Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/25

ACANTHUS.

(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 killed the camels which carried the provisions. (Herod. vii. 115, Seq. 121; Thuc. iv. 84, seq. v. 18 Xen. Hell. v. 2; Liv. xxxi. 45; Plut. Quaest. Graec. 30; Strab. p. 330; Leake, Northern 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 compound of the Acanthus. (Strab. p. 809; Diod. i. 97; Steph. B. s. v.; Ptol. iv. 5. § 55, who calls the town Άκανθών Πόλις)

ACARNA'NIA (Άκαρνανία: Άκαρνάν, -άνος, Acarnan, -ānis), the most westerly province of Greece, was bounded on the N. by the Ambracian gulf, on the NE. by Amphilochia, on the W. and SW. by the Ionian sea, and on the E. by Aetolia. It contained about 1571 square miles. Under the Romans, or probably a little earlier, the river Achelous formed the boundary between Acarnania and Aetolia; but in the time of the Peloponnesian war, the territory of Oeniadae, which was one of the Acarnanian towns, extended E. of this river. The interior of Acarnania is covered with forests and mountains of no great elevation, to which some modern writers erroneously gave the name of Cranïa. [Crania.] Between these mountains are several lakes and many fertile vallies. The chief river of the country is the Achelous, which in the lower part of its course flows through a vast plain of great natural fertility, called after itself the Paracheloitis. The 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 the 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 Arcanania is the Anapus Άναπος), which flowed into the main stream 80 stadia S. of Stratus. There are several promontories on the coast, but of these only two are specifically named, the promontory of Actium, and

ACARNANIA.

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that of Crithote (Κριθωτή), 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 (Μελίτη: Trikardho), 30 stadia long and 20 broad, N. of the mouth of the Achalous, 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 (Μυρτούντιον). 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 pearl fishery 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 pasture 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 (Έπειρος), or the mainland (Strab. p. 451, sub fin.), although he frequently mentions the Aetolians.^[1]

The country is said to have been originally inhabited by the Taphii, or Teleboae, the Leleges, and the Curetes. The Taphii, or Teleboae were chiefly found in the islands off the western coast of Acarnania, where they maintained themselves by piracy. [Teleboae.] The Leleges were more widely disseminated, and were also in possession at one period of Aetolia, Locris, and other parts of Greece. [Leleges.] The Curetes are said to have come from Aetolia, and to have settled in Acarnania, after they had been expelled from the former country by Aetolus and his followers (Strab. p. 465). The name of Acarnania is derived from Acarnan, the son of Alcmaeon, who is said to have settled at the mouth of the Achelous. (Thuc ii. 102.) If this tradition is of any value, it would intimate that an Argive colony settled on the coast of Acarnania at an early period. In the middle of the 7th century

1. 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 remarkes, 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. pp. 119, 120.)