ACHILLA
ACHILLA,
ACHOLLA, or ACHULLA (
Ἀχόλλα: Eth.
Ἀχολλαῖος, Achillitānus:
El Aliah, large Ru.), a town on the sea-coast of Africa Propria (Byzacena), a little above the N. extremity of the Lesser Syrtis, and about 20 G. miles S. of Thapsus.
It was a colony from the island of Melita (
Malta), the people of which were colonists from Carthage. Under the Romans, it was a free city.
In the African war, B.C. 46, it submitted to Caesar, for whom it was held by Messius; and it was in vain besieged by the Pompeian commander Considius. Among its ruins, of a late style, but very extensive, there has been found an interesting bilingual inscription, in Phoenician and Latin, in which the name is spelt Achulla (
Steph. B. sub voce Strab. p. 831;
Liv. 33.48; Appian.
Pun. 94; Hirtius,
Bell. Afric. 33--43;
Plin. Nat. 5.4; Ptol.; Tab. Peut., name corrupted into Anolla; Shaw's
Travels, p. 193; Barth,
Wanderungen, &c. vol. i. p. 176; Gesenius,
Monum. Phoenic. p. 139.)
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