No More Learning

[L. S. ] time to time for the purpose of correcting the
Q. ASCOʻNIUS PEDIA'NU'S, who holds the numerous corruptions and supplying the frequently-
first place among the ancient commentators of recurring blanks. Poggio has leti no description
Cicero, seems to have been born a year or two be- of the archetype, but it evidently must have been
fore the commencement of the Christian era, and in bad order, from the number of small gaps occa-
there is some reason to believe that he was a sioned probably by edges or corners having been
native of Padua. It appears from a casual expres- torn off
, or words rendered illegible by damp. In-
sion in his notes on the speech for Scaurus, that deed the account given of the place where the
these were written after the consulship of Largus monks had deposited their literary trcasures is
Caecina and Claudius, that is, after A. D. 42. We sufficient to account fully for such imperfections,
learn from the Eusebian chronicle that he became for it is represented to have been “ a most ſoul
blind in his seventy-third year, during the reign of and dark dungeon at the bottom of a tower, into
Vespasian, and that he attained to the age of which not even criminals convicted of capital
eighty-five. The supposition that there were two offences would have been thrust down. "
Asconii, the one the companion of Virgil and the The first edition of Asconius was taken directly
expounder of Cicero, the other an historian who from the transcript of Poggio, and was published
fourished at a later epoch, is in opposition to the at Venice in 1477, along with sundry essays and
clear testimony of antiquity, which recognises one dissertations on the speeches of Cicero. The work
only. He wrote a work, now lost, on the life of was frequently reprinted in the early part of the
Sallust; and another, which has likewise per- sixteenth century, and numerous editions have
ished, against the censurers of Virgil, of which appeared from time to time, either separately or
Donatus and other grammarians have availed them- attached to the orations themselves ; but, notwith-
belves in their illustrations of that poet ; but there standing the labours of many excellent scholars,
is no ground for ascribing to him the tract entitled the text is usually exhibited in a very corrupt and
Origo gentis Romanae, more commonly, but interpolated form. By far the best is that which
with as little foundation, assigned to Aurelius is to be found in the fifth volume of Cicero's works
Victor.
as edited by Orelli and Baiter; but many improve-
But far more important and valuable than the ments might yet be made if the three original
above was his work on the speeches of Cicero; and transcripts were to be carefully collated, instead of
fragments of commentaries, bearing his name, are reproducing mere copies of copies which have been
still extant, on the Divinatio, the first two speeches disfigured by the carelessness or presumption of
against Verres and a portion of the third, the successive scribes.
(W. R. )
speeches for Cornelius (i. ii. ), the speech In toga ASCUS ("Aokos ), a giant, who in conjunction
candida, for Scaurus, against Piso, and for Milo. The with Lycurgus chained Dionysus and threw him
remarks which were drawn up for the instruction into a river. Hermes, or, according to others,
of his sons (Comm. in Milon. 14) are conveyed in Zeus, rescued Dionysus, conquered (eduarev) the
very pure language, and refer chiefly to points of giant, flayed him, and made a bag ( đokos) of his
history and antiquities, great pains being bestowed skin. From this event the town of Damascus in
on the illustration of those constitutional forms of Syria was believed to bare derived its name.
the senate, the popular assemblies, and the courts (Etym. M. and Steph. Byz. s. r. Aauaokós. ) (L. S. ]
of justice, which were fast falling into oblivion A'SDRUBAL. [HASDRUBAL. ]
under the empire. This character, however, does ASE'LLIO, P. SEMPRONIUS, was tribune
not apply to the notes on the Verrine orations, of the soldiers under P. Scipio Africanus at Nu-
which are of a much more grammatical cast, and mantia, B. c. 133, and wrote a history of the affairs
exhibit not unfrequently traces of a declining in which he had been engaged. (Geli. ii. 13. ) His
Latinity. Hence, after a very rigid and minute work appears to bave commenced with the Punic
examination, the most able modern critics have wars, and it contained a very full account of the
decided that these last are not from the pen of times of the Gracchi. The exact title of the work,
Asconius, but must be attributed to some gram- and the number of books into which it was divided,
marian of a much later date, one who may have are not known. From the great superiority which
been the contemporary or successor of Servius or Asellio assigns to history above annals (ap. Gell.
Donatus. It is impossible here to analyse the v. 18), it is pretty certain that his own work was
reasoning by which this conclusion has been satis- not in the form of annals. It is sometimes cited
factorily established, but those who wish for full by the name of libri rerum gestarum, and some-
information will find everything they can desire in times by that of historiae ; and it contained at
the excellent treatise of Madrig. (De Asconii least fourteen books. (Gell. xiii. 3, 21; Charis. ii.
Pediani, fc. Commentariis, Hafniae, 1828, 8vo. ) p. 195. ) It is cited also in Gell. i. 13, ir. 9, xiii.
The history of the preservation of the book is 3, 21 ; Priscian, v. p. 668; Serv. ad Virg. Aen.
curious. Poggio Bracciolini, the renowned Floren- xii. 121; Nonius, s. v. gliscitur.
tine, when attending the council of Constance in Cicero speaks (de Leg. i. 2) slightingly of Asellio.
the year 1416, discovered a manuscript of Asconius P. Sempronius Asellio should be carefully distin-
in the monastery of St. Gall. This MS. was guished from C. Sempronius Tuditanus, with
transcribed by him, and about the same time by whom he is often confounded. [TUDITANUS. ]
Bartolomeo di Montepulciano, and by Sozomen, a Comp. Krause, l'itae et Fragm. Historicum Lati-
canon of Pistoia. Thus three copies were taken, norum, p. 216, &c.
and these are still in existence, but the original has ASELLUS, a cognomen in the Annian and
long since disappeared. All the MSS. employed Claudian gentes. The Annia gens was a plebeian
by the editors of Asconius seem to have been de one; and the Aselli in the Cornelia gens were
rived from the transcript of Poggio exclusively, and also plebeians.


## p. 385 (#405) ############################################

ASINIA.
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1. C. or P. ANNIUS Asellus, a senator, who grandfather Asinius. (Senec. Epit. Controv. lib.
had not been included in the census, died, leaving iv. praef. ; Tac. Ann. iii. 11, xiv. 40; Suet. Oct.
his only daughter his heres. The property, how- | 43. )
ever, was seized by Verres, the praetor urbanus, ASI'NIA GENS, plcbcian. The Asinii came
on the ground that such a bequest was in violation from Teate, the chief town of the Marrucini (Sil.
of the lex Voconia. (Cic. in Verr. i. 41, &c. , Ital. xvii. 453; Liv. Epit. 73 ; Catull. 1. 2); and
comp. i. 58, ii. 7; Dict. of Ant. s. v. Voconia Lex. ) their name is derived from asinu, which was a
2. Tu. Claudius Asellus, tribune of the sol- cognomen of the Scipios, as asellus was of the Annii
diers in the army of the consul, C. Claudius Nero, and Claudii. The Herius, spoken of by Silius
B. C. 207, praetor in B. C. 206, when he obtained Italicus (l. c. ) in the time of the second Punic war,
Sardinia as his province, and plebeian aedile in about B. c. 218, was an ancestor of the Asinii;
B. C. 204. (Liv. xxvii. 41, xxviii. 10, xxix. 11. ) but the first person of the name of Asinius, who
Appian (de Bell. Annib. 37) relates an extraor- occurs in history, is Herius Asinius, in the Marsic
dinary adventure of this Claudius Asellus in B. C. war, B. C. 90. (Asinius. ] The cognomens of
212.
the Asinii are AGRIPPA, CELER, Dento, GALLUS,
3. T1. Claudius ASELLUS, of the equestrian POllio, SALONINUS. The only cognomens which
order, was deprived of his horse, and reduced to occur on coins, are Gallus and Pollio. (Eckhel,
the condition of an acrarian, by Scipio Africanus, v. p. 144. )
the younger, in his censorship, B. c. 142. When ASI'NIUS. 1. HERIUS ASINIUS, of Teate,
Asellus boasted of his military services, and com- the commander of the Marrucini in the Marsic
plained that he had been degraded unjustly, Scipio war, fell in battle against Marius, B. C. 90. (Liv.
replied with the proverb, “ Agas asellum," 1 e. Epit
. 73 ; Vell Pat. ii. 16; Appian, B. C. i. 40;
A gas asellum, si bovem non agere queas” (Cic. Eutrop. v. 3. )
de Orat. ii. 64), which it is impossible to translate 2. Cn. Asinius, only known as the father of C.
so as to preserve the point of the joke ; it was a Asinius Pollio. [Pollio. ]
proverbial expression for saying, that if a person 3. Asinius, a friend of Antony, who surrepti-
cannot hold as good a station as he wishes, he tiously crept into the senate after the death of
must be content with a lower. When Asellus Caesar, B. C. 44. (Cic. Phil. xiii. 13. )
was tribune of the plebs in B. C. 139, he accused ASI'NIUS QUADRA'TUS. (QUADRATUS. )
Scipio Africanus before the people (Gell. iii. 4); and A'SIUS ('AQL03). 1. A son of Hyrtacus of
Gellius (ii. 20) makes a quotation from the fifth Arisbe, and father of Acamas and Phaenops. He
oration of Scipio against Asellus, which may have was one of the allies of the Trojans, and brought
been delivered in this year. Among other charges them auxiliaries from the several towns over which
which Asellus brought against Scipio, was, that he ruled. He was slain by Idomeneus. (Hom.
the lustrum had been inauspicious (because it had Il. ii. 835, xü. 140, xiii. 389, &c. , xvii. 582. )
been followed by a pestilence); and Gellius (iv. 2. A son of Dymas and brother of Hecabe.
17) has preserved two verses of Lucilius referring Apollo assumed the appearance of this Asius, when
to this charge:
he wanted to stimulate Hector to fight against
" Scipiadae magno improbus objiciebat Asellus
Patroclus (Hom. N. xvi. 715, &c. ; Eustath. p.
Lustrum, illo censore, malum infelixque fuisse. ” 1083. ) According to Dictys Cretensis (iv. 12),
Asius was slain by Ajax. There are two more
Scipio replied, that it was not surprising that it mythical personages of this name, which is also
should have been so, as his colleague, L. Mummius, used as a surname of Zeus, from the town of Asos
who had performed the lustrum, bad removed or Oasos in Crete. (Virg. Aen. x. 123; Tzetz. ail
Asellus from the aerarians and restored him to his Lycoph. 355 ; Steph. Byz. s. o. 'Agos. ). (L. S. )
former rank. (Cic. de Orat. ii. 66; comp. Val. A'SIUS ("Agios), one of the earliest Greek
Max. vi. 4. § 2; Aurel. Vict. de Vir. İl. 58, poets, who lived, in all probability, about B. C.
where the opposition of Mummius to Scipio is 700, though some critics would place him at an
alluded to. ) This Claudius Asellus seems to be the earlier and others at a later period. He was a
same who was poisoned by his wife, Licinia. native of Samos, and Athenaeus (iii. p. 125) calls
(Val. Max. ri. 3. & 8. )
him the old Samian poet. According to Pausanias
A'SIA ('Agla). 1. A surname of Athena in (vii. 4. & 2), his father's name was Amphiptolemus.
Colchis. Her worship was believed to have been Asius wrote epic and elegiac poems. The subject
brought from thence by Castor and Polydeuces to or subjects of his epic poetry are not known; and
Laconia, where a temple was built to her at Las the few fragments which we now possess, consist
(Paus. iii. 24. & 5. )
of genealogical statements or remarks about the
2. A daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, who be- Samians, whose luxurious habits he describes with
came by Japetus the mother of Atlas, Prometheus, great naïveté and humour. The fragments are
and Epimetheus. (Hesiod. Theog. 359; Apollod. preserved in Athenaeus, Pausanias, Strabo, A pol-
i. 2. $ 2, &c. ) According to some traditions the lodorus, and a few others. His elegies were writ-
continent of Asia derived its name from her. ten in the regular elegiac metre, but all have
(Herod. iv. 45. ) There are two other mythical perished with the exception of a very brief one
personages of this name. (Hygin. Fab. Praef. p. 2; which is preserved in Athenaeus. (l. c. ) The
Tzetzes, ad Lycoph. 1277. )
(L. S. ) fragments of Asius are collected in N. Bach, Cal-
ASIATICUS, a surname of the Scipios and lini, Tyrtaei et Asü Samii quae supersunt, ge,
Valerii. [Scipio; VALERIUS. )
Leipzig, 1831, 8vo. ; in Dübner's edition of Hesiod,
AʼSINA, a surname of the Scipios. (SCIPIO. ] &c. , Paris, 1840, and in Düntzer, Die Fragm. der
ASI'NIA, the daughter of C. Asinius Pollio, Episch. Poes. p. 66, &c. , Nachtrag, p. 31. [L. S. ]
consul B. C. 40, was the wife of Marcellus Aeser- ASOʻPIS ('Aownis), two mythological per-
ninus, and the mother of Marcellus Aeseruinus sonages, one a daughter of Thespius, who became
the younger, who was instructed in rhetoric by his by lleracles the mother of Mentor (Apollod. ij. 7.
the
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## p. 386 (#406) ############################################

386
ASPASIA.
ASPASIA.
$ 8), and the other a daughter of the river-god | Athens, and there gained and fixed the affections
Asopus. (Diod. iv. 72. )
(L. S. ] of Pericles, not more by her beauty than by her
ASOʻPIUS ('AOUTiOs). 1. Father of Phormion high mental accomplishments
. With his wife.
(Thuc. i. 64), called Asopichus by Pausanias. (i. who was a lady of rank, and by whom he had two
24. § 12. )
sons, he seems to have lived unhappily; and, hav-
2. Son of Phormion, was, at the request of the ing parted from her by mutual consent, he attached
Acarnanians who wished to have one of Phor himself to Aspasin during the rest of his life as
mion's family in the command, sent by the Athe-closely as was allowed by the law, which forbade
nians in the year following his father's naval marriage with a foreign woman under severe penal-
victories, B. c. 428 (the 4th of the Peloponnesian ties. (Plut. Peric. 24 ; Demosth. c. Neuer. p. 1350. )
war), with some ships to Naupactus. He fell Nor can there be any doubt that she acquired over
shortly after in an unsuccessful attempt on the him a great ascendancy; though this perhaps comes
Leucadian coast. (Thuc. iii. 7. ) [A. H. C. ] before us in an exaggerated shape in the statements
ASOPODOʻRUS, a statuary, possibly a native which ascribe to her intluence the war with Samos
of Argos (Thiersch, Epoch. d. bild, kunst. p. 275, on behalf of Miletus in B. C. 440, as well as the
Anm. ), was a pupil of Polycletus. (Plin. xxxiv. Peloponnesian war itself. (Plut. Peric. I. c. ; Aris-
8. s.