A plain surrounded by mountains, respecting which a story is told by Herodotos (iii. 117). Geographers are not agreed as to the locality. It seems to be somewhere in Central Asia, E. of the Caspian. It is pretty clear, at all events, that the Aces of Herodotus is not the Indian river Acesines. [ P. S. ]
ACESINES (Άκεσίνης) a river of Sicily, which flows, into the sea to the south of Tanromeniun. Its name occurs only in Thucydides (iv. 25) on occasion of the attack made on Naxos by the Messenilis in B. C. 425: but it is evidently the same river which is called by Pliny (iii. 8) Asines, and by Vibios Sequester (p. 4) Asinius. Both these writers place it in the immediate neighbourhood of Tauromenium, and it can be no other than the river now called by the Arabic name of Cantara a considerable stream, which, after following throughout its course the northern boundary of Aetna, discharges itself into the sea immediately to the S. of Capo Schizò the site of the ancient Naxos. The Onobalas of Appian (B. C. v. 109) is probably only another name for the same river. Cluverius appears to be mistaken in regarding the Fiume Freddo as the Acesines: it is a very small stream, while the Cantara is one of the largest rivers in Sicily, and could hardly have been omitted by Pliny. (Cluver. Sicil. p. 93; Mannert, vol. ix. pt. ii. p. 284.) [ E. H. B. ]
ACESINES (Ajcfo-fiTjj: Chenab: Dionysius Periegetes, v. 1138, makes the i long, if any choose to consider this an authority), the chief of the five great tributaries of the Indus, which give the name of Panjab (i.e. Five Waters) to the great plain of NW. India. These rivers are described, in their connection with each other, under India. The Acesines was the second of them, reckoning from the W., and, after receiving the waters of all the rest, retained its name to its junction with the Indus, in lat. 28° 55' N., long. 70° 28' E. Its Sanscrit name was Chandrabhaga, which would have been Hellenized into ISovSpo^et^of, a word so like to *Av5po4><i7os, or 'AXe^oySpo^yos, that the followers of Alexander changed the name to avoid the evil omen, the more so perhaps on account of the disaster which befell the Macedonian fleet at the turbulent junction of the river with the Hydaspes (Ritter, Erdkunde von Asien, vol. iv. pt. i. p. 456: for other references see India.) [ P. S. ]
ACHAEI (Άχαεί), one of the four races into which the Hellenes are usually divided. In the heroic age they are found in that part of Thessaly in which Phthia and Hellas were situated, and also in the eastern part of Peloponnesus, more especially in Argos and Sparta. Argos was frequently called the Achaean Argos ("Apyos ^AxcuikSv, Hom. Il. ix. 141) to distinguish it from the Pelasgian Argos in Thessaly; but Sparta is generally mentioned as the head-quarters of the Achaean race in Peloponnesus. Thessaly and Peloponnesus were thus the two chief abodes of this people; but there were various traditions respecting their origin,
and a difference of opinion existed among the ancients, whether the Thessalian or the Peloponnesian Achaeans were the more ancient. They were
usually represented as descendants of Achaeus, the son of Xuthus and Creusa, and consequently the brother of Ion and grandson of Hellen. Pausanias (vii. 1) related that Achaeus went back to Thessaly, and recovered the dominions of which his father, Xuthus, had been deprived ; and then, in order to
ACHAIA.
explain the existence of the Achaeans in Peloponnesus, he adds that Archander and Architeles, the sons of Achaeus, came back from Phthiods to Argos, married the two daughters of Danaus, and acquired such influence at Argos and Sparta, that they called the people Achaeans after their father Achaeus. On the other hand, Strabo in one passage says (p. 383), that Achaeus having fled from Attica, where his father Xuthus had settled, settled in Lacedaemon and gave to the inhabitants the name of Achaeans. In another passage, however, he relates (p. 365), that Pelops brought with him into Peloponnesus the Phthiotan Achaeans, who settled in Laconia. It would be unprofitable to pursue further the variations in the legends; but we may
safely believe that the Achaeans in Thessaly were more ancient than those in Peloponnesus, since all tradition points to Thessaly as the cradle of the
Hellenic race. There is a totally different account, which represents the Achaeans as of Pelasgic origin. It is preserved by Dionysius of Halicamassus (i. 17), who relates that Achaeus, Phthius, and Pelasgua were sons of Poseidon and Larissa; and that they migrated from Peloponnesus to Thessaly, where they divided the country into three parts, called after them Achaia, Phthiotis and Pelasgiotis. A modern writer is disposed to accept this tradition so far, as to assign a Pelasgic origin to the Achaeans, though he regards the Phthiotan Achaeans as more ancient than their brethren in the Peloponnesus. (Thiriwall, Hist. of Greece, vol. i. p. 109, seq.). The only fact known in the earliest history of the people, which we can admit with certainty, is their existence as the predominant race in the south of Thessaly, and on the eastern side of Peloponnesns. They are represented by Homer as a brave and warlike people, and so distinguished were they that he usually calls the Greeks in general Achaeans or
Panachaeans (Ilayaxaioi, Il. ii. 404, vii. 73, &c.). In the same manner Peloponnesus, and sometimes the whole of Greece, is called by the poet the
Achaean land. ('Axwtj ycuOy Horn. Il. i. 254, Od. xiii. 249.) On the conquest of Peloponnesus by the Dorians, 80 years after the Trojan war, the
Achaeans were driven out of Argos and Laconia, and those who remained behind were reduced to the condition of a conquered people. Most of the expelled Achaeans, led by Tisamenus, the son of Orestes, proceeded to the land on the northern coast of Peloponnesus, which was called simply Aegialus (AlyidKSs) or the "Coast," and was inhabited by Ionians. The latter were defeated by the Achaeans and crossed over to Attica and Asia Minor, leaving their country to their conquerors, from whom it was henceforth called Achaia. (Strab. p. 383; Pans. vii. 1; Pol. ii. 41; comp. Herod, i. 145.) The
further history of the Achaeans is given under Achaia. The Achaeans founded several colonies, of which the most celebrated were Croton and Sybaris. [Croton; Sybaris.]
ACHA'IA ('Axafo, Ion. 'Axeufiy: Eth. 'Axcu6t, Achaeus, Achlvus, fem. and adj. ^Axcuds, AchlUas-, Acliais: Adj. *AxouK6sy Achaicus, Achaius). 1. A district in the S. of 'Thessaly, in which Phthia and Hellas were situated. It appears to have been the original abode of the Achaeans, who were hence called Phthiotan Achaeans (^Ax^ol ol ^iwtcu) to distinguish them from the Achaeans in the Peloponnesus. [For details see Achaei.] It was from this part of Thessaly that Achilles came, and Homer says that the subjects of this hero were
