Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/248

 part in the Social War, the massacre of the proconsul Q. Servilius, his legate Fontcius, and all the Roman citizens in the town by the people of Asculum, having given the first signal for the actual outbreak of hostilities. Pompeius Strabo was in consequence sent with an army to reduce the refractory city, but was defeated by the Picentians; and even when the tide of fortune was beginning to turn in favour of the Romans, in the second year of the war, Pompeius was unable to reduce it till after a long and obstinate siege. The Italian general Judacilius, himself a native of Asculum, who had conducted the defence, put an end to his own life; and Pompeius, wishing to make an example of the city, put to death all the magistrates and principal citizens, and drove the other inhabitants into exile. (Appian. B. C. i. 38, 47, 48; Oros. v. 18; Vell. Pat. ii. 21; Flor. iii. 19; Liv. Epit. lxxii., lxxvi.) If we may trust the expressions of Florus, the city itself was destroyed; but this is probably an exaggeration, and it would appear to have quickly recovered from the blow thus inflicted on it, as we find it soon after mentioned by Cicero (pro Sull. 8) as a municipal town, and it was one of the places which Caesar hastened to seize, after he had passed the Rubicon. Lentulus Spinther, who had previously occupied it with 10 cohorts, fled on his approach. (Caes. B. C. i. 16.)

Pliny terms Asculum a colony, the most illustrious in Picenum (iii. 13. 18); and its colonial dignity is further attested by inscriptions; but the period at which it attained this rank is uncertain. It was probably one of the colonies of Augustus. (Lib. Colon. p. 227; Gruter, Inscr. p. 465. 5, 10; Orelli. Inscr. 3760; Zumpt. de Colon. p. 349.) We learn from numerous inscriptions, that it continued to be a place of importance until a late period of the Roman empire; during the Gothic wars it was besieged and taken by Totila; but is again mentioned by P. Diaconus, as one of the chief cities of Picenum (Procop. iii. 11; P. Diac. ii. 19.) The modern city of Ascoli, which retains the ancient site, is still an important place, and the capital of a province, with a population of about 8000 inhabitants.

The Itineraries place Asculum on the Via Salaria, which from thence descended the valley of the Truentus to Castrum Truentinum at its mouth, and thence proceeded along the coast to Ancona. (Itin. Ant. pp. 307, 317.)

 ASCURIS (Esero), a lake in Thessaly in the range of Mt. Olympus. The castle, which Livy describes as above the lake Ascnris, probably corresponds to the ancient castle near Rapsani. (Liv. xliv. 2; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. pp. 349, 418.)

 A'SEA, a town of Arcadia in the district Maenalia, situated near the frontier of Laconia, on the road from Megalopolis to Pallantium and Tegea. Asea took part in the foundation of Megalopolis, to which city most of its inhabitants removed (Paus. viii. 27. § 3, where for we ought to read  or ; but Asea continued to exist as an independent state, since the Aseatae are mentioned, along with the Megalopolitae, Tegeatae, and Pallantieis, as joining Epaminondas before the battle of Mantineia, B.C. 362. (Xen. Hell. vi. 5. § 5.) At a later time, however, Asea belonged to Megalopolis, as we see from the descriptions of Strabo and Pausanias. The city was in ruins in the time of Pausanias, who mentions its acropolis. Inits territory, and at the distance of 5 stadia from the city, on the road to Pallantium, were the sources of the Alphetus, and near them those of the Eurotas. The two rivers united their streams, and, after flowing in one channel for 20 stadia, disappeared beneath the earth; the Alpheius rising again at Pegue, and the Eurotas at Belemina in Laconia. North of Asea, on the road to Pallantinm, and on the summit of Mt. Boreinm (Krávart), was a temple of Athena Soteira and Poseidon, said to have been founded by Odysseus on his return from Troy, and of which the ruins were discovered by Leake and Ross. The remains of Asea are to be seen on the height which rises above the copious spring of water called Frangóvrysi, "Frank-spring," the sources of the Alpheius. (Strab. pp. 275, 843; Paus. viii. 3. § 4, viii. 44. § 3, viii. 54. & 2; Steph. B. s. v.; Leake, Morea, vol. i. p. 84, vol. iii. p. 34, Peloponnesiaca, p. 247; Ross, Reisen im Peloponnes, vol. i. p. 63.)

 ASHER. [.]

 ASHDOD. [.]

 ASHTAROTH and ASHTAROTH CARNAIM (,, LXX., El-Mezârib a town of Bashan (Deut. i. 4; Josh.'' ix. 10), included in the territory of the half-tribe of Manasseh (Josh. xiii. 31), which was afterwards assigned to the Levites (1 Chron. vi. 71). Euscbius (''Onomast. in and ) places it 6 M.P. from Adraa and 25 M. P. from Bostra. This town existed in the time of Abraham (Gen. xiv. 5). The epithet of "Karnaim" or "horned" is referred to the worship of the moon under the name of Ashtaroth or Astarte. This goddess, the Derceto of the Greeks, had a temple (, at Carnion (2 Macc. xii. 26; comp. 1 Macc. v. 43), which is identified with Ashtaroth, and is described as a strongly fortified town, but taken by Judas Maccabaeus, who slew 25,O00 of the inhabitants (2 Macc. xii. 26; Joseph. Antiq. xii. 8. § 4.) El-Mezârib, which Colonel Leake (Preface to Burkhardt's Travels, p. xii.) identifies with Ashtaroth, is the first resting-place for the caravans on the great Hadj Road from Damascus to Mekkah. Burkhardt (Trav. p. 241) mentions, that close to the castle where the pilgrims collect, built by the Sultan Selym, is a lake or pond, a mile and a half in circumference. In the midst of this lake is an island, — and at an elevated spot at the extremity of a promontory, advancing into the lake, stands a sort of chapel, around which are many ruins of ancient buildings. There are no other ruins. (Buckingham, Arab. Tribes, p. 162; Chesney, Exped. Euphrat. vol. i. p. 511; Capt. Newbold, Lond. Geog. Journ. vol. xvi. p. 333.)

 A'SIA (, sc. ; Poet., -, Aesch. Pers. 763, , Dion. Perieg. 20, ; , Ov. Met. v. 648, ix. 448: Eth. and Adj. , , Ion. , ? frequent in Homer as a proper name; , Steph.; , Strab.; , Aesch. Pers. 12; , Dio Chrysost, Lob. Phryn. 646: Fem. , , and , with , , , ap. Trag.; , , -, ap. Trag., with and especially with , for the three-stringed lyre of the Lydians, called simply ; by Aristoph. Thesm. 120, comp. Schol., Suid., Hesch., Etym. Mag., s. v. Asianus; Asius, Poets and Varr. ap. Non. 466. 3; Asiaticus, adj. Asiagenes, not only in poets, but in old Latin, for Asiaticus, applied to Scipio, Liv. xxxvii. 58, Inscr., and to Sulla, Sidon. Carm. iii. 80, see