ACROATHOUM, or ACROTHOUM, in Ancient
Geography, a town situated on the top of Mount Athos,
where the inhabitants, according to Mela, were longer
lived by half than in any other country; called by
the modern Greeks, Αγία σπή; by the Italians La
Cima di Monte Santo.
ACROATIC is a name given to Aristotle's lec-
tures to his disciples, which were of two kinds, exoteric
and acroatic. The acroatic were those to which only his
own disciples and intimate friends were admitted;
whereas the exoteric were public and open to all.
But there are other differences. The acroatic were
set apart for the higher and more abstruse subjects;
the exoteric were employed in rhetorical and civil spe-
culations. Again, The acroatics were more subtle
and exact, evidence and demonstration being here
aimed at; the exoterics chiefly aimed at the probable
and plausible. The former were the subject of the
morning's exercises in the Lyceum, the latter of the
evenings. Besides, the exoterics were published:
whereas the acroatics were kept secret; being either
entirely concealed, or, if they were published, it was
in such obscure terms, that few but his own disciples
could be the wiser for them. Hence, when Alexander
complained of his preceptor for publishing his acro-
atics, and thus revealing what should have been re-
served to his disciples, Aristotle answered, that they
were made public and not public; for that none who
had not heard them explained by the author viva voce,
could understand them.