Acilia, a plebeian family at Rome, which traced its pedigree up to the Trojans.——The mother of Lucan.
Acilia lex, was enacted, A.U.C. 556, by Acilius the tribune, for the plantation of five colonies in Italy. Livy, bk. 32, ch. 29.——Another called also Calpurnia, A.U.C. 684, which enacted, that no person convicted of ambitus, or using bribes at elections, should be admitted in the senate, or hold an office.——Another concerning such as were guilty of extortion in the provinces.
Marcus Acilius Balbus, was consul with Portius Cato, A.U.C. 640. It is said that during his consulship, milk and blood fell from heaven. Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 56.——Glabrio, a tribune of the people, who with a legion quelled the insurgent slaves in Etruria. Being consul with Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica, A.U.C. 563, he conquered Antiochus at Thermopylæ, for which he obtained a triumph, and three days were appointed for public thanksgiving. He stood for the censorship against Cato, but desisted on account of the false measures used by his competitor. Justin, bk. 31, ch. 6.—Livy, bk. 30, ch. 40; bk. 31, ch. 50; bk. 33, ch. 10, &c.——The son of the preceding, erected a temple to Piety, which his father had vowed to this goddess when fighting against Antiochus. He raised a golden statue to his father, the first that appeared in Italy. The temple of piety was built on the spot where once a woman had fed with her milk her aged father, whom the senate had imprisoned, and excluded from all aliments. Valerius Maximus, bk. 2, ch. 5.——The enactor of a law against bribery.——A prætor in the time that Verres was accused by Cicero.——A man accused of extortion, and twice defended by Cicero. He was proconsul of Sicily, and lieutenant to Cæsar in the civil wars. Cæsar, Civil War, bk. 3, ch. 15.——A consul, whose son was killed by Domitian, because he fought with wild beasts. The true cause of this murder was, that young Glabrio was stronger than the emperor, and therefore envied. Juvenal, satire 4, li. 94.
Acilla, a town of Africa, near Adrumetum. Some read Acolla. Cæsar, African War, ch. 33.
Acis, a shepherd of Sicily, son of Faunus and the nymph Simæthis. Galatæa passionately loved him; upon which his rival Polyphemus, through jealousy, crushed him to death with a piece of a broken rock. The gods changed Acis into a stream, which rises from mount Ætna. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, fable 8.
Acmon, a native of Lyrnessus, who accompanied Æneas into Italy. His father’s name was Clytus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 128.
Acmonĭdes, one of the Cyclops. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 4, li. 288.
Acœtes, the pilot of the ship whose crew found Bacchus asleep, and carried him away. As they ridiculed the god, they were changed into sea monsters, but Acœtes was preserved. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3, fable 8, &c. See: [Acetes].
Acontes, one of Lycaon’s 50 sons. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 8.
Aconteus, a famous hunter changed into a stone by the head of Medusa, at the nuptials of Perseus and Andromeda. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 201.——A person killed in the wars of Æneas and Turnus, in Italy. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 11, li. 615.