ACHAIA. This name is used to denote the whole of Greece, as it existed as a Roman province; or Achaia Proper, a district in the northern part of the Peloponnesus, on the bay of Corinth, and in which the city of that name stood. It appears to have been used in the former sense in 2 Cor. xi, 10; and in the latter, in Acts xix, 21. ACHAN, the son of Carmi, of the tribe of Judah, who having taken a part of the spoils of Jericho, against the injunction of God, who had _accursed_ or devoted the whole city, was, upon being taken by lot, doomed to be stoned to death. The whole history is recorded, Joshua vii. It would appear that Achan’s family were also stoned; for they were led out with him, and all his property, “And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones.” Some of the critics have made efforts to confine the stoning to Achan, and the burning to his goods; but not without violence to the text. It is probable, therefore, that his family were privy to the theft, seeing he hid the accursed things which he had stolen in the earth, in his tent. By concealment they therefore became partakers of his crime, and so the sentence was justified. ACHMETHA. See ECBATANA. ACHOR, Valley of, between Jericho and Ai. So called from the trouble brought upon the Israelites by the sin of Achan; Achor in the Hebrew denoting trouble. ACHZIB, a city on the coast of the Mediterranean, in the tribe of Asher, and one of the cities out of which that tribe did not expel the inhabitants, Judges i, 31. It was called Ecdippa by the Greeks, and is at present termed Zib. It is situated about ten miles north of Accho, or Ptolemais. Mr. Buckingham, who passed by this place, says that it is small, and situated on a hill near the sea; having a few palm trees rearing themselves above its dwellings. ACRA, Ἄκρα. This Greek word signifies, in general, _a citadel_. The Syrians and Chaldeans use הקרא, in the same sense. King Antiochus gave orders for building a citadel at Jerusalem, north of the temple, on an eminence, which commanded the holy place; and for that reason was called Acra. Josephus says, that this eminence was semicircular, and that Simon Maccabæus, having expelled the Syrians, who had seized Acra, demolished it, and spent three years in levelling the mountain on which it stood; that no situation in future should command the temple. On mount Acra were afterward built, the palace of Helena; Agrippa’s palace, the place where the public records were lodged; and that where the magistrates of Jerusalem assembled. ACRABATENE, a district of Judæa, extending between Shechem (now Napolose) and Jericho, inclining east. It was about twelve miles in length. The Acrabatene had its name from a place called Akrabbim, about nine miles from Shechem, eastward. This was also the name of another district of Judea on the frontier of Idumea, toward the northern extremity of the Dead Sea.