=Anchūrus=, a son of Midas king of Phrygia, who sacrificed himself for the good of his country when the earth had opened and swallowed up many buildings. The oracle had been consulted, and gave for answer, that the gulf would never close, if Midas did not throw into it whatever he had most precious. Though the king had parted with many things of immense value, yet the gulf continued open, till Anchurus, thinking himself the most precious of his father’s possessions, took a tender leave of his wife and family, and leaped into the earth, which closed immediately over his head. Midas erected there an altar of stones to Jupiter, and that altar was the first object which he turned to gold, when he had received his fatal gift from the gods. This unpolished lump of gold existed still in the age of Plutarch. _Plutarch_, _Parallela minora_. =Ancīle= and =Ancy̆le=, a sacred shield, which, according to the Roman authors, fell from heaven in the reign of Numa, when the Roman people laboured under a pestilence. Upon the preservation of this shield depended the fate of the Roman empire, and therefore Numa ordered 11 of the same size and form to be made, that if ever any attempt was made to carry them away, the plunderer might find it difficult to distinguish the true one. They were made with such exactness, that the king promised Veterius Mamurius, the artist, whatever reward he desired. _See:_ Mamurius. They were kept in the temple of Vesta, and an order of priests was chosen to watch over their safety. These priests were called Salii, and were 12 in number; they carried, every year on the 1st of March, the shields in a solemn procession round the walls of Rome, dancing and singing praises to the god Mars. This sacred festival continued three days, during which every important business was stopped. It was deemed unfortunate to be married on those days, or to undertake any expedition; and _Tacitus_, bk. 1, _Histories_, has attributed the unsuccessful campaign of the emperor Otho against Vitellius to his leaving Rome during the celebration of the Ancyliorum festum. These two verses of Ovid explain the origin of the word Ancyle, which is applied to these shields: _Idque ancyle vocat, quod ab omni parte recisum est, Quemque notes oculis, angulus omnis abest._ _Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 377, &c. _Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 5, ch. 6.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――_Juvenal_, satire 2, li. 124.――_Plutarch_, _Numa_. ――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 664.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 2.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 20.