A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

688 ASTACUS.
safety to ports and to navigation in general.
(Strab. i. p. 57; Paus. vii. 21. ~ 3; Plut. Thes.
36; Suid. s. v.) [L. S.]
ASPLE'DON ('Ao-rXSwo), a son of Poseidon
and the nymph Mideia (Chersias, ap. Paus. ix. 38.
~ 6); according to others, he was a son of Orchomenus and brother of Clymenus and Amphidicus
(Steph. Byz. s. v. 'AoerAc&v), or a son of Presbon
and Sterope. (Eustath. ad Horn. p. 272.) He
was regarded as the founder of Aspledon, an ancient town of the Minyans in Boeotia. [L. S.]
ASPPE'NAS, a surname of the Nonii, a consular family under the early emperors. (Comp.
Plin. H. N. xxx. 20.) 1. C. NONIUS ASPRENAS,
was a performer in the Trojae lusus under Augustus, and in consequence of an injury which he sustained from a fall in the game, he received a golden
chain from Augustus, and was allowed to assume
the surname of Torquatus, both for himself and his
posterity. (Suet. Oct. 43.)
2. L. ASPRENAS, a legate under his maternal
uncle, Varus, A. D. 10, preserved the Roman army
from total destruction after the death of Varus.
(Dion Cass. Ivi. 22; Vell. Pat. ii. 120.) He is
probably the same as the L. Nonius Asprenas who
was consul A. D. 6, and as the L. Asprenas mentioned by Tacitus, who was proconsul of Africa at
the death of Augustus, A. D. 14, and who, according to some accounts, sent soldiers, at the command
of Tiberius, to kill Sempronius Gracchus. (Tac.
Ann. i. 53.) He is mentioned again by Tacitus,
under A. D. 20. (Ann. iii. 18.)
3. P. NoNIus ASPRENAS, consul, A. D. 38.
(Dion Cass. lix. 9; Frontinus, de Aquaeduct. c. 13.)
4. I. NONIUS ASPRENAS and P. NONIus AsPRENAS are two orators frequently introduced as
speakers in the Controversiae (1-4, 8, 10, 11, &c.)
of M. Seneca.
ASPRE'NAS, CALPU'RNIUS, appointed governor of Galatia and Pamphylia by Galba, A. D.
70, induced the partisans of the counterfeit Nero
to put him to death. (Tac. Hist. ii. 9.)
ASSAON. [NIOBE.]
ASSALECTUS, a Roman sculptor, whose name
is found upon an extant statue of Aesculapius by
him, of the merit of which Winckelmann (Gesch. d.
K. viii. 4. ~ 5) speaks slightingly. [C. P. M.]
ASSA'RACUS ('Aoaradpacos), a son of Tros
and Calirrhoe, the daughter of Scamander. He
was king of Troy, and husband of Hieromneme, by
whom he became the father of Capys, the father of
Anchises. (Hornm. II. xx. 232, &c.; Apollod. iii.
12. ~ 2; Serv. ad Virg. Georg. iii. 35; Aen. viii.
130.) [L. S.]
ASSE'SIA ('Aotrio-'a), a surname of Athena,
derived from the town of Assesus in lonia, where
she had a temple. (Herod. i. 19.) [L. S.]
ASSTEAS or ASTEAS, a painter, whose name
is found upon a vase of his workmanship, discovered at Paestum, and now preserved in the
Royal Museum at Naples. (Winckelmann, Gesch.
d. K. iii. Anm. 778.) [C. P. M.]
A'STACUS ('Ao-rTaos). 1. A son of Poseidon
and the nymph Olbia, from whom the town of Astacus in Bithynia, which was afterwards called
Nicomedeia, derived its name. (Arrian. ap. Steph.
Byz. s. v.; Paus. v. 12. ~ 5; Strab. xii. p. 563.)
2. The father of Ismarus, Leades, Asphodicus,
and Melanippus, whence Ovid calls the last of
these heroes Astacides. (Apollod. iii. 6. ~ 8;
Ovid, Ibis, 515.) [L. S.]

ASTERIUS.

ASTARTE. [APHRODITE and SYRIA DEA.]
ASTE'RIA ('Ao-repfa), a daughter of the Titan
Coeus (according to Hygin. Feab. Pref of Polus)
and Phoebe. She was the sister of Leto, and, according to Hesiod (Theog. 409), the wife of Perses,
by whom she became the mother of Hecate. Cicero (de Nat. Deor. iii. 16) makes her the mother
of the fourth Heracles by Zeus. But according to
the genuine and more general tradition, she was
an inhabitant of Olympus, and beloved by Zeus.
In order to escape from his embraces, she got metamorphosed into a quail (oprv), threw herself into
the sea, and was here metamorphosed into the
island Asteria (the island which had fallen from
heaven like a star), or Ortygia, afterwards called
Delos. (Apollod. i. 2. ~ 2, 4. ~ 1; Athen. ix. p.
392; Hygin. Fab. 53; Callimach. Hymn. in Del.
37; Serv. ad Aen. iii. 73.) There are several other
mythical personages of this name,-one a daughter
of Alcyoneus [ALCYONIDES]; a second, one of the
Danaids (Apollod. ii. 1. ~ 5); a third, a daughter of
Atlas (Hygin. Fab. 250, where, perhaps, Asterope
is to be read); and a fourth, a daughter of Hydis,
who became by Bellerophontes the mother of Hydissus, the founder of Hydissus in Caria. (Steph.
Byz. s. v. 'Tluro's.) [L. S.]
ASTE'RION or ASTE'RIUS ('Aoripiwv or
"Aem'pmos). 1. A son of Teutamus, and king of
the Cretans, who married Europa after she had
been carried to Crete by Zeus. He also brought
up the three sons, Minos, Sarpedon, and Rhadamanthys whom she had by the father of the gods.
(Apollod. iii. 1. ~ 2, &c.; Diod. iv. 60.)
2. A son of Cometes, Pyremus, or Priscus, by
Antigone, the daughter of Pheres. He is mentioned as one of the Argonauts. (Apollon. Rhod.
i. 35; Paus. v. 17. ~ 4; Hygin. Fab. 14; Valer.
Flacc. i. 355.) There are two more mythical personages of this name, one a river-god [ACRAEA],
and the second a son of Minos, who was slain by
Theseus. (Paus. ii. 31. ~ 1.) [L. S.]
ASTERION ('AorEpea'W), a statuary, the son of
a man named Aeschylus. Pausanias (vi. 3. ~ 1)
mentions a statue of Chaereas, a Sicyonian pugilist,
which was of his workmanship. [C. P. M.]
ASTE'RIUS ('A-Tpeios), a son of Anax and
grandson of Ge. According to a Milesian legend,
he was buried in the small island of Lade, and
his body measured ten cubits in length. (Paus.
i. 35. ~ 5, vii. 2. ~ 3.) There are four other mythical personages of this name, who are mentioned
in the following passages: Apollod. iii. 1. ~ 4;
Apollon. Rhod. i. 176; Apollod. i. 9. ~ 9; Hygin.
Fab. 170. [L. S.]
ASTE'RIUS ('Ao-re'pos), succeeded Eulalius as
bishop of Amaseia in Pontus, in the latter part of
the fourth century. He had been educated in his
youth by a Scythian slave. Several of his homilies
are still extant, and extracts from others, which
have perished, have been preserved by Photius.
(Cod. 271.) He belonged to the orthodox party
in the Arian controversy, and seems to have lived
to a great age.
Fabricius (Bibl. Graec. ix. p. 519, &c.) gives a
list of 25 other persons of this name, many of
whom were dignitaries of the church, and lived
about the end of the fourth or the beginning of the
fifth century. Among them we may notice Asterius, a Cappadocian, who embraced Christianity,
but apostatized in the persecution under Diocletian
and Maximian (about A. P. 304). He subse