AS

AS,among Antiquaries, has two different Significations. 1° It signifies a Weight; and in this Sense the Roman As is the same with the Roman Libra; or Pound. See Weight, Libra, Pound, &c. The As had several Divisions.—The principal were, the Uncia, or Ounce; which was the twelfth Part of the As; Sextans, the sixth Part of the As, or two Ounces; Quadrans, the fourth Part of the As, or three Ounces; Triens, the third Part of the As, which was four Ounces; Quincunx was five Ounces; Semis, half the As, that is six Ounces; Septunx, seven Ounces; Bes, two Thirds of the As, or eight Ounces; Dodrans, three Fourths of the As, or nine Ounces; Dextans, ten Ounces; Deunx, eleven Ounces. See OUNCE, UNCIA, QUADRANS, etc. Hence, also, the Word As came to signify a whole or entire Thing, or the Totality of any Thing; in which Sense it was used, principally, in Matters of Succession, and signified the whole Succession, or Inheritance. Thus, to inherit ab as, was to inherit all his Estate, to be his sole Legatee, his only Heir; and thus, to inherit, ex triente, ex semisse, ex besse, was to inherit a Third, a Half, or two Thirds of the Estate. 2° As was also the Name of a Roman Coin. See COIN. Under Numa Pompilius, according to Eusebius, the As was either of Wood, Leather, or Shell.—In the Time of Tullus Hostilius, it was Brass, and was called As, Libra, or Pound. —Four hundred and twenty Years after, the first Punic War having exhausted the Treasury, they retrenched a Sextans of two Ounces, and thenceforward only made it of the Weight of a Dextans, or ten Ounces.— After this they took away another Ounce, and reduced the As to a Dodrans, or nine Ounces.—Lastly, by the Papirian Law, they took away an Ounce and half more, and reduced the As to a Septunx and Semuncia: And ’tis generally thought that it rested here all the Time of the Commonwealth, See Money. This last was called the Papirian As, in regard the Law just mentioned was passed in the Year of Rome 563, by C. Papirius Carbo, then Tribune of the People. Thus there were four different As's in the Time of the Commonwealth. The Figure which the As bore, was a Janus with two Faces on the one Side, and the Rostrum or Prow of a Ship on the other Side. The Word is derived from the Greek αἷς, which, in the Doric Dialect, is used for εἷς, one, i.e., an entire Thing; as above noted. Goodwin will have it named As, quasi Axis, because made of ads at rate nine Books De ejus partibus, of the As and its Parts.