ASSURANCE-ASSYNT. the same date had been observed in memory of her death. Liguori, in his Glories of Mary, gives a very minute account of the circumstances of her Assumption. ASSURANCE: see INSURANCE. ASSURANCE, COMмON: described by Blackstone as the legal evidence of the translation of property, whereby every man's estate is assured to him, and all controversies, doubts, and difficulties are either prevented or removed. For common assurances or conveyances, see DEED and CON VEYANCE. ASSURE, v. ǎ-shor' [F. assurer: OF. asseurer, to secure, to prop up-from mid. L. assēcūrārě, to give security by a pledge-from L. ad, to; secu'rus, sure, certain]: to make sure by a token of good faith; to make certain; to give confidence by a promise; to insure, ASSUR'ING, imp. AsSURED', pp. a-shord: ADJ. certain; convinced; boldly confident; in OE., affianced. ASSUREDLY, ad. ă-shổ red li. ASSUR'EDNESS, n. the state of being assured. ASSUR'ER, n. ASSURANCE, n. ă-shổ răns, a declaration to dispel doubt; the utmost certainty; impudence; conviction; a contract to make good a loss by death or by fire, now restricted to life contingencies. SYN. of assure': to assert; vouch; avouch; declare; aver; protest;-of'assurance': impudence; boldness; audacity; hardihood; effrontery; shamelessness; confidence; hope; expectation; trust. ASSURGENT, a. ǎs-ser'jent [L. assurgen'tem, rising up -from ad, to; surgo, I rise]: in bot., rising upwards in a curve. ASSWAGE, v. ǎs-swāj': old spelling of ASSUAGE, which see. AS'SYNT: mountainous, moorish, and very rugged dist. or parish, 25 m. long, 15 broad, in s.w. Sutherlandshire; consisting mostly of a network of rocky heights, interspersed with a multitude (200) of dark, motionless tarns or pools, of various sizes, with some large lochs, the largest Loch Assynt, 64 m. long and 1 broad. The district consists of gneiss, Silurian rocks, and primitive limestone. There are a dozen mountains 2,000-3,273 ft. high. Some of the mountains are covered with white bleached stones and protruding rocks like patches of snow. The mountains have frequently the form of artificial pillars and cairns, and are the remains of an enormous denudation of the nearly horizontal strata of the district. Suilven is in form a sugar-loaf, rising 2,399 ft. above the sea, amid a rugged table-land of lower gneiss hills. To Ardvreck Castle, on a promontory on the east side of Loch A., the great Marquis of Montrose was brought prisoner, 1650. ASSYRIA. ASSYRIA, is-sir'i-ă: (called Athura on Persian cuneiform inscriptions, and Assura on the Median): the northernmost of the three great countries that occupied the Mesopotamian plain; bounded on the n. by the Niphates Mountains of Armenia; on the s. by Susiana and Babylonia; on the e. by Media; and on the w., according to some, by the Tigris, but more correctly by the water-shed of the Euphrates, for many Assyrian ruins are found w. of the Tigris. It was thus about 280 m. long from n. to s., and rather more than 150 broad from e. to W. This plain is diversified by mountain-chains on the n. and e., and watered by the Tigris and its affluents, between two of which-the Zab rivers-lay the finest part of the country, called Adiabené. As it was the boundaryland between the Semitic people and Iran, it became the scene of important political events. Its extraordinary fertility enabled it to support a large population. The high degree of prosperity and civilization reached by its inhabitants in very early times is attested not only by an cient writers, but by the extensive ruins of mighty cities, by the canals and contrivances for irrigation, and by the many proofs-furnished by recent excavations-of an ac quaintance with the arts and sciences. The ruins of many cities are grouped around Nineveh; while lower down the Tigris exhibits an almost unbroken line of ruins from Tekrit to Bagdad. Under the Mohammedans, this fine country is now almost a desert. History.-Ancient authorities differ widely from each other respecting the rise and progress, the extent and the duration of the Assyrian empire. Ctesias, a Greek of Cnidus, court-physician to Artaxerxes Mnemon, is quoted by various ancient writers; and his information, though utterly incredible and fabulous, has been followed by most classical historians, and by the whole series of ecclesiastical writers. Many ingenious but futile attempts have been made to reconcile his history with the Scripture narrative. Berosus, a priest of Bel at Babylon, who wrote about B.C. 268, and Herodotus, differ widely from Ctesias, but are confirmed in many important particulars by the Bible, and by the continually increasing evidence derived from cuneiform inscriptions. In the Bible narrative, we are told that Nineveh was founded by Asshur from Babylon (Gen. x. 11). The latter city therefore must have been the capital of a more ancient empire, ås Berosus asserts, and recent discoveries go far to prove, though Greek writers maintain the reverse. The next notice we have of A. does not occur till B.C. 770, when Pul, king of A. invaded Palestine, but was bought off by Menahem, king of Israel. Tiglath-pileser, who succeeded Pul (B.C. 738), conquered Syria, and carried off many of the Jews into captivity. Next Salmanezer (B.C. 731) subdued Israel, which, at the instigation of the Egyptians, had refused to pay tribute. The next is Sennacherib (B.C. 713), who attacked Egypt, and threatened Judah under Hezekiah. He was slain by his two sons, and succeeded by his son Esarhaddon, who was also master of ASSYRIA. Babylon (2 Chron. xxxiii. 11), which, under Nabonassar, had been independent of Nineveh since B.C. 747. Very little credit is to be attached to the expedition of Holofernes recorded in the book of Judith. After this, the empire appears to have gradually decayed, until at last, in the reign of Sardanapalus II., or Saracus, a league was formed for its destruction between Nabopolassar, governor of Babylon, and Cyaxares, king of Media, which was strengthened by the marriage of Nebuchadnezzar, son of the former, to Nitocris, daughter of the latter. The war and siege are said to have been interrupted by an invasion of the Scythians, which drew off Cyaxares; but at length Nineveh was taken and destroyed about B.C. 606, or, according to Rawlinson, 625. In the time of Darius Hystaspes, A. rebelled without success in conjunction with Media. In the time of Herodotus, the capital had ceased to exist; and when Xenophon passed it, the very name was forgot, though he testifies to the extent of the deserted city, and asserts the height of the ruined walls to be 150 ft. An inconsiderable town seems to have existed on its ruins in the reign of Claudius; and the last notice we have of Nineveh in the classics is in Tacitus. According to the Greek legends, the Assyrian empire was founded by Ninus. To this monarch and his consort Semiramis are ascribed expeditions on an incredibly magnificent scale against Bactria, Ethiopia, and India. We are told that Semiramis led an army of 3,000,000 infantry, 500,000 cavalry, and 100,000 chariots, and a fleet of 2,000 ships, and was encountered by forces more numerous still, and defeated; that she returned to Nineveh, where she soon afterwards died, and was reckoned among the gods, and was succeeded by her son Ninyas, an effeminate prince. The succeeding part of the history as related by Ctesias is equally false, though that writer managed to make the ancient world give credit to his narrative in preference to that of Herodotus. He gives a list of monarchs from Ninus to Sardanapalus, which is now considered a clumsy forgery. According to him, for thirty generations after Ninyas, the kings led a life of luxury and indolence in their palace; the last of them, Sardanapalus, made a vigorous defense against Arbaces, the rebel governor of Media, but finding it impossible to defend Nineveh, he set fire to his palace, and burnt himself with all his treasures; this event took place 1,306 years after Ninus. Now, the above account represents Nineveh to have pérished nearly three centuries before the real date, which was about B.C. 605; also it is utterly incompatible with Scripture. Herodotus assigns to the empire a duration of 520 years, and Berosus of 526. In order to reconcile these conflicting accounts, historians have supposed that Nineveh was twice destroyed, but this supposition is now generally rejected. However, that Nineveh was actually destroyed by fire is proved from the condition of the slabs and statues found in its ruins, which show the action of intense heat. A. became a Median province B.C. 605, and afterwards in conjunction with Babylonia, formed one of the satra |