Volume 1

A dictionary of Greek and Roman geography / by various writers ; edited by William Smith.

Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dictionary of Greek and Roman geography / by various writers ; edited by William Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    44/1140 (page 22)
    serve as an Odeum, or theatre for music. Numerous 1 other architectural fragments, attesting the existence of temples and other buildings, have also been brought to light, as well as statues, pedestals, inscriptions, and other minor relics. On an adjoining hill are great numbers of tombs excavated in the rock, while on the hill of Acremonte itself are some monuments of a singular character; figures as large as life, hewn in relief in shallow niches on the surface of the native rock. As the piincipal figm’e in all these sculptures appeal's to be that of the goddess Isis, they must be- long to a late period. (Fazell. de Reb. Sic. vol. i. p. 452; Serra di Falco, Antichitd di Sicilia, vol. iv. p. 158, seq.; Judica, AntichitadiAcre.') [E.H.B.] ACRAE (^AKpai), a town in Aetolia of uncer- tain site, on the road from Metapa to Conope. Stephanus erroneously calls it an Acamanian town. (Pol. V. 13; Steph. B. s. v.''AKpa.') ACRAE A (’A/cpaio), a mountain in Argolis, op- posite the Heraeum, or great temple of Hera. (Pans, ii. 17. § 2; Leake, Morea, vol. ii. p. 393, Pelopon- nesiaca, p. 263.) ACRAE'PHIA, ACRAEPHIAE, ACRAE- PHIUM, ACRAEPHNIUM (’AKpaupla, Steph. B. s. V.; Herod, viii. 135, Acraephia, Liv. xxxiii. 29; Plin. iv. 7. s. 12; 'AKpaicplai, Strab. p. 410; ’A/cpat- <i>iov, Strab. p. 413.; ’AKpal<t>viov, Pans. ix. 23. § 5: TO 'AKpai(f>via, Theopomp. ap. Steph. B. s. v. ; Eih. ’AKpai(pia7os, 'AKpa'upios, 'AKpaicpuios, ^AKpaKpviw- T7}s, 'AKpai(f>ui€m, Steph. B. s. v.; ’AKpaupLeiis, Bockh, Inscr. 1587: nr. Kardhitza'), a town of Boeotia on the slope of Mt. Ptoum (IItwov) and on the eastern bank of the lake Copais, which was here called 'AKpaKph Xip.vr} from the toivn. Acraepliia is said to have been founded by Athamas or Acrae- plieus, son of Apoilo; and according to some writers it was the same as the Homeric Ame. Here the Tliebans took refuge, when their city was destroyed by Alexander. It contained a temple of Dionysus. (Steph. B. s. V.; Strab. p. 413; Pans. 1. c.) At the distance of 15 stadia from the town, on the right of the road, and upon Mt. Ptoum, was a celebrated sanctuary and oracle of Apollo Ptous. This oracle Was consulted by Mardonius before the battle of Plataea, and is said to have answered his emissary, who was a Cadan, in the language of the latter. The name of the mountain was derived by some from Ptcus, a son of Apollo and Euxippe, and by others from Leto having been frightened (yrroeco) by a boar, when she was about to bring forth in this place. Both Acraephia and the oracle belonged to Thebes. There was no temple of the Ptoan Apollo, properly so called; Plutarch {Gryllus, 7) mentions a ^6\os, but other writers speak only of a re/revos, i€p6u, xPV^'''Vpiov or fxavT^lov. (Steph. B. s. v.; Strab. 1. c.; Pans. I c., iv. 32. § 5; Herod, viii. 135; Pint. Pelop. 16.) According to Pausanias the oracle ceased after'the capture of Thebes by Alexander; but the sanctuary still continued to retain its cele- brity, as we see from the great Acraephian inscription, which Bockh places in the time of M. Aurelius and his son Commodus after a.d. 177. It appears from this inscription that a festival was celebrated in honour of the Ptoan Apollo every four years. (Bockh, Inscr. No. 1625.) The ruins-of Acraephia are situated at a short distance to the S. of Kardhitza. The re- mains of the acropohs are visible on an isolated hill, a spur of Mt. Ptoum, above the Copaic sea, and at •its foot on the N. and W. are traces of the ancient town. Here stands the chm'ch of St. George built out of the stones of the old town, and containing many fragments of antiquity. In this church Leake discovered the great inscription alluded to above, which is in honour of one of the citizens of the place called Epaminondas. The ruins near the foun ain, which is now called Perdikohrysis, probably belong to the sanctuary of the Ptoan Apollo. The poet Alcaeus (ap. Strab. p. 413) gave the epithet rpt/cd- pavov to Mt. Ptoum, and the three summits now bear the names of Paled, Strutzina, and Skroponeri respectively. These form the central part of Mt. Ptoum, which in a wider signification extended from the Tenerian plain as far as Larymna and the Eu- boean sea, separating the Copaic lake on the E. from the lakes of Hylae and Harma. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 295, seq.; Ulrichs, Reisen in Griechenland, vol. i. p. 239, seq.; Forchhammer, Hellenika, p. 182.) ACRAGAS. [Agrigentum.] A'CRIAE or ACRAEAE (’Afcptai, Pans. iii. 21, § 7, 22. §§ 4, 5; Pol. 5. 19. § 8; 'AKpaiai, Strab. pp. 343, 363;’'A/epeia, Ptol. iii. 16. § 9: Eth. ’A/ept- drys'), a town of Laconia, on the eastern side of the Laconian bay, 30 stadia S. of Helos. Strabo (/. c.) describes the Eurotas as fiowing into the sea between Acriae and Gythium. Acriae possessed a sanctuary and a statue of the mother of the gods, which was said by the inhabitants of the town to be the most ancient in the Peloponnesus. Leake was unable to discover any remains of Acriae; the French expedi- tion place its ruins at the harbour of Kokinio. (Leake, Morea, vol. i. p. 229; Boblaye, Recherches, p. 95.) ACRIDO'PHAGI {'AKpibo<pdyoi'), or “Locust- eaters,” the name given by Diodonis (iii. 29) and Strabo (p. 770) to one of the half-savage tribes of Aethiopia bordering on the Red Sea, who received their denomination from their mode of life or their staple food. [W. R.] ACRILLA or ACRILLAE Q'AKpiWd), a town of Sicily, known only from Stephanus of Byzantium (s. V.), who tells us that it was not far from Syra- cuse. But there can be no doubt that it is the same place mentioned by Livy (xxiv. 35) where the Syra- cusan army under Hippocrates was defeated by Mar- cellus. The old editions of Livy have Acollae, for which Acrillae, the emendation of Cluverius, has been received by all the recent editors. From this passage we learn that it was on the line of march from Agrigentum to Syracuse, and not far from Acrae; but the exact site is undetermined. Plutarch {3farcell. 18), in relating the same event, writes the name ’AnlXas or ’A/riAAos. [E. H. B.J ACRITAS (’A/fpiVas: C. Gallo), the most south- erly promontory in Messenia. (Strab. p. 359; Pans, iv. 34. § 12 ; Ptol. iii. 16. § 7; Plin. iv. 5. s. 7; Leake, Morea, vol. i. p. 443.) ACROCERAU'NIA. [Ceraunii Montes.] ACROCORINTHUS. [Corintiius.] ACRO'NIUS LACUS. [Brigantinus Lacus.] ACROREIA (’A/epwpeta), the mountainous dis- trict of Elis on the borders of Arcadia, in which the rivers Peneius and Ladon take their rise. The in- habitants of the district were called A(‘rocreIi (’Aapeopetoi), and their towns appear to have been Thraustus, Alium, Opus, and Eupagium. The name is used in opposition to Koi'Atj or Hollow Elis. Stephanus (s. v.), who is followed by many modern writers, makes Acrocreii a town, and places it in Triphylia; but this error appears to have arisen from confounding the Acrocreii with the Paroreat:m in Triphyha. (Diod. xiv. 17; Xcn. Hell. iii. 2. §