Dr. Doddridge died in 1751, and in his last will earnestly recommended to the trustees of Coward's Foundation, by whom scholarships were provided for many of the young men educated for the dissenting ministry in his academy, that they should transfer the scholars on his decease to Mr.Ashworth, as the person who appeared to him best qualified to carry out plans of education which had been highly approved by the dissenting public. With this recommendation they complied, and Mr. Ashworth, for whom there was soon after obtained a diploma of D. D. from one of the universities of Scotland, was placed in a station, which, among the Protestant Dissenters, is looked upon as one of honour, as it also is one of great responsibility and difficulty, the tutor and principal of an institution in which academical learning is taught to the young men destined for the ministry among them. Over this institution Dr. Ashworth presided for twenty-three years, during which period he had many young persons entrusted to his care, who afterwards became eminent in the religious body to which they belonged, and some of them also as writers on theology or in general literature.

The date of the death of Dr. Ashworth, and also his age, are mistated in the work above referred to, where they stand thus, 1774 and 65. It appears by the inscription on his monument at Daventry, printed in Baker's History of Northamptonshire, vol. i. p. 332, that he died July 18, 1775, aged fifty-four. In that inscription it is said that," with indefatigable application, with genuine and well-regulated zeal, and with growing reputation and success, he exerted his eminent abilities and extensive acquaintance with sacred and human literature in the service of his great Master, and in promoting the important interests of learning, religion, and charity." Dr. Ashworth printed three funeral sermons, preached by him on the deaths of three ministers, Dr. Isaac Watts, James Lloyd, his predecessor at Daventry, and Samuel Clark of Birmingham. He was also the author of a grammar of the Hebrew language, and an Introduction to the Knowledge of Plane Trigonometry.

ASICO, ESICO, or EZICO, the name of a person mentioned in the legends of the ninth and tenth centuries, but to whose history, and that of his castle Ascaria, or Ascania, and the fact of the first margraves of Brandenburg being descended from

him, and the counts de Ascheria, or Ascania, the charters of those times afford but a doubtful clue.

ASINARI, (Frederic, count de Camerano,) a nobleman of Asti, in Piedmont, flourished about 1550. In his youth he followed the profession of arms, but he was no less distinguished as a poet. His poems are published in different collections. 1. Two sonnets, in the Scelta di Rime di diversi excellenti Poeti, by Zabata, 1579. 2. Four canzoni and a sonnet in the Muse Toscane of Borgogni, 1594. 3. Several pieces in Borgogni's Rime di diversi illustri Poeti, Venice, 1599. 4. He published in 1587 a tragedy, entitled Il Tancredi. (Biographie Universelle.)

ASINIUS POLLIO (C., B.C. 76 to A.D. 4.) The family of Asinius came originally from Teate (Chieti), a large and populous town on the right bank of the Aternus (Pescara), in the territory of the Marrucini. (Sil. Ital. Punicor. viii. 521, xvii. 457.) Caius, with whom, probably, the name of Pollio was introduced into the family of the Asinii, was born at Rome, B.C. 76, where his father, Cneius Asinius, who is otherwise unknown, resided. According to Velleius, (2, 128,) the Asinii had the rank of Equites. Pollio received an excellent education; he studied assiduously and successfully eloquence, philosophy, and literature; and entered with reluctance upon the public duties which Rome exacted from every citizen whose birth or talents were not wholly obscure. The civil wars which pervaded through so considerable a portion of his life, and which drew him into the dangerous maze of party collision, he regretted less, perhaps, as a patriot, than as a student whose leisure was interrupted. (Cic. ad Fam. 10, 31.) His public history begins with the year 54 B.C., when he impeached the late tribune C. Cato, for his activity in 56 in procuring a second consulship for Pompey and Crassus. And before he had attained the age at which he was legally allowed to sue for the lowest magistracies, he was distinguished for the number of his speeches on public and important causes. (Quintil. Inst. Or. 12, 6, 1.) The poli tical feelings or principles of Asinius were not, however, determined by his early forensic life. In the year 48, when the long-contending parties in Rome once again embodied themselves under Cæsar and Pompey, Asinius attached himself to the Cæsareans. In January, 49, he was present at the passage of the Rubicon;

tant services by drawing together into the district of Venetia, and retaining in obedience to the absent triumvir, seven legions (Vell. 2, 76); and, subsequently, by inducing Domitius Ahenobarbus, who commanded the fleet of the late conspirators, to submit himself to Antony. At the conference at Brundusium, in 40, Pollio and Mæcenas were the principal arbitrators of peace. He accompanied the reconciled triumvirs to Rome, where, with Domitius Calvinus II., he received the consulship, to which he had been nominated three years before. These consuls were, however, superseded before the end of the year. In 39, after the meeting of the triumvirs and Sextus Pompey at Misenum, Asinius was sent into Illyria, as Antony's lieutenant, against the Parthini. His authority extended over Dalmatia; and for the capture of Salona, his triumph was entitled Dalmatic. (25th October, 39. See Dio. 48, 41; Hor. Carm. 2, 1, 15.) But although Asinius laid waste the lands, carried off the flocks and herds, and disarmed the barbarians, their complete subjugation was reserved for the lieutenants of Augustus. (Florus, iv. c. 12, 11.) When the last struggle between Antony and Octavianus became inevitable, Asinius withdrew from the party which the imprudences of its chief marked as the declining, without, however, like Messala, (see MESSALA CORVINUS,) transferring his active services to the ascendant one. When requested to accompany Octavianus to Actium, he said, "My services to Antony have been too great, his good offices to me too many, for me to take any part. I withdraw from the contest, and remain the prey of the conqueror.' The political life of Asinius, unless where his forensic duties brought him in contact with the state, expired with the supremacy of Octavianus. He died in the year 4 A.D., retaining his strength to the last, (Val. Max. viii. 13, 4,) at his Tusculan house. (Hieron. in Euseb. Chr. MMXX.) He married Quintia, daughter of L. Quintius, (Cic. ad Att. 7, 9,) who perished in the triumviral proscription. His brother, Asinius, is called in sport, "Marrucinus," in allusion to his Marsic descent, by Catullus, 12, v. 1, and v. 6.

The services of Asinius.to the Casareans, his influence with Antony, and his abilities, procured him at least outward respect from Octavianus; but they were never friends. (See Macrob. Saturnal. 2, c. 4.) The latter had even

written a lampoon on Pollio, but he declined answering a writer who could proscribe (" scribere, proscribere"). He was the patron of Herod I., when driven from his kingdom by Antigonus and the Parthians; and, at a subsequent period, on their visit to Rome, Alexander and Aristobulus, Herod's sons, were entertained in the house of Pollio. (Joseph. Antiq. xv. 10.) He was also the protector of Virgil, (Eclog. 3, 84, 4, and 8, v. 6,) and of Horace, (Sermon. 1, 10, 42, Carm. 1, 2,) before Mæcenas or Augustus had distinguished them. His manners, and the asperity of his temper and words, however, made him more admired than esteemed, and rather feared than admired. Yet they are sometimes inconsistently attributed to his republican predilections. An Italian, not a Roman; a "new man," not a client or a member of an ancient house; his feelings were certainly not on the side of the aristocracy. In common with many of the elder Cæsareans, he perhaps preferred the open and generous temper of Marc Antony to the premature dissimulation of Octavianus; and unwillingly yielded to the supremacy of one who at the eleventh hour reaped the fruits of a long and arduous revolution. Seneca the philosopher says, (De Ira, iii. 23,) the real cause of the protection afforded Timagenes by Asinius, was, that Timagenes had inserted in his history some unpalatable remarks upon Livia and Augustus, and was, in consequence, forbidden the palace. His exclusion procured him the favour of Asinius, who had hitherto been his enemy. (M. Seneca, Controv. 34, p. 392.) The literary character of Pollio resembled the political. He was an unsparing censor of Cicero, (Seneca, Suasor. iii.); of Sallust, whom he accused of the affectation of archaism, (Sueton. de Clar. Gramm. 10); of Livy, whom he charged with provincialism. (Pativinitas. Quint. Inst. Orat. viii. 1. § 3); and of Cæsar, to whom he imputed misrepresentation and carelessness in his Commentaries. Yet his own style, according to the opinions of ancient critics, although he had much invention, and even an excess of art, was harsh and unmusical, and the imitation of Attic cadences deprived his language of the breadth and fulness of the greater Roman orators. Quintilian, (Inst. Orat. x. 1, § 123,) and the author of the Dialogue de Caus. Corrupt. Eloquent. 21, say that Asinius seemed to have studied among the Menenii and the Appii, and that there

was a century between his diction and that of Cicero. His works have entirely perished: they consisted of tragedies, in which the ancients commend his lofty and sonorous style; of poems, epigrams, and a history of the civil wars of Pompey and Cæsar, in sixteen books, which Seneca, Suasoria, 7, commends, while he complains of its unfairness to Cicero; and of Orations, and Declamations. For Pollio was among the first to transfer the practice of recitation from poems and histories to eloquence and philosophy; and therein became a principal corrupter of the taste and language of Rome. But his most useful and enduring work was the public library on the Aventine, built on the site of the hall contiguous to the temple of Liberty. (Suet. Aug. 29. Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 30; xxxv. 2. Ovid. Trist. iii. 71.) It was adorned with busts and statues of illustrious writers, and was probably erected with a portion of the wealth acquired in his Dalmatic campaign. Nothing is recorded that leaves a stain or a suspicion on the moral character of Asinius Pollio. His life is elaborately written and examined in all its relations by J. R. Thorbecke; (Comment. de Asinii Pollionis Vita et Studiis Doctrinæ. Ludg. Bat. 1820.) Nor can any thing be added to the completeness and candour of his inquiries.

ASINIUS (C. Gallus Saloninus,) probably the eldest son of Asinius Pollio. He was born in 40 B. C., while his father was Antony's lieutenant in Cisalpine Gaul; hence his surname Gallus. The capture of Salona in 39, (see ASINIUS POLLIO,) procured him the further appellation of Saloninus. Saloninus, however, is never found on coins, and seldom in authors. (See Tacit. Ann. 3, 75, and Lipsius' note.) He is supposed, but with little likelihood, to have been the son of Pollio, whose expected birth Virgil celebrates in his fourth eclogue. According to the coins, Asinius Gallus was a commissioner of the mint, triumvir monetalis, under Augustus. (Eckhel. D. V. N. v. p. 144.) He was consul in 8 A. D., the year in which Horace and Maecenas died. From a coin of the Temnites at Eolis, it is probable that Asinius was proconsul of Asia Minor. (Eckhel. xvi. ii. p. 499.) In Augustus he lost his protector. To the hatred which Tiberius entertained for him as the husband of Vipsania Agrippina, was added a jealousy of the ambitious temper of Asinius. In some confidential moments, Augustus had named him as one of three sena

tors, who might aspire to the impertai dignity. The conduct and demeanour of Asinius increased these feelings; since it fluctuated between unseasonable bluntness, and suspicious servility. He was not, however, apprehended until 30 a. D. Tiberius had invited him to Capreæ, and written to the senate to have him arrested. The prætor, sent to execute this sentence, found Asinius at table with the emperor. He was assured by Tiberius that he should remain in confinement only until himself could hear his accusers at Rome, and he never returned to the capital. Asinius was soon placed in a solitary cell, carefully watched from effecting his own destruction, and compelled to take such food, as, without satisfying hunger, would preserve life. In this miserable state he remained until death relieved him, in 33 A. D. He was allowed a burial. (See Tacit. Ann. 6, 23. Dio. 58, 3.) He left a numerous family by Vipsania; three of the sons attained to the rank of consulars. But he had further excited the hatred of Tiberius, by pretending that Drusus Nero the younger, was really the son of Vipsania and himself, before she was divorced from her first husband. Asinius Gallus published a treatise, in which he contrasted his father and M. Cicero, and gave the preference to the eloquence of the former. (See Plin. vii. 4. Quintil. xii. 1. §. 22.) The emperor Claudius thought it worthy a reply in defence of Cicero. (Sueton. in Claud. 41. A. Gellius. 17, 1.) Asinius was also the author of some epigrams. (Plin. 1. c. and Burman's Anthol. Latin. 11, ep. 241. and Eckhard De Asin. Pollion. Comm. § 6921. p. 31.)

ASIOLI, (Bonifazio,) a composer, was born at Correggio, about the year 1769. In 1796, or soon after, he came to London, remained some time, and then returned to Milan, and was appointed chapel master to the then king of Italy. In 1808 a new conservatory was established at Naples, to the direction of which he was appointed by the king. Gerber gives a full list of his works, amongst which are six Italian duets, 1796; and six Italian airs, in the style of canzonets, published in London, besides many published elsewhere. Others of his vocal works were published by Birchall in London, which evince a taste in melody equal to that of any modern Italian composer. He never attempted the more severe order of composition. He died in Italy, on the 26th May, 1832. (Dict. of Mus.)

ASJEDI, one of the more ancient poets of what is termed the new Persian school, a native of Meru, and a pupil of Ustâd Anszari. He lived at the court of the sultan Mahmud Sebektegin, whose campaign in India he has commemorated in his verses. His poems were considered even by his contemporaries to be very superior. (Ersch und Grüber, Encycl. Dewlitschah and Hammer. Gesch. der schön. Redekunst. Pers.)

ASKE, (James,) deserves record as the author of a heroic poem in blank verse, published eighty years before the time of Milton. It is called Elizabetha Triumphans, and was written in commemoration of the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, in which year it came out in 4to. It was inserted by Dr. Percy in the volume of Blank Verse anterior to Milton, of which it is said that only four copies escaped the fire at the printer's; but the bishop omitted the prefatory matter, respecting, among other points, the number of ballads and tracts, in prose and verse, printed at the same date, and on the same event as that which Aske celebrates. It is to be found complete in Nichols's Progresses of Queen Elizabeth. Whether Aske wrote any thing else is uncertain, but he tells us in his preface that he was "a young versifyer," and in the dedication he calls his work "the first fruit" of his "barren wit." He adds that it was begun and finished very near within the space of a whole month;" which might very well be the case, as the poem only occupies thirty-five pages. Of Aske's personal history nothing has come down to us, beyond the fact that he was countenanced by Sir Julius (then doctor) Cæsar, chief judge of the admiralty court, and that he held some place under his patron. John Aske was "created" M. A. in 1594, (Wood's Fasti Oxon. i. 268, edit. Bliss.,) but no such person as James Aske is any where recorded.

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ASKERI, the surname of Ali, the tenth, and of his son Hassan, the eleventh of the Shiite imaums, in whom that sect of Moslems hold the indefeasible right to the khalifate to be vested in virtue of their descent from Ali Ebn Abu Taleb. The appellation of Askeri is said by D'Herbelot to have been derived from a town of Susiana called Asker: but Abul-Feda says that this was only another name for Samarra, where several of the Abbasside khalifs resided; and these heads of the Fatimite family were apparently detained under surveillance. 257

VOL. II.

Ali, the elder of the two, who died A. D. 867, A. H. 254, was a celebrated saint among those of his own sect, and is distinguished among the Persians by the titles of "the pure," and "the guide to truth." Abul-Feda relates that he was once seized on a false charge of conspiracy, and brought before the khalif Motawakel, who was a cruel enemy of the Fatimites; but the piety and austerity of his demeanour disarmed the tyrant, and he was dismissed with honour and gifts. His son Hassan, who only survived his father six years, and was buried in the same tomb with him at Samarra, is generally designated by oriental writers simply as Al-Askeri, without any of the laudatory epithets with which the remainder of the twelve imaums are usually adorned: he was father of the twelfth and last imaum, Mohammed, surnamed Montazer, or the Expected, whose re-appearance, under the title of Mahadi, will be, according to Moslem belief, one of the signs of the end of the world. (Abul-Feda. D'Herbelot.)

Askeri is also said by D'Herbelot to have been a surname of Mohammed Ibn Abil-Sorour Al-Mesri, who wrote a work on the lives of the khalifs and other princes, which was then in the royal library of Paris, No. 1227.

ASKEW, (Anne,) so we write her name, though the name of the family to which she belongs is usually written Ascough, or Ayscough, as she was the daughter of Sir William Ascough, of Kelsey, in the county of Lincoln, of an ancient family at that place. This lady has obtained a place in most catalogues of those who have been eminent in their day, by the few devotional writings which she left behind; but more by her heroic endurance of those extreme sufferings to which her constancy in the profession of the reformed religion exposed her. It was her fortune to find in the writers of her own and the following age, those who highly extolled her as an example of almost unparalleled virtue; and, on the other hand, those who did what could be done to deface the beauty of her character and conduct. We shall endeavour to state the facts of her life as they are to be collected from the writers of those times, especially Bale, Fox, and Sanders; using for the purpose, the abstract of their accounts as given by Fuller in his Church History, book v. p. 242, and the additions made to it by Ballard.

It seems to be admitted by all, that

S