ARCHELA´IS
ARCHELA´IS (
Ἀρχελαΐς).
1.
In Cappadocia, and on the Halys, as Pliny states (6.3); a foundation of Archelaus, the last king of Cappadocia, which the emperor Claudius made a Colonia.
The site is assumed to be
Ak-serai (Hamilton,
Researches, vol. ii. p. 230;
Lond. Geog. Journ. vol. viii. p. 146); but
Ak-serai is not on the Halys, as Leake supposes.
Ak-serai is in 38° 20′ N. lat., “in an open and well-cultivated valley, through which a small stream called the Beyaz-Su flows into the salt lake of Kochhisar.”
Ak-serai, however, agrees very well with the position of Archelais as laid down in the Itineraries, and Pliny may have been misled in supposing the stream on which it stood to be a branch of the Halys. [
G.L]
2.
A village built by Archelaus, son of Herod (
J. AJ 17.13.1), and not far from Phasaelis (18.2.2) It is placed by the Peutinger Tables 12 M. P. north of Jericho. (Reland,
Palaest. p. 576, comp. plate, p. 421.) [
E.B.J]
