A S C
A S E
ASCETER10M, in ecclefiaftical writers, is frequently ufed for a monaftcry, or place fet apart for the exercifes of virtue and religion. Suic. Thef. T. i. p. 54. Magri. Vocab. Ecclef. p. 25. Schm. p. 75.
The word is formed from A/ce/is, exercife, or A/cetra, one who performs exercife. Originally it fignified a place where the athletae, or gladiators performed their exercifes. In barbarous and middle age writers, we find the word A/ce- terium varioufly corrupted ; fometimes it is written, AJ/ciJh- rium; fometimes, Archijlerium, Architerium, Arcijlerium, Aeiflerium, A/cyflerium, &c.
ASCIA, in antiquity, an inftrument fuppofed of the ax-kind, ufed in the fabric of the Roman tombs, and frequently repre- fcnted thereon.
The formula /ub AJcia dedieare, is frequently found infcribed on antient tomb-ftones. We alfo meet with rogum Afcla ne poleito, among the antique laws of the twelve tables. Thefe expreffions, and the figure of the A/cia, as feen on the tombs, have puzzled feveral antiquaries.
Some pretend that the word A/da is compounded of an a, and ir*ta; and that fub AJcia dedieare, fignified to erecf. a monu- ment in the open air. Others fuppofe the A/cia to have been a fort of a hatchet, wherewith ordinary people polifhed their tombs ; which were only made of brick ; and that this was the practice forbidden by the laws of the twelve tables : rogum A/cia ne poleito. Dom. Mabillon thinks it fignifies an ax ; and that by the formula, /ub A/cia, we are to underftand the pain of death threatened to thofe who fhould violate the fe- pulchre.
F. Mcneftrier imagines that A/cia is a mafon's trowel, for which he quotes Vitruvius's architecture macerata calx A/cia domatur ; and that /ub A/cia dedicavit, fignifies that he who erected the monument took a trowel with mortar on it, and laid the firft ftone of the work ; a ceremony which is pracfifed to this day in great buildings. Vitruv. 1. 7 c. 2. Others explain A/cia by a hammer, which the Gauls placed on tombs as a Talifman, to keep them inviolable; and that they ufed certain formula's of confecration and imprecatioi on this hammer, which they held in the air over the monu ment, conjuring that inftrument not to ailift in deftroying a work which it had helped to raife.
F. Martin rejefts all thcfe opinions, and with probability enough affirms, that the A/cia was a howe, or fort of a pick-ax for digging up the ground, which is to this day called AJfados, or Aij/ados in Languedoc. This A/cia he pretends was not an inftrument of common ufe, but confecrated and employed only for digging of graves ; and that it is the fame with what Sidonius Apollinarius calls rajlrum funebre, wherewith the Gauls digged their graves. Sidon. Apoll. 1. 3. Ep. 12. This he thinks appears plainly to be the fignification of the word, from the Latin proverb, Ipfi mihi A/ciam in eras im- pegi ; which is what often happens to thofe who work with this inftrument. Hence alfo he explains the law of the twelve tables, wherein the A/cia is mentioned : thofe laws, he obferves, were written when the Romans talked Greek either entirely, or in a great meafure ; for that all the terms of this law are merely Greek, not Latin : Rogus, he obferves, is not a funeral pile, but a ditch or grave, 'Poya't or 'Puy/iis : A/cia a howe, or a pick-ax, and comes from Zaxa or «-«'•> to labour, cultivate, work ; nor does poleito come from the Latin word polire, to polifh or fmooth, but from itsTm'u, to till, dig, or plow up ; and in this fenfe the Greeks faid Si7r»x» c in *; Tgimto;, a piece of ground that had been twice and thrice tilled.
On this footing this famous law, which has racked the brains of all our antiquaries to explain it, contained only a prohibi- tion to dig graves with an inftrument of iron, or copper, fuch as the A/cia. In reality it was a tradition obferved by the re- moteft antiquity, that no inftrument made of thofe metals lhould be ufed in fepulchres.
Dom. Martin has given a diflertation exprefs concerning the funeral monuments of the Romans, confecrated fab A/cia. La Rehg. des Gaul. T. 2. 1. 5. V. Pref. Stat. Rep. Lett. T. 1. p. 116. feq.
Ascia is alfo ufed infurgery, for a kind of bandage, fomewhat oblique or crooked ; whole form and ufe areweU defcribed by Scultetus, in his Armam. Chirurg. P. 1. Tab 54. Fig. 3.
ASCINDOE, i n botany, a name given by the people of Gui- nea to a lhrub, which they ufe in medicine, boiling it in wa- ter and giving the decoaion in gonorrhoeas, and the like com- plaints Petiver has named it the prickly Guinea fhrub with roundifh crenated leaves, and filamentous flowers. The leaves are about an inch wide, and about an inch and half long, they ftand on fhort foot-ftalks; and at the ends of the branches thereftand clutters of ftamineous flowers, the thorns on the
aWo'S are "*> ftron S- PhiL Tranf - N °- 2 32- c 1 ' ! ™*«'- , »"i in botany, the name of a genus
ot plants, the charaaers of which are thefe: The flower confilts of one leaf, and is bell-fafhioned, open at the mouth, and divided into feveral figments. From the cup there rifes a piit.1, which is fixed in the manner of a nail in the hinder- part of the flower, and to which there adheres a head divided into five parts. This piftil ripens into a fmit, ufually confut-
ing of two vaginse of a membranaceous ftruflure, and opening from the bafe to the apex: this fruit contains many feeds winged with down, and affixed to a placenta in the manner of fcales. It is alfo diftinguifbed from the apocynums and periplocas, which are the genera it is neareft allied to, by its not yielding a milky juice. Taurm/. Inft. p. 93. The fpecies of A/depias enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are thefe :
I. The common white flowered kind. 2. The narrow- leaved, yellow-flowered kind. 3. The black-flowered kind. 4. The African kind, with thick pods called by fome fritil- laria crajfa. And 5. The African A/clepias with longer and lefs dentated leaves. For the medical virtues of A/depias, fee Vincetoxicum.
ASCOGEr YRUS, Ae-Koyiipvf®., in middle-age writers, denotes a bridge fupportcd on bags made of leather, or bullocks hides. Such bridges appear to have been in ufe among the antients ", and to have given the denomination to a tribe of Arabs, hence called A/cita: b .— [» Plin. Hift. Nat. 1. 6. c. 9. * Du Cange, T. 1. p. 350. Aquin. p. 88. feq.]
Hence alfo the appellation A/comanni, given to pirates, by reafon of their ufing bridges, or rather boats made of leather ; from A/ces, Utris, and Man. Id. ibid.
ASCOLIASM, A/colia/mus, in antiquity, a kind of game, wherein they held one foot from the ground, and danced, hopping on the other. Pollux. 1. 9. c. 7. Piti/e. T. 1. p. 188.
He that held the fport longeft, and made the largeft hops, was the conqueror. Sometimes the gamefters purfued and brought each other down. Another fpecies of this exercife was performed at the A/colia. SeeAscoLiA, Cyd.
ASCRIPTI, or Adscripti, in antiquity, thofe who entered their names in the colonies, and became coloni. Fcjt. De Verb. Signif. in voc. Calv. Lex. Jur. p. 43. b.
ASCRIPTITII, or Adcrjptitii, a kind of villains who, coming from abroad, fettle in the lands of fome new lord, whofe fubjeas or fervants they commence ; being fo annexed to the lands, that they may be transferred and fold with the
• fame. Du Cange, Gloff. Lat. T. j. 351. Calv. Lex. Jur. P-43-
Thefe are more peculiarly denominated A/criptitii glebes; fometimes Servi glebes.
The A/criptitii are annexed to the lands they hold, fo that they cannot ftir from it ; befides, th:it whatever they acquire accedes to the benefit of the lord of the land. Calv. p. 43. b.
AsCRrPTiTrl is fometimes alfo ufed in fpeaking of aliens or foreigners, newly admitted to the freedom of a city or coun- try. Calv. Lex. Jur. p. 94.
Ascriptitii was alfo ufed in the military laws, for the recruits appointed to fupply the loffes of the legions, called alfo Ac- cenfi. Fejl. de Verb. Signif. Calv. Lex. Jur. in voc. p. 44. a. Aquin. Lex. Milit. p. 89. a. See Accensi, Cyd. and Suppl.
Salmafius will have A/criptitii, or A/criptivi, to have been ufed for thofe who were only entered into the mutter-rolls, to receive the benefit of fervice, without any adual at- tendance ; otherwife called Supernumerarii. V. Aquin. loc. cit.
ASCRIPTIVI, in antiquity. See Ascriptitit.
ASCUS, in natural hiftory, a word ufed by De Laet, as the name of that pouch or bag which nature has given to the opoffum, or pofTum, as our common people in America call it, for the receiving the young ones into in time of danger. This A/cm is a fkinny bag, feparate from the reft of the body, and only adhering by a membrane to the bottom of the belly. It is a vulgar error to fuppofe, that the young of this ani- mal are taken back again into the womb, in time of danger, they being only at liberty to creep in and out of this bag, pre- pared on purpofe for them. Scaliger calls the bag fcrotum fubventrale, and Peter Martyr, uterus exterior; by which we may fee how confufed and improper ideas thefe authors have had of the nature and ufe of this part. See Opossum.
ASCYRUM, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the charaaers of which are thefe : The flower is of the rofaceous kind, confifting of feveral petals, arranged in a circular form. The cup is alfo compofed of feveral leaves, and from it there arifes a piftil, which finally becomes a pyramidal fruit, confift- ing of five cells, and containing a great number of oblong linall feeds.
Authors in general have not ufed the word A/cyrum in this determinate fenfe, but have made it the name of two or three of the fpecies of hypericum ; but Mr. Tournefort, who has afcertained it in this manner to a diftina genus, enumerates the three following fpecies of it;
1. The large flowered Afeyrum, with very large feed-veflels.
2. The fmall-leav'd A/cyrum, -with very large flowers, de- fcribed in Wheeler's Itinerary ; and 3. The upright willow- leav'd A/cyrum, with large flowers. Tturn. Inft. p. 236.
ASELLUS, in zoology, the name of a genus of fifhes, in- cluding the cod and whiting kind. The principal fpecies of this are, r. The A/ellus ?najor, or common cod-fifh. 2. The Afrllns Huitingo Pellachius, or whiting-pollack. 3. The A/ellus niger, called the coal-fifh, and, in Cornwal, the rawling pollack. 4. The A/ellus lu/cus, or blind whiting,
called
