(anc. geogr.), a town of the island of Rhodes, in the district of Jalysus, and the first and most ancient of all, said to be built by the Heliades, or Grandfons of the Sun.

a hamlet of Asiatic Sarmatia on the Euxine. The inhabitants were called Achei, a colony of the Orchomenians.

ACHÆANS, the inhabitants of ACHAIÆ PROPRIA, a Peloponnesian state. This republic was not considerable in early times, for the number of its troops, nor for its wealth, nor for the extent of its territories; but it was famed for its probity, its justice, and its love of liberty. Its high reputation for these virtues was very ancient. The Crotonians and Sybarites, to re-establish order in their towns, adopted the laws and customs of the Achæans. After the famous battle of Leuctra, a difference arose between the Lacedæmonians and Thebans, who held the virtue of this people in such veneration, that they terminated the dispute by their decision. The government of the Achæans was democratical. They preserved their liberty till the time of Philip and Alexander: But in the reign of those princes, and afterwards, they were either subject to the Macedonians, who had made themselves masters of Greece, or oppressed by cruel tyrants. The Achæan commonwealth consisted of twelve inconsiderable towns in Peloponnesus. Its first annals are not marked by any great action, for they are not graced with one eminent character. After the death of Alexander, this little republic was a prey to all the evils which flow from political discord. A zeal for the good of the community was now extinguished. Each town was only attentive to its private interest. There was no longer any stability in the state; for it changed its masters with every revolution in Macedonia. Towards the 124th Olympiad, about the time when Ptolemy Soter died, and when Pyrrhus invaded Italy, the republic of the Achæans recovered its old institutions and unanimity. The inhabitants of Patre and of Dyme were the first sufferers of ancient liberty. The tyrants were banished, and the towns again made one commonwealth. A public council was then held, in which affairs of importance were discussed and determined. A register was appointed to record the transactions of the council. This assembly had two presidents, who were nominated alternately by the different towns. But instead of two presidents, they soon elected but one. Many neighbouring towns which admired the constitution of this republic, founded on equality, liberty, the love of justice, and of the public good, were incorporated with the Achaeans, and admitted to the full enjoyment of their laws and privileges.—The arms which the Achaeans chiefly used were flings. They were trained to the art from their infancy, by flinging from a great distance, at a circular mark of a moderate circumference. By long practice they took so nice an aim, that they were sure, not only to hit their enemies on the head, but on any part of the face they chose. Their flings were of a different kind from those of the Bactrians, whom they far surpassed in dexterity.

**ACHÆI**, (Achaeans); the inhabitants of Achaia Propria. In Livy, the people of Greece; for the most part called Achivi, by the Roman poets. In Homer, the general name for Grecians. See **ACHÆANS**.

**ACHÆORUM FORTUS**, (Pliny); now Porto Buon, a harbour of the Chersonesus Taurica, on the Euxine. Another, near Sigalum, into which the Xanthus, after being joined by the Sinus, falls.

**ACHÆMENES**, according to Herodotus, was father of Cambyses, and grandfather of Cyrus the first, king of Persia. Most of the commentators of Horace are of opinion, that the Achæomenes whom that poet mentions, ode xii. of his 2d book, was one of the Persian monarchs: but, if that were true, he must have reigned before the Medes subdued the Persians; for we do not hear of any king of that name from the time that the Persians founded that great monarchy, which is looked upon as the second universal one. However this be, the epithet Achæomenians is frequently given to the Persians, in the old Latin poets.

**ACHÆMENES**, son of Darius I. king of Persia, and brother of Xerxes, had the government of Egypt bestowed on him, after Xerxes had forced the Egyptians to return to their allegiance. He some time after commanded the Egyptian fleet in the celebrated expedition which proved so fatal to all Greece. The Egyptians having again taken up arms after the death of Xerxes, Achæmenes was sent into Egypt to suppress the rebellion; but was vanquished by Inarus, chief of the rebels, succoured by the Athenians.

**ACHÆUS**, cousin-german to Seleucus Ceraunus and Antiochus the Great, kings of Syria, became a very powerful monarch, and enjoyed the dominions he had usurped for many years; but at last he was punished for his usurpations in a dreadful manner, in the 140th year of Rome, as related by Polybius*.