ACRE, ST. JEAN D'. 



ACTIUM. 



S8 



' inns is an important branch of industry. A considerable quan- 

 tity of cattle, especially horned cattle, is bred in the province. 



The province of Acqui is bounded N. by Alessandria, E. by Novi, 

 S. by Savona, and W. by Alba. Its greatest length is about 4C 

 miles from N. to S., its greatest breadth is about 25 miles ; and the 

 area is 445 square miles. The population in 1848 amounted to 101,202. 

 The chief town, also called Acqui, gives title to a bishop. It is 

 built partly at the foot and partly on the slope of a hill on the left 

 bank of the Bormida ; it has a fine old cathedral with a handsome 

 facade, several other churches and convents, a royal college, a clerical 

 seminary, a town-hall, some other remarkable buildings, and 8000 

 inhabitants. The old walls of the town have been pulled down since 

 the peace of 1815. The old castle stands on a hill outside of the 

 town, and is used as a prison. The town has silk factories and some 

 tanyards. Acqui is much frequented by individuals from Lomlmrdy 

 and from Genoa for its hot sulphur springs ; the bathing establish- 

 ment is about a quarter of a mile out of the town, on the right bank 

 of the Bormida. The ' fango,' or mud, formed by the sediment of the 

 water, is applied in rheumatism and cases of old wounds, and is con- 

 sidered very efficacious. The town derives its name from its springs, 

 which were known to the Romans by the name of Aquae Statiellse, 

 Statielli being the name of a tribe of Ligurians who inhabited this 

 region, and who, being joined by other tribes, were defeated in a great 

 battle near Caristum by the consul M. Popilius Laenas, 173 B.C. The 

 consul razed Caristum to the ground, devastated the whole country, 

 and sold many of the inhabitants. His severity was considered exces- 

 sive even at Rome, especially as the Statielli had not borne arms 

 against the Romans until the other Ligurian tribes made a gathering 

 in their territory, where they were attacked by the consul. The 

 ordered the captives to be restored to liberty, and the purchase- 

 money to be returned to the purchasers ; gracing its resolution by the 

 well-sounding moral, ' that the splendour of victory consists in sub- 

 duing an enemy in arms, and not in oppressing those who have 

 submitted.' The decree however was eluded for a time, and Popilius 

 in the face of it again attacked the Statielli in the following years, 

 and killed 10,000 of them. At last thfe senate and the people joined 

 in reproving the conduct of Popilius, who was summoned to Rome 



wer for his conduct, and his brother C. Popilius, the consul for 

 the year, was commissioned to execute the former decree and liberate 

 the surviving Statielli, several thousands of whom were released from 

 slaver}', and settled on some grounds which were assigned to them 

 north of the Po. M. Popilius Lamas appeared before the pnctor, 

 C. Licinius, who being tampered with by the friends of the accused, 

 put off the matter to the Ides of March, when the new magistrates 

 came into office, and Licinius retired into private life, by which means 



us came off unpunished. " Thus," tamely observes Livy (xlii. 

 " by an artful trick the rogation concerning the Ligurians was 



I." Afterwards the mineral springs above-mentioned having 

 attracted the attention of the Romans, the place became known by 

 the name of Aqua; Statiellsc, and there are inscriptions remaining 

 which relate to the care taken of, the thermae, or warm baths, by the 

 local officers. 



In the early part of the middle ages Acqui was a countship, one of 

 the early counts of which was a certain Aleramus, whose history has 

 been interspersed with wonderful fables by the chroniclfers : he fought 

 valiantly against the Moors or Saracens who had invaded part of 

 Liguria. He married a daughter of Berengarius II., some say of 



I., was made a marquis, and died A.D. 993. He was the pro- 



ir of the Marquises of Monferrato and of the Marquises of 

 S;ilu//,o, who figured for centuries afterwards in the vicissitudes of 

 North Italy. 



Th other towns of the province of Acqui are Nifo-dtBa-PagUa, 

 i Monfcrrato, situated in a pleasant district on the 



called also 



18th century. The chief trade is in wine and silk: silk is spun 

 in the town. Orada, a market-town of 0000 inhabitants, formerly 

 fortified, in situated among the Ligurian Apennines on the Orl.a, In 

 miles S.\V. from Ac<|iii. 



(C'asalis, / tea, xtnti.itirn, Commtrcialt, deyli Stati di 



ft. M. II fli ili t'irdegna ; Denina, Quadra del? AUa Italia; (Jaitndario 



A < UK, ST. JEAN D 1 (Akka),a town of Syria on the sea-coast, in 



"'I' N". lat., 35 6' E. long, and on a small promontory which, 



it Carmel lying to the south, forms a circular bay; it i* 



'filled Acra and Acca. Its oldest name was Accho, which 



Ijanged toth.it >( I luring the sovereignty of the Greeks 



in Syria. In the reign of Claudius it became a Roman colony, styled 



' Vesaris Ptolemais ; the name of Accho was revived 



it fell into the hands of the Saracens. But from the time of its 



1m of Jerusalem it has been known 



Jill over Christendom as Si ,,., ,, r Dimply Acre. Acre is 



well known in the history of let. having been taken in 1191 



1 ngiirtuH of 1 ,.,| I. ,,f K,, gland. It was for 



in the, possession of t.l, ,,f .Malta, during whose 



I with churches. Aero 

 was in a very ruinous condition in tl:e middle of the 1 Tth century, 



when Thevenot visited it, but it improved under Sheik Daher, who, 

 in the middle of the 18th centuiy, strengthened the town auu 

 revived its commerce. Jezzar Pasha, his successor, fortified the 

 place very strongly, and built a new mosque, which he adorued with 

 columns that once belonged to the old Greek edifices of neighbouring 

 cities. The streets of Acre are narrow, and the houses, which are of 

 stone, have flat roofs. The port is small and not deep, yet it is one of 

 the best along this coast, and is chiefly frequented by Austrian, Italian, 

 and French vessels. Europeans carry to Acre cloth, lead, tin, &c., and 

 receive in exchange some cotton and rice. Bonaparte attempted to 

 storm Acre in the spring of 1799, when he entered Syria at the head 

 of 12,500 men. The obstinate defence of the garrison commanded 

 by Jezzar, and aided by Sir Sidney Smith with Euglish sailors, saved 

 Acre from the repeated assaults of the French general, who, after 

 spending more than 60 days before it, and losing nearly 3000 men, 

 retreated to Egypt. On July 2, 1832, Acre was taken from the Sultan 

 after a siege by Ibrahim Pacha, for Mehemet Ali, who repaired the 

 fortress, and added to the defences, so as to render the place all but 

 impregnable. It was, however, taken by the united English and 

 Austrian squadrons in 1840. Great Britain and her allies, Austria, 

 , Russia, and Turkey, having concluded a treaty at London on 

 the 15th of July, 1840, for the purpose of driving the Egyptian troops 

 out of Syria, and restoring this country to its former master, the 

 Sultan, a combined English and Austrian fleet attacked and took the 

 Syrian seaports. The attack upon Acre began on the 3rd of Novem- 

 ber. After a heavy firing of two hours, which was well answered by 

 the Egyptians, the grand magazine blew up with a tremendous explo- 

 sion, probably ignited by a shell from one of the steamers. Two 

 entire regiments of infantry, which were standing in battle array near 

 it, were annihilated, as well as every living creature within an area of 

 60,000 square feet. The Egyptian commandant nevertheless continued 

 to defend the town, but the fire of the ships was so effective that it 

 was discontinued at sunset, and the admiral, Sir R. Stopford, com- 

 mander-in-chief of the united fleet, prepared for a storm on the 

 following day. This however the commandant did not await, but 

 evacuated the fortress during the night with the feeble remnant of 

 his garrison, and on the 4th the Anglo-Austrian force took possession 

 of Acre. After the fall of this bulwark of Syria, Ibrahim Pacha 

 evacuated that country and retired to Egypt. Acre has since been 

 restored to the Turks, and some care has been taken by them in 

 rebuilding the fortifications. The population, before 1840, was esti- 

 mated at from 15,000 to 20,000. 



Acre is also the name of one of the Syrian Eyalets, or governments, 

 which is bounded N. by the Eyalet of Tripoli, E. and S. by that of 

 Damascus, and W. by the Mediterranean. Its chief ports are Acre 

 and Beyrout. The country is described under SYRIA. 



ACRO'POLIS, a Greek compound word signifying ' the highest 

 point of a city.' It was used to denote some hill, rock, or natural 

 elevation, such as we find forming part of the sites of many ancient 

 cities in Greece. It seems natural to conclude that sucli strongholds 

 were among the places first occupied, and that they served as the 

 kernel of a larger city. In course of time, when building spread, 

 such eminences became strong posts analogous to castles or citadels 

 in modern cities ; and in many instances the possession of such poets 

 was considered as equivalent to the possession of the cities themselves. 

 Religious edifices also generally formed part of the structures of an 

 Acropolis. 



In modern times they have often served as places of refuge to the 

 inhabitants from the attacks of an enemy, or from the incursious of 

 corsairs. The term Acropolis is now most commonly applied to the 

 rocky eminence of Athens, on which the remains of the Parthenon or 

 Temple of Minerva stand ; but this is only a limited use of the word. 

 Corinth had an Acropolis called Acro-Corinthus, which is a much 

 loftier and more commanding eminence than that of Athens. The 

 view from the summit is extensive, and the temple on the Acropolis 

 of Athens, nearly 50 miles distant, is distinctly seen. An eminence 

 close upon the modern Argos in the Peloponnesus was the Acropolis 

 of the ancient Argos, and then it was called Larissa. A ruined castle 

 of comparatively modern construction occupies the summit of this 

 rocky eminence, and shows in some parts traces of much earlier 

 building. The Acropolis of Messene in the Morea, situated on Mount 

 Ithome, is another remarkable specimen of these natural bulwarks 

 which were once fortified according to the principles of Greek 

 military science. 



(Leako's Morea; Plan of Athens in the Mapi of the Society for the 



ffuiian of Utefvl Knowkdge.) 



A'CTIUM, a promontory in Acarnania, on the southern side of the 

 entrance to the Bay of Prevesa, which forms the western part of the 

 Ambraciot Gulf, now the Gulf of Arta. It gives name to the celebrated 

 naval victory gained by Csesar Octavianus over Marcus Antonius, 

 Sept. 2, B. C. 31. The latter was completely defeated, and fled with his 

 mistress Cleopatra, who was present at the engagement, into Egypt. 

 The conqueror, to commemorate his victory, beautified the temple of 

 Apollo, which stood a little south of Actium, and erected Nicopolis, or 

 ' the city of victory,' on the northern side of the entrance to the gulf, 

 a few miles from the modern town of Prevesa. 



The exact site of Actiuin has been a subject of dispute, some placing 

 ,t at La Punta, or Fort La Punta, and others at Azio, 4 miles east 



