ACME ('Aκμή):

By: Richard Gottheil

Jewish slave of Livia, wife of the Emperor Augustus. During the family troubles which clouded the last nine years of Herod's life, she came under the influence of his son Antipater, while he lived at Rome. Induced by large presents and specious promises, she forged a compromising letter from Herod's sister Salome to her mistress, the empress Livia, which she forwarded to Herod through the agency of Antiphilus, a friend of Antipater in Egypt. Acme's guilt was discovered by an intercepted letter to Antipater, in which she speaks of having forged the letter at Antipater's request. Herod reported the matter to Augustus, and Acme was put to death in the year 5 B.C.

G.