Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/134

 lis AMASTRA. like Uh ]MtT, bat ia built of mawmrj ibora gnmid, jet eqmill; well cdiicciIhL'' Tbe tombs of the kings in beloir the dtadel to the Knlh, five in nainber, tbree tolhe mat, uid two to the cut. Tho Neep ftce rf the rock hu b«a ■Hifidallf imaathed. " Under the tfaiee niuUn lambs .... we cmsidenble nmains of the old Greek walla, ind ■ iqnue lows bnilt in the beet Helleuii; rtjls.'' These willi am (bo be traced np the hill towirdi the west, and an etidentl; thoee descnbed hj Strabo, ai fomung; the peribolns or en- cloanre within which wen the rofal tomba. (Ha- milton.) The front wall of an old medresaeh at chitrarea, and on Ibne long sttraes which funn the sides and aidiiCraTe of the entrance there an frag- nwots of Greek inuriptioiis deep cnt in large ietteis. Hamilton does not mention a temple which is apokea of bj one IraTeller of little credit. llie ttoTltorj of Amaaia was well wooded, and adapted for breeding hrvsee and other apimali ; uid the whole of it wae well etuted for the haintation of man. A yaHey eitends from the river, not tetj wide at firat, bnt it (fterwaida grows irider, and Sdnat the plain which Stnin («I1a Chiliocomoo, and this was sooeeeded by the districts of Diacopene and FimoHsene, all of wluch is fertile as far as the HalTS. Theee were the Dortbem parts of the tenitorf, and extended 500 atadin in length. The sonthem por- tiQQ was much larger, and extended to Baboiice:Doa and Xlmene, whirh district also lesched to the Hatjs. Its width from north to sooth reached to Zelitis and tbeOreat Cappwlocia as liiriu the TrocmL In yimiMiii rock salt was dug. Harailtan procured at Ama»a a mob of Pimolisa, a place from which the district Puodtisene look its name, in a beantifal state of pnoDTVation. The modeiu town stands on both odesof theriier; it has 3970 houses, all mean; it prodnces eiKne silk. {London Gtog. Jour. vol. tp.M!.) [G.L.] AMASTRA. [Amevtratus.] AMASTHIS CAij/unpa : EA. 'AiiaaTpiarii, Amaslrianos: Amatra, or Amaiterah'), a atj of Paphlagcini&, on a small river of the aame name. Amastris oc<:nfded a peninsula, and co otch side of the isthmus was a harbeor (Strab. p. 544): it was SO stadia east of the river Parthenins. The ariginal citj seems to have been called Sesamus or Sesamum, and it is mentioned by Homer (II. ii. 853) in con- jimcIiDn with Cjtoms. Stephuias (i. v.'Aiiainpii') sajs that it wu origiuallj called Cramns; bnt in another plaoe (i. «. Kpittra), when he repeats the Etatement, ha adds, " as it is sud ; bnt vane say that Cromna is a small place id Ihe territory of Ama.itria," which is the troe account The place derived its name Amastris from Amaitria, ths niece of the last Persian Idn^ Darina, who was the wife of Dionjsins, tyrant of Heracleia, and after his death the wife of Lysimachus. Four places, Sesamus, Cytoms, Cromna, also mentioned in the Iliad (u. 855), and Teion or Tioa, were combined by Amas- tris, afler her sejmration from Lysimachus (Hemnon, op. Phot. Cod, ccxxiv.), to form the new commnnity ofAmaatiis. Tdon, says Etrabo, soon detached itself fttm the conrnioniti', but the rest kept together, and Sesamus was the acnpolia of Amastris, From this it appears tbat Amastris was really a confedeiation or nnion ot three places, and that Sesamns was the name of the city on the peninsula. This may ex- plain the lact that Mela (i. 19) mentions Sesamns and Cnxnna u dcies of I^iphlagonia, and does not AUATHUS. mentio)] Amastris. (Camp. Ptm. vi. S.) Thn is a cdn with the epigraph Sesamum. Tfa« of Amaslria have the epgraph AriaaT|Hanir. The tenitoi7 of Ajnaatris prodnced a great psii- tity of boxwood, which grew on Iloont Cytonn. The town was taken by L. LncuDos in Ihe Wthri- dalic war. (Appiaa. Ifibbrid. BS.) The yoonga PHny, when he was goventor of Bithysia aiid Pon- los, deseribei Amastris, in a letter to Tnjao (i.Cj'.f^ 99), as a handsome city, with a reiy long opal 'i place (plates), co OM nde of which extended ihst was called a river, bnt in £ict was a filthy, pettilail, open disin. Pliny obtuied Ibe eiiipenr's permiism to cover over this sewer. On a coin of tlie time i^ Trajan, Amastris has the title Metropc^ ATlATHXra ("A^urfoSt, am: Adj. Amathnsiacns, Ov. Mtt. x. 227.: nr. OU Uimaot), an andeut town on the S- o«st of Cy- prus, celebnted Tor its worship of Aphrodite — who was hence called AjnaOnuia — and tf Kiaai. (Scylax, p. 41; Stnb. p. 683; Psua. ix. 41. § S; Stepb. B. :t.; Tsc. Am. iii. 62; CatulL Ivili. 51; Or. Am. iii. 15. 15.) It was ori^usUy a settlement of the Phoenicians, uid was jio- bably the most andent ef the Phoenician cdouits ia the island, Stephanns oils Amatbns the most andent dty in the island, and Scylax doscribes its inhalntante as antochthonee. Its name is of Pboe- nidan origin, for we find a town rf the same nsmi in Palcatine, (See below.) Amathna appears to have procrved its Oriental customs and character, long after the other Phoenician dtiea in Cypnis had become helleniied. Hen the Tyrian god Melkart, whom the Greeks identified with Heracln, was wor- shipped under his Tyrian name. (Heeych. t. e. HdiH, T^ 'HpolXfn, 'A/mftn^iw.) The Phw- nidaii priesthood of the Cinyradae appears to am long contlnned to eieidse its autliority at AnaUhm. Hence we find that AmMhna, ae an Oriental town, remained Arm to the Persians in the tune cf Da- rius I., while all the other towns in Cyprus n- volted. (Hemd. v. 104, seq.) The territfflj of Amathns was celebrated for its wheat (HippKttx, ap. SOnh. p. 340), and also for Ita mineni pio- dnctiona (Jtcmdan AmaOumta melaUi, Or. MH. I. aao, comp. 531.) Amathos appcnn to have conidsted of two distinct parts : one upon the o«at, where Old ImatfJ now (faods, and the other upon a hili inland, abont 1) mile from Old imoaol, at the rillago of .4ji»o» 7y cAoiKW, where Hammer discovered the ruins rf the temple of Aphrodite. (Hammer, £ate, p. 129; En- gei, Ktfprot^ vd. i. p. 109, seq.; Moven, Dia J^li- naifr, vol. ii. pt. ii. pp. gBl, 240, esq.) A'HATUUS CAfiaBoZi or Ti>^iaM},astniigly fortified city on the east of Ihe Jordan, ia Lower Penda, SI Koman milts south of Pella. (Ensebii OmmaiL) It was destroyed by Alexander Jannaens