ARZIGNA NO, a t. of north Italy, 11 m. w. by s. from Vicenza, in a plain surrounded by hills. It manufactures woolens, leather, and silk twist. Pop. '71, 2706.
AS was the designation both of a Roman weight (called also libru) corresponding very nearly to an English pound (q.v.), and also of a coin made of the mixed metal or bronze. The A. (coin) originally no doubt weighed a (Homan) pound; but it was gradn ally reduced to via of a pound. and even lower. It is this difficult to assign any fixed value to the A. About 270 n.c., the denarius (= 8i-d.) contained 10 ases; so that the value of the A. was then a little more than 3 farthings; when 16 ases went to the den arious, the value was about a halfpenny. It was by the sestertiux (q.v.) that money was reckoned at Home. The oldest form of A. usually bore the figure of an ox. a sheep, or other domestic animal (peens); from which it is usually supposed that the Latin word for money, petunia, is derived.
A'SA, son of Abijah, and grandson of Ilehoboam, was the third king of Judah. At the beginning of his reign, he was very young, and his character apparently undevel oped, for he allowed his grandmother, Maachah, to encourage idolatry • but on assuming the reins of government, one of his earliest acts was to remove her from all authority "because she had made an idol in a grove" (1 Kings, xv. 13; 2 Citron. xv. 16). His zealous efforts to extirpate the vices and impieties of the people were on the whole suc cessful. lie took away the Sodomites out of the land, and the altars of the strange gods, broke the images, and cut down the groves. For the next ten years, he devoted
himself to strengthening the defenses of his kingdom, and organized a magnificent army of more than half a million, which seems to have been looked upon as a menace by other monarchs, for one of these, Zerah the Cushite, took the initiative, and penetrating through Arabia Petrer, invaded Judah, but was defeated with immense slaughter. Before the battle commenced, A. had invoked the aid of Jehovah; and some time after the victory, he and all his people entered into a solemn covenant " to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul" (2 Citron. xv. 12). Peace lasted for twenty years in the kingdom, but in the 35th year of A.'s reign, war again broke out between him and autslia, king of Israel. He sought and obtained the aid of the Syrian monarch, Benhadad. but at the expense of "the treasures of the house of the Lord;" and although successful against his adversary, lie was indignantly upbraided and threatened by the prophet Hanani for not relying on Jehovah alone. A., flushed with success, threw the prophet into prison, and, it would appear, "in his rage" op pressed some of the people at the same time—perhaps those only who sided with Hanani. for we know that at his death the nation honored him with a splendid funeral; and the sacred historian pays the highest tribute to his memory, declaring that " A.'s heart was perfect with the Lord all his days." lie reigned from 955 to 914 B.C. ‘,