Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/24

6  of Eurytion. When Peleus refused to listen to her addresses, she accused him to her husband of having attempted to dishonour her. (Apollod. iii. 13. § 2, &c,; Pind. Nem. iv. 90, &c.) Acastus, however, did not take immediate revenge for the alleged crime, but after he and Peleus had been chasing on mount Pelion, and the latter had fallen asleep, Acastus took his sword from hun, and left him alone and exposed, so that Peleus was nearly destroyed by the Centaurs. But he was saved by Cheiron or Hermes, returned to Acastus, and killed him together with his wife. (Apollod. l. c; Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 224.) The death of Acastus is not mentioned by Apollodorus, but according to him Peleus in conjunction with lason and the Dioscuri merely confiuer and destroy lolcus. (Apollod. iii. 13. § 7.)  ACBARUS. [.]  ACCA LAURE'NTIA or LARE'NTIA, a mythical woman who occurs in the stories in early Roman history. Macrobius (Sat. i. 10), with whom Plutarch (Quaest. Rom. 35; Romul. 5) agrees in the main points, relates the following tradition about her. In the reign of Ancus Martius a servant (aedituus) of the temple of Hercules invited during the holidays the god to a game of dice, promising that if he should lose the game, he would treat the god with a repast and a beautiful woman. When the god had conquered the servant, the latter shut up Acca Laurentia, then the most beautiful and most notorious woman, together with a well stored table in the temple of Hercules, who, when she left the sanctuary, advised her to try to gain the affection of the first wealthy man she should meet. She succeeded in making Carutius, nn Etruscan, or as Plutarch calls him, Tarrutius, love and marry her. After his death she inherited his large property, which, when she herself died, she left to the Roman people. Ancus, in gratitude for this, allowed her to be buried in the Velabrum, and instituted an annual festival, the Larentalia, at which sacrifices were offered to the Lares. (Comp. Varr. Ling. Lat. v. p. 85, ed. Bip.) According to others (Macer, ’'apud Macrob. l.c.; Ov. Fast. iii. 55, &c.; Plin. H. N, xviii. 2), Acca Laurentia was the wife of the shepherd Faustulus and the nurse of Romulus and Remus after they had been taken from the she-wolf. Plutarch indeed states, that this Laurentia was altogether a different being from the one occurring in the reign of Ancus; but other writers, such as Macer, relate their stories as belonging to the same being. (Comp. Gell. vi. 7.) According to Massurius Sabinus in Gellius (l. c.) she was the mother of twelve sons, and when one of them died, Romulus stept into his place, and adopted in conjunction with the remaining eleven the name of fratres arvales. (Comp. Plin. l. c.) According to other accounts again she was not the wife of Faustulus, but a prostitute who from her mode of life was called lupa by the shepherds, and who left the property she gained in that way to the Roman people. (Valer. Ant. ap. Gell. l. c.; Livy, i. 4.) Whatever may be thought of the contradictory statements respecting Acca Laurentia, thus much seems clear, that she was of Etruscan origin, and connected with the worship of the Lares, from which her name Larentia itself seems to be derived. This appears further from the number of her sons, which answers to that of the twelve country Lares, and from the circumstance that the day sacred to her was followed by one sacred to the Lares. (Macrob. Sat. l. c; compare Miiller, Etrusker, ii. p. 103, &c.; Hartung, Die Religion der Römer, ii. p. 144, &c.)  L. A'CCIUS or A'TTIUS, an early Roman tragic poet and the son of a freedman, was born according to Jerome 170, and was fifty years younger than Pacuvius. He lived to a great age; Cicero, when a young man, frequently conversed with him. (Brut. 28.) His tragedies were chiefly imitated from the Greeks, especially from Aeschylus, but he also wrote some on Roman subjects (Praetextata ; one of which, entitled Brutus, was probably in honour of his patron D. Brutus. (Cic. de Leg. ii. 2 1, pro Arch. 11.) We possess only fragments of his tragedies, of which the most important have been preserved by Cicero, but sufficient remains to justify the terms of admiration in which he is spoken of by the ancient writers. He is particularly praised for the strength and vigour of his language and the sublimity of his thoughts. (Cic. pro Planc. 24, pro Sest. SG., &c.; Hor. Ep. ii. 1. 56; Quintil. x. 1. §97; Gell. xiii. 2.) Besides these tragedies, he also wrote Annales in verse, containing the history of Rome, like those of Ennius; and three prose works, "Libri Didascalion," which seems to have been a history of poetry, "Libri Pragraaticon" and " Parerga": of the two latter no fragments are preserved. The fragments of his tragedies have been collected by Stephanus in "Frag. vet. Poet. Lat." Paris, 1564; Maittaire, "Opera et Frag. vet. Poet. Lat." Lond. 1713; and Bothe, "Poet. Scenici Latin.," vol. v. Lips. 1834: and the fragments of the Didascalia by Madvig, "De L. Attii Didascaliis Comment." Hafniae, 1831.  T. A'CCIUS, a native of Pisaurum in Umbria and a Roman knight, was the accuser of A. Cluentius, whom Cicero defended 66. He was a pupil of Hermagoras, and is praised by Cicero for accuracy and fluency. (Brut. 23, pro Cluent. 23, 31, 57.)  ACCO, a chief of Senones in Gaul, who induced his countrymen to revolt against Caesar, 53. On the conclusion of the war Acco was put to death by Caesar. (''Bell. Gall.'' vi. 4, 44.)  ACCOLEIA GENS is known to us only by coins and inscriptions. On a denarius we have the name P. Accoleius Lariscolus, and in two inscriptions a P. Accoleius Euhemerus, and a L. Accoleius Abascantus.  ACE΄RATUS (🇬🇷), a Greek grammarian, and the author of an epigram on Hector in the Greek Anthology. (vii. 138.) Nothing is known of his life. <section end="Aceratus" /> <section begin="Acerbas" />ACERBAS, a Tyrian priest of Hercules, who married Eiissa, the daughter of king Mutgo, and sister of Pygmalion. He was possessed of considerable wealth, which, knowing the avarice of Pygmalion, who had succeeded his father, he concealed in the earth. But Pygmalion, who heard of these hidden treasures, had Acerbas murdered, in hopes that through his sister he might obtain possession of them. But the prudence of Elissa saved the treasures, and she emigrated from Phoenicia. (Justin, xviii. 4.) In this account Acerbas is the same person as Sichaeus, and Elissa the same as Dido in Virgil. (Aen. i. 343, 348, &c.) The names in Justin are undoubtedly more correct than in Virgil; for Servius (ad Aen. i. 343) remarks, that Virgil here, as in other cases, changed a <section end="Acerbas" />