ACELDAMA (Gr 'AKeNbapi, ak el-clum-ah', from the Syro-Chaldaic, field of blood). the field purchased with the money for which Judas betrayed Christ, and which was appro priated as a place of burial for strangers (Matt. xxvii :8 ; Acts i :19). It was previously 'a pot ter's field.' (1) Possiblo Location. The field now shown as Aceldania lies on the slope of the hills be yond the valley of Ilinnom, south of Mount Zion. This is obviously the spot which Jerome points out (Onoinast, s.v. 'Acheldamach'), and which has since been mentioned by almost every one who has described Jerusalem. Sandys thus writes of it : 'On the south side of this valley, neerc where it meeteth with the valley of Jehosha phat. mounted a good height on the side of the mountain, is •celdamo, or the field of blood, pur chased with the restored reward of treason, for a burial' place for strangers.' (2) Mother of Constantine. In the midst whereof a large square roome was made by I lelena, the mother of Constantine ; the south side, walled with the natural) rocke ; flat at the top, and equal' with the upper level ; out of which ariseth cer taine little cupoloes, open in the midst to let doune the dead bodies. Thorow these we might sec the bottome, all couered with bones, and certaine corses but newly let donne, it being now the sepulchre of the Armenians. A greedy graue, and great enough to deuourc the dead of a whole nation. For they say (and I believe it ), that the earth thereof within the space of eight and forty houses will consume the flesh that is laid thereon' (Re lation of a Journey, p. 187). He then relates the common story, that the empress referred to caused two hundred and seventy ship-loads of this flesh-consuming mold to be taken to Rome, to form the soil of the Campo Sancto, to which the same virtue is ascribed. Richardson ( Travels, p 567) affirms that bodies were thrown in as late as 18 i8 ; but Dr. Robinson alleges that it has the
appearance of having been for a much longer time abandoned.
(3) Present Condition. 'The field or plat is not now marked by any boundary to distin guish it from the rest of the hillside; and the former charnel-house, now a ruin, is all that remains to point out the site. * * * An open ing at each end enabled us to look in ; but the bottom was empty and dry, excepting a few bones much decayed' (Biblical Researches, i :524).
ACHAIA (Gr. Axata, ach-ah-ee'ah), region of Greece, which in the restricted sense occu pied the northwestern portion of the Peloponnesus, including Corinth and its isthmus (Strabo, viii, p. 438,sq.). By the poets it was often put for the whole of Greece, whence 'Axacol, the Greeks. Under the Romans, Greece was divided into two provinces, Macedonia and Achaia, the former of which included Macedonia proper, with Illyrieum, Epi rus, and Thessaly; and the latter, all that lay southward of the former (Cellar. i, pp. 117o, I It is in this latter acceptation that the name of Achaia is always employed in the New Testament (Acts xviii:i 2-16; XIX :21 ; Rum. XV :26; t Cur. xvi:15; 2 Cor. PI; ix:2; xi:to; t Thus. i:7, 8). Achata was at first a senatorial province, and, as such, was governed by proconsuls (Dion Cass. liii, p. 704). Tiberius changed the two into one imperial province under procurators (Tacit.
i:76); hut Claudius restored them to the senate and to the proconsular form of govern ment (Suet. Claud. 25). Hence the exact and minute propriety with which St. Luke expresses himself in giving the title of proconsul to Galli°, who was appointed to the province in the time of Claudius (Acts xviii:12).