"Nothing in ancient Greece or Italy could be compared with the Acropolis of Athens, in its combination of beauty and grandeur, surrounded as it was by temples and theatres among its rocks, and encircled by a city abounding with monuments, some of which rivalled those of the Acropolis. Its platform formed one great sanctuary, partitioned only by the boundaries of the ... sacred portions. We cannot, therefore, admit the suggestion of Chandler, that, in addition to the temples and other monuments on the summit, there were houses divided into regular streets. This would not have been consonant either with the customs or the good taste of the Athenians. When the people of Attica crowded into Athens at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, and religious prejudices gave way, in every possible case, to the necessities of the occasion, even then the Acropolis remained uninhabited. ... The western end of the Acropolis, which furnished the only access to the summit of the hill, was one hundred and sixty eight feet in breadth, an opening so narrow that it appeared practicable to the artists of Pericles to fill up the space with a single building which should serve the purpose of a gateway to the citadel, as well as of a suitable entrance to that glorious display of architecture and sculpture which was within the inclosure. This work [the Propylæa], the greatest production of civil architecture in Athens, which rivalled the Parthenon in felicity of execution, surpassed it in boldness and originality of design. ... It may be defined as a wall pierced with five doors, before which on both sides were Doric hexastyle porticoes." _W. M. Leake, Topography of Athens, section 8._ See, also, ATTICA. ACT OF ABJURATION, The. See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1577-1581. ACT OF MEDIATION, The. See SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1803-1848. ACT OF SECURITY. See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1703-1704. ACT OF SETTLEMENT (English). See ENGLAND: A. D. 1701. ACT OF SETTLEMENT (Irish). See IRELAND: A. D. 1660-1665. {8} ACT RESCISSORY. See SCOTLAND; A. D. 1660-1666. ACTIUM: B. C. 434. Naval Battle of the Greeks. A defeat inflicted upon the Corinthians by the Corcyrians, in the contest over Epidamnus which was the prelude to the Peloponnesian War. _E. Curtius, History of Greece, book 4, chapter 1._ ACTIUM: B. C. 31. The Victory of Octavius. See ROME: B. C. 31. ACTS OF SUPREMACY. See SUPREMACY, ACTS OF; and ENGLAND: A. D. 1527-1534; and 1559. ACTS OF UNIFORMITY. See ENGLAND: A. D. 1559 and 1662-1665. ACULCO, Battle of (1810). See MEXICO: A. D. 1810-1819. ACZ, Battle of (1849). See AUSTRIA, A. D. 1848-1849. ADALOALDUS, King of the Lombards, A. D. 616-626. ADAMS, John, in the American Revolution.