain here by his sister Medea and by Jason. Ptolemy mentions only one island APSORRUS ("Avoppos), on which he places two towns Crepsa (Kpéya) and Apsorrus. (Strab. p. 315; Steph. Byz. s. v.; Mel. ii. 7; Plin. iii. 26; Ptol. ii. 16. § 13.) ABUS (8A6us) or ABA (Plin. v. 24. s. 20), a mountain in Armenia, forming a part of the E. prolongation of the Anti-Taurus chain, and separating the basins of the Araxes and of the Arsanias or S. branch of the Euphrates (Murad). The latter of these great rivers rises on its S. side, and, according to Strabo, the former also rises on its N. eide. According to this statement, the range must be considered to begin as far W. as the neighbourhood of Erzeroom, while it extends E. to the Araxes S. of Artaxata. Here it terminates in the great isolated peak, 17,210 feet high, and covered with perpetual snow, which an almost uniform tradition has pointed out as the Ararat of Scripture (Gen. viii. 4), and which is still called Ararat or AgriDagh, and, by the Persians, Kuh-i-Nuh (mountain of Noah): it is situated in 39° 42' N. lat., and 44° 35' E. long. This summit forms the culminating point of W. Asia. The chain itself is called Ala-dagh. (Strab. pp. 527, 531; Ptol. v. 13.) [P.S.] ABUS (ACos, Ptol. ii. 3. § 6: Humber), one of the principal rivers, or rather estuaries in the Roman province of Maxima Caesariensis in Britain. It re German Ocean south of Ocelum Promontorium (Spurn Head). Its left bank was inhabited by the Celtic tribe, whom the Romans entitled Parisi, but according to a medieval poet cited by Camden, no great town or city anciently stood on its banks. [W. B. D.] ABUSI'NA, ABUSENA, a town of Vindelicia, situated on the river Abens, and corresponding nearly to the modern Abensberg. Abusina stood near to the eastern termination of the high road which ran from the Roman military station Vindenissa on the Aar to the Danube. Roman walls are still extant, and Roman remains still discovered at Abensberg. [W. B. D.] ABY'DUS. 1. (A6udos, Abydum, Plin. v. 32: Eth. 'A6uonvós, Abydenus), a city of Mysia on the Hellespontus, nearly opposite Sestus on the European shore. It is mentioned as one of the towns in alliance with the Trojans. (Il. ii. 836.) Aidos or Avido, a modern village on the Hellespont, may be the site of Abydos, though the conclusion from a name is not certain. Abydus stood at the narrowest point of the Hellespontus, where the channel is only 7 stadia wide, and it had a small port. It was probably a Thracian town originally, but it became a Milesian colony. (Thuc. viii. 61.) At a point a little north of this town Xerxes placed his bridge of boats, by which his troops were conveyed across the channel to the opposite town of Sestus, B. c. 480. (Herod. vii. 33.) The bridge of boats extended, according to Herodotus, from Abydus to a promontory on the European shore, between Sestus and Madytus. The town possessed a small territory which contained some gold mines, but Strabo speaks of them as exhausted. It was burnt by Darius, the son of Hystaspes, after his Scythian expedition, for fear that the Scythians, who were said to be in pursuit of him, should take possession of it (Strab. p. 591); but it must soon have recovered from this calamity, for it was afterwards a town of some note; and Herodotus (v. 117) states that it was captured by the Persian general, Daurises, with other cities on the Hellespont (B. c. 498), shortly after the commencement of the Ionian revolt. In B. c. 411, Abydus revolted from Athens and joined Dercyllidas, the Spartan commander in those parts. (Thuc. viii. 62.) Subsequently, Abydus made a vigorous defence against Philip II., king of Macedonia, before it surrendered. On the conclusion of the war with Philip (B. C. 196), the Romans declared Abydus, with other Asiatic cities, to be free. (Liv. xxxiii. 30.) The names of Abydus and Sestus are coupled together in the old story of Hero and Leander, who is said to have swam across the channel to visit his mistress at Sestus. The distance between Abydus and Sestus, from port to port, was about 30 stadia, according to Strabo. [G. L.] 2. In ancient times termed THIS, in Coptic | as the NW. end of the Lesser Atlas. The rock is Ebôt, now Arábat el Matfoon, was the chief connected with the main range by a low and narrow town of the NOMOS THINITES, and was situated tongue of land, about 3 miles long, occupied, in on the Bahr Yusuf, at a short distance from the ancient times, by a Roman fortress (Castellum ad point where that water-course strikes off from the Septem Fratres), and now by the Spanish town of Nile, being about 7 miles to the west of the river, Ceuta or Sebta, the citadel of which is on the hill in lat. 26° 10' N., long. 32° 3' E. It was one of itself. The rock of Abyla, with the opposite rock the most important cities in Egypt under the native of Calpe (Gibraltar) on the coast of Spain, formed kings, and in the Thebaid ranked next to Thebes the renowned "Columns of Hercules" ('Hpakλelαι itself. Here, according to the belief generally pre- σThλa, or simply σThλα), so called from the valent, was the burying-place of Osiris: here Menes, fable that they were originally one mountain, which the first mortal monarch, was born, and the two first was torn asunder by Hercules. (Strab. pp. 170, dynasties in Manetho are composed of Thinite mo- 829; Plin. iii. prooem., v. 1; Mela, ii. 6; Exnarchs. In the time of Strabo it had sunk to a ploration Scientifique de Algérie, tom. viii. p. mere village, but it was still in existence when 301.) [P. S.] Ammianus Marcellinus wrote, and the seat of an oracle of the god Besa. Abydus has acquired great celebrity of late years in consequence of the important ruins, nearly buried in sand, discovered on the ancient site, and from the numerous tombs, some of them belonging to a very remote epoch, which are found in the neighbouring hills. Indeed Plutarch expressly states that men of distinction among the Egyptians frequently selected Abydus as their place of sepulture, in order that their remains might repose near those of Osiris. The two great edifices, of which remains still exist, are: 1. An extensive pile, called the Palace of Memnon (Meuróviov Baolλetov, Memnonis regia) by Strabo and Pliny; and described by the former as resembling the Labyrinth in general plan, although neither so extensive nor so complicated. It has been proved by recent investigations that this building was the work of a king belonging to the 18th dynasty, Ramses II., father of Ramses the Great. 2. A temple of Osiris, built, or at least completed by Ramses the Great himself. In one of the lateral apartments, Mr. Bankes discovered in 1818 the famous list of Egyptian kings, now in the British Museum, known as the Tablet of Abydos, which is one of the most precious of all the Egyptian monuments hitherto brought to light. It contains a double series of 26 shields of the predecessors of Ramses the Great. It must be observed that the identity of Abydus with This cannot be demonstrated. We find frequent mention of the Thinite Nome, and of Abydus as its chief town, but no ancient geographer names This except Stephanus Byzantinus, who tells us that it was a town of Egypt in the vicinity of Abydus. It is perfectly clear, however, that if they were distinct they must have been intimately connected, and that Abydus must have obscured and eventually taken the place of This. (Strab. p. 813, seq.; Plut. Is. et Os. 18; Plin. v. 9; Ptol. iv. 5; Antonin. Itiner. p. 158, ed. Wessel.; Steph. B. s. v. Oís; Amm. Marc. xix. 12. § 3; Wilkinson, Topography of Thebes, p. 397; Kenrick, Ancient Egypt, vol. i p. 45.) [W.R.] A'BYLA, or A'BILA MONS or COLUMNA ('Abúλn or 'Abiλn othλn, “Abuλu, Eratosth.: Ximiera, Jebel-el-Mina, or Monte del Hacho), a high precipitous rock, forming the E. extremity of the S., or African, coast of the narrow entrance from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean (Fretum Gaditanum or Herculeum, Straits of Gibraltar). It forms an outlying spur of the range of mountains which runs parallel to the coast under the name of Septem Fratres (Jebel Zatout, i. e. Ape's Hill), and which appear to have been originally included under the name of Abyla. They may be regarded ACACE'SIUM ('Ακακήσιον: Eth. 'Ακακήσιος), a town of Arcadia in the district of 1 arrhasia, at the foot of a hill of the same name, and 36 stadia on the road from Megalopolis to Phigalea. It is said to have been founded by Acacus, son of Lycaon; and according to some traditions Hermes was brought up at this place by Acacus, and hence derived the surname of Acacesius. Upon the hill there was a statue in stone, in the time of Pausanias, of Hermes Acacesius; and four stadia from the town was a celebrated temple of Despoena. This temple probably stood on the hill, on which are now the remains of the church of St. Elias. (Paus. viii. 3. § 2, viii. 27. § 4, viii. 36. § 10; Steph. Byz. s. v.; Ross, Reisen im Peloponnes, vol. i. p. 87.) ACADEMIA. [ATHENAE.] ACADE'RA or ACADI'RA, a region in the NW of India, traversed by Alexander. (Curt. viii. 10. § 19.) [P.S.] ACALANDRUS ('Akáλavôpos), a river of Lucania, flowing into the gulf of Tarentum. It is mentioned both by Pliny and Strabo, the former of whom appears to place it to the north of Heraclea: but his authority is not very distinct, and Strabo, on the contrary, clearly states that it was in the territory of Thurii, on which account Alexander of Epirus sought to transfer to its banks the general assembly of the Italian Greeks that had been previously held at Heraclea. [HERACLEA.] Cluverius and other topographers, following the authority of Pliny, have identified it with the Salandrella, a small river between the Basiento and Agri; but there can be little doubt that Barrio and Romanelli are correct in supposing it to be a small stream, still called the Calandro, flowing into the sea a little N. of Roseto, and about 10 miles S. of the mouth of the Siris or Sinno. It was probably the boundary between the territories of Heraclea and Thurii. (Plin. iii. 11. § 15; Strab. p. 280; Cluver. Ital. p. 1277; Barrius de Ant. Calabr. v. 20; Romanelli, vol. i. p. 244.) [E. H. B.] ACAMAS, ACAMANTIS. [CYPRUS.] ACANTHUS (Ακανθος : Eth. Ακάνθιος: Erisso), a town on the E. side of the isthmus, which connects the peninsula of Acte with Chalcidice, and about 1 mile above the canal of Xerxes. [ATHOS.] It was founded by a colony from Andros, and became a place of considerable importance. Xerxes stopped here on his march into Greece (B. C. 480) and praised the inhabitants for the zeal which they displayed in his service. Acanthus surrendered to Brasidas B c.424, and its independence was shortly afterwards guaranteed in the treaty of peace made between Athens and Sparta. The Acanthians main. tained their independence against the Olynthians but eventually became subject to the kings of Macedonia. In the war between the Romans and Philip (B. C. 200) Acanthus was taken and plundered by the fleet of the republic. Strabo and Ptolemy erroneously place Acanthus on the Singitic gulf, but there can be no doubt that the town was on the Strymonic gulf, as is stated by Herodotus and other authorities: the error may have perhaps arisen from the territory of Acanthus having stretched as far as the Singitic gulf. At Erisso, the site of Acanthus, there are the ruins of a large ancient mole, advancing in a curve into the sea, and also, on the N. side of the hill upon which the village stands, some remains of an ancient wall, constructed of square blocks of grey granite. On the coin of Acanthus figured below is a lion killing a bull, which confirms the account of Herodotus (vii. 125), that on the march of Xerxes from Acanthus to Therme, lions seized the camels which carried the provisions. (Herod. vii. 115, seq. 121, seq.; Thuc. iv. 84, seq. v. 18; Xen. Hell. v. 2; Liv. xxxi. 45; Plut. Quaest. Graec. 30; Strab. p. 330; Leake, Northcra Greece, vol. iii. p. 147.) COIN OF ACANTHUS. 2. (Dashour), a city of Egypt, on the western bank of the Nile, 120 stadia S. of Memphis. It was in the Memphite Nome, and, therefore, in the Heptanomis. It was celebrated for a temple of Osiris, and received its name from a sacred enclosure composed of the Acanthus. (Strab. p. 809; Diod. i. 97; Steph. B. s. v.; Ptol. iv. 5. § 55, who calls the town ̓Ακανθῶν Πόλις.) that of Crithote (KpiewTh), on the W. coast, forming one side of the small bay, on which the town of Astacus stood. Of the inland lakes, the only one mentioned by name is that of Melite (Meλirn: Trikardho), 30 stadia long and 20 broad, N. of the mouth of the Achelous, in the territory of the Oeniadae. There was a lagoon, or salt lake, between Leucas and the Ambracian gulf, to which Strabo (p. 459) gives the name of Myrtuntium (MupTOÚTIOV). Although the soil of Acarnania was fertile, it was not much cultivated by the inhabitants. The products of the country are rarely mentioned by the ancient writers. Pliny speaks of iron mines (xxxvi. 19. s. 30), and also of a pearlfishery off Actium (ix. 56). A modern traveller states that the rocks in Acarnania indicate, in many places, the presence of copper, and he was also informed, on good authority, that the mountains produce coal and sulphur in abundance. (Journal of the Geographical Society, vol. iii. p. 79.) The chief wealth of the inhabitants consisted in their herds and flocks, which pastured in the rich meadows in the lower part of the Achelous There were numerous islands off the western coast of Acarnania. Of these the most important were the ECHINADES, extending from the mouth of the Achelous along the shore to the N.; the TAPHIAE INSULAE, lying between Leucas and Acarnania, and LEUCAS itself, which originally formed part of the mainland of Acarnania, but was afterwards separated from the latter by a canal. (Respecting Acarnania in general see Strab. p. 459, seq.; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 488, seq.; Fiedler, Reise durch Griechenland, vol. i. p. 158, seq.) Amphilochia, which is sometimes reckoned a part of Acarnania, is spoken of in a separate article. [AMPHILOCHIA.] The name of Acarnania appears to have been unknown in the earliest times. Homer only calls the country opposite Ithaca and Cephallenia, under the general name of Epeirus (repos), or the mainland (Strab. p. 451, sub fin.), although he frequently mentions the Aetolians.* ACARNA'NIA ('Akaрvavía: 'Akaрváv, -âvos, Acarnan, -änis), the most westerly province of Greece, was bounded on the N. by the Ambracian The country is said to have been originally ingulf, on the NE. by Amphilochia, on the W. and SW. habited by the Taphii, or Teleboae, the Leleges, by the Ionian sea, and on the E. by Aetolia. It and the Curetes. The Taphii, or Telebone were contained about 1571 square miles. Under the Ro- chiefly found in the islands off the western coast mans, or probably a little earlier, the river Achelous of Acarnania, where they maintained themselves formed the boundary between Acarnania and Aetolia; by piracy. [TELEBOAE.] The Leleges were more but in the time of the Peloponnesian war, the terri-wi lely disseminated, and were also in possession at tory of Oeniadae, which was one of the Acarnanian one period of Aetolia, Locris, and other parts of towns, extended E. of this river. The interior of Greece. [LELEGES.] The Curetes are said to have Acarnania is covered with forests and mountains of come from Aetolia, and to have settled in Acarnania, no great elevation, to which some modern writers after they had been expelled from the former country erroneously give the name of Crania. [CRANIA.] by Aetolus and his followers (Strab. p. 465). The Between these mountains there are several lakes, name of Acarnania is derived from Acarnan, the son and many fertile vallies. The chief river of the of Alcmaeon, who is said to have settled at the mouth country is the Achelous, which in the lower part of of the Achelous. (Thuc. ii. 102.) If this traits course flows through a vast plain of great na-dition is of any value, it would intimate that an tural fertility, called after itself the Paracheloitis. This plain is at present covered with marshes, and the greater part of it appears to have been formed by the alluvial depositions of the Achelous. Owing to this circumstance, and to the river having frequently altered its channel, the southern part of the coast of Acarnania has undergone numerous changes. The chief affluent of the Achelous in Acarnania is the Anapus (Avanos), which flowed into the main stream 80 stadia S. of Stratus. There are several promontories on the coast, but of these only two are Argive colony settled on the coast of Acarnania at an early period. In the middle of the 7th century *In the year B. c. 239, the Acarnanians, in the embassy which they sent to Rome to solicit assistance, pleaded that they had taken no part in the expedition against Troy, the ancestor of Rome, being the first time probably, as Thirlwall remark, that they had ever boasted of the omission of their name from the Homeric catalogue. (Justin, xxviii. 1; Strab. p. 462; Thirlwall, Hist. of Greece, vol. viii. B. C., the Corinthians founded Leucas, Anactorium, | The Acarnanians were of great service in maintainSollium, and other towns on the coast. (Strab. ing the supremacy of Athens in the western part of p. 452.) The original inhabitants of the country Greece, and they distinguished themselves particuwere driven more into the interior; they never made larly in B. c. 426, when they gained a signal victory much progress in the arts of civilised life; and under the command of Demosthenes over the Peloeven at the time of the Peloponnesian war, they ponnesians and Ambraciots at Olpae. (Thuc. iii. were a rude and barbarous people, engaged in con- 105, seq.) At the conclusion of this campaign they tinual wars with their neighbours, and living by concluded a peace with the Ambraciots, although robbery and piracy. (Thuc. i. 5.) The Acar- they still continued allies of Athens (Thuc. iii. 114.) nanians, however, were Greeks, and as such were In B. c. 391 we find the Acarnanians engaged in allowed to contend in the great Pan-Hellenic games, war with the Achaeans, who had taken possession although they were closely connected with their of Calydon in Aetolia; and as the latter were hard neighbours, the Agraeans and Amphilochians on pressed by the Acarnanians, they applied for aid to the gulf of Ambracia, who were barbarian or non- the Lacedaemonians, who sent an army into AcarHellenic nations. Like other rude mountaineers, nania, commanded by Agesilaus. The latter ravaged the Acarnanians are praised for their fidelity and the country, but his expedition was not attended courage. They formed good light-armed troops, with any lasting consequences (Xen. Hell. iv. 6). and were excellent slingers. They lived, for the After the time of Alexander the Great the Aetolians most part dispersed in villages, retiring, when at- conquered most of the towns in the west of Acartacked, to the mountains. They were united, how-nania; and the Acarnanians in consequence united ever, in a political League, of which Aristotle wrote themselves closely to the Macedonian kings, to whom an account in a work now lost. ('Aкарvávшv Пoλí- they remained faithful in their various vicissitudes Tela, Strab. p. 321.) Thucydides mentions a hill, of fortune. They refused to desert the cause of named Olpae, near the Amphilochian Argos, which Philip in his war with the Romans, and it was not the Acarnanians had fortified as a place of judicial till after the capture of Leucas, their principal town, meeting for the settlement of disputes. (Thuc. iii. and the defeat of Philip at Cynoscephalae that they 105.) The meetings of the League were usually submitted to the Romans. (Liv. xxxiii. 16-17.) held at Stratus, which was the chief town in Acar- When Antiochus III. king of Syria, invaded Greece, nania (Xen. Hell. iv. 6. § 4; comp. Thuc. ii. 80); B. C. 191, the Acarnanians were persuaded by their but, in the time of the Romans, the meetings took countryman Mnasilochus to espouse his cause; but place either at Thyrium, or at Leucas, the latter of on the expulsion of Antiochus from Greece, they which places became, at that time, the chief city in came again under the supremacy of Rome. (Liv. Acarnania (Liv. xxxiii. 16, 17; Polyb. xxviii. 5.) xxxvi. 11-12.) In the settlement of the affairs of At an early period, when part of Amphilochia be- Greece by Aemilius Paulus and the Roman commislonged to the Acarnanians, they used to hold a public sioners after the defeat of Perseus (B. c. 168), judicial congress at Olpae, a fortified hill about 3 Leucas was separated from Acarnania, but no other miles from Argos Amphilochicum. Of the constitu- change was made in the country. (Liv. xlv. 31.) tion of their League we have scarcely any par- When Greece was reduced to the form of a Roman ticulars. We learn from an inscription found at province, it is doubtful whether Acarnania was anPunta, the site of ancient Actium, that there was nexed to the province of Achaia or of Epeirus, but a Council and a general assembly of the people, by it is mentioned at a later time as part of Epeirus. which decrees were passed. (Edoge Ta Bovλa Kal [ACHALA, No. 3.] The inhabitants of several of τῷ κοινῷ τῶν ̓Ακαρνάνων). At the head of the its towns were removed by Augustus to Nicopolis, League there was a Strategus (rparnyós) or which he founded after the battle of Actium [NIGeneral; and the Council had a Secretary (ypauua- COPOLIS]; and in the time of this emperor the TEús), who appears to have been a person of import- country is described by Strabo as utterly worn out ance, as in the Achaean and Aetolian Leagues. and exhausted. (Strab. p. 460.) The chief priest (iepanóλos) of the temple of Apollo at Actium seems to have been a person of high rank; and either his name or that of the Strategus was employed for official dates, like that of the first Archon at Athens. (Böckh, Corpus Inscript. No. 1793.) The history of the Acarnanians begins in the time of the Peloponnesian war. Their hatred against the Corinthian settlers, who had deprived them of all their best ports, naturally led them to side with the Athenians; but the immediate cause of their alliance with the latter arose from the expulsion of the Amphilochians from the town of Argos Amphilochicum by the Corinthian settlers from Ambracia, about B. C. 432. The Acarnanians espoused the cause of the expelled Amphilochians, and in order to obtain the restoration of the latter, they applied for assistance to Athens. The Athenians accordingly sent an expedition under Phormio, who took Argos, expelled the Ambraciots, and restored the town to the Amphilochians and Acarnanians. An alliance was now formally concluded between the Acarnanians and Athenians. The only towns of Acarnania which did not join it were Oeniadae and Astacus. The following is a list of the towns of Acarnania. On the Ambracian gulf, from E. to W.: LIMNAEA, Echinus ('Exivos, Steph. B. 8. v.; Plin. iv. 2; di Vasili), Heracleia (Plin. iv. 2; Vonitza), ANACroRIUM, ACTIUM. On or near the west of the Ionian sea, from N. to S.: THYRIUM, PALAERUS, ALYZIA, SOLLIUM, ASTACUS, OENIADAE. In the interior from S. to N.: Old Oenia [ENIADAE], CORONTA, METROPOLIS, STRATUS, Rhynchus ('Puyxos), near Stratus, of uncertain site (Pol. ap. Ath. iii. p. 95, d.); PHYTIA or PHOE TELAE, MEDEON. The Roman Itineraries mention only one road in Acarnania, which led from Actium along the coast to Calydon in Actolia. ACCI ("Akki: Guadix el viejo, between Granada and Baza), a considerable inland city of Hispania Tarraconensis, on the borders of Baetica; under the Romans a colony, with the Jus Latinum, under the full name of Colonia Julia Gemella Accitana. Its coins are numerous, bearing the heads of Augustus, Tiberius, Germanicus, Drusus, and Caligula, and the ensigns of the legions iii. and vi., from which it was colonised by Julius or Augustus, and from which it derived the name of Gemella (Itin. Ant. pp. 402, 404; Plin. iii. 3. s. 4; Inscr. ap. Gruter, p. 271; Eckhel, vol. i. pp. 34-35; Rasche, s. v.) According to Macrobius (Sat. i. 19), Mars was worshipped here with his head surrounded with the sun's rays, under the name of Netos. Such an emblem is seen on the coins. [P.S.] A'CCUA, a small town of Apulia, mentioned only by Livy (xxiv. 20) as one of the places recovered by Q. Fabius from the Carthaginians in the fifth year of the Second Punic War, B. C. 214. It appears from this passage to have been somewhere in the neighbourhood of Luceria, but its exact site is [E. H. B.] unknown. ACERRAE (Axépßai: Acerranus). 1. A city in the interior of Campania, about 8 miles NE. of Naples, still called Acerra. It first appears in history as an independent city during the great war of the Campanians and Latins against Rome; shortly after the conclusion of which, in B.C. 332, the Acerrani, in common with several other Campanian cities, obtained the Roman "civitas," but without the right of suffrage. The period at which this latter privilege was granted them is not mentioned, but it is certain that they ultimately obtained the full rights of Roman citizens. (Liv. viii. 17; Festus, s. v. Municipium, Municeps, and Praefectura, pp. 127, 142, 233, ed. Müller.) In the second Punic war it was faithful to the Roman alliance, on which account it was besieged by Hannibal in B. C. 216, and being abandoned by the inhabitants in despair, was plundered and burnt. But after the expulsion of Hannibal from Campania, the Acerrani, with the consent of the Roman senate, returned to and rebuilt their city, B. C. 210. (Liv. xxiii. 17, xxvii. 3.) During the Social War it was besieged by the Samnite general, C. Papius, but offered so vigorous a resistance that he was unable to reduce it. (Appian. B. C. i. 42, 45.) Virgil praises the fertility of ACE (Aкn: Eth. 'Akaîos), the ACCHO (AKX) its territory, but the town itself had suffered so much of the Old Testament (Judg. i. 31), the Akka of the from the frequent inundations of the river Clanius, Arabs, a celebrated town and harbour on the shores on which it was situated, that it was in his time alof Phoenicia, in lat. 32° 54', long. 35° 6' E. It is most deserted. (Virg. Georg. ii. 225; and Servius situated on the point of a small promontory, the ad loc.; Sil. Ital. viii. 537; Vib. Seq. p. 21.) It northern extremity of a circular bay, of which the subsequently received a colony under Augustus (Lib opposite or southern horn is formed by one of the Colon. p. 229), and Strabo speaks of it in conjunc ridges of Mount Carmel. During the period that tion with Nola and Nuceria, apparently as a place of Ptolemy Soter was in possession of Coele-Syria, it some consequence. It does not seem, however, to received the name of PTOLEMAIS (ПITOλeμats: Eth. have retained its colonial rank, but is mentioned by ПтоλEμа‡тηs, Птоλeμaιeús), by which it was long Pliny as an ordinary municipal town. (Strab. v. distinguished. In the reign of the emperor Claudius pp. 247, 249; Plin. iii. 5. s. 9; Orell. inscr. no. it became a Roman colony, and was styled COLONIA 3716.) The modern town of Acerra retains the CLAUDII CAESARIS PTOLEMAIS, or simply COLONIA site as well as the name of the ancient one, but it PTOLEMAIS; but from the time when it was occupied does not appear that any vestiges of antiquity, except by the knights of St. John of Jerusalem, it has been a few inscriptions, remain there. (Lupuli, Iter Venugenerally known all over Christendom as St Jean sin. p. 10-12.) The coins with an Oscan legend dAcre, or simply Acre. which were referred by Eckhel and earlier numisma tists to Acerrae, belong properly to ATELLA. (Millingen, Numismatique de l'Ancienne Italie, p. 190; Friedländer, Oskischen Münzen, p. 15.) The advantages offered by the position of Acre were recognised from an early period by those who desired to keep the command of the Syrian coast, but it did not rise to eminence until after the decay of Tyre and Sidon. When Strabo wrote (p. 758), it was already a great city; and although it has undergone many vicissitudes, it has always maintained a certain degree of importance. It originally belonged to the Phoenicians, and, though nominally included within the territory of the tribe of Asher, was never conquered by the Israelites. It afterwards passed into the hands of the Babylonians, and from them to the Persians. According to the first distribution of the dominions of Alexander it was assigned to Ptolemy Soter, but subsequently fell under the Seleucidae, and after changing hands repeatedly eventually fell under the dominion of Rome. It is said at present to contain from 15,000 to 20,000 inhabitants. [W. R.] A'CELUM (Asolo), a town of the interior of Venetia, situated near the foot of the Alps, about 18 miles NW. of Treviso. (Plin. iii. 19. s. 23; Ptol. ii. 1. § 30.) The name is written Akedov in our editions of Ptolemy, but the correctness of the form Acclum given by Pliny is confirmed by that of the modern town. We learn from Paulus Diaconus (iii. 25, where it is corruptly written Acilium), that it 2. A city of Cisalpine Gaul, in the territory of the Insubres. Polybius describes it merely as situated between the Alps and the Po; and his words are copied by Stephanus of Byzantium: but Strabo tells us that it was near Cremona: and the Tabula places it on the road from that city to Laus Pompeia (Lodi Vecchio), at a distance of 22 Roman miles from the latter place, and 13 from Cremona. These distances coincide with the position of Gherra or Gera, a village, or rather suburb of Pizzighettone, on the right bank of the river Adda. It appears to have been a place of considerable strength and importance (probably as commanding the passage of the Adda) even before the Roman conquest: and in B.C. 222, held out for a considerable time against the consuls Marcellus and Scipio, but was compelled to surrender after the battle of Clastidium. (Pol. ii. 34; Plut. Marc. 6; Zonar. viii. 20; Strab. v. p. 247; Steph. B. 8. v.; Tab. Peut.; Cluver. Ital. p. 244.) 3. A third town of the name, distinguished by the epithet of VATRIAE, is mentioned by Pliny (iii. 14. s. 19) as having been situated in Umbria, but it was already destroyed in his time, and all clue to its position is lost. [E. H. B.] |