'AST : 



A*tnria. the monastery of St Peter Villanosa, said to oc- 



' f~ ' cupy the site of a palace belonging to Alphonso I. 



the son of Favila, prince of Oviedo. Here there is 

 a Gothic arcade, exhibiting proofs of great antiquity, 

 which is reputed to have been the entrance to the 

 chapel of the palace. At the gate of the church are 

 sculptured the tragical incidents attending the death 

 of the prince Favila, who while hunting was torn to 

 pieces by a wild boar, in 738. Roman antiquities 

 have been found near Gijon. 

 History. In regard to the history of the Asturias, it appears 



that the Romans made ineffectual attempts to subdue 

 them. Florus describes a great body of Asturians 

 descending from the mountains, and boldly attacking 

 the Roman camp. The engagement was long and 

 bloody, and the victory uncertain. When the Moors 

 struggled for the conquest of Spain, and gained a 

 decisive battle at Xeres de la Frontera, in 711, the 

 Asturians received Pelayo and the other Christians, 

 who escaped the force of their arms. The Moors 

 found an impenetrable barrier v\ the mountains sur- 

 rounding this province. Their cavalry, which con- 

 tributed so much to their successes in the low coun- 

 tries, was of little use ; and after being exposed to 

 various attacks from the Asturians, they judged it 

 expedient to retreat to a distance from the mountains. 

 Pelayo, protected by their fastnesses, here laid the 

 foundation of the Spanish monarchy ; his posterity 

 waged constant war with the Moors, but it was only 

 after a contest of several successive centuries, that 

 they were able to effect their expulsion. From that 

 cera the Asturians derived those privileges of nobility 

 which they still retain : the inhabitants of Anseua 

 are distinguished from the rest of their countrymen, 

 by the title of Illustrious Mountaineers. The two 

 provinces of Asturias were erected into a principality, 

 and the oldest son of the Catholic king, under the 

 late dynasty, has from, the year 1388 bore the title 

 of Prince of Asturias. 

 Character The character of the Asturians seems formed, in a 

 of the peo- great measure, from local circumstances. Extreme 

 J'' e- simplicity of dress and manners prevail : the women 



use no artificial decorations, trusting only to what na- 

 ture has bestowed. The people are distinguished for 

 honour, probity, and candour ; every thing bespeaks 

 their remoteness from the more sociable and civilized 

 districts of the kingdom : they are warmly attached 

 to their country, faithful to their rulers, and passive 

 to the laws. They are zealous, perhaps it may be 

 affirmed superstitious, in matters of religion ; and in- 

 herit a degree of courage frequently the characteris- 

 tic of mountaineers. Dishonesty is said to be quite 

 unknown among them. Yet notwithstanding such qua- 

 lifications, they are accused of dullness, and the want 

 of vivacity, which we may probably ascribe to the 

 interrupted intercourse subsisting between those who 

 dwell in wild and uncultivated regions. However, 

 they should probably prize their situation, though 

 the source of so many disadvantages, as it removes 

 them from the impression of those convulsions to 

 which a province more populous, civilized, and ac- 

 cessible, would be exposed. 



The state of the sciences is at the lowest ebb in 

 the Asturias : medicine in particular, as now prac- 

 tised, is less calculated to effect a cure than to en- 



I A T II 



danger life. Hence a modern author, in speaking of Astyages 

 the frequency of palsy, observes, " The physician . II 

 has such a dread of palsy, that he bleeds his patient , 

 into a dropsy-, or leaves him to languish between life 

 and death, a prey to the most gloomy of all diseases 

 to which humanity is subject." See Bourgoing 

 Tableau de I'Espagne Moderne, torn. 2. p. 162. 

 Townsend's Trax-els in Spain, vol. i. ii. Laborde's 

 View of Spain, vol. ii. Bleau's Atlas, torn. 3. Ma- 

 riana Historia de Espana. (c) 



ASTYAGES, the last king of Media. See He- 

 rodotus, lib. i. cap. 74, 75 ; Pausanias, lib. v. cap. , 

 10; Justin, lib. v. cap. 4 ; and Univers. Hist. vol. v. 

 p. 40, 47, note (C) ; 170, (B), &c. See also Media 

 and Persia, (to) 



ASTYANAX, the son of Hector and Andro- 

 mache, who was saved by his mother from the flames 

 of Troy. His superiority to Hector having been 

 predicted by one of the soothsayers, the Greeks ale 

 said to have determined his destruction, and Ulysses 

 to have precipitated him from the Trojan walls. See 

 the Iliad, lib. vi. v. 400, lib. xxii. v. 500. ; the 

 JEneid, lib. ii. v. 457. lib. iii. v. 489 ; and Ovid's 

 Metamorpk. xiii. v. 415. (o) 



ASYLUM, from the Greek ccrvXor, sanctuary, 

 or place of refuge. See Sanctuary, where this 

 subject will be discussed at some length. (;') 



ASYMPTOTE, is a line which, being indefinitely 

 produced, continually approaches another line also 

 indefinitely produced, so that the two lines never 

 meet, though their distance may be less than any 

 assignable magnitude. See Conic Sections and 

 Curves, (o) 



ATAHUALPA, one of the kings of Quito. 

 See Robertson's History of America, vol. iii. p. 29; 

 and Quito. (u>) 



ATALANTIS. See Atlantis. 



ATE, from t, the same as the goddess of dis- 

 cord among the Latins. She was regarded as the 

 daughter of Jupiter, and the author of all evil. She 

 raised such commotions in heaven, that Jupiter drag- 

 ged her away by the hair, and threw her headlong to 

 the earth. See the Iliad, lib. xix. v. 125. (J) 



ATERGATIS, Ai'ARGATis, or Derceto, one 

 of the goddesses of the Syrians, whom they repre- 

 sented like a mermaid,'Srith the head and chest of a 

 woman, but with the rest of the body like a fish. 

 According to some, she was the Babylonian and As- 

 syrian Venus, and, like the Astarte of the Pheni- 

 cians, had her origin from Semiramis, the foundress 

 of Babylon. See Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 748. ; Pliny's 

 Nat. Hist. lib. v. cap. 23. ; Macrobius' Saturnalia, 

 lib. i. cap. 23. ; Manilius' Ash-on. iv. ; and Bryant's 

 Ancient Mijthol. vol. ii. p. 298. (to) 



ATHABASCA, the name of a territory, lake, 

 and river, in North America. The inhabitants of 

 this territory carried their furs to Fort-Churchill, 

 Hudson's Bay, till the year 1782; but, since that 

 time, their trading establishment has been on the 

 north side of the river La Pluie, where the inhabi- 

 tants of Montreal repair to exchange their commodi- 

 ties. See Mackenzie's Voyages, Introd. p. 56, &c. 



ATHAMANES, the name of an ancient people 

 who inhabited Athamania, in Epirus. They seem 



