Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/83

 AOH^EANS tinder the name of Achaia. The Achaean luiiicue is the best example of the federative system bequeathed to the world by the Greeks. Each state or city, whether large or small, had but one vote, and retained its power of inter- nal legislation, as well as' its separate corns, weights, and measures, though the federal government had also its coins, weights, and measures, which were uniform. The right of intermarriage without loss of the children's citizenship, and the right of holding property and of importing and exporting on favorable terms, existed between the several cities of the federation, until taken away by the Romans, by way of punishment for resistance to their policy. The general assembly was held twice a year, but extraordinary assemblies were sometimes called. At the spring meeting the strategus or commander-in-chief, the hippar- chus or master of the horse, and ten other functionaries called demiurgi, were elected. Although every citizen who could afford it might attend these assemblies, all the citizens of any one city could only throw one vote, a fact which made the larger cities, such as Corinth, discontented. Such a confederation in the age of Philip would probably have pre- vented the Macedonian conquest. ACII.LMXS, in ancient history, the name of one of the main divisions of the Hellenic race. Originally they dwelt in Thessaly, whence they migrated to the Peloponnesus, of which they were the ruling nation in the heroic period. Their name is therefore mentioned in the Iliad as a generic term for the Greeks. The well- greaved Achaaans, the long-haired Achaeans, are terms employed to designate the whole Hellenic host before Troy. Their mythological ancestor was Achaeus, son of Xuthus, and grandson of Hellen. A('imiEES. I. The ancestor and founder of the Achaemenida3, the noblest family of the Pasargadae, and from the time of Cyrus (third in descent from him, according to Herodotus) the royal family of Persia. In Latin poetry, Achameniw is often used as a synonyme for Persicus, Persian. I!. Son of Darius L, and brother of Xerxes, was made by the latter satrap of Egypt in 484 B. 0., and accompanied him in his expedition against Greece in 480, when he commanded the Egyptian fleet. He fell in Egypt in 460, in an unsuccessful attempt to quell the revolt of Inarus, a Libyan chief. ACHAIA, one of the ancient divisions of the Peloponnesus, extending along the coast of the gulf of Corinth ; greatest length from E. to W. about 65 m. ; breadth, 12 to 20 m. Patras, for- merly Patrae, is the only Achaean town that has preserved any importance. The country was originally called ^gialea, that is, the coastland, and inhabited by lonians, who were dispos- sessed by the Achaeans on the conquest of the Peloponnesus by the Dorians. After the Roman conquest of Greece and Macedonia, the province of Achaia included all Peloponnesus, with N. Greece S. of Thessaly. In the present AOHEEN 63 kingdom of Greece it forms a nomarchy or province with Elis; area, 3,090 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 149,561. Capital, Patras. (See ACH.E- AN LEAGUE, and ACHAEANS.) ACHARD, Franz Karl, a Prussian natural phi- losopher and chemist, born in Berlin, April 28, 1753, died April 20, 1821. He devoted himself to the development of the beet sugar manufac- ture, repeating and improving upon the experi- ments of Marggraf. The results of his investi- gations were published in 1799 and 1800, but found neither encouragement nor imitation, upon which account the king of Prussia pre- sented him with a farm hi Silesia where he could continue his studies. In connection with Neubeck, he spent six years of laborious endea- vor before he discovered the true method of making the sugar. ACHARD, Louis Amedee Eugene, a French novelist, born at Marseilles in April, 1814. The first part of his life was employed in com- merce and provincial administration, and he afterward became a journalist in Paris. In 1846 he accompanied the duke of Montpensier to Spain as a reporter. In 1847 he pubh'shed Belle-Rose, a successful novel (5 vols. 8vo.), since which he has produced many others, besides a number of plays. ACHATES. I. The companion of JEneas in his flight from Troy, and in his subsequent wanderings, according to the account given by Virgil. He is always termed fidus Achates (the faithful Achates), whence the phrase has passed into a proverb, applied to any faithful confidant in a subordinate position. II. In ancient geography, a river in the south of Sicily, between Camarina and Gela, now called Dirillo. According to Pliny, it was the place where the first agate was found ; hence the derivation of the word agate. ACHEEN, an independent sovereignty, com- prising the N. W. portion of Sumatra ; area, 25,500 sq. m. As early as 1509 the Portuguese visited this country, and in 1602 the English, in order to obtain a continuous supply of pep- per, entered into a commercial treaty with the king. The East India company in 1659 estab- lished a factory at the capital ; but it was eventually removed to Bencoolen, on the S. coast of Sumatra. Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819 secured to the. East India company and the British government, by treaty, the right of freely trading to all the ports of Acheen. The government of Acheen is an hereditary monarchy, the power of the king or sultan being limited only by the power of his greater vassals. The kingdom is divided into 190 small districts. This part of Sumatra is com- paratively healthy, but the interior is almost entirely unknown. The people are taller, stouter, and darker than the other Sumatrans. They are strict Mohammedans, and write in Malay characters. They manufacture a few silk goods, and a good deal of- thick cotton cloth and striped and checkered stuffs. Aeheen, the capital, stands about a league