many excellent directions to the instructors of youth, par ticularly with regard to teaching languages, where he recommends the method of double translation. It was published by his widow after his death. By too close application in composing a poem, which he intended to present to the queen on the New Year s day of 1569, he was seized with an illness which proved fatal. He died on the 23d of December 1568. His death was universally lamented, and the queen expressed her regret by saying, that "she would rather have lost 10,000 than her tutor Ascham." His epistles, which are valuable both on ac count of their style and historical information, were published after his death, and dedicated to the queen ; the best edition is that of Elstob, published at Oxford in 1703. His English works were published in 4to, with a life by Dr Johnson, in 1771. This edition has been reprinted in Svo. The whole works have been edited by Dr Giles, London, 1864-5. Of the Toxopkilus and Scholemaster
there are several reprints.ASCHE, Rabbi, was the first and chief editor of the Talmud. He was born at Babylon in 353 A.D., and was in high repute among his contemporaries for his great learning. He began the Babylonian Talmud, and spent 30 years of his life at it. He left the work incomplete, and it was finished by his disciples, Rabbi Abina and Rabbi Jose.
ASCHERSLEBEN, a manufacturing city of Prussia, in the government of Magdeburg, formerly the chief town of a circle. It contains one Roman Catholic and five Pro testant churches, a synagogue, a poor-house, an asylum for destitute children, and several schools. The discovery of coal in the neighbourhood has at once stimulated and altered its industries. In addition to the manufacture of woollen wares, for which it has long been known, there is now extensive production of vinegar, paraffin, potash, and especially beetroot-sugar ; while the surrounding dis trict, which was formerly devoted in great part to market- gardening, is now turned almost entirely into beetroot fields. Population, 16,741. Aschersleben was probably founded in the llth century by Count Esika of Ballen- steclt. the ancestor of the house of Anhalt, whose grandson, Otto, called himself count of Ascania and Aschersleben, deriving the former part of the title from his castle in the neighbourhood of the town. On the death of Otto III. (1315) Aschersleben passed into the hands of the bishop of Halberstadt, and at the peace of 1648, Avas, along with the bishopric, united to Brondenburg.
ASCLEPIADES, of Prusa in Bithynia, a celebrated physician, flourished at Rome in the end of the 2d century B.G He travelled much when young, and seems at first to have settled at Rome as a rhetorician. In that profes sion he did not succeed, but he acquired great reputation as a physician. He founded his medical practice on a modification of the atomic or corpuscular theory, according to which disease results from an irregular or inharmonious motion of the corpuscles of the body. His remedies were, therefore, directed to the restoration of harmony, and in many cases were not unpleasant. He trusted most to changes of diet, accompanied by friction, bathing, and exercise, though he also employed emetics and bleeding. He recommended the use of wine, and in every way strove to render himself as agreeable as possible to his patients. His pupils were very numerous, and the school formed by them was called the Methodical. Asclepiades died at an advanced age from the effects of a fall.
ASCOLI (Asculum Picenum), the chief town and a bishop's see in the Italian province of Ascoli Piceno, situated on a rising ground on the river Tronto (Truentus), a few miles to the west of the Apennines, and command ing a large and fertile plain. It possesses a citadel, a cathedra], built on the site of a basilica erected by Con- stantine on the ruins of a temple of Hercules, a number of other churches, that of St Francesco dating from the 14th century, and remains of an ancient theatre, temples, &c. The city is built of travertine, and many of its public buildings were designed by Cola dell Amatrice. It carries on considerable trade, and manufactures woollen cloth, leather, hats, majolica, glass wares, wax, rosoglio, confections, <fcc. Population, 22,937.
Asculum was the chief city of the Piceni, and a place of great strength. It was captured by P. Sempronius Sophus (268 B.C.), but afterwards took an important part in the Social War, and defied for a time the Roman consul Pompeius Strabo. It fell 89 B.C.; Judacilius, its gallant defender, put an end to his life ; its magistrates were executed, and its inhabitants banished. At a later period it received a Roman colony, and recovered its pros perity. In 545 A.D. it was besieged by Totila. It was under the control of its bishops from the 3d to the 1 3th century; afterwards passed under the power of the Malatesti of Rimini ; and in 1426 was annexed to the Papal States by Pope Martin V.
ASCONIUS PEDIANUS, Quintus, author of some commentaries on Cicero, was born probably a year or two before the Christian era, and died about 83 A.D. He is supposed to have been a native of Padua. Some minor works ascribed to him have been lost ; all that are now extant consist of commentaries on some of Cicero s orations. These notes, written in very pure Latin, relate chiefly to matters of law, history, or antiquities, and are very valuable for the light they cast on some obscure parts of Cicero. As the commentaries on the Verrine orations deal more with questions of grammar, and do not show such purity of diction as the others, it has been conjectured that they are not the work of Asconius. The manuscript of the commentaries was discovered in 1416 by Poggio Bracciolini in the cellars of the convent of St Gall. He took a copy of it, from which, as the original has been lost, all subsequent reprints have been taken. The best recent edition is by Orelli and Baiter, forming part of their large edition of Cicero s works. See also Madvig, De Asconii Pediani Commentariis Disputatio, Copenhagen, 1828.
ASELLI, Asellius, or Asellio, Gasparo (born 1581), a physician of Cremona, afterwards professor of anatomy at Pavia. He is best known by his important discovery of the Lacteal Vessels. His treatise (De lactibus, Milan, 4to) on this subject was posthumous, being published in 1627, a year after his death.
home of the ^EsiR, q.v., the Olympus of northern mytho logy. The city of Asgard is fabled to have been built on the highest part and in the middle of Ida s plain, which is the very centre of the universe. Here the ^Esir erected a court for themselves with seats for twelve, and one high seat for Odin, the All-father, also a lofty abode for the goddesses, called Vingolf. They worked diligently, played at games, were rich in gold and all precious things, and happy, till three maidens from Jotunheim, the giants world, crossed Ida s plain, and entered Asaheim, when corruption spread amongst its inmates. Asgard had many mansions, the largest and noblest of which was Gladsheim ; whilst another, not so spacious, but the fairest of all, and brighter than the sun, was called Gimli. This will stand when both heaven and earth have passed away, and will be the habitation of all good and upright men through eternity. When the JEsir created men, and placed them in Midgard, they connected the latter with Asgard by a bridge, Bifrosh, known to mortals as the rainbow, which also leads to the sacred fountain of Urd, by the ash Yggdrasil, where the gods of Asgard take council together. For the other parts of Asgard, which are closely interwoven
