Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/402

Rh 384 ASCONIUS. pHcity by Suetonius (Doniii. 15), is much distorted in the accounts which Cedrenus, Constantine Ma- nasses, and Glycas give of it. [L. S,] Q. ASCO'NIUS PEDIA'NUS, who holds the first place among the ancient commentators of Cicero, seems to have been born a year or two be- h>re the commencement of the Christian era, and there is some reason to believe that he was a native of Padua, It appears from a casual expres- sion in his notes on the speech for Scaurus, that these were written after the consulship of Largus Caecina and Claudius, that is, after a. d. 42. We learn from the Eusebian chronicle that he became blind in his seventy-third year, during the reign of Vespasian, and that he attained to the age of eighty-five. The supposition that there were two Asconii, the one the companion of Virgil and the expounder of Cicero, the other an historian who flourished at a later epoch, is in opposition to the clear testimonj' of antiquity, which recognises one only. He wrote a work, now lost, on the life of Sallust; and another, which has likewise per- ished, against the censurers of Virgil, of which Donatus and other grammarians have availed them- selves in their illustrations of that poet ; but there is no ground for ascribing to him the tract entitled " Origo gentis Romanae," more commonly, but with as little foundation, assigned to Aurelius Victor. But far more important and valuable than the above was his work on the speeches of Cicero ; and fragments of commentaries, bearing his name, are still extant, on the Divinatio, the first two speeches against Verres and a portion of the third, the speeches for Cornelius (i. ii.), the speech In toga Candida, for Scaurus, against Piso, and for Milo. The remarks which were drawn up for the instruction of his sons {Conun. in Milon. 14) are convej-ed in very pure language, and refer chiefly to points of history and antiquities, great pains being bestowed on the illustration of those constitutional forms of the senate, the popular assemblies, and the courts of justice, which were fast falling into oblivion under the empire. This character, however, does not apply to the notes on the Verrine orations, Avhich are of a much more grammatical cast, and exhibit not unfrequcntly traces of a declining Latinity. Hence, after a very rigid and minute examination, the most able modern critics have decided that these last are not from the pen of Asconius, but must be attributed to some gram- marian of a much later date, one who may have been the contemporary or successor of Servius or Bonatus. It is impossible here to analyse the reasoning by which this conclusion has been satis- factorily established, but those who wish for full information will find everj-thing they can desire in the excellent treatise of Madvig. {De Asconii Pediaiii^ ^c. Commentariis^ Hafniae, 1828, 8vo.) The history of the preservation of the book is curious. Poggio Bracciolini, the renowned Floren- tine, when attending the council of Constance in the year 1416, discovered a manuscript of Asconius in the monastery of St. Gall. This MS. was transcribed by him. and about the same time by I'artolomeo di Montepulciano, and by Sozomen, a canon of Pistoia. Thus three copies were taken, and these are still in existence, but the original has long since disappeared. All the MSS. employed by the editors of Asconius seem to have been de- rived from the transcript of Poggio exclusively, and ASELLUS. their discrepancies arise solely from the conjectural emendations which have been introduced from time to time for the purpose of correcting the numerous corruptions and supplying the frequently- recurring blanks. Poggio has left no description of the archetype, but it evidently must have been in bad order, from the number of small gaps occa- sioned probably by edges or comers having been torn off, or words rendered illegible by damp. In- deed the account given of the place where the monks had deposited their literary treasures is sufficient to account fully for such imperfections, for it is represented to have been " a most foul and dark dungeon at the bottom of a tower, into which not even criminals convicted of capital offences would have been thrust down." The first edition of Asconius was taken directly from the transcript of Poggio, and was published at Venice in 1477, along with sundry essays and dissertations on the speeches of Cicero. The work was frequently reprinted in the early part of the sixteenth centurj', and numerous editions have appeared from time to time, either separately or attached to the orations themselves ; but, notwith- standing the labours of many excellent scholai's, the text is usually exhibited in a very cornipt and interpolated form. By far the best is that which is to be found in the fifth volume of Cicero's works as edited by Orelli and Baiter; but many improve- ments might yet be made if the three original transcripts were to be carefully collated, instead of reproducing mere copies of copies which have been disfigured by the carelessness or presumption of successive scribes. |_W. R.] ASCUS ("Aor/fos), a giant, who in conjunction with Lycurgus chained Dionysus and threw him into a river. Hermes, or, according to others, Zeus, rescued Dionysus, conquered (eSctfUKrei/) the giant, flayed him, and made a bag ( aa-Kos) of his skin. From this event the town of Damascus in Syria was believed to have derived its name. (EtjTn. M. and Steph. Byz. s. v. AaixaaKSs.) [L. S.] A'SDRUBAL. [Hasdrubal.] ASE'LLIO, P. SEMPRO'NIUS, was tribune of the soldiers under P. Scipio Africanus at Nu- mantia, B. c. 1 33, and wrote a history of the affairs in which he had been engaged. (Gell. ii. 13.) His work appears to have commenced with the Punic wars, and it contained a very full account of the times of the Gracchi. The exact title of the work, and the number of books into which it was divided, are not known. From the great superiority which Asellio assigns to history above annals (op. Gell. V. 18), it is pretty certain that his own work was not in the form of annals. It is sometimes cited by the name of lihri rerum gesiarum, and some- times by that of historiae ; and it contained at least fourteen books. (Gell. xiii. 3, 21 ; Charis. iL p. 195.) It is cited also in Gell. i. 13, iv. 9, xiii. 3, 21 ; Priscian, v. p. 668; Serv. ad Virg. Aen, xii. 121 ; Nonius, s. v. gliscitur. Cicero speaks {deLeg. i. 2) slightingly of Asellio. P. Sempronius Asellio should be carefully distin- guished from C. Sempronius Tuditanus, with whom he is often confounded. [Tuditanus.] Comp. Krause, Vitae et Fragiii. Historicum Lati- norum^ p. 216, &c. ASELLUS, a cognomen in the Annian and Claudian gentes. The Annia gens was a plebeian one ; and the Aselli in the Cornelia gens were also plebeians.