Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/27

  early use road in Arcanania which led from Actium along the coast to Calydon in Aetolia.

 ACCI (: Guadix el viejo, between Granada and Baza) a considerable inland city of Hispania on the border of Baetica; under the Romans a colony, with the Jus Latinum, under the full name of Colonia Julia Gemella Accitana. Its coins are numerous, bearing the heads of Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula, and of the legions iii. and vi., from which it was colonised by Julius or Augustus, and from which it derived the name of Gemella (Itin. Ant. pp. 402, 404; Plin. iii. 3. a. 4; Inacr. ap. Gruter, p. 271; Eckhel, vol. i. pp. 34-35; Rasche, s. v.) According to Macrobius (Sat. i. 19), Mars was worshipped here with his head surrounded with the sun's rays, under the name of Netos. Such an emblem is seen on the coins.

 A'CCUA, a small town of Apulia, mentioned only by Livy (xxiv. 20) as one of the places recovered by Q. Fabius from the Carthaginians in the fifth year of the Second Punic War, B. C. 214. It appears from this passage to have been somewhere in the neighbourhood of Luceria, but its exact site is unknown.

 ACE (: Eth. ), the  of the Old Testament (Judg. i. 31), the Akka of the Arabs, a celebrated town and harbour on the shores of Phoenicia, in lat. 32° 54', long. 35° 6' E. It is situated on the point of a small promontory, the northern extremity of a circular bay, of which the opposite or southern shore is formed by one of the ridges of Mount Carmel. During the period that Ptolemy Soter was in possession of Coele-Syria, it received the name of (: Eth,, ), by which it was long distinguished. In the reign of the emperor Claudius it became a Roman colony, and was styled, or simply ; but from the time when it was occupied by the knights of St. John of Jerusalem, it has been generally known all over Christendom as St Jean d'Acre, or simply Acre. The advantages offered by the position of Acre were recognised from an early period by those who dewed te hecp the cnmmand of the Syrian coast, ha it £d not liae to enunooce until after the decay rf1>R and SMon. When Strabo wrote (p. 758), it «« ahaady a great city; and although it has under- pm vmaj Hciaatades, it has always maintained a eotn degree of impoctanoe. It originally be- kaced te the Pboenidans, and, though nominally iadaded within the territory of the tribe of Asher, WM sever eonqpered by the Israelites. It afterwards pMnd into the hands of the Babylonians, and from than te the Peraiana. According to the first dis- df the dominions of Alexander it was to Ptolemy Soter, but subsequently fell under the Seleuddae, and after changing bands repeatedly eventually fell under the dominion of Rome. It is said at present to contain from 15,000 to 30,000 inhabitants.

 A'CELUM (Asolo), a town of the interior of Venetia, situated near the foot of the Alps, about 18 miles NW. of Treviso. (Plin. iii. 19. s. 23; Ptol. iii. 1. § 30.) The name is written "Axcfioy in our editions of Ptolemy, but the correctness of the form Acelum given by Pliny is confirmed by that of the modern town. We learn from Paulus Diaconus (iii. 25, where it is corruptly written Acilium), that it was a bishop's see in the 6th century.

 ACERRAE. 1. A city in the interior of Campania, about 8 miles NE. of Naples, still called Acerra. It first appears in history as an independent city during the great war of the Campanians and Latins against Rome; shortly after the conclusion of which, in B. C. 332, the Acerrani, in common with several other Campanian cities, obtained the Roman "civitas," but without the right of suffrage. The period at which this latter privilege was granted them is not mentioned, but it is certain that they ultimately obtained the full rights of Roman citizens. (Liv. viii. 17; Festus, a. v. Municipium, Municepe and Praefectura, pp. 127, 142, 233, ed. Mǜller.) In the second Punic war it was faithful to the Roman alliance, on which account it was besieged by Hannibal in B. C. 216, and being abandoned by the inhabitants in despair, was plundered and burnt. But after the expulsion of Hannibal from Campania, the Acerrani, with the consent of the Roman senate, returned to and rebuilt their city, B. C. 210. (Liv. xxiii. 17, xxvii. 3.)

During the Social War it was besieged by the Samnite general, C. Papius, but offered so vigorous a resistance that he was unable to reduce it. (Appian. B. C. i. 42, 45.) Virgil praises the fertility of its territory, but the town itself had suffered so much from the frequent inundations of the river Clanius, on which it was situated, that it was in his time almost deserted. (Virg. Georg. ii. 225; and Servius ad loc. Sil. Ital. viii. 537; Vib. Seq. p. 21.) It subsequently received a colony under Augustus (Lib. Colon, p. 229), and Strabo speaks of it in conjunction with Nola and Nuceria, apparently as a place of some consequence. It does not seem, however, to have retained its colonial rank, but is mentioned by Pliny as an ordinary municipal town. (Strab. v. pp. 247, 249; Plin. iii. 5. s. 9; Orell. Inscr. no. 3716.) The modern town of Acerra retains the site as well as the name of the ancient one, but it does not appear that any vestiges of antiquity, except a few inscriptions, remain there. (Lupuli, Inter Venusin. p. 10 — 12.) The coins with an Oscan legend which were referred by Eckhel and earlier numismatists to Acerrae, belong properly to Atella. (Millingen, Nunismatique de l'Ancianne Italie p. 190; Friedlander, Oskischen Munzen, p. 15.) 2. A city of Cisalpine Gaul, in the territory of the Insubres. Polybius describes it merely as situated between the Alps and the Po; and his words are copied by Stephanus of Byzantium: but Strabo tells us that it was near Cremona: and the Tabula places it on the road from that city to Laus Pompeia (Lodi Vecchio), at a distance of 22 Roman miles from the latter place, and 13 from Cremona. These distances coincide with the postion of Gherra or Gera, a village, or rather suburb of Pizzighettone, on the right bank of the river Adda. It appears to have been a place of considerable strength and importance (probably as commanding the passage of the Adda) even before the Roman conquest: and in B. C. 222, held out for a considerable time against the consuls Marcellus and Scipio, but was compelled to surrender alter the battle of Clastidium. (PoLi. ii. 34; Plut. Mare. 6; Zonar. viii. 20; Strab. v. p. 247; Steph. B. s. v.; Tab. Pent.; Cluver. Ital. p. 244.) 3. A third town of the name, distinguished by the epithet of Vatriae, is mentioned by Pliny (iii. 14. s. 19) as having been situated in Umbrio, but it was already destroyed in his time, and all clue to its position is lost.

 ACES, a river of Asia, flowing through