A C R 



A C R 



which it was ere^ed, and which is accclTihlc only at the 

 entrance. The fuinmit is fortified by a wall, built on its 

 extreme edge, and encompafling the whole upper furface, 

 ■which is nearly level. The natural tlrength of its fituation 

 is laid to have induced the firit inhabitants to fettle there ; 

 and as their number increafed, they began to build on the 

 adjacent gTonnd, till the Acrnpolis, being fuiToiuidcd on 

 every fide, became the fortiefs of a large and pdpulous city. 

 It was richly adonied by the Athenians, in the days of tl\eir 

 profpcrity, with temples, ilatues, paintings, and votive 

 gifts to their divinities, but is now in a moll ruinous condi- 

 tion : though the remains of the famous Propylxa, the 

 little temple of vicloiy without wings, the Doric temple of 

 Minerva, caUed Parthenon and Hecatompedon, eret\td in 

 the time of Pericles, under the direction of Phidias, and the 

 Ionic temples of Erettheus and Minerva Pohas, with the 

 cell of Pandrofus, are ftill to be feen. Its walls have, at 

 different times, been rudely repaired, or rather rebuilt, as 

 little of the ancient mafonry remains ; but numerous frag- 

 ments of columns, cornices, and fculptures, are feen in feve- 

 ral parts, which exhibit a ruinous appearance. The Turks 

 keep a fmaU ganifon here ; and it is the refidence of the 

 Difdar Aga, or governor of the fortrefs, and alfo of the 

 Afap Aga, and other infei-ior officers. The Acropolis 

 formed one of the three divifions of Athens, the other two 

 being the town and the port. 



Acropolis was alfo the name of a city of Libya, and 

 alfo of .ffitolia, mentioned by Stephanas de Urbibus, vol. i. 

 p. 54. There was a city of the fame name in Albania, 

 mentioned by Dion Caffius. Hift. Rom. lib. xxxvii. torn. i. 

 p. 112. Ed. Reimar. 



ACROPOLITA, George, in Biography, one of the 

 writers in the Byzantine billon,-, was born at Conflantinople 

 in the year 1220, and educated at the court of the emperor 

 John Ducas, at Nice. Having made a veiy diilinguiflicd 

 proficiency in mathematics, logic, rhetoric, and poetry, he 

 was employed in the moil important affairs of the empire. 

 Ducas deputed him to negociate peace with Michael of 

 Epirus, at Lariffa : and he was appointed judge to ti-y 

 Michael Comnenus, on a fufpicion of being engaged in a 

 confpiracy. Having been advanced to the government of 

 the weftern provinces of the empire by Theodore I.afcaris, 

 the fon of John Ducas, he engaged in a war with Michael 

 Angelus, in 1255, and was taken prifoner by him. In 

 1260, he was liberated by the intervention of the emperor 

 Palxologus, who appointed him ambaffador to Conllantine, 

 prince of Bulgaria. Upon his return, he devoted himfelf 

 wholly to the education of youth, in which employment ho 

 acquitted himfclf very honourably for many yeai-s. In 1272 

 he was one of the judges in the caufe of John Vecchus, pa- 

 triarch of Conflantinople ; and, in the following year, he 

 concluded a reconciliation between the two churches \<\\X\ 

 pope Gregory, and fwore to it in the name of the emperor, 

 at the fccond council of Lyons, in 1274. ^^ '2^2, he was 

 fent ambaffador to John, prince of Bulgaria, and died foon 

 after his return. His works are, " a Continuation of the 

 Greek hiftory from the taking of Condantinople by the 

 Latins, in 1 202, to its recovery by Michael Palirologus, in 

 1261," which forms a part of the Byzantine hillory : " a 

 treatife concerning faith, virtue, and the foul ;" and " an ex- 

 pofition of the fen^ions of Gregory Nazianzen ;" together 

 with fome other pieces. Gregorius Cyprius, the patriarch 

 of Conflantinople, fays of Acropohta, in the extravagance 

 of praiie, that he was equal to Ariflotle in philofophy, and 

 to Plato in divine things and attic eloquence. His fon, 

 Conftantine, flouriflied under Michael Palaeologus, and An- 

 dronicus his ion, by whom he was niadi; Logotheta-, er 



chancellor, in 1294. He defended the caufe of the Greeks ; 

 and wrote fcveral books. Bayle. Fabr. Bibl. Graec. 1. v. 

 c. 5. (J 10. toni. vi. p. 448. 



ACROPORA, in Natural HiJInry, a name given by 

 fome writers to two fpecies of the Madrepora, r;=. the 

 ctrfpilofn and oculntn of I-i«nxu9. 



ACROPOSTHIA, ay.j)0'3«r9iii, or «xfowo<r9ia, from axp:, 

 exlremf, and ot70>i, the prepuce, or fl<in, which covers the 

 glans of the penis, denotes the extremity of the prepuce, 

 which is cut off in circumcifion. 



ACRORIA, in ylnciatt Gtogrnphy, a country of Eli?, 

 in Greece, where Xenophon places the city Thraufluni. 



ACROSPELOS, a name given to the wild-oat grafs, or 



BROMUS. 



ACROSPERMUM, in Botany, a genus of the crypto- 

 gamici fungi elafs ; the charaders of which are, that the fun- 

 gus is very fimple, fub-erecl, and difcharging feeds at the 

 apex. There are (w fpecies. 



AcROSPFRMUM, is alfo a fpecies of the Sph^ria. 



ACROSPIRE, in Nalund ilijlory, Sic. the fame witfc 



PLUMULE. 



ACROSPIRED, or Acrcspired, is ufed in refpc^ of 

 barley; which, in the operation of making malt, is apt, 

 after coming, or fprouting, at the lower or root-end, 

 to become acrofpircd, i. c. to fprout alfo at the upper or 

 blade-end. 



By 6 Geo. I. cap. 21. Molt-mahen are forbid to wet or 

 water their malt when on the floor, or couch ; or to permit 

 it to ncrcj'p'ire. 



ACROSTIC, in Poetry, a kind of poetical compofition, 

 the vevfes whereof are difpofcd in fuch a manner, as that 

 the initial letters make up fome perfon's name, title, motto, 

 or the like. The word is derived from the Greek 'j-K^a;, fum" 

 r,nu, that which is at one of the extremes ; and r'X'?) I'erf.u. 

 There are alfo acrollics, where the name or title is made 

 up by the initial letters of the middle words, or the lafl of 

 the final ones : and others which go b;iekwards ; begin- 

 ning with the firil letter of the lafl verfe, and proceeding 

 upwards. Some refiners in this trifling way, and in tlic 

 exercife of this fpecies of falfe wit, have even gone to 

 PENTACROSTics ; wheic the name is to be repeated five 

 times. The Sibylline oracles were written, according to 

 Cicero, in a kind of Acroftics. See Sibyls. 



Acrostics is alfo an appellation given by fome autiion 

 to two ancient epigrams in the firfl book of the Anthology j 

 the one in honour of Bacchus, the other of Apollo. Each 

 confifls of 25 verfes, the firil whereof is the propofition, or 

 argument of the whole, and the other 24 compofed of four 

 epithets, beginning each with the fame letter, and thus fol- 

 lowing in the order of the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet ; 

 fo that the firfl of the 24 comprehends four epithets begin- 

 ning with a ; the fecond as many, with $ ; and fo ol the 

 rell to ii; which makes 96 epithets foreacli god. 



Among Erdefwjln-al IVriters, acroflics denote the ends of 

 verfes of pfalms, which the people fang by way of chorus, 

 or refpoufe, to t\\t priecnlor, or leader of the plalm. _ This 

 was called finglng acroflics, acrojlirlna, which was a Ipecici 

 of pfalmody ufual in the ancient church. 



Acrollic, in this fenfe, amounts to the fame with hypO' 

 pfalma, dhipfahna, acrotfhition, and ephymnwn, which are all 

 tei-ms of tile fame fignification. 



Though an acroflic property flgnifies the beginning of a 

 verfe, yet it is fometimes alfo ufed for the end and clofe of it ; 

 as by the author of the conflitutioiis, when he orders one to 

 finn- the hymns ©f David, and the people to fing after hira 

 the acroflics, or ends of the verfes. 



It does not, however, denote precifely the end of the 

 i a tcrfe, 



