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made, with the aid of the British, under Sir Sidney Smith, against the French, under Bonaparte, who was obliged to raise the siege after twelve assaults. The strength of the place arose in part from its situation. The port of Acre is bad, but Dr. Clarke (Travels, 6, 89) represents it as better than any other along the coast. All the rice, the staple food of the people, enters the country by Acre; the master of which city, therefore, is able to cause a famine over all Syria. This led the French to direct their efforts towards the possession of the place. Hence, too, as Dr. Clarke observes, we find Acre to have been the last position in the Holy Land from which the Christians were expelled.

ACĒLUM, a town of Cisalpine Gaul, among the Euganei, north of Patavium, and east of the Medoacus Major, or Brenta. It is now Asola. (Plin. 3, 19.Ptol. 63.)

Heins. ad Ovid. Fast. 3, 55), the wife of Faustulus, | rendered celebrated for the successful stand which it shepherd of king Numitor's flocks. She became foster-mother of Romulus and Remus, who had been found by her husband while exposed on the banks of the Tiber and suckled by a she-wolf. Some explain the tradition by making Lupa (“she-wolf") to have been a name given by the shepherds to Larentia, from her immodest character' (Plut. Rom. 4); a most improbable solution. We have here, in truth, an old poetic legend, in which the name Larentia (Lar), and the animals said to have supplied the princes with sustenance (vid. Romulus), point to an Etrurian origin for the fable. When the milk of the wolf failed, the woodpecker, a bird sacred to Mars, brought other food; other birds, too, consecrated to auguries by the Etrurians, hovered over the babes to drive away the insects. (Niebuhr's Rom. Hist. 1, 185.)-II. The Romans yearly celebrated certain festivals, called Larentalia, a foolish account of the origin of which is given by Plutarch (Quæst. Rom. 272). There is some resem- ACERBAS, a priest of Hercules at Tyre, who marblance between Plutarch's story and that told by He- ried Dido, the sister of Pygmalion the reigning monrodotus (2, 122) of Rhampsinitus, king of Egypt, and arch, and his own niece. Pygmalion murdered him the goddess Ceres; and it may, therefore, like the lat-in order to get possession of his riches, and endeavter, have for its basis some agricultural or astronom- oured to conceal the crime from Dido; but the shade ical legend. (Consult Bachr, ad Herod. l. c.) of her husband appeared to her, and disclosing to her the spot where he had concealed his riches during life, exhorted her to take these and flee from the country. Dido instantly obeyed, and leaving Phoenicia, founded Carthage on the coast of Africa. (Vid. Dido.) Virgil calls the husband of Dido Sichaus; but Servius, in his commentary, informs us, that this appellation of Sichæus is softened down, from Sicharbes. Justin (18, 4) calls him Acerbas, which appears to be an intermediate form. Gesenius (Phan. Mon., p. 414) makes Sicharbas come from Isıcharbas (“vir gladii") or Masicharbas (“opus gladii,” i. e., qui gladio omnia sua debet). If we reject the explanation of Servius, the name Sichæus may come from Zachi, “ purus, justus."

Accia, or, more correctly, Atia, the sister of Julius Cæsar, and mother of Augustus. Cicero (Phil. 3, 6) gives her a high character. She was the daughter of M. Atius Balbus. (Cic. I. c.-Suet. Aug. 4.)

Accius, I. (Vid. Supplement.)-II. Accius T., a native of Pisaurum in Umbria, and a Roman knight, was the accuser of A. Cluentius, whom Cicero defended, B.C. 66. He was a pupil of Hermagoras, and is praised by Cicero for accuracy and fluency. (Brut. 23.)

Acco, a general of the Gauls, at the head of the confederacy formed against the Romans by the Senones, Carnutes, and Treviri. Cæsar (B. G. 6, 4, 44), by the rapidity of his march, prevented the execution of Acco's plans; and ordered a general assembly of the Gauls to inquire into the conduct of these nations. Sentence of death was pronounced on Acco, and he was instantly executed.

AcĒ, a seaport town of Phoenicia, a considerable distance south of Tyre. On the gold and silver coins of Alexander the Great, struck in this place with Phoenician characters, it is called Aco. The Hebrew Scriptures (Judges, 1, 31) term it Accho, signifying "straitened" or "confined." Strabo calls it 'Ak (758). It was afterward styled Ptolemais, in honour of Ptolemy, son of Lagus, who long held part of southern Syria under his sway. The Romans, in a later age, appear to have transformed the Greek accusative Ptolemaida into a Latin nominative, and to have designated the city by this name; 'at least it is so written in the Itın. Antonin. and Hierosol. The Greeks, having changed the original name before this into 'Aký, connected with it the fabulous legend of Hercules having been bitten here by a serpent, and of his having cured (dkéoμai) the wound by a certain leaf. (Steph. B. v. IITOλeuats.) The compiler of the Etym. Magn. limits the name of 'Aký to the citadel, but as signs a similar reason for its origin. (Compare the learned remarks of Reland, on the name of this city, in his Palest., p. 535, seq.) Accho was one of the cities of Palestine, which the Israelites were unable to take (Judges, 1, 31). The city is now called Acre, more properly Acca, and lies at the northern angle of the bay, to which it gives its name, which extends, in a semicircle of three leagues, as far as the point of Carmel. During the crusades it sustained several sieges. After the expulsion of the Knights of St. John, it fell rapidly to decay, and was almost deserted till Sheikh Daher, and, after him, Djezzar Pasha, by repairing the town and harbour, made it one of the first places on the coast. In modern times it has been

ACERRAE, I. a town of Cisalpine Gaul, west of Cremona and north of Placentia; supposed to have occupied the site of Pizzighetone; called by Polybius (2, 34) 'Axéþþat, and regarded as one of the strongholds of the Insubres. It must not be confounded with another Celtic city, Acara ("Akapa, Strabo, 216), or Acerra (Plin. 3, 14), south of the Po, not far from Forum Lepidi and Mutina (Mannert, 9, 170): Tzschucke incorrectly reads 'Axépat for 'Akapa, making the two places identical. (Tzsch. ad Strab. l. c.)—II. A city of Campania, to the east of Atella, called by the Greeks 'Axéppaι, and made a Municipium by the Romons at a very early period (Lavy, 8, 14). It remained faithful when Capua yielded to Hannibal, and was hence destroyed by that commander. It was subsequently rebuilt, and in the time of Augustus received a Roman colony, but at no period had many inhabitants, from the frequent and destructive inundations of the Clanius. (Frontinus, de Col. 102.-Virg. G. 2, 225, et Schol.) The modern Acerra stands nearly on the site (Mannert, 9, 780).

ACERSECOMES, a surname of Apollo, signifying "un shorn," i. e., ever young (Juv. 8, 128). Another form is ȧketpɛkóμnc. Both are compounded of a priv. Keipw, fut., Æol. Képow, to cut, and Kóun, the hair of the head. The term is applied, however, as well to Bacchus as to Apollo. (Compare the Lat. intonsus, and Ruperti, ad Juv. 1. c.)

ACES, a river of Asia, on the confines, according to Herodotus (3, 117), of the Chorasmians, Hyrcanians, Parthians, Sarangeans, and Thamaneans. The territories of all these nations were irrigated by it, through means of water-courses; but when the Persians conquered this part of Asia, they blocked up the outlets of the stream, and made the reopening of them a source of tribute. The whole story is a very improbable one. Rennell thinks that there is some allusion

in it to the Oxus or Ochus, both of which rivers have
undergone considerable changes in their courses.
ACESANDER. Vid. Supplement.
ACESAS. Vid. Supplement.
ACESIAS. Vid. Supplement.

ACESĪNES, a large and rapid river of India, falling into the Indus. It is commonly supposed to be the Ravei, but Rennell makes it, more correctly, the Jenaub. (Vincent's Comm. and Nav. of the Anc.)

only once. Athenæus, however (6, p. 270), accuses Euripides of borrowing from this poet. The number of plays composed by him is not correctly ascertained. Suidas (s. v.) gives three accounts, according to one of which he exhibited 44 plays; according to another, 30; while a third assigns to him only 24. Most of the plays ascribed to him by the ancients are suspected by Casaubon (de Sat. Pocs. 1, 5) to have been satyric. The titles of seven of his satyrical dramas, and of ten of his tragedies, are still known. The extant fragments of his pieces have been collected and edited by Urlichs, Bonn, 1834. He should not be confounded with a la

ACESIUS, I. a surname of Apollo, under which he was worshipped in Elis, where he had a splendid temple in the agora. This surname is the same as 'AλeğiKakoç, and means the averter of evil.-II. (Vid. Sup-ter tragic writer of the same name, who was a native plement.)

ACESTES.

Vid. Ægestes.

of Syracuse.-III. A river, which falls into the Euxine on the eastern shore, above the Promontorium Heracleum. The Greek form of the name is ̓Αχαιούς, -οῦντος.

ACESTODORUS. Vid. Supplement. ACESTOR, I. an ancient statuary mentioned by Pausa-(Arrian, Per. Mar. Eux. 130, Blanc.)-IV. An hisnias (6, 7, 2). He was a native of Cnossus, or at least exercised his art there for some time, and was the father of that Amphion who was the pupil of Ptolichus of Corcyra. Ptolichus lived about Olymp. 80, 82, and Acestor must have been his contemporary. (Sillig, Dict. of Anc. Artists.)-II. Vid. Supplement.

ACHEA, 'Axaia, a surname of Pallas. Her temple among the Daunians, in Apulia, contained the arms of Diomede and his followers. It was defended by dogs, which fawned on the Greeks, but fiercely attacked all other persons (Aristot. de Mirab.)-II. Ceres was also called Achæa, from her grief (xoç) at the loss of Proserpina (Plut. in Is. et Os.). Other explanations are given by the scholiast (ad Aristoph. Acharn. 674). Consult also Kuster and Brunck, ad loc., and Suidas, s. v. ACHEI, one of the main branches of the great olic race. (Vid. Achaia and Græcia, especially the latter article.)

ACHEMENES, the founder of the Persian monarchy, according to some writers, who identify him with the Giem Schid, or Djemschid, of the Oriental historians (vid. Persia). The genealogy of the royal line is given by Herodotus (7, 11) from Achæmenes to Xerxes. The earlier descent, as given by the Grecian writers, and according to which, Perses, son of Perseus and Andromeda, was the first of the line, and the individual from whom the Persians derived their national appellation, is purely fabulous. Eschylus (Pers. 762) makes the Persians to have been first governed by a Mede, who was succeeded by his son; then came Cyrus, succeeded by one of his sons; next Merdis, Maraphis, Artaphernes, and Darius; the last not being, however, a lineal descendant. For a discussion on this subject, consult Stanley, ad loc.: Larcher, ad Herod. 7, 11, and Schütz, Excurs. 2, ad Esch. Pers. l. c.

torian mentioned by the scholiast on Pindar (Ol. 7, 42). Vossius (Hist. Gr. 4, p. 501) supposes him to be the same with the Achæus alluded to by the scholiast on Aratus (v. 171); but Boeckh throws very great doubt on the whole matter. (Boeckh, ad Schol. Pind. I. c., vol. ii., p. 166.)—V. A general of Antiochus the Great. (Vid. Supplement.)

ACHAIA, I. a district of Thessaly, so named from the Achæi (vid. Græcia). It embraced more than Phthiotis, since Herodotus (7, 196) makes it comprehend the country along the Apidanus. Assuming this as its western limit, we may consider it to have reached as far as the Sinus Pelasgicus and Sinus Maliacus on the cast. (Mannert, 7, 599.) Larcher (Hist. d'Herod. 8, 7, Table Geogr.) regards Melitaa as the limit on the west, which lies considerably east of the Apidanus. That Phthiotis formed only part of Achaia, appears evident from the words of Scymnus (v. 604), EnεT' 'Axaioì пapákot Þiwrikoi (Gail, ad loc.). Homer (Il. 3, 258) uses the term 'Ayatida sc. xúpav, in opposition to Argos, 'Apyoç, and seems to indicate by the former, according to one scholiast, the Peloponnesus; according to another, the whole country occupied by the Hellenes (rỳ nàoav 'EZZývwv yir, Schol. II. 3, 75).—II. A harbour on the northeastern coast of the Euxine, mentioned by Arrian, in his Pertplus of the Euxine (131, Blanc.), and called by him Old Achaia (TMǹy mahaшv 'Axaiar). The Greeks, according to Strabo (416), had a tradition, that the inhabitants of this place were of Grecian origin, and natives of the Baotian Orchomenus. They were returning, it seems, from the Trojan war, when, missing their way, they wandered to this quarter. Appian (B. M. 67, 102, Schw.) makes them to have been Achæans, but in other respects coincides with Strabo. Müller (Gesch. Hellen. Stamme, &c., 1, 282) supposes the Greeks to have purposely altered the true name of the people in question, so as to make it resemble Achai ('Axatoi), that they might erect on this superstructure a mere edifice of fable.-III. A country of the Peloponnesus, lying along the Sinus Corinthiacus, north of Elis and Arcadia. A number of mountain-streams, descending from the ridges of Arcadia, watered this region, but they were small in size, and many mere wintertorrents. The coast was for the most part level, and was hence exposed to frequent inundations. It had few harbours; not one of any size, or secure for ships. On this account we find, that of the cities along the coast of Achaia, none became famous for maritime enterprise. In other respects, Achaia may be ranked, as to extent, fruitfulness, and population, among the middling countries of Greece. Its principal productions ACREUS, I. a son of Xuthus. (Vid. Græcia, rela- were like those of the rest of the Peloponnesus, nametive to the early movements of the Grecian tribes.)ly, oil, wine, and corn. (Mannert, 8, 384.-Heeren's II. A tragic poet, born at Eretria, B.C. 484, the very year Eschylus won his first prize. We find him contending with Sophocles and Euripides, B.C. 447. With such competitors, however, he was, of course, not very successful. He gained the dramatic victory

ACHEMENIDES, I. a branch of the Persian tribe of Pasargadæ, named from Achæmenes, the founder of the line. From this family the kings of Persia were descended (Herod. 1, 126). Cambyses, on his deathbed, entreated the Achæmenides not to suffer the kingdom to pass into the hands of the Medes (3, 65).-II. A Persian of the royal line, whom Ctesias (32) makes the brother, but Herodotus (7, 7) and Diodorus Siculus (11, 74) call the uncle of Artaxerxes I. The latter styles him Achæmenes. (Baehr, ad Ctes. l. c.— Wessel. ad Herod. l. c.)

ACHÆORUM STATIO, I. a place on the coast of the Thracian Chersonesus, where Polyxena was sacrificed to the shade of Achilles, and where Hecuba killed Polymnestor, who had murdered her son Polydorus.II. The name of Achæorum Portus was given to the harbour of Corone, in Messenia.

Ideen, &c., 3, 27.) The most ancient name of this
region was Egialea or Egialos, Alyiahóç, “sca-
shore," derived from its peculiar situation.
It em-
braced originally the territory of Sicyon, since here
stood the early capital of the Ægialii or Ægialenses,

ACHARNE, 'Axapvai (or, as Stephanus Byzantinus writes the name, 'Axúpva), one of the most important boroughs of Attica, lying northwest of Athens and north of Eleusis. It furnished 3000 heavy-armed men as its quota of troops, which, on the supposition that slaves are not included, will make the entire population about 15,000. (Thucyd. 2, 20.-Mannert, 8, 330.) This large number, however, did not all dwell in villages, but were scattered over the borough, which contained some of the finest and most productive land in Attica. From a sarcasm of Aristophanes (Acharn. 213.-Ib. ibid. 332, seqq.), we learn, that many of the Acharnenses ('Axapveic) followed the business of charcoal-burning. This borough belonged to the tribe Eneis (Oivniç), and was distant 60 stadia from Athens. (Thucyd. 2, 21.)

The origin of the gialii appears to connect them | tus was defeated by the Lacedæmonian monarch Cle. with the great Ionic race. Ion, son of Xuthus, came omenes. The Achæan commander, in an evil hour, from Attica, according to the received accounts, set- called in the aid of Macedon; for though he succeeded tled in this quarter (Paus. 7, 1.-Strabo, 383), obtain- by these means in driving Cleomenes from Sparta, yet ed in marriage the daughter of King Selinus, and from the Macedonians from this time remained at the head this period the inhabitants were denominated Egia- of the league, and masters of the Peloponnesus. lean lonians. Pausanias, however, probably from other Aratus himself fell a victim to the jealous policy of sources of information, makes Xuthus, not Ion, to Philip. The troubles that ensued gave the Romans have settled here. The Pelasgi appear also to have an opportunity of interferirg in the affairs of Greece, spread over this region, and to have gradually blended and at last Corinth was destroyed, and the Achæan with the primitive inhabitants into one community, league annihilated by these new invaders. (Vid. Ætounder the name of Pelasgic Egialeans (Herod. 7, 94). lia and Corinth.) Mummius, the Roman general, Twelve cities now arose, the capital being Helice, caused the walls of all the confederate cities to be defounded by Ion. At the period of the Trojan war, molished, and the inhabitants to be deprived of every these cities were subject to the Achæans, and ac- warlike weapon. The land was also converted into a knowledged the sway of Agamemnon as the head of Roman province, under the name of Achaia, embrathat race. Matters continued in this state until the cing, besides Achaia proper, all the rest of the PeloDorian invasion of the Peloponnesus. The Achæans, ponnesus, together with all the country north of the driven by the Dorians from Argos and Lacedæmon, isthmus, excepting Thessaly, Epirus, and Macedonia. took refuge in Ægialea, under the guidance of Tisa- (Vid. Epirus and Macedonia.) The dismantled cities menos, son of Orestes. The Ionians gave their new soon became deserted, with the exception of a few, visiters an unwelcome reception; a battle ensued, the and in what had been Achaia proper only three remainIonians were defeated, and shut up in Helice; and at ed in later times, Ægium, Ægira, and Patræ. In our last were allowed by treaty to leave this city unmolest- own days, the last alone survives, under the name of ed, on condition of removing entirely from their former Patras. The entire coast from Corinth to Patras settlements. They migrated, therefore, into Attica shows only one place that deserves the name of a city, (Paus. 7, 1), but soon after left this latter country for or, rather, a large village; this is Vostitza, near the Asia Minor (vid. Iones and Ionia). The Achæans now ruins of the ancient Egium. (Mannert, 8, 392.) took possession of the vacated territory, and changed ACHAICUS, a philosopher, whose time is unknown. its name to Achaia. Tisamenos having fallen in the He wrote a work on Ethics. (Diog. Laert. 6, 99.) war with the Ionians, his sons and the other leaders divided the land among themselves by lot, and hence the old division of twelve cantons or districts, as well as the regal form of government, continued until the time of Ogygus or Gygus. (Strabo, 384.-Paus. 7, 6.-Polyb. 2, 41.) After this monarch's decease, each city assumed a republican government. The Dorians, from the very first, had made several attempts to drive the Achæans from their newly-acquired possessions, and had so far succeeded as to wrest from them Sicyon, with its territory, which was ever after regarded as a Dorian state. All farther attempts at conquest were unsuccessful, from the defence made by the Achæans, and the aid afforded to them by their Pelasgic neighbours in Arcadia. The result of this was an aversion on the part of the Achæans to everything Dorian. Hence they took no part with the rest of the Greeks against Xerxes; hence, too, we find them, even before the Peloponnesian war, in alliance with the Athenians; though, in the course of that war, they were forced to remain neutral, or else at times, from a consciousness of their weakness, to admit the Dorian fleets into their harbours. (Thucyd. 1, 111 and 115.-Id. 2, 9.-Id. 8, 3.-Id. 2, 84.) The Achæans preserved their neutrality also in the wars raised by the ambition of Macedon; but the result proved most unfortunate. The successors of Alexander seemed to consider the cities of Achaia as fair booty, and what they spared became the prey of domestic tyrants. Even after the Peloponnesus had ceased to be the theatre of war, and a Macedonian garrison was merely kept at the Isthmus, the public troubles seemed only on the increase. The whole country, too, began to be infested by predatory bands, whose numbers were daily augmented by the starving cultivators of the soil. At length, four of the principal cities of Achaia, viz., Patræ, Dyme, Tritæa, and Phara, formed a mutual league for their common safety. (Polyb. 2, 41.) The plan succeeded, and soon ten cities were numbered in the alliance. About twenty-five years after, Sicyon was induced to join the league by the exertions of Aratus, and he himself was chosen commander-in-chief of the confederacy. All the more important cities of the Peloponnesus gradually joined the coalition. Sparta alone kept aloof, and, in endeavouring to enforce her compliance, Ara

ACHATES, a friend of Æneas, whose fidelity was so exemplary, that Fidus Achates became a proverb. (Virg. Æn. 1, 312.)

ACHELOÏDES, a patronymic given to the Sirens as daughters of Achelous. (Ovid, Met. 5, fab. 15.Gierig, ad loc.)

ACHELOUS, I. a river of Epirus, now the Aspro Potamo, or "White River," which rises in Mount Pindus, and, after dividing Acarnania from Ætolia (Strab. 450), falls into the Sinus Corinthiacus. It was a large and rapid stream, probably the largest in all Greece, and formed at its mouth, by depositions of mud and sand, a number of small islands called Echinades. The god of this river was the son of Oceanus and Tethys, or of the Sun and Terra. Fable speaks of a contest between Hercules and the river god for the hand of Deianira. The deity of the Achelous assumed the form of a bull, but Hercules was victorious and tore off one of his horns. His opponent, upon this, having received a horn from Amalthea, the daughter of Oceanus, gave it to the victor, and obtained his own in return. Another account (Ovid, Met. 9, 63) makes him to have first assumed the form of a serpent, and afterward that of a bull, and to have retired in disgrace into the bed of the river Thoas, which thenceforward was denominated Achelous. A third version of the fable states, that the Naiads took the horn of the conquered deity, and, after filling it with the various productions of the seasons, gave it to the goddess of plenty, whence the origin of the cornu copia. They

who pretend to see in history an explanation of this le- ter; and it was the stream over which the souls of the gend, make the river Achelous to have laid waste, by dead were first conveyed. The Acheron is representits frequent inundations, the plains of Calydon. This.ed under the form of an old man arrayed in a humid introducing confusion among the landmarks, became vestment. He reclines upon an urn of a dark colthe occasion of continual wars between the Etoliansour. In Virgil and later poets Acheron sometimes and Acarnanians, whose territories the river divided designates the lower world. II. A river of Brutas above stated, until Hercules, by means of dikes, re- tium, flowing into the Mare Tyrrhenum a short distance strained its ravages, and made the course of the stream below Pandosia Alexander, king of Epirus, who had uniform. Hence, according to this explanation, the come to the aid of the Tarentines, lost his life in passserpent denoted the windings of the stream, and the ing this river, being slain by a Lucanian exile. He had bull its swellings and impetuosity, while the tearing off been warned by an oracle to beware of the Acherusian of the horn refers to the turning away of a part of the waters and the city Pandosia, but supposed that it rewaters of the river, by means of a canal. the result of ferred to Epirus and not to Italy. (Justin, 12, 2.— which draining was shown in the fertility that succeed-Liv. 8, 24.)-III. A river of Elis, which falls into the ed (Diod. Sc. 4, 35.) The Achelous must have Alpheus. On its banks were temples dedicated to been considered a river of great antiquity as well as Ceres, Proserpina, and Hades, which were held in high celebrity, since it is often introduced as a general rep-veneration. (Strab. 344.)—IV. A river of Bithynia, resentative of rivers, and is likewise frequently used near the cavern Acherusia, and in the vicinity of Hefor the element of water. (Eustath ad Îl. 21, 194.— │raclea. (Apollon. Rhod. 2, 745.) Eurip. Bacch. 625.-Id. Androm. 167.-Aristoph. Lysistr. 381-Heyne, ad I. 21, 194) The reason of this peculiar use of the term will be found in the remarks of the scholiast. The Achelous was the largest river in Epirus and Etolia, in which quarter were the early settlements of the Pelasgic race, from whom the Greeks derived so much of their religion and mythology. Hence the frequent directions of the Oracle at Dodona, "to sacrifice to the Achelous," and hence the name of the stream became associated with some of their oldest religious rites, and was eventually used in the language of poetry as an appellation, ka7' ¿žóxŋv, for the element of water and for rivers, as stated above ("Axɛhậov mùv înɣaìov vðwp) —II. There was another river of the same name, of which nothing farther is known, than that, according to Pausanias (8, 38), it flowed from Mount Sipylus. Homer, in relating the story of Niobe (Il. 24, 615), speaks of the desert Imountains in Sipylus, where are the beds of the goddess-nymphs, who dance around the Achelous.-III. A river of Thessaly, flowing near Lamia. (Strab. 434.) ACHERDUS, a borough of the tribe Hippothoontis, in Attica (Steph. B.-Aristoph. Eccles. 360.)

ACHERON, İ. a river of Epirus, rising in the mountains to the west of the chain of Pindus. and falling into the Ionian sea near Glykys Lamen (гâvкòç Ayny) In the early part of its course, it forms the Palus Acherusia ('Axepovoia Aiμvn), and, after emerging from this sheet of water, disappears under ground, from which it again rises and pursues its course to the sea. Strabo (324) makes mention of this stream only after its leaving the Palus Acherusia, and appears to have been unacquainted with the previous part of its course. Thucydides, on the other hand (1, 46), would seem to have misunderstood the information which he had received respecting it. His account is certainly a confused one, and has given rise to an inaccuracy in D'Anville's map. The error of D'Anville and others consists in placing the Palus Acherusia directly on the coast, and the city of Ephyre at its northeastern extremity; in the position of the latter contradicting the very words of the writer on whom they rely. No other ancient authority places the Palus Acherusia on the coast. Pausanias (1, 17) makes the marsh, the river, and the city, to have been situated in the interior of Thesprotis; and he mentions also the stream Cocytus (which he styles udup ȧrepréσтaтоν), as being in the same quarter. He likewise states it as his opinion, that Homer, having visited these rivers in the course of his wanderings, assigned them, on account of their peculiar nature and properties, a place among the rivers of the lower world. The poets make Acheron to have been the son of Sol and Terra, and to have been precipitated into the infernal regions, and there changed into a river, for having supplied the Titans with water during the war which they waged with Jupiter. Hence its waters were muddy and bit

ACHERONTIA, I. a town of Bruttium, placed by Pliny on the river Acheron (Plin. 3, 5).-II. A city of Lucania, now Acerenza, on the confines of Apulia. It was situated high up on the side of a mountain, and from its lofty position is called by Horace nudus Acherontiæ, "the nest of Acherontia." Procopius speaks of it as a strong fortress in his days. (Horat. Od. 3, 4, 14, et schol. ad loc.—Procop. 3, 23.)

ACHERUSIA, I. a lake in Epirus, into which the Acheron flows. (Vid. Acheron.)-II. According to some modern expounders of fable, a lake in Egypt, near Memphis, over which the bodies of the dead were conveyed, previous to their being judged for the actions of their past lives. The authority cited in support of this is Diodorus Siculus (1, 92). A proper examination of the passage, however, will lead to the following conclusions: 1st, that no name whatever is given by Diodorus for any particular lake of this kind; and, 2d, that each district of Egypt had its lake for the purpose mentioned above, and that there was not merely one for the whole of Egypt. (Diod. Sic. 1, 92, et Wesseling, ad loc.)—III. A cavern in Bithynia, near the city of Heraclea and the river Oxinas, probably on the very spot which Arrian (Peripl. Mar. Eux., p. 125, ed. Blancard) calls Tyndarida. Xenophon (Anab. 6, 2) names the whole peninsula, in which it lies, the Acherusian Promontory. This cavern was two stadia in depth, and was regarded by the adjacent inhabitants as one of the entrances into the lower world. Through it Hercules is said to have dragged Cerberus up to the light of day; a fable which probably owed its origin to the inhabitants of Heraclea (Diod. Sic. 14, 31-Dionys. Perieg. 790, et Eustath. ad. loc.) Apollonius Rhodius (2, 730) places a river, with the name of Acheron, in this quarter. This stream was afterward called, by the people of Heraclea, Soonautes (Zowvavτnç), on account of their fleet having been saved near it from a storm. (Apollon. Rhod. 2, 746, et schol. ad loc.) Are the Acheron and the Oxinas the same river?

ACHILLAS, I. a bishop of Alexandrea from A.D. 311 to 321. His martyrdom is commemorated on the 7th of November.-II. An Alexandrean priest, banished with Arius, 319 A.D. He fled to Palestine.-III. (Vid. Supplement.)

ACHILLEA, an island near the mouth of the Borysthenes, or, more properly, the western part of the Dromus Achillis insulated by a small arm of the sea. (Vid. Dromus Achillis and Leuce.)

ACHILLEIS, a poem of Statius, turning on the story of Achilles. (Vid. Statius.)

ACHILLES, I. a son of the Earth (nyévŋs), unto whom Juno fled for refuge from the pursuits of Jupiter, and who persuaded her to return and marry that deity. Jupiter, grateful for this service, promised him that all who bore this name for the time to come should be illustrious personages. (Ptol. Hephast.

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apud Photium, Biblioth., vol. i., p. 152, ed. Bekker.) | Phoenix as his first instructer (П. 9, 481, seqq.), while -II. The preceptor of Chiron (Id.).—III. The invent- from another passage (Il. 11, 831) it would appear, or of the ostracism (Id.).—IV. A son of Jupiter and that the young chieftain merely learned from the cenLamia. His beauty was so perfect, that, in the judg- taur the principles of the healing art. Those, howment of Pan, he bore away the prize from every com- ever, who pay more regard in this case to the statepetitor. Venus was so offended at this decision, that ments of other writers, make Chiron to have had she inspired Pan with a fruitless passion for the nymph charge of Achilles first, and to have fed him on the Echo, and also wrought a hideous change in his own marrow of wild animals; according to Libanius, on person (Id.).-V. A son of Galatus, remarkable for that of lions, but according to the compiler of the his light coloured, or, rather, whitish hair (Id.).—VI. Etymol. Mag., on that of stags. (Compare Bayle, The son of Peleus, king of Phthiotis in Thessaly. Dict. Hist. 1, 53.) Chiron is said to have given him His mother's name appears to have been a matter of the name of Achilles (Axiñλevç), from the circumsome dispute among the ancient expounders of my-stance of his food being unlike that of the rest of men thology (Schol. ad Apoll. Rhod. 1, 558), although the (a priv., and xian, “fructus quibus vescuntur homimore numerous authorities are in favour of Thetis, nes'). Other etymologies are also given; but most one of the sea-deities. According to Lycophron (v. likely none are true. (Compare, on this part of our 178), Thetis became the mother of seven male chil- subject, the Etymol. Mag-Ptol. Hephaest. apud dren by Peleus, six of whom she threw into the fire, Photium, Biblioth., vol. i., p. 152, ed. Bekker.-Heyne, because, as Tzetzes informs us in his scholia, they ad I. 1, 1 -Wassenberg, ad schol. in Il. 1, p. 130) were not of the same nature with herself, and the Calchas having predicted, when Achilles had attained treatment she had received was unworthy of her rank the age of nine years, that Troy could not be taken as a goddess. The scholiast on Homer, however (II. without him, Thetis, well aware that her son, if he 16, 37), states, that Thetis threw her children into the joined that expedition, was destined to perish, sent fire in order to ascertain whether they were mortal or him, disguised in female attire, to the court of Lycomnot, the goddess supposing that the fire would consume edes, king of the island of Scyros, for the purpose what was mortal in their natures, while she would of being concealed there. A difficulty, however, arises preserve what was immortal. The scholiast adds, in this part of the narrative, on account of the early that six of her children perished by this harsh experi- age of Achilles when he was sent to Scyros, which ment, and that she had, in like manner, thrown the can only be obviated by supposing, that he remained seventh, afterward named Achilles, into the flames, several years concealed in the island, and that the when Peleus, having beheld the deed, rescued his off- Trojan war occupied many years in preparation. (Comspring from this perilous situation. Tzetzes (ubi su- pare the remarks of Heyne, ad Apollod., l. c., p. 316, pra) assigns a different motive to Thetis in the case and Gruber, Wörterbuch der altclassischen Mythologie of Achilles. He makes her to have been desirous of und Religion, vol. i., p. 32.) At the court of Lycomconferring immortality upon him, and states that with edes, he received the name of Pyrrha (Ilvþþú, “Ruthis view she anointed him (Expiev) with ambrosia fa"), from his golden locks, and became the father of during the day, and threw him into fire at evening. Neoptolemus by Deidamia, one of the monarch's Peleus, having discovered the goddess in the act of daughters. (Apollod. l. c.) In this state of concealconsigning his child to the flames, cried out with ment Achilles remained, until discovered by Ulysses, alarm, whereupon Thetis, abandoning the object she who came to the island in the disguise of a travelling had in view, left the court of Peleus and rejoined the merchant. The chieftain of Ithaca offered, it seems, nymphs of the ocean. Dictys Cretensis makes Peleus various articles of female attire for sale, and. mingled to have rescued Achilles from the fire before any part with them some pieces of armour. On a sudden blast of his body had been injured but the heel. Tzetzes, being given with a trumpet, Achilles discovered himfollowing the authority of Apollodorus, gives his first self by seizing upon the arms. (Apollod. I. c.-Staname as Ligyron (Atyúpwv), but the account of Aga- tius, Achill. 2, 201.) The young warrior then joined mestor, cited by the same scholiast, is more in ac- the army against Troy. This account, however, of cordance with the current tradition mentioned above. the concealment of Achilles is contradicted by the exAgamestor says, that the first name given to Achilles press authority of Homer, who represents him as prowas Pyrisous (ПIvpíσooç), i. e., “saved from the fire." ceeding directly to the Trojan war from the court of What has thus far been stated in relation to Achilles, his father. (Il. 9, 439.) As regards the forces which with the single exception of the names of his parents, he brought with him, the poet makes them to have Peleus and Thetis, is directly at variance with the au- come from the Pelasgian Argos, from Alus, Alope, and thority of Homer, and must therefore be regarded as Trachis, and speaks of them as those who possessed a mere posthomeric fable. The poet makes Achilles Phthia and Hellas, and who were called Myrmidones, say, that Thetis had no other child but himself; and Hellenes, and Achæi. (Il. 2, 681, seqq.) Hence, though a daughter of Peleus, named Polydora, is men- according to Heyne, the sway of Achilles extended tioned in a part of the Iliad (16, 175), she must have from Trachis, at the foot of Mount Eta, as far as the been, according to the best commentators, only a half river Enipeus, where Pharsalus was situated, and sister of the hero. (Compare Heyne, ad loc.) Equally thence to the Peneus.-The Greeks, having made at variance with the account given by the bard, is the good their landing on the shores of Troas, proved so more popular fiction, that Thetis plunged her son into superior to the enemy as to compel them to seek shelthe waters of the Styx, and by that immersion render- ter within their walls. (Thucyd. 1, 11.) No sooner ed the whole of his body invulnerable, except the heel was this done than the Greeks were forced to turn by which she held him. On this subject Homer is al- their principal attention to the means of supporting together silent; and, indeed, such a protection from their numerous forces. A part of the army was theredanger would have derogated too much from the char- fore sent to cultivate the rich vales of the Thracian acter of his favourite hero. There are several passa- Chersonese, then abandoned by their inhabitants on ges in the Iliad which plainly show, that the poet does account of the incursions of the barbarians from the not ascribe to Achilles the possession of any peculiar interior. (Thucyd. ubi supra.) But the Grecian arphysical defence against the chances of battle. (Com-my, being weakened by this separation of its force, pare Il. 20, 262: 1d. 288: and especially, 21, 166, where Achilles is actually wounded by Asteropæus.) The care of his education was intrusted, according to the common authorities, to the centaur Chiron, and to Phoenix, son of Amyntor. Homer, however, mentions

could no longer deter the Trojans from again taking the field, nor prevent succours and supplies from being sent into the city. Thus the siege was protracted to the length of ten years. During a great part of this time, Achilles was employed in lessening the resources

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