Acrae (Acra)
Part of The Encyclopedia of Southern Italy.
Acrae (Acra) (mod. Palazzolo Acreide [SR]). A town in ancient Sicily located to the southwest of Syracuse, between the rivers Anapus and Tellaro. West of modern Palazzuolo Acreide, it sat on a flat-topped, hill. The steep sides of the hill made the place approachable only on one side. The town was founded in 665/664 BC by colonists from Syracuse on a site periodically inhabited since Paleolithic times. The colony was founded as a fortified outpost to guard an important approach to Syracuse. The town appears periodically in history in events linked to Syracuse. Dion stopped here in 357 BC during his expedition against Dionysius II. In 263 BC, Acrae was mentioned in a treaty between Hieron II of Syracuse and the Romans as one of the towns that would come under the jurisdiction of Syracuse. During the 1st Century AD Pliny the Elder mentioned it as having the status of a civitates stipendiariae. Although it disappears from history thereafter, archaeological evidence shows that the town remained active well into the late Empire. The town was probably destroyed in AD 827 during the Saracen invasion.