Arctos, a mountain near Propontis, inhabited by giants and monsters.——Two celestial constellations near the north pole, commonly called Ursa Major and Minor; supposed to be Arcas and his mother, who were made constellations. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1.—Aratus.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 3, li. 107.
Arctūrus, a star near the tail of the great bear, whose rising and setting were generally supposed to portend great tempests. Horace, bk. 3, ode 1. The name is derived from its situation, ἀρκτος ursus, οὐρα cauda. It rises now about the beginning of October, and Pliny tells us it rose in his age on the 12th, or, according to Columella, on the 5th of September.
Ardălus, a son of Vulcan, said to have been the first who invented the pipe. He gave it to the Muses, who on that account have been called Ardalides and Ardalīotides. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 31.
Ardalia, a country of Egypt. Strabo.
Ardaxānus, a small river of Illyricum. Polybius.
Ardea, formerly Ardua, a town of Latium, built by Danae, or, according to some, by a son of Ulysses and Circe. It was the capital of the Rutuli. Some soldiers set it on fire, and the inhabitants publicly reported that their city had been changed into a bird, called by the Latins Ardea. It was rebuilt, and it became a rich and magnificent city, whose enmity to Rome rendered it famous. Tarquin the Proud was pressing it with a siege, when his son ravished Lucretia. A road called Ardeatina branched from the Appian road to Ardea. Cornelius Nepos, Atticus, ch. 14.—Livy, bk. 1, ch. 57; bk. 3, ch. 71; bk. 4, ch. 9, &c.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 412.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 573.—Strabo, bk. 5.
Ardericca, a small town on the Euphrates, north of Babylon.
Ardiæi, a people of Illyricum, whose capital was called Ardia. Strabo, bk. 7.
Ardonea, a town of Apulia. Livy, bk. 24, ch. 20.
Ardua, an ancient name of Ardea. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 411.