Arcānum, a villa of Cicero’s near the Minturni. Cicero, bk. 7, Letters to Atticus, ltr. 10.
Arcas, a son of Jupiter and Calisto. He nearly killed his mother, whom Juno had changed into a bear. He reigned in Pelasgia, which from him was called Arcadia, and taught his subjects agriculture and the art of spinning wool. After his death, Jupiter made him a constellation with his mother. As he was one day hunting, he met a wood nymph, who begged his assistance, because the tree over which she presided, and on whose preservation her life depended, was going to be carried away by the impetuous torrent of a river. Arcas changed the course of the waters, and preserved the tree, and married the nymph, by whom he had three sons, Azan, Aphidas, and Elatus, among whom he divided his kingdom. The descendants of Azan planted colonies in Phrygia. Aphidas received for his share Tegea, which on that account has been called the inheritance of Aphidas; and Elatus became master of mount Cyllene, and some time after passed into Phocis. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 4.—Hyginus, fables 155 & 176.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 8.—Strabo, bk. 8.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 1, li. 470.——One of Actæon’s dogs.
Arce, a daughter of Thaumas, son of Pontus and Terra. Ptolemy Hephæstion.
Arcēna, a town of Phœnicia, where Alexander Severus was born.
Arcens, a Sicilian who permitted his son to accompany Æneas into Italy, where he was killed by Mezentius. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 581, &c.
Arcesilāus, son of Battus king of Cyrene, was driven from his kingdom in a sedition, and died B.C. 575. The second of that name died B.C. 550. Polyænus, bk. 8, ch. 41.—Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 159.——One of Alexander’s generals, who obtained Mesopotamia at the general division of the provinces after the king’s death.——A chief of Catana, which he betrayed to Dionysius the elder. Diodorus, bk. 14.——A philosopher of Pitane in Æolia, disciple of Polemon. He visited Sardis and Athens, and was the founder of the middle academy, as Socrates founded the ancient, and Carneades the new one. He pretended to know nothing, and accused others of the same ignorance. He acquired many pupils in the character of teacher; but some of them left him for Epicurus, though no Epicurean came to him; which gave him occasion to say that it is easy to make a eunuch of a man, but impossible to make a man of a eunuch. He was very fond of Homer, and generally divided his time among the pleasures of philosophy, love, reading, and the table. He died in his 75th year, B.C. 241, or 300 according to some. Diogenes Laërtius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers.—Persius, bk. 3, li. 78.—Cicero, de Finibus.——The name of two painters,——a statuary,——a leader of the Bœotians during the Trojan war.——A comic and elegiac poet.
Arcēsius, son of Jupiter, was grandfather to Ulysses. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, li. 144.
Archæa, a city of Æolia.
Archæănax of Mitylene, was intimate with Pisistratus tyrant of Athens. He fortified Sigæum with a wall from the ruins of ancient Troy. Strabo, bk. 13.
Archæatĭdas, a country of Peloponnesus. Polybius.