Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/37

ACIRIS.

ACIRIS ('Ajcipis), a river of Lucania, mentioned both by Pliny and Strabo, as flowing near to Heraclea on the N. side, as the Siris did on the S. It is still called the Acri or Agri, and has a coarse of above 50 miles, rising in the Apennines near JTarMOS Xwovo, and flowing into the Golf of Ta^ mtam, a littfe to the N. (^ PolioorOj the site of the aodeDt Heradea. (Plin. iS. 11. s. 15; Strab. PL 264.) The Acn>u» of the Itinerary is snpposed It Chxveriiis to be a corraptim of this name, bnt it wodd spfetr to be that of a town, rather than a dnr. (Itin. Ant. p. 104.)[ E. H. B. ]

ACIS (A«»)i a river of Sidlj, on the eastern of the ishmd, and inunediatelj at the foot of It is oel^Fated on aocoont of the mytho- fidde connected with its origin, which was ascribed to the Mood of the yoathlul Ads, crashed ladder an enonnooa rock by his rival Polyphemus. (Orid. UbL xiiL 750, &c; SiL ItaL xiv. 221—226; Antk Lat. L 148; Serr. ad Virg. Eel ix. S9, who cmaeoQsly writes the name Adnios.) It is evi- daaly in allnsion to the same stocy that Theocritos ifcaks of the "sacred waters of Acis." ("AjciSos ufim »«y>, Id^ i. 69.) Fiom this fitble itself we BMy infer that it was a small stream gashing forth bma onder a reck; the extreme coldness of its waters noticed by Solinas (Solin. 5. § 17) also pcnte to the same amclaaan. The last cinmm- Maaoe might lead ns to identify it with the streun aor csScd Fimme Frtddo^ bat there is every ap- pearance that the town of Adam derived its name from the river, and this was certainly fartho' soaih. There can be no doabt that Claverios is right in idBBtifyix^ it with the little river still called Fwmt A Jmcx, kiKiwn abo by the name of the Aeque Gramdij which rises under a rock of lava, and has a very short course to the sea, passing by the modern town of Act BeaU (Adam). The Ads* «as certainly quite distinct from the Acesines or Auaes, with which it has been oonfonnded by semal writers. (Clover. SieU pi 115; Smyth's Sm%, pi 132; Ortolani, IHt, Gtogr. p. 9; Fenara, Jkmru. deff ftea, p. 32.)[ E. H. B. ]

A'CIUM, a small town on the £. coast of Sialy, lawtinned only in the Itinerary (Itin. Ant p 87), idnch places it on the high road from Catana to Tsoiancnhmi, at the distimoe of 9 H. P. from the faaer dty. It evidently derived its name from Hie little river Ads, and is probably identical with die nodem Ad Reakj a considerable town, aboat a ■ale from the sea, in the neighboarhood of which, IB the road to CatamOf are extensive remains of BooMD Thermae. (Biscari, Viaggio in Sicilia, fi 22; Ortolani, Dm. Gtogr. p. 9.)[ E. H. B. ]

ACMO'NIA (A/c^iM'ta: Eth. 'AMfwrif^n, 'Air/M. not, Acmonensis), a dty of Phrygia, mentioned by Ckere {Pro Flacc 15.) It was on the road firam Dotykenm to Philadelphia, 36 Boman miles SW. of Cotjac nm; and under the Romans bekmged to the Onventos Joridicns of Apamea. The site has been £sed at Akatbn; bat it still seems doabtful. (Ha- Bahoo, R*uafThet, 4^ vol. L p. 115.)[ G. L. ]

ACRAE.

21

ACO'NTIA or ACUTIA (Άκοντία, Strab. p. 152; Άκούτεια, Steph. B.), a town of the Vaccaei, in Hispania Tarraconensis, <» the river Durius (Douro), which had a ford here. Its site is unknown.[ P. S. ]

ACONTISMA, a station in Macedonia on the coast and on the Via Egnatia, 8 or 9 miles eastward of Neapolis, is placed by Leake near the end of the passes of the Sapaei, which were formed by the mountainous coast stretching eastward from Kavála. Tafel considers it to be identical with Christopolis and the modern Kavála. (Amm. Marc, xxvii. 4; It. Ant. and Hierocl.; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 180; Tafel, De Viae Egnatiae Parte Orient. p. 13, seq.)

A'CORIS (Άκορίς), a town of Egypt, on the east bank of the Nile in the Cynopolite Nome, 17 miles N. of Antinoopolis. (Ptol. iv. 5. § 69; Tab. Peut.)

ACRA LEUCE (Άκρα Λευκή), a great city of Hispania Tarraconensis, founded by Hamilcar Barcas (Diod. Sic. xxv. 2), and probably identical with the Castrum Album of Livy (xxiv. 41). Its position seems to have been on the coast of the Sinus Ilicitanus, N. of Ilici, near the modern Alicante (Ukert, vol. ii. pt. l, p. 403).[ P. S. ]

ACRAE (Άκραι, Thuc. et alii; Άκρα, Steph. B.; Άκραιαι Ptol.; Άκραιοί, Steph. B.; Acrenses, Plin.; Palazzolo), a city of Sicily, situated in the southern portion of the island, on a lofty hill, nearly due W. of Syracuse, from which it was distant, according to the Itineraries, 24 Roman miles (Itin. Ant. p. 87; Tab. Pent). It was a colony of Syracuse, founded, as we learn from Thucydides, 70 years after its parent city, i. e. 663 B.C. (Thuc. vi. 5), but it did not rise to any great importance, and continued almost always in a state of dependence on Syracuse. Its position must, however, have always given it some consequence in a military point of view; and we find Dion, when marching upon Syracuse, halting at Acrae to watch the effect of his proceedings. (Plut. Dion, 27, where we should certainly read Άκρας for Μακράς.) By the treaty concluded by the Romans with Hieron, king of Syracuse, Acrae was included in the dominions of that monarch (Diod., xxiii. Exc. p. 502), and this was probably the period of its greatest prosperity. During the Second Punic War it followed the fortunes of Syracuse, and afforded a place of refuge to Hippocrates, after his defeat by Marcellus at Acrillae, B.C. 214. (Liv. xxiv. 36.) This is the last mention of it in history, and its name is not once noticed by -Cicero. It was probably in his time a mere dependenqr of Syracuse, though it is found in Pliny's list of the stipendiariiae dvitates, so that it must then have possessed a separate muni- dpal existence. (Plin. iii. 8; Ptol. iii. 4. § 14.) The dte of Acrae was correctly fixed by Fazello at ihe modern PalaezolOj the lof^ and bloik situation of which corresponds with the description of Silius Italicus (^'tomulis gladalibus Acrae," xiv. 206), and its distance from Syracuse with that assigned by the Itineraries. The summit of the hill occupied by the modern town is said to be still called Acremonte, Fazello speaks of the ruins visible there as *'cgregiuni urbis cadaver," and the recent researches and excava- tions carried on by ^e Baron Judica have brought to light andent remains of much interest. The most considerable of these are two theatres, both in very fair preservation, of which the largest is turned to- wards the N., while immediately adjacent to it on the W. is a much smaller one, hollowed out in great part from the rock, and supposed from some pecu-

1 liarities in its construction to have been intended to