ANACTO´RIUM
ANACTO´RIUM (Ἀνακτόριον: Eth. Ἀνακτόριος), a town in Acarnania, situated on the Ambraciot gulf, and on the promontory, which now bears the name of C. Madonna. On entering the Ambraciot gulf from the Ionian sea it was the first town in Acarnania after Actium, from which it was distant 40 stadia, and which was in the territory of Anactorium. This town was for some time one of the most important places in this part of Greece. It was colonized jointly by the Corinthians and Corcyraeans; but in the war between these peoples, in B.C. 432, the Corinthians obtained sole possession of the place by fraud. It remained in the hands of the Corinthians till B.C. 425, when it was taken by the Acarnanians with the assistance of the Athenians, and the Corinthian settlers were expelled. Augustus removed its inhabitants to the town of Nicopolis, which he founded on the opposite coast of Epirus, and Strabo describes it as an emporium of the latter city. The site of Anactorium has been disputed, and depends upon the position assigned to Actium. It has however been shown that Actium must be placed at the entrance of the Ambraciot gulf on La Punta, and Anactorium on C. Madonna. [ACTIUM] [p. 1.129]At the western extremity of the latter promontory are the ruins of a Greek town, about two miles in circumference, which Leake supposes to have been Anactorium. They are situated near a small church of St. Peter, which is the name now given to the place. Other writers place Anactorium at Vonitza, on the E. extremity of the promontory, but with less probability. (Thuc. 1.55, 3.114, 4.49, 7.31; Strab. x. pp. 450--452; Dionys. A. R. 1.51; Paus. 5.23.3; Plin. Nat. 4.1; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 493.) |
| COIN OF ANACTORIUM. |