A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

8 ACHAEUS.
accounts, as well as those which were merely
mythical, but he entitled them p/lVlKd to avoid
calumny and to indicate the pleasant nature of the
work. It was compiled from Conon, Apollodorus,
Protagoras and others. (Phot. Bibl. cod. 189;
Tzetz. Chil. vii. 144.)
ACHAEA ('AXala), a surname of Demeter by
which she was worshipped at Athens by the Gephyraeans who had emigrated thither from Boeotia.
(Herod. v. 61; Plut. Is. et Osir. p. 378, D.)
2. A surname of Minerva worshipped at Luceria in Apulia where the donaria and the arms of
Diomedes were preserved in her temple. (Aristot.
Mtirab. Narrat. 117.) [L. S.]
ACHAEUS ('AXauis), according to nearly all
traditions a son of Xuthus and Creusa, and consequently a brother of Ion and grandson of Hellen.
The Achaeans regarded him as the author of their
race, and derived from him their own name as well
as that of Achaia, which was formerly called
Aegialus. When his uncle Aeolus in Thessaly,
whence he himself had come to Peloponnesus, died,
he went thither and made himself master of
Phthiotis, which now also received from him the
name of Achaia. (Paus. vii. 1. ~ 2; Strab. viii.
p. 383; Apollod. i. 7. ~ 3.) Servius (ad Aen. i. 242)
alone calls Achaeus a son of Jupiter and Pithia,
which is probably miswritten for Phthia. [L. S.]
ACHAEUS ('AXato's), son of Andromachus,
whose sister Laodice married Seleucus Callinicus,
the father of Antiochus the Great. Achaeus
himself married Laodice, the daughter of Mithridates, king of Pontus. (Polyb. iv. 51. ~ 4, viii.
22. ~ 11.) He accompanied Seleucus Ceraunus, the
son of Callinicus, in his expedition across mount
Taurus against Attalus, and after the assassination
of Seleucus revenged his death; and though he
might easily have assumed the royal power, he remained faithful to the family of Seleucus. Antiochus the Great, the successor of Seleucus, appointed him to the command of all Asia on this
side of mount Taurus, B. c. 223. Achaeus recovered for the Syrian empire all the districts
which Attalus had gained; but having been falsely
accused by Hermeias, the minister of Antiochus,
of intending to revolt, he did so in self-defence,
assumed the title of king, and ruled over the whole
of Asia on this side of the Taurus. As long as
Antiochus was engaged in the war with Ptolemy,
he could not march against Achaeus; but after a
peace had been concluded with Ptolemy, he crossed
the Taurus, united his forces with Attalus, deprived Achaeus in one campaign of all his dominions and took Sardis with the exception of
the citadel. Achaeus after sustaining a siege of
two years in the citadel at last fell into the hands
of Antiochus B. c. 214, through the treachery of
Bolis, who had been employed by Sosibius, the
minister of Ptolemy, to deliver him from his
danger, but betrayed him to Antiochus, who
ordered him to be put to death immediately. (Polyb.
iv. 2. ~ 6, iv. 48, v. 40. ~ 7, 42, 57, vii. 15-18,
viii. 17-23.)
ACHAEUS ('AXaLos) of Eretria in Euboea, a
tragic poet, was born B. c. 484, the year in which
Aeschylus gained his first victory, and four years
before the birth of Euripides. In B. c. 477, he
contended with Sophocles and Euripides, and
though he subsequently brought out many dramas,
according to some as many as thirty or forty, he
mnevertheless only gained the prize once. The

ACHELOUS.

fragments of Achaeus contain much strange mytho-.
logy, and his expressions were often forced and
obscure. (Athen. x. p. 451, c.) Still in the satyrical
drama he must have possessed considerable merit,
for in this department some ancient critics thought
him inferior only to Aeschylus. (Diog. Laer. ii.
133.) The titles of seven of his satyrical dramas
and of ten of his tragedies are still known. The
extant fragments of his pieces have been collected,
and edited by Urlichs, Bonn, 1834. (Suidas, s. v.)
This Achaeus should not be confounded with a
later tragic writer of the same name, who was a
native of Syracuse. According to Suidas and
Phavorinus he wrote ten, according to Eudocia
fourteen tragedies. (Urlichs, Ibid.) [R. W.]
ACHAE'MENES ('AXaqetvsy1s). 1. The ancestor of the Persian kings, who founded the
family of the Achaemenidae ('AXat/ev1iSaL), which
was the noblest family of the Pasargadae, the
noblest of the Persian tribes. Achaemenes is said
to have been brought up by an eagle. According
to a genealogy given by Xerxes, the following was
the order of the descent: Achaemenes, Teispes,
Cambyses, Cyrus, Teispes, Ariaramnes, Arsames,
Hystaspes, Darius, Xerxes. (Herod. i. 125, vii. 11;
Aelian, Hist. Anim. xii. 21.) The original seat of
this family was Achaemenia in Persis. (Steph. s.v.
"AxauLevia.) The Roman poets use the adjective
Achaemenius in the sense of Persian. (Hor. Carm.
iii. 1. 44, xiii. 8; Ov. Ar. Am. i. 226, Met. iv.
212.)
2. The son of Darius I. was appointed by his
brother Xerxes governor of Egypt, B. c. 484. He
commanded the Egyptian fleet in the expedition of
Xerxes against Greece, and strongly opposed the
prudent advice of Demaratus. When Egypt revolted
under Inarus the Libyan in B. c. 460, Achaemenes
was sent to subdue it, but was defeated and killed
in battle by Inarus. (Herod. iii. 12, vii. 7, 97,
236; Diod. xi. 74.)
ACHAEME'NIDES or ACHEME'NIDES, a
son of Adamastus of Ithaca, and a companion of
Ulysses who left him behind in Sicily, when he
fled from the Cyclops. Here he was found by
Aeneas who took him with him. (Virg. Aen. iii.
613, &c.; Ov. Ex Pont. ii. 2. 25.) [L. S.]
ACHA'ICUS,a surnameofL.Mumius.
ACHA'ICUS ('Aatico's), a philosopher, who
wrote a work on Ethics. His time is unknown.
(Diog. Laert. vi. 99; Theodor. Graec. caffct. cur.
viii. p. 919, ed. Schulze; Clem. Alex. Strom. iv.
p. 496, d.)
ACHELO'IS. 1. A surname of the Sirens,
the daughters of Achelous and a muse. (Ov.
Met. v. 552, xiv. 87; Apollod. i. 7. ~ 10.)
2. A general name for water-nymphs, as in
Columella (x. 263), where the companions of the
Pegasids are called Acheloides. [L. S.]
ACHELO'US ('AXEXos), the god of the river
Achelous which was the greatest, and according to
tradition, the most ancient among the rivers of
Greece. He with 3000 brother-rivers is described
as a son of Oceanus and Thetys (Hes. Theog. 340),
or of Oceanus and Gaea, or lastly of Helios and
Gaea. (Natal. Com. vii. 2.) The origin of the
river Achelous is thus described by Servius (ad
Virg. Georg. i. 9; Aen. viii. 300): When Achelous on one occasion had lost his daughters, the
Sirens, and in his grief invoked his mother Gaea,
she received him to her bosom, and on the spot
where she received him, she caused the river bear