ACCI
(Guadix) Granada, Spain.
Town 59 km
NE of Granada, whose modern name comes from the
Arabic Wadi-Aci. Pliny refers to it as Colonia Accitana
Gemellensis (3.25), adding that it possessed Italic law
from the time of its founding. Ptolemy (2.6) calls it
Ἄκκιand locates it among the Bastetani. The
Antonine
Itinerary (402.1; 404.6) calls it Acci. On the inscriptions
(CIL II, 3391, 3393-94) it appears as Colonia Iulia Gemella Accis, and on coins as Col(onia) Iul(ia) Gem(ella)
Acci; the abbreviations L I II refer to Legions I and II,
whose veterans were settled there. The name Gemella
comes from these two legions. It was founded to guard
the mountainous area in which it was located. Until the
reform of Augustus (7-2 B.C.) it was part of Baetica,
but was then transferred to Tarraconensis.
Its establishment as a colony has been attributed to
Caesar or Octavius because of the name Iulia and the
fact that it lacked an epithet referring to Augustus. However, not all the places founded by Augustus bear a name
referring to him and, moreover, the name Iulia was employed by Augustus before 27. Most likely it was founded
by Lepidus in 42 B.C. in the name of Octavius. It has not
been excavated.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
F. Vittinghoff,
Römische Kolonisation
und Bürgerrechtspolitik unter Caesar und Augustus
(1952) 107, 149
M; A. García y Bellido, “Las Colonias
romanas en España,”
Anuario de Historia del Derecho
Español 29 (1959)
M.
R.TEJA
