Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/17



ABACAENUM (, Diod., Steph Byz.:, Ptol.: Eth. : nr. Tripi, Ru.)  a city of Sicily, situated about 4 miles from the N. coast, between Tyndaris and Mylae, and 8 from the former city. It was a city of the Siculi, and does not appear to have ever received a Greek colony, though it partook highly of the influence of Greek art and civilisation. Its territory originally included that of Tyndaris, which was separated from it by the elder Dionysius when he founded that city in B. C. 396 (Diod. xiv. 78). From the way in which it is mentioned in the wars of Dionysius, Agathocles and Hieron (Diod. xiv. 90, xix. 65, 110, xxii. Exc. Hoeschel p. 499), it is clear that it was a place of power and importance: but from the time of Hieron it disappears from history, and no mention is found of it in the Verrine orations of Cicero. Its name is, however, found in Ptolemy (iii. 4. § 12), so that it appears to have still continued to exist in his day. Its decline was probably owing to the increasing prosperity of the neighbouring city of Tyndaris.

There can be little doubt that the ruins visible in the time of Fazello, at the foot of the hill on which the modern town of Tripi is situated, were those of Abacaenum. He speaks of fragments of masonry, prostrate columns, and the vestiges of walls, indicating the site of a large city, but which had been destroyed to its foundations. The locality does not seem to have been examined by any more recent traveller (Fazellus, de Reb. Sic. ix. 7; Cluver. Sicil. Ant. p. 386.)

Then are found coins of Abacaenum, both in silver and copper. The boar and acorn, which are the common type of the former, evidently refer to the great forests of oak which still cover the neighbouring mountains, and afford pasture to large herds of swine.

COIN OF ABACAENUM.

 ABAE (Eth. : near Exarkhó, Ru.), an ancient town of Phocis, near the frontiers of the Opuntian Locrians, said to have been built by the Argive Abas, son of Lynceus and Hypermnestra and grandson of Danaus. Near the town and on the road towards Hyampolis was an ancient temple and oracle of Apollo, who hence derived the surname of Abaeus. So celebrated was this oracle, that it was consulted both by Croesus and by Mardonius. Before the Persian invasion the temple was richly adorned with treasuries and votive offerings. It was twice destroyed by fire; the first time by the Persians in their march through Phocis (B. C. 480), and a second time by the Boeotians in the Sacred or Phocian war (B. C. 346). Hadrian caused a smaller temple to be built near the ruins of the former one. In the new temple there were three ancient statues in brass of Apollo, Leto, and Artemis, which had been dedicated by the Abaei, and had perhaps been saved from the former temple. The ancient agora and the ancient theatre still existed in the town in the time of Pausanias. According to the statement of Aristotle, as preserved by Strabo, Thracians from the Phocian town of Abae emigrated to Euboea, and gave to the inhabitants the name of Abantes. The ruins of Abae are on a peaked hill to the W. of Exarkhó. There are now no remains on the summit of the peak; but the walls and some of the gates may still be traced on the SW. side. There are also remains of the walls, which formed the inclosure of the temple. (Paus. x. 35; Herod. i. 46, viii. 134, 33; Diod. xvi. 530; Strab. pp. 423, 445; Steph. Byz. s.v.; Gell, Itinerary, p. 226; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 163, seq.)

 ABA′LLABA, a Roman castle in Britannia Inferior, whose site is unknown. It is mentioned in the Notitia Imperii as the quarters of a troop of Numidian horse (Mauri Aureliani) in the 3rd century A. D. Antiquaries refer it to Appleby on the Eden, and its name, containing the Celtic word Avon, water, indicates its position near a stream. Watchcross in Cumberland also claims to be the ancient Aballaba. It was certainly, however, one of the forts upon the rampart erected by Hadrian in A. D. 120, between the rivers Esk and Tyne, to protect the province of Britain from the incursions of the Caledonians.

 ABALUS, was said by Pytheas to be an island in the northern ocean, upon which amber was washed by the waves, distant a day's sail from the aestuary called Mentonomon, on which the Gothones dwelt. This island was called Basilia by Timaeus, and Baltia by Xenophon of Lampsacus. It was probably a portion of the Prussian coast upon the Baltic. (Plin. xxxvii. 7. s. 11; Diod. v. 23; Ukert, Geographie, vol. ii. Pt. ii. p. 33, seq.) 