=Æchmacŏras=, a son of Hercules by Phyllone daughter of Alcimedon. When the father heard that his daughter had had a child, he exposed her and the infant in the woods to wild beasts, where Hercules, conducted by the noise of a magpie which imitated the cries of a child, found and delivered them. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 12. =Æchmis=, succeeded his father Polymnestor on the throne of Arcadia, in the reign of Theopompus of Sparta. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 5. =Ædepsum=, a town of Eubœa. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――_Strabo_, bk. 10. =Ædessa=, or =Edessa=, a town near Pella. Caranus king of Macedonia took it by following goats that sought shelter from the rain, and called it from that circumstance (αἰγας, _capras_) Ægeas. It was the burying place of the Macedonian kings; and an oracle had said, that as long as the kings were buried there, so long would their kingdom subsist. Alexander was buried in a different place; and on that account some authors have said that the kingdom became extinct. _Justin_, bk. 7, ch. 1. =Ædicŭla Ridiculi=, a temple raised to the god of mirth, from the following circumstance: after the battle of Cannæ, Hannibal marched to Rome, whence he was driven back by the inclemency of the weather; which caused so much joy in Rome, that the Romans raised a temple to the god of mirth. This deity was worshipped at Sparta. _Plutarch_, _Lycurgus_, _Agis_, & _Cleomenes_. Pausanias also mentions a θεος γελωτος. =Ædīles=, Roman magistrates, that had the care of all buildings, baths, and aqueducts, and examined the weights and measures, that nothing might be sold without its due value. There were three different sorts: the Ædiles _Plebeii_, or _Minores_; the _Majores_ Ædiles, and the Ædiles _Cereales_. The plebeian ediles were two, first created with the tribunes; they presided over the more minute affairs of the state, good order, and the reparation of the streets. They procured all the provisions of the city, and executed the decrees of the people. The Majores and Cereales had greater privileges, though they at first shared in the labour of the plebeian ediles; they appeared with more pomp, and were allowed to sit publicly in ivory chairs. The office of an edile was honourable, and was always the primary step to greater dignities in the republic. The ediles were chosen from the plebeians for 127 years, till A.U.C. 338. _Varro_, _De Lingua Latina_, bk. 4, ch. 14.――_Cicero_, _De Legibus_, bk. 3. =Ædipsus=, a town in Eubœa, now Dipso, abounding in hot baths. =Valerius Ædituus=, a Roman poet before the age of Cicero, successful in amorous poetry and epigrams.