The ruins still extant are very remarkable, and, with the noble Roman theatre, the finest in the world, have earned for the place (as is the case with certain other great monuments) a legendary connexion with Solomon’s Sheban queen. On the summit of the hillock, surrounded by a wall with three gates, lie the remains of the city. The public buildings round the forum can all be traced, and parts of them are standing to a considerable height. They consist of a fine nympheum on the north with a covered theatre behind it, covered market halls on the west, and a peristyle hall and a basilica on the east. In the plain below are large thermae, and ruins of a splendid aqueduct. But all else seems insignificant beside the huge theatre, half hollowed out of the north-east flank of the hill. This was first published by C.F.M. Texier in 1849, and has now been completely planned, &c., by Count Lanckoronski’s expedition in 1884. It is built of local conglomerate and is in marvellous preservation. Erected to the honour of the emperors Marcus Aurelius and L. Verus by the architect Zeno, for the heirs of a local Roman citizen (as an inscription repeated over both portals attests), its auditorium has a circuit of 313.17 feet. There are forty tiers of seating, divided by one diazoma, and crowned by an arched gallery of rather later date, repaired in places with brick. This auditorium held 7500 spectators. The seats are not perfect, but so nearly so as to appear practically intact. The wooden stage has, of course, perished, but all its supporting structures are in place, and the great scena wall stands to its full height, and produces a magnificent impression whether from within or from without. Inwardly it was decorated with two orders of columns one above the other, with rich entablatures, much of which survives. In the tympanum is a relief of Bacchus (wrongly supposed to be of a female, and called the Bal-Kis, i.e. “Honey Girl”). The position of the sounding board above the stage is apparent. Under the forepart of the auditorium, built out from the hill, are immense vaults. The whole structure was enclosed within one great wall, pierced with numerous windows. This structure was probably put to some ecclesiastical Byzantine use, as certain mutilated heads of saints appear upon it; and later it became a fortress and received certain additions. It is now under the care of the local aghá and not allowed to be plundered for building stone.
See C. Lanckoronski, Villes de la Pamphylie et de la Pisidie, i. (1890).
(D. G. H.)
ASPER, AEMILIUS, Latin grammarian, possibly lived in the 2nd century A.D. He wrote commentaries on Terence, Sallust and Virgil. Numerous fragments of the last show that as both critic and commentator he possessed good judgment and taste. They are printed in Keil, Probi in Vergilii Bucolica Commentarius (1848); see also Suringar, Historia Critica Scholiastarum Latinorum (1834); Gräfenhan, Geschichte der klassischen Philologie im Alterthum. iv. (1843-1850). Two short grammatical treatises, extant under the name of Asper, and of very little value, have nothing to do with the commentator, but belong to a much later date—the time of Priscian (6th century). Both are printed in Keil, Grammatici Latini. See also Schanz, Geschichte der römischen Litteratur, § 598.
ASPER, HANS (1499-1571), Swiss painter, was born and died at Zürich. He wrought in a great variety of styles, but excelled chiefly in flower and fruit pieces, and in portrait-painting. Many of his pictures have perished, but his style may be judged from the illustrations to Gessner’s Historia Animalium, for which he is said to have furnished the designs, and from portraits of Zwingli and his daughter Regula Gwalter, which are preserved in the public library of Zürich. It has been usual to class Asper among the pupils and imitators of Holbein, but an inspection of his works is sufficient to show that this is a mistake. Though Asper was held in high reputation by his fellow-citizens, who elected him a member of the Great Council, and had a medal struck in his honour, he seems to have died in poverty.
ASPERGES (“thou wilt sprinkle,” from the Latin verb aspergere), the ceremony of sprinkling the people with holy water before High Mass in the Roman Catholic Church, so called from the first word of the verse (Ps. iv. 9) Asperges me, Domini, hyssopo et mundabor, with which the priest begins the ceremony. The brush used for sprinkling is an aspergill (aspergillum), or aspersoir, and the vessel for this water an aspersorium. The act of sprinkling the water is called aspersion.