ACROP´OLIS
ACROP´OLIS (
ἀκρόπολις). In almost all Greek cities, which were usually built
upon a hill, rock, or some natural elevation, there was a kind of tower, a
castle, or a citadel, built upon the highest part of the rock or hill, to
which the name of
acropolis was given. Thus we read
of an acropolis at Athens, Corinth, Argos, Messene, and many other places.
The Capitolium at Rome answered the same purpose as the Acropolis in the
Greek cities; and of the same kind were the tower of Agathocles at Utica
(
App. Pun. 14), and that of Antonia at
Jerusalem (Joseph.
B. J. 5.8;
Act. Apostol.
21.34). At Athens, the Acropolis served as the treasury; and as the names of
all public debtors were registered there, the expression “registered
in the Acropolis” (
ἐγγεγραμμένος ἐν
Ἀκορπόλει) always means a public debtor (
ἐνἀκρολόλει γεγραμμένοι, Dem.
c.
Theocr. p. 1337.48; Böckh,
Publ. Econ. of
Athens, p. 388). For an account of the Acropolis at Athens, see
Dict. of Geogr. i. p. 265 foll.
[
W.S]
