Ascănius, son of Æneas by Creusa, was saved from the flames of Troy by his father, whom he accompanied in his voyage to Italy. He was afterwards called Iulus. He behaved with great valour in the war which his father carried on against the Latins, and succeeded Æneas in the kingdom of Latinus, and built Alba, to which he transferred the seat of his empire from Lavinium. The descendants of Ascanius reigned in Alba for above 420 years, under 14 kings, till the age of Numitor. Ascanius reigned 38 years; 30 at Lavinium, and eight at Alba; and was succeeded by Sylvius Posthumus son of Æneas by Lavinia. Iulus the son of Ascanius disputed the crown with him; but the Latins gave it in favour of Sylvius, as he was descended from the family of Latinus, and Iulus was invested with the office of high priest, which remained a long while in his family. Livy, bk. 1, ch. 3.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, &c.——According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 1, ch. 15, &c., the son of Æneas by Lavinia was also called Ascanius.——A river of Bithynia. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 270.
Ascii, a nation of India, in whose country objects at noon have no shadow. Pliny, bk. 2.
Asclēpia, festivals in honour of Asclepius, or Æsculapius, celebrated all over Greece, when prizes for poetical and musical compositions were honourably distributed. At Epidaurus they were called by a different name.
Asclēpiădes, a rhetorician in the age of Eumenes, who wrote an historical account of Alexander. Arrian.——A disciple of Plato.——A philosopher, disciple to Stilpo, and very intimate with Menedemus. The two friends lived together, and that they might not be separated when they married, Asclepiades married the daughter, and Menedemus, though much the younger, the mother. When the wife of Asclepiades was dead, Menedemus gave his wife to his friend, and married another. He was blind in his old age, and died in Eretria. Plutarch.——A physician of Bithynia, B.C. 90, who acquired great reputation at Rome, and was the founder of a sect in physic. He relied so much on his skill that he laid a wager he should never be sick; and won it, as he died of a fall, in a very advanced age. Nothing of his medical treatises is now extant.——An Egyptian, who wrote hymns on the gods of his country, and also a treatise on the coincidence of all religions.——A native of Alexandria, who gave a history of the Athenian archons.——The writer of a treatise on Demetrius Phalereus.——A disciple of Isocrates, who wrote six books on those events which had been the subject of tragedies.——A physician in the age of Pompey.——A tragic poet.——Another physician of Bithynia, under Trajan. He lived 70 years, and was a great favourite of the emperor’s court.
Asclepiodōrus, a painter in the age of Apelles, 12 of whose pictures of the gods were sold, for 300 minæ each, to an African prince. Pliny, bk. 35.——A soldier who conspired against Alexander with Hermolaus. Curtius, bk. 8, ch. 6.
Asclepiodotus, a general of Mithridates.
Asclepius. See: [Æsculapius].
Ascletarion, a mathematician in the age of Domitian, who said that he should be torn by dogs. The emperor ordered him to be put to death, and his body carefully secured; but as soon as he was set on the burning pile, a sudden storm arose which put out the flames, and the dogs came and tore to pieces the mathematician’s body. Suetonius, Domitian, ch. 15.
Asclus, a town of Italy. Silius Italicus, bk. 8.
Ascolia, a festival in honour of Bacchus, celebrated about December by the Athenian husbandmen, who generally sacrificed a goat to the god, because that animal is a great enemy to the vine. They made a bottle with the skin of the victim, which they filled with oil and wine, and afterwards leaped upon it. He who could stand upon it first was victorious, and received the bottle as a reward. This was called ἀσκωλιαζειν παρα το ἐπι ἀσκον ἀλλεσθαι, leaping upon the bottle, whence the name of the festival is derived. It was also introduced in Italy, where the people besmeared their faces with the dregs of wine, and sang hymns to the god. They always hanged some small images of the god on the tallest trees in their vineyards, and these images they called Oscilla. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, li. 384.—Pollux, bk. 9, ch. 7.