| serve as an Odeum, or theatre for music. Numerous other architectural fragments, attesting the existence of temples and other buildings, have also been brought to light, as well as statues, pedestals, inscriptions, and other minor relics. On an adjoining hill are
great numbers of tombs excavated in the rock, while on the hill of Acremonte itself are some monuments of a angular chancier; figures as largo as life, hewn in relief in shallow niches on the 8ur£ftoeof the native rock. As the principal figure in all these sculptures appears to be that of the goddess Isis, the j must belong to a late period. (Fazell. de Beb. Slc yqL i. p. 452 ; Serra di Faloo, Antkkiih di SidHa^ toL iv. p. 158, seq. ; Judica, AntichUa tUAcre.) [E.H.B.]
ACRAE ("Aif^), a town in Aetolia of uncertain site, on the road from Metapa to Conope. Stephanus erroneously calls it an Acarnanian town. (Pol. v. 13; Steph. B. s. v. "Ajc/ml)
ACRAEA (^'Affchia a mountain in Aigolis, op-
posite the Henienm, or great temple of Hera. (Pans,
il 17. § 2; Leake, Marea, voL ii. p. 393, Fdopon-
fMMOca, p. 263.)
ACRAE'PHIA, ACRAEPHIAE, ACRAEPHIUM, ACRAEPHNIUM (^paupla, Steph. B.
«. «.; Herod. yiiL 135, Acraephia, liv. xxxiiL 29;
Plin. iv. 7. s. 12; *AKfMUp(ai, Strab. p. 410; 'Ak/mU-
pioy, Strab. p. 413.; 'Anpoi^ruM', Paus. iz. 23. § 5:
rd *AKpal<pMMf Theopomp. ap. Steph. B. a. v. ; Eth,
'Ajcpcu^uMSf *Aicpal^ioSy *AKpa(^iof , *AKpanpfu»-
n}T, 'Airpoi^ici/f, Steph. B. «. o.; 'AxptuptfiSty
Bockh, In$cr. 1587: nr. Kardhitta), a town of
Boeotia on the slope of Mt. Ptonm (IItwoi') and on
the eastern bank of the lake Copais, which was here
called 'Axpat/pls A(^tn| from the town. Acraephia
is said to have been founded bj Athamas or Acrae-
pheus, son of Apollo; and according to some writers
it was the same as the Homeric Ame. Here the
Thebans took refuge, when their dtj was destroyed
by Alexander. It contained a temple of Diwysus.
(Steph. B. s. V. ; Strab. p. 413 ; Pans. I c.) At the
distance of 15 stadia horn the town, on the right
of the road, and upon Mt. Ptoum, was a celebrated
sanctuary and oracle of Apollo Ptons. This oracle
was consulted by Mardonius before the battle of,
Plataea, and is said to have answered his emissaiy,
who was a Carian, in the language of the latter.
The name of the mountain was derived by some
fnm Ptons, a son of Apollo and Euxippe, and by
others frxMn Leto having been frightened (irro4») by
a boar, when she was about to bring forth in this
pUoe. Both Acraephia and the oracle belonged to
Thebes. There was no temple of the Ptoan Apollo,
properly so called; Plutarch ((rv^fiw, 7) mentions a
%6koSf but other writers speak only of a ri/unSf
Up6y, Xfni<^f>»^ or fuanwiv, (Steph. B. a. v. ;
Strab. l.c; Paus. /. c, iv. 32. § 5; Herod. Tiii.135;
Pint. Pelop, 16.) According to Pausanias the oracle
ceased after the capture of Thebes by Alexander;
but the sanctuary still continued to retain its cele-
brity, as we see from the great Acraephian inscription,
which Bockh places in the time of M. Aurelius and
his son Gommodus after a.d. 177. It appears from
this inscription that a festival was celebrated in honour
of the Ptoan Apollo every four years. (Bockh, Itucr,
Ko. 1625.) The rums of Acraephia are situated at
a short distance to the S. of Kardhitza, The re-
mains of the acropoUs are visible on an isolated hill,
a spur of Mt. Ptoum, above the Copaic sea, and at
its foot on the N. and W. are traces of the ancient
town. Here stands the church of St. George built
oat of the stones of the old town, and oontaining | many fragments of antiquity. In this chorch Leake .
discovered the great inscription alluded to above, "
which is in honour of one of the citizens of the place i
called Epaminoodas. The ruins near the fountain, '
which is now called Perdik6bryM$y probably bdong
to the sanctuary of the Ptoan Apollo. The poet
Alcaeus (ap. Strab. p. 413) gave the epithet rpucd-
peofov to Mt. Ptoum, and the three summitB now
bear the names of Po^ Strutzma, and Skropomi
respectively. These foim the central port of Mt
Ptoum, wluch in a wider signification eirtended from
the Tenerian plain as fiu- as Larymna and the En-
boean sea, separating the Copaic lake on the £. from
the lakes of Hylae and Harxna. (Leake, NcrAtr%
Greece^ yd. ii. p. 295, seq.; Ulrichs, Rdtm m
Griechenlandf voL i. p. 239, seq.; Eorchhammfr,
HtUmika, p. 182.)
ACRAGAS. [Agrigentum.]
A'CRIAE or ACRAEAE CAKpul, Paus. iii. 21,
§ 7, 22. §§ 4, 5; Pol. 5. 19. § 8; ^PucpoMi, Strab.
pp. 343, 363; "Axpcca, Ptol. iii. 16. § 9 : Etk. 'Axpi-
dn^f ), a town of Laconia, on the eastern side of the
Laoooian bay, 30 stadia S. of Helos. Strabo (l c)
describes the Eurotas as flowing into the sea betwem
Acriae and Gythium. Aciiae possessed a sanctuary
and a statue of the mother of the gods, which was
said by the inhabitants of the town to be the most
andent in the Peloponnesus. Leake was unable to
discover any remains of Acriae; the French expedi-
tion phice its ruins at the harbour of Kokmo.
(Leake, Morea^ vol. i. p. 229 ; Boblaye, Rechtrcku^
p. 95.)
ACRIDO'PHAGI (*Ajepi8o^oi), or Locust-
eaters," the name given by IModonis (iii. 29) and
Strabo (p. 770) to one of the half-eaTage tribes of
Aethiopia bordering on the Red Sea, who reodved
their denomination from their mode of life or their
staple food. [W.B.]
ACRILLA or ACRILLAE C'A«yMAXa),a townof
Sicily, known only from Stephanus of Byzantium
(«. «.), who tells us that it was not far fixim Syia^
cnse. But there can be no doubt that it is the same
place mentioned by Livy (xxiv. 35) where the Syra-
cusan army under Hippocrates was defeated by Mar-
cellns. The old editions of Livy have Aocilule,
for which Acrillae, the emendation of Cluverius, has
been received by all the recent editors. From this
passage we learn that it was on the line of march
from Agrigentum to Syracuse, and not iar frtan
Acrae; but the exact site is undetermmed. Plutarch
(MarceU. 18), iu relating the same event, writes the
name 'AicUat or ^hxlKXas. [E. H. B.]
ACRITAS (^Sxpirasi C. GaOo), the most sontfierly promontory in Messenia. (Stxab. p. 359 ; Pans, iv. 34. § 12 ; Ptol. iii. 16. | 7; Phn. iv. 5. s. 7; Leake, Morea, vol. i. p. 443.)
ACROCERAU'NIA. [Ceraunii Montes.]
ACROCORINTHUS. [Corinthus.]
ACRO'NIUS LACUS. [Brigantinus Lacus.]
ACROREIA (*Aicp<6p«m), the mountainoos dis-
trict of Elis on the borders of Arcadia, in which the
rivers Peneius and Ladon take their rise. The in-
habitants of the district were called Acrocreii
('Ajc/w^cibi), and their towns appear to have been
Thraustus, Alium, Opus, and Eupagiura. The
name is used in opposition to KoiKri or Hollow Elis.
Stephanus («. v.), who is followed by many modern
writers, makes Acrocreii a town, and places it in
Triphylia ; but this error appears to have arisen
from confounding the Acrocreii with the Pannreatae
in Triphylia. (Died. xiy. 17; Xen. Hell. iii 2. § |
