Abulītes, governor of Susa, betrayed his trust to Alexander, and was rewarded with a province. Curtius, bk. 5, ch. 2.—Diodorus, bk. 17.
Abydēnus, a disciple of Aristotle, too much indulged by his master. He wrote some historical treatises on Cyprus, Delos, Arabia, and Assyria. Philo Judæus.—Josephus, Against Apion.
Abȳdos, a town of Egypt, where was the famous temple of Osiris. Plutarch, on De Iside et Osiride.——A city of Asia, opposite Sestos in Europe, with which, from the narrowness of the Hellespont, it seemed, to those who approach it by sea, to form only one town. It was built by the Milesians, by permission of king Gyges. It is famous for the amours of Hero and Leander, and for the bridge of boats which Xerxes built there across the Hellespont. The inhabitants, being besieged by Philip the father of Perseus, devoted themselves to death with their families, rather than fall into the hands of the enemy. Livy, bk. 31, ch. 18.—Lucan, bk. 2, li. 674.—Justin, bk. 2, ch. 13.—Musæus, Hero & Leander.—Flaccus, bk. 1, li. 285.
Abȳla. See: [Abila].
Abȳlon, a city of Egypt.
Abyssinia, a large kingdom of Africa, in Upper Æthiopia, where the Nile takes its rise. The inhabitants are said to be of Arabian origin, and were little known to the ancients.
Acacallis, a nymph, mother of Philander and Phylacis by Apollo. These children were exposed to the wild beasts in Crete; but a goat gave them her milk, and preserved their life. Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 16.——A daughter of Minos, mother of Cydon by Mercury, and of Amphithemis by Apollo. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 53.—Apollonius, bk. 4, li. 1493.
Acacēsium, a town of Arcadia, built by Acacus son of Lycaon. Mercury, surnamed Acacesius, because brought up by Acacus as his foster-father, was worshipped there. Pausanias, bk. 8, chs. 3, 36, &c.
Acacius, a rhetorician in the age of the emperor Julian.
Acadēmia, a place near Athens surrounded with high trees, and adorned with spacious covered walks, belonging to Academus, from whom the name is derived. Some derive the word from ἑκας δημος, removed from the people. Here Plato opened his school of philosophy, and from this, every place sacred to learning has ever since been called Academia. To exclude from it profaneness and dissipation, it was even forbidden to laugh there. It was called Academia vetus, to distinguish it from the second Academy, founded by Arcesilaus, who made some few alterations in the Platonic philosophy, and from the third which was established by Carneades. Cicero, de Divinatione, bk. 1, ch. 3.—Diogenes Laërtius, bk. 3.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 3, ch. 35.