a very ancient maritime town of Africa, in the kingdom of Fez, about five leagues from Tangiers. It is built at the mouth of a river, and inhabited by Moors and Jews, who carry on no trade. It was formerly a Roman colony; afterwards fell under the government of the Goths, and was next taken by the Mahometans. Alphonso of Portugal, surnamed the African, took it by assault in 1471, and brought away the presumptive heir of the crown. After that prince came to the throne, he besieged it, in 1503, 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° 50'.
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, one, q. d. an entire thing; though others will have it named as quasi ας, because made of brafs.
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 brafs; and called as, 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 as to two ounces. In the second Punic war, Hannibal pressing very hard upon them, they reduced the as 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 as 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 as therefore was of four different weights in the commonwealth. Its original stamp was that of a sheep, ox, or sow: 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 as signified the whole inheritance; whence heres ex aste, the heir to the whole estate.