1 Leaf, Walter. 1923. Strabo on the Troad. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
FURTHER READING
1 Cook, J. M. 1973. The Troad: An Archaeological and Topographical Study, 56–57. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
2 IACP no. 765 (1002–3).
3 Müller II, 757–60.
ACANTHUS ( Ἄκανθος, ὁ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
City near the narrowest point of the ATHOS (Acte) peninsula of Chalcidice (BA 51 B4). Acanthus was a seventh‐century BCE colony of ANDROS and quickly developed into an important city in the northern AEGEAN region (Tiverios 2008, 52–60).
After subjecting THASOS and MACEDONIA with a large force in 492, the Persian general MARDONIUS briefly rested at Acanthus. Setting out from here, his fleet lost 300 ships in a storm while rounding Mt. Athos (6.43–44). When XERXES launched his expedition against Greece a decade later, recalling Mardonius’ DISASTER, he appointed two Persians, BUBARES and ARTACHAEES, to oversee the digging of a CANAL near Acanthus (7.22–23). Upon his arrival at Acanthus in 480, Xerxes declared the inhabitants his guest‐friends and provided them with gifts of Median clothing, praising them for their work on the canal (7.116). Artachaees died during this visit, much to Xerxes’ dismay, and Herodotus reports that the Acanthians in his day still offered the canal‐overseer cult honors (7.117). After the PERSIAN WARS, Acanthus became a member of the DELIAN LEAGUE, loyal to ATHENS until 424 BCE (Thuc. 4.84–88).
SEE ALSO: Chalcidians in Thrace; Dress; Guest‐friendship; Heroes and Hero Cult
REFERENCE
1 Tiverios, Michalis. 2008. “Greek Colonisation of the Northern Aegean.” In Greek Colonisation: An Account of Greek Colonies and Other Settlements Overseas, edited by Gocha R. Tsetskhladze. Vol. 2, 1–154. Leiden: Brill.
FURTHER READING
1 IACP no. 559 (823–24).
2 Isserlin, B. S. J., R. E. Jones, V. Karastathis, S. P. Papamarinopoulos, G. E. Syrides, and J. Uren. 2003. “The Canal of Xerxes: Summary of Investigations 1991–2001.” ABSA 98: 369–85.
3 Tuplin, Christopher J. 2003. “Xerxes’ March from Doriscus to Therme.” Historia 52.4: 385–409.
ACARNANIA (Ἀκαρνανίη, ἡ)
MARGARET FOSTER
Indiana University
A northwestern region of the Greek mainland, located along the IONIAN GULF (BA 54 D4). In the Histories, Acarnania is noteworthy for its river, the ACHELOUS, as an origin of seers, and for the presence of LIONS. In Book 2, while describing the land of EGYPT as largely the product of the NILE’s extensive alluvial deposits, Herodotus compares this natural effect to the silting up of the Achelous River in Acarnania. As Herodotus reports, though a smaller river than the great Nile, the Achelous has nevertheless caused already half of the ECHINADES ISLANDS to connect to the Greek mainland through its own alluvial deposits (2.10.3). Herodotus’ account of the Achelous is noteworthy for attending solely to this topographic phenomenon while eschewing any reference to the popular mythographic tradition concerning Acarnania and the Achelous. By contrast, THUCYDIDES does include a version of this MYTH in his own description of Acarnania (2.102.5–6; see also Apollod. Bibl. 3.7.5; Paus. 8.24.8‐9). The Histories suggests that an association obtained between Acarnania and seers, an association also found in other sources. Herodotus identifies both the chrēsmologos (“oracle‐monger”) AMPHILYTUS (1.62) and the Spartans’ seer at THERMOPYLAE, MEGISTIAS (7.221), as Acarnanian. According to Pausanias (9.31.5), the BOEOTIANS assert that the Acarnanians taught HESIOD seercraft. The founder of Acarnania, Alcmaeon, was the son of the seer AMPHIARAUS (e.g., Hom. Od. 15.244–48). Herodotus also briefly describes the Achelous in Acarnania as the westernmost boundary of the territory inhabited by lions (7.126).
SEE ALSO: Analogy; Geology; Divination; Rivers
FURTHER READING
1 Baron, Christopher. 2014. “Adopting an Ancestor: Addressing Some Problems Raised by Thucydides’ History of Amphilochian Argos (2.68).” AncW 45.1: 3–17.
2 Berktold, Percy, Jürgen Schmid, and Christian Wacker, eds. 1996. Akarnanien: Eine Landschaft im antiken Griechenland. Würzburg: Ergon‐Verlag.
3 Dany, Oliver. 1999. Akarnanien im Hellenismus: Geschichte und Völkerrecht in Nordwestgriechenland. Munich: C. H. Beck.
ACERATUS (Ἀκήρατος, ὁ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Aceratus, a priest (prophētēs) of the ORACLE of APOLLO, remained in DELPHI when the Persians approached in 480 BCE and saw that the sacred arms, forbidden for men to touch, had been taken from the shrine and lay outside the temple of ATHENA Pronaea. He interpreted this as a portent (teras) and reported it to the remaining Delphians as the Persians advanced; the Persians fled after encountering further portents (8.37). Aceratus’ name is rare and, appropriately for his position, means “pure” (Bowie 2007, 128). He is otherwise unattested.
SEE ALSO: Gods and the Divine; Priests and Priestesses; Prophecy; Temples and Sanctuaries
REFERENCE
1 Bowie, A. M., ed. 2007. Herodotus: Histories Book VIII. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ACES RIVER (ὁ Ἄκης ποταμός)
JOSEPH SKINNER
Newcastle University
A Central Asian river dismissed by some as imaginary but variously identified by others as either the Amu Darya (ancient Oxus, BA 6 B2), a major waterway which rises in the Pamirs and empties into the Aral Sea (although the river’s course may well have altered since antiquity, it being equally possible that it once drained into the CASPIAN SEA), or the Atrek river (Ochus, BA 96 C2) which divides northern Iran from Turkmenistan and drains into the Caspian (for the Ochus, cf. Apollodorus BNJ 779 F4 = Strabo 11.7.3/C509; Strabo 11.11.5/C518). While the development, maintenance, and regulation of irrigation systems designed to boost agricultural output had long been seen as characteristically “royal” activities by Ancient Near Eastern monarchs, Herodotus’ somewhat fantastical account (3.117) of hydraulic works undertaken by the Persian king in order to extort MONEY from tribes inhabiting the lands adjacent to its five branches is clearly designed to illustrate the transgressive and oppressive nature of Persian royal power—and
