ACANTHUS, a town of Egypt, near Memphis, (Pliny;) now Bifalia. Also a maritime town of Macedonia, to the west of Mount Athos; a colony of Andrians (Thucydides, Ptolemy;) now Erioffo; near which was shown Xerxes’s ditch, of seven stadia, in order to separate Mount Athos from the continent, and convey his ships, without doubling Athos, into the Sinopitc bay. Acanthus is also a town of Epirus.