Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

AS. As. 139
(Virg. Grorg. i. 338.) This ceremony was also called bably derived from Etruria. (Niebuhr, Hisf. of
a lustratio (Virg. Ecl. v. 83), or purification; and Rome, vol. i. p. 457, 3d ed.; Abeken, Mittetfor a beautiful description of the holiday, and the Italien, pp. 284, 326.)
prayers and vows made on the occasion, the reader The earliest copper coins were not struck,but cast
is referred to Tibullus (ii. 1). It is, perhaps, in a mould. [FoRSMA.] In the collection of coins at
worth while to remark that Polybius (iv. 21. ~ 9) the British Museum there are four ases joined touses language almost applicable to the Roman am- gether, as they were taken from the mould in which
barvalia in speakingof the Mantineans, who, he says many were cast at once. In most ases the edge
(specifying the occasion), made a purification, and shows where they were severed from each other.,
carried victims round the city, and all the country. Under the Roman empire, the right of coining
There is, however, a' still greater resemblance to silver and gold belonged only to the emperors; but
the rites we have been describing, in the cere- the copper coinage was left to the aerarium, which
monies of the rogation or gang week of the Latin was under the jurisdiction of the senate. [Comp.
church. These consisted of processions through Nuinvsus; MONETA.]
the fields, accompanied with prayers (royationes) The as was originally of the weight of a pound
for a blessing on the fruits of the earth, and were of twelve ounces, whence it was called as libralis
continued during three days in Whitsun-week. in contradistinction to the reduced ases which have
The custom was abolished at the Reformation in now to be spoken of, and which give rise to one
consequence of its abuse, and the perambulation of of the most perplexing questions in the whole
the parish boundarlies substituted in its place. range of archaeology.
(Hooker, Eccl. Pol. v. 61. 2; Wheatley, Com. Pliny (H. N. xxxiii. 3. s. 13) informs us that
Pray. v. 20.) [R. W.] in the time of the first Punic war (B. C. 264-241 ),
ARX (&irpa), signified a height within the walls in order to meet the expenses of the state, the full
of a city, but which was never closed by a wall weight of a pound was diminished, and ases were
against the city in earlier times, and very seldom struck of the same weight as the sextans (that is,
in later times. The same city may have had two ounces, or one sixth of the ancient weight);
several arces, as was the case at Rome; and hence and that thus the republic paid off its debts, gaining
Virgil says with great propriety (Georg. ii. 535):- five parts in six: that afterwards, in the second
"Septemque una sibi imuro circumdedit arces. Punic war, in the dictatorship of Q. Fabius Maximus (about B. c. 217), ases of one ounce were
As, however, there was generally one principal made, and the denarius was decreed to be equal
height in the city, the word arx came to be used as to sixteen ases, the republic thus gaining one half;
equivalent to acropolis [ACROPOLlS]. (Niebuhr, but that in military pay the denarius was always
Hist of Rome, vol. iii. note 411.) At Rome, one given for ten ases: and that soon after, by the
of the summits of the Capitoline hill was specially Papirian law (about B. c. 191), ases of half an
called Arx, but which of them was so called has ounce were made. Festus also (s. v. Sextantarii
been a subject of great dispute among Roman topo- Asses) mentions the reduction of the as to two
graphers. The opinion of the best modem writers ounces at the time of the first Punic war. There
is, that the Capitoliumn was on the northern summit, seem to have been other reductions besides those
and the Arx on the southern. The Arx was the mentioned by Pliny, for there exist ases, and parts
regular place at Rome for taking the auspices, and of ases, which show that this coin was made of
was hence likewise called auguraculum, according every number of ounces from twelve down to one,
to Paulus Diaconus, though it is more probable besides intermediate fractions; and there are copthat the Auguraculum was a place in the Arx. per coins of the Terentian family which show that
(Liv. i. 18, x. 7; Paul. Diac. s. v. Auguraculum; it was depressed to ~ and even - of its original
Becker, Rh2nisch. Alterth. vol. i. p. 386, &c., vol. ii. weight. Though some of these standards may be
part i. p. 313.) rejected as accidental, yet on the whole they clearly
AS, or Libra, a pound, the unit of weight prove, as Niebuhr observes (Hist. of Romae, vol. i.
among the Romnans. [LIBRA.] p. 461), that there must have been several reAS, the earliest denomination of money, and ductions before the first which Pliny mentions.
the constant unit of value, in the Roman and old Niebuhr maintains further, that these various
Italian coinages, was made of the mixed metal standards prove that Pliny's account of the reduccalled AEs. Like other denominations of money, tions of the coin is entirely incorrect, and that
it no doubt originally signified a pound weight of these reductions took place gradually from a very
copper uncoined: this is expressly stated by Ti- early period, and were caused by a rise in the
mnaeus, who ascribes the first coinage of aes to value of copper in comparison with silver, so that
Servius Tullius. (Plin. IH. IV. xxxiii. 3. s. 13, the denarius was in the first Punic war really
xviii. 3; Varro, De Re Rust. ii. 1; Ovid. Fast. equal in value to only twenty ounces of copper,
v. 281.) According to some accounts, it was and in the second Punic war to sixteen ounces, incoined from the commencement of the city (Plin. stead of 120, which was its nominal value. He
H. N. xxxiv. 1), or from the time of Numna (Epiph. admits, however, that the times when these reducAlens. et Pond.; Isidor. Etyem. xvi. 18); and ac- tions were resolved upon were chiefly those when
cording to others, the first coinage was attributed the state was desirous of relieving the debtors;
to Janus or Saturn. (Macrob. Saturn. i. 7.) This and thinks that we might assign, with tolerable
mythical statement in fact signifies, what we know accuracy, the periods when these reductions took
also on historical evidence, that the old states of place. On the other hand, Biickh argues that
Etruria, and of Central Italy, possessed a bronze there is no proof of any such increase in the value
or copper coinage from the earliest times. On of copper, and on this and many other gIounds his
the other hand, those of Southern Italy, and conclusion is, that all the reductions of the weight
the coast, as far as Campania, made use of silver of the as, from a pound down to two ounces, took
money. The Roman monetary system was pro- place during the first Punic lwar, and that they'