Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

ASIARCHAE;

45

ASTROLOGIA.

pagus rose or fell at the different periods of
Athenian history.

A.SIARCHAE (acrtapxcu) were, in the Ro-
man province of Asia, the chief presidents of
the religious rites, whose office it was to ex-
hibit games and theatrical amusements every
year, in honour of the gods and the Roman
emperor, at their own expense, like the Ro-
man aediles. They were ten in number,
selected annually by the different towns of
Asia, and approved of by the Roman procon-
sul ; of these, one was the chief asiarch, and
frequently, but not always, resided at Ephe-
sus.

ASSARIUS NUMMUS. [As.]

ASSERTOR, or ADSERTOR, contains the
same root as the verb adserere, which, when
coupled with the word manu, signifies to lay
hold of a thing, to draw it towards one. Hence
the phrase adserere in libertatem, or liberali
adserere manu, applies to him who lays his
hand on a person reputed to be a slave, and
asserts, or maintains his freedom. The person
who thus maintained the freedom of a reputed
slave was called adsertor. The person whose
freedom was thus claimed was said to be ad-
sertus. The expressions liberalis causa, and
UberaUs manus, which occur in connection
with the verb adserere, will easily be under-
stood from what has been said. Sometimes
the word adserere alone was used as equiva-
lent to adserere in libertatem. The expres-
sion asserere in servitutem, to claim a person
as a slave, occurs in Livy.

ASSESSOR, or ADSESSOR, literally one
who sits by the side of another. Since the
consuls, praetors, governors of provinces,
and the judices, were often imperfectly ac-
quainted with the law and forms of pro-
cedure, it was necessary that they should
have the aid of those who had made the law
their study. The assessors sat on the tribu-
nal with the magistrate. Their advice or aid
was given during the proceedings as well as
at other times, but they never pronounced a
judicial sentence.

ASSIDUI. [Locupletes.]
ASTRAGALUS (ao-rpayaAos), literally, that
particular bone in the ankles of certain quad-
rupeds, which the Greeks, as well as the Ro-
mans, tised for dice and other purposes.
[Talus.] In architecture it signifies a certain
moulding (the astragal) which seems to have
derived its name from its resemblance to a
string or chain of tali, and it is in fact always
used in positions where it seems intended to
bind together the parts to which it is applied.
It belongs properly to the more highly de-
corated forms of the Ionic order, in which it
appeai-s as a lower edging to the larger mould-
ings, especially the echinus (ovolo), particu-

larly in the capital, as shown in the following
woodcut.

Astragalus. (Capital of an Ionic Column Dilettanti
Society, Ionian Antiquities.)

ASTRATEIAS GRAPIIE (ao-rpaTet'as
ypa<t>ri), the accusation instituted at Athens
against persons who failed to appear among
the troops after they had been enrolled for a
campaign by the generals. The defendant, if
convicted, incurred disfranchisement (a-rip-ia)
both in his own person and that of his de-
scendants.

ASTROLOGIA, astrology. A belief very
early arose, which still prevails unshaken in
the East, that a close connection subsisted
between the position and movements of the
heavenly bodies and the fate of man. Few
doubted that the destiny of a child might be
predicted w ith certainty by those who were
skilled to interpret the position of the stars
at the moment of his birth, and that the re-
sult of any undertaking might be foretold from
the aspect of the firmament when it was
commenced. Hence a numerous and power-
ful class of men arose who were distinguished
by various designations. From the country
where their science was first developed, they
were called Cltaldaei or BdbylonH; from ob-
serving the stars, astronomi, astrologi, plane-
tarii; from employing diagrams such as
were used by geometricians, mathematics;
from determining the lot of man at his natal
hour, genethHaci ; from prophesying the
consummation of his struggles, anoreKta-ixa-
tikoL ; while their art was known as aorpo-
Koyia, /xeretopoAoyta, yepe#AtaAoyi'a, a7r0TeAe(7-
IxaziK-q, Ars Chaldaeorum, Mathesis, or, from
the tables they consulted, ira/axiio). Their
calculations were termed Babylonii numeri,
XaAoWwy jUefloSoi, XaAo'auoi' i/zi^iSe?, Rationes
Chaldaicae ; their responses when consulted
Chaldaeorum monita, Chaldaeorum natalieia
praedieta, Astrologorum praedicta. The stars
and constellations to which attention was
chiefly directed were the planets and the
signs of the zodiac, some of which were sup-
posed to exert uniformly a benign influence
(iyaoWoioi. aarepes), such as Venus, Jupiter,
Luna, Virgo, Libra, Taurus; others to be
uniformly malign (/caxo7rotoi ao-repes), such as
Saturnus, Mars, Scorpio, Capricornus ; others