ACTÆA, were meadows of remarkable verdure and luxuriance near the sea-shore, where the Romans used to indulge themselves to a great degree in softness and delicacy of living. The word is used in this sense by Cicero and Virgil; but Vossius thinks it can only be used in speaking of Sicily, as these two authors did.

ACTÆA, Heroe-Christopher, or Bane-Berries.

ACTÆON, in Fabulous History, son of Aristhenes and Autonoe, was a famous hunter. For the crime of looking at Diana while bathing, he was transformed into a stag, and devoured by his own dogs. The effect of impertinent curiosity and expensive pleasures seems to be the moral of the fable. Ovid. Met. iii.; Higgin. Fab. 181.