Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/165

Rh Among his disciples are mentioned Longinus, Herennius, Plotinus (Amni. Marcel), xxii.), both Origens, and St. Herachis. He died 243, at the age of more than 80 years. A life of Aristotle, prefixed to the Commentary of his namesake on the Categories, has been ascribed to him, but it is probably the work of John Philoponus. The Pagan disciples of Ammonius held a kind of philosophical theology. Faith was derived by inward perception; God was threefold in essence, intelligence, (viz. in knowledge of himself) and power (viz, in activity), the two latter notions being inferior to the first; the care of the world was entrusted to gods of an inferior race, below those again were daemons, good and bad; an ascetic life and theurgy led to the knowledge of the Infinite, who was worshipped by the vulgar, only in their national deities. The Alexandrian physics and psychology were in accordance with these principles. If we are to consider him a Christian, he was, besides his philosophy (which would, of course, then be represented by Origen, and not by the pagan Alexandrian school as above described) noted for his writings (Euseb. H. E. vi. iii), especially on the Scriptures. (Enseb. ''Epist. ad Caspian. à Gallandi's Bibl. Patr. vol. ii.) He composed a Diatessuron, or Harmony of the Gospels'', which exists in the Latin version of Victor, bishop of Capua (in the 6th cent., who wrongly ascribed it to Tatian) and of Luscinius. (See ''Monumenta Patr. Ortkoilodoyrapha'', i. pt. 2, per Grynaeiim, pp. 661-747, fol., Basil, 1569; E Graeco versa per ''Ottomar. Luscinium.'' Aug. Vind. 4to., 1523; and in German, Augsb., 8vo., 1524; the version of Victor, Mogunt., 8vo., 1524; Colon., 8vo., 1532; in Reg-Imp. et Consist. Monast. B. M. V. de Salem, 8vo., 1774; ''Biblioth. Patr.'' à Galland., vol. ii. p. 531, Venet., 1766 ; where vid. Prolegom.) Besides the Harmony, Ammonius wrote De Consensu Moysis et Jesu (Euseb. H. E. vi. 19), which is praised bv St. Jerome ( Vir. Illustr. § 55), but is lost.

[A. J. C]

AMNISI'ADES ( or ), the nymphs of the river Amnisus in Crete, who aie mentioned in connexion with the worship of Artemis there. (Callim. Hymn, in Dian. 15, 162; Apollon. Rhod. iii. 881.)

[L. S.]

AMOME'TUS, a Greek writer of uncertain date, who wrote a work on the people called Attaci (Plin. H. N. vi. 17. s, 20), and another entitled. (Antigon. Caryst. Hist. Mir. c. 164; comp. Aelian, V. H. xvii. 6.) We ought probably to read instead of in Schol. ad Apoll. iii. 179, and Eudoc. Viol. p. 248.

AMOMPIIA'RETUS, commander of the Pitanatan lochus in the Spartan army, who refused to march previously to the battle of Plataea ( 479) to a part of the plain near the city, as Paueanias ordered, because he thought that such a movement was equivalent to a flight. He at length changed his mind when he had been left by the other part of the army, and set out to join Pausanias. He fell in the battle which followed, after distinguishing himself by his bravery, and was buried among the Irenes. (Herod, ix. 53—57, 71, 85; Plut. Aristid. 17.) As to the meaning of the last word see ''Dict, of Ant. s. v., and Thirlwall, Hist. of Greece'', ii. p. 350.

AMOR, the god of love and harmony. He had no place in the religion of the Romans, who know and speak of him only from what they had heard from the Greeks, and translate the Greek name Eros into Amor. [Eros.]

[L. S.]

AMORAEUS, king of the Derbicae, in a war against whom, according to Ctesias (Persic, c. 6, ed. Lion), Cyrus, the first king of Persia, fell.

AMORGES. 1. A king of the Sacae, according to Ctesias, whom Cyrus, king of Persia, conquered in battle, but afterwards re- leased, when he himself was vanquished and taken prisoner by Spamithra, the wife of Amorges. Ctesias represents Amorges as subsequently one of the firmest allies of Cyrus. (Persic. cc. 3, 4, 7, 8, ed. Lion.)

2, A Persian commander, killed in Caria, in the revolt of the province, B. c. 498. (Herod, v. 121.)

3. The bastard son of Pissuthus, who revolted in Caria about b. c. 413. The Peloponnesians assisted Tissaphernes in putting down this revolt, and took lasus, b. c. 412, which was held by Amorges. The latter fell into their hands on the capture of the place, and was surrendered by them to Tissaphernes. (Thuc. viii. 5, 19, 28, 54.)

AMPE'LIUS. We possess a short tract bearing the title Lucii Ampelii Liber Memorialis. It was first made known by Salmasius, in 1638, from a MS. in the library of Juretus, and subsequent editors following his example have generally appended it to editions of Florus. "We conclude from internal evidence (cc. 29, 47), that it must have been composed after the reign of Trajan, and before the final division of the Roman empire. Himerius, Ammianus Marcellinus, and Symmachus make frequent mention of an Ampelius, who enjoyed the high dignities of magister officiorum, proconsul and praefectus urbi under Valentinian and his immediate successors, and the name occurs in connexion with thirteen laws of the Theodosian code. Sidonius Apollinaris also (ix. 301) commemorates the learning of an Ampelius, but we nowhere find any allusion which would enable us to establish a connexion between the person or persons spoken of by these writers and the compiler of the Liber [Memorialis. On the contrary Glaser has adduced reasons (in Rheinisches Museum for 1842, p. 145), which render it probable that the author of the Liber Memorialis lived at an earlier time than the above-mentioned persons. It is stated in c. 18 of this book, " Sulla primus invasit imperium, solusque deposuit." Now as Diocletian and Maximianus resigned the government in 305, and this event is spoken of by all the historians who treat of that period, the Liber Memorialis would seem to have been composed at least before that year.

This work, which is dedicated to a certain Macrinus or Marinus, equally unknown with the author himself, is a sort of common-place-book, containing within a short compass a condensed and meagre summary, collected from various sources, of the most striking objects and phaenomena of the material universe and the most remarkable events in the history of the world, the whole classified systematically under proper heads, and divided into fifty chapters. It is of little value in any point of view. Nearly all the facts recorded are to be found elsewhere in a more detailed and satisfactory form, and truth is so blended with false-