a very ancient maritime town of Africa, in the kingdom of Fez. Alphonso king of Portugal took it by assault, and brought away the presumptive heir of the crown. After that prince came to the throne, he besieged it, in 1508, with 100,000 men; but was obliged to abandon the undertaking. However, at length the Portuguese forsook it of their own accord. W. Long. 5. 30. N. Lat. 35. 30.

in antiquity, a particular weight, consisting of 12 ounces; being the same with libra, or the Roman pound. The word is derived from the Greek ασ, which in the Doric dialect is used for ασ, q. d. an entire thing; though others will have it named ασ quafi ασ, because made of brass.

As was also the name of a Roman coin, which was of different weights and different matter in different ages of the commonwealth.—Under Numa Pompilius, according to Eusebius, the Roman money was either of wood, leather, or shells. In the time of Tullus Hostilius, it was of brass; and called ασ, libra, libella, or pondo, because actually weighing a pound or 12 ounces. Four hundred and twenty years after, the first Punic war having exhausted the treasury, they reduced the ασ to two ounces. In the second Punic war, Hannibal pressing very hard upon them, they reduced the ασ to half its weight, viz. to one ounce. And lastly, by the Papirian law, they took away half an ounce more, and consequently reduced the ασ to the diminutive weight of half an ounce; and it is generally thought that it continued the same during the commonwealth, and even till the reign of Vespasian. The ασ therefore was of four different weights in the commonwealth. Its original stamp was that of a sheep, ox, or fow; but from the time of the emperors, it had on one side a Janus with two faces, and on the reverse the rostrum or prow of a ship.

As was also used to denote any integer or whole. Whence the English word ace.—Thus ασ signified the whole inheritance; whence heres ex ace, the heir to the whole estate.