Jerusalem. It first fell to the lot of Judah, and was afterwards given to the tribe of Dan. Lat. 31, 55. Long. 34, 57, E.

ACCAD, a city built by Nimrod, the situation of which is not very well known. The Septuagint read it Archad. Gen. x, 10. Jerome says, it was a city of Babylon, that in his day it was called Nisibis, that it was besieged and taken by the Romans, and in a few years after delivered to the Persians. Lat 32, 5.

ACCHO, afterwards called Ptolemais, lies north of mount Carmel with a harbor to the sea. It fell to the tribe of Asher by division, Judges i, 31. The Israelites would not extirpate the inhabitants of Accho, and it continued in the hand of the Canaanites. See Acre. It has for 300 years been subject to the Turks, and is remarkable for castles, palaces, and churches in ruins. It is thinly inhabited, but has an old church and a bishop. Lat. 32, 58.

ACELDAMA, that is, the inheritance or potion of blood; by this name was that field called, which the priests purchased with the thirty pieces of silver, that had been given to Judas Iscariot, as the price

It

for the blood of Jesus Christ, (Matt. xxvii, 8; and Acts i, 18.) Judas having brought this money back into the temple, and the priests thinking it was not lawful to make use of it for the service of so holy a place, because it was the price of blood, they bought a potters field to be a burying place for strangers. This field is shown at this day to travellers. lies south of Jerusalem; the place is small, and covered with an arched roof. 'It is said to have been the same with the Fullers field, lying on the south side of Jerusalem, where they whitened their cloth,' Isaiah vii, 3. It was the potters field, where they dug their materials, of course, it must have been entirely barren; and was, therefore, bought as a burying place for strangers.

ACHAIA, a province of Greece of which Corinth was the capital, where St. Paul preached, (Acts xviii, 12;) and St. Andrew suffered martyrdom. This province of the Peloponnessus was bounded west by the Ionian sea, south by Elis and Arcadia, and east by Sicyonia. It is now called Romania, Alta in the Morea. The Romans divided all Greece into two provinces Mac. edonina, and Achaia. Under

the former they include Epirus and Thessaly; under the latter, Greece, properly so called, and the Peloponnessus. The word Greece in the Old Testament was used in its most extensive sense, and included Macedonia. In the New Testament it does not include Macedonia, and is equivalent to Achaia in the Roman sense of the word, that is, including not only Greece proper, but the Peloponnessus in which lay Achaia proper. Lat. 36, 30.

ACHMETHA, (Ezra vi, 2.) See the article Ecbatana. But some suppose it does not denote a place, or town; but a box or press, in which the old rolls of the Medo-Persian court were deposited.

ACHOR, a valley in the territory of Jericho, and in the tribe of Benjamin, or on the north border of Judah, where Achan, his sons, and daughters, were stoned to death. The valley lay along the Jordan, not far from Gilgal; it was so called from Achan, or as others, more probably suppose, from the trouble suffered there on his account, Achor in Hebrew signifying trouble. Lat. 31,

44.

ACHSAPH, a city belonging to the tribe of Asher, the king of which was conquered by Joshua (xii, 20.) It is

thought probable, that Achsaph and Achzib are but dif ferent names for the same town, of Ecdippa upon the coasts of Phoenicia and not far from mount Tabor. See Achzib .In the time of Jerome, about four hundred years after Christ, this was a small village called Chasalus.

ACHZIB, a city belonging to the tribe of Asher, (Josh. xix, 29;) thought to be the same, which the Greeks called Ecdippa, and at present is called Zib. It was situated near the Mediterranean sea, between Tyre and Ptolemais. See Achsaph. In the tribe of Judah was another town of the same name.

ACRA, one of the hills in Jerusalem, on which stood the tower or old city, which was the old Jerusalem, to which was afterwards added Zion, or the city of David. Probably it was called Acrd, from the fortress, which Antiochus built there, in order to annoy the temple, and which Simon Maccabeus took and razed to the ground. He spent three years in levelling the mountain. Here was afterwards built the palace of Helena, also another for Agrippa.

ACRABATENE, a district of Judea, extending itself between Shechem and Jericho, in

clining to the east, about twelve miles in length. Josephus frequently mentions this place. ACRABATENE, another district of Judea on the frontier of Idumea, towards the southern extremity of the Dead Sea. See Macab. v, 3.

ACRE, or Acco, or Sr. JOHN DE ACRE, a sea port town, on the Phoenician coast in Syria. Its ancient name was Acco, or Accho, and is called by the Arabs Akka. It was afterwards denominated Ptolemais, from one of the Ptolemys in Egypt, and Acra, on account of its fortifications, and importance; whence the knights of St. John, of Jerusalem called it St. John de Acre. The situation of Acre has every possible advantage both of sea and land; it is encompassed on the north and east, by a spacious and fertile plain, on the west by the Mediterranean, and on the south by a large bay; extending from the city to mount Carmel, a strong town, and convenient harbors. It was strong enough to resist the arms of Israel, when they subdued the surrounding country. Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Accho. Here the apostle Paul preached the gospel; here Titus tarried some time to make preparation

for the siege of Jerusalem; here met a general council in the twelfth century. This city successively under the dominions of the Romans and of the Moors, and afterwards for a long time, was the theatre of contention, between the Christians, and the infidels in the progress of the crusades. In 1189 the armaments of Europe burst on this devoted place; for two years they pressed the seige; nine battles displayed the courage of the warriors; the besieging camp was thinned by sickness, by famine, and the sword. Despair began to prevail; in the spring of the sec ond year the royal fleets of England and France arrived in the bay of Acre; Acre submitted, but not till three-thousand Moslems were beheaded; one hundred thousand Christians had fallen in battle, and a greater number perished by disease. After the loss of Jerusalem, in unsuccessful attempts for recovering the Holy Land, from the possession of the Saracens, renewed by St. Louis, with the co-operation of Edward I, and other powers, Acre became the metrop olis of the Latin Christians, and was adorned with strong and stately buildings, with aqueducts, an artificial port,

and a double wall. Its population was increased, by an influx of pilgrims and fugitives, and the trade of the east and west was attracted to this convenient station. The city was besieged by Turks under Sul. tan Khalil, at the head of a large army, furnished with a tremendous train of artillery. After a seige of thirty-three days, the double wall was forced by the Moslems, the principal tower yielded to their engines, and the city was entirely destroyed, May, 19, 1291. Sixty thousand Christians were devoted to death or slavery; a miserable remnant with the king of Jerusalem, the patriarch, and the great master of the hospital, fled to the sea shore, and escaped to Cyprus. It was famous in the time of the Crusades. Here Edward I, was wounded by a poisoned arrow; he was cured by his wife Eleanor, who suck ed the poison from his veins. After the expulsion of the crusaders, Acre exhibited a scene of magnificent ruins, and remained in a degree deserted, and desolated, till about the year 1750, when it was fortified, by Dahier, an Arabian Sheick, who obtained the appellation of Prince of St. John of Acre, and maintained his

independence against the whole force of the Ottoman empire, till the year 1775, when he was basely assassinated, by order of the Ottoman porte, at the advanced age of eighty-six years. The new city is smaller than the old; its inhabitants, lately, were forty thousand. The Greeks have here two churches, the Latins three, the Maronites one, it is a bishop's see.

The Jews have one small synagogue, the Mahometans three mosques. Acre has been rendered, by the works of Dijezzar, one of the principal towns on the coast. The mosques of this Pacha are much admired. The Ba zar, or covered market, is not inferior to the bazars of Aleppo, and its public fountain is superior in elegance to those of Damascus. The widest street is completely filled by a passing camel; the place is unhealthy; it has lately been brought into notice by the siege of Bonaparte and his repulse by Sir Sidney Smith, a celebrated English officer, in 1798. The principal articles of commerce at Acre are corn and cotton: but the trade is monopolized by the Pacha in his own hands. The French have usually a consul in this place, and Russia a resident. It is