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 Americans and the Jesuits have missionary schools for the Armenian population. Amasia has extensive orchards and fruit gardens still, as in Ibn Batuta’s time, irrigated by water wheels turned by the current of the river; and there are steam flourmills. Wheat, flour and silk are exported.

Ancient Amasia has left little trace of itself except on the castle rock, on the left of the river, where the acropolis walls and a number of splendid rock-cut tombs, described by Strabo as those of the kings of Pontus, can be seen. The cliff is cut away all round these immense sepulchres so that they stand free. The finest, known from its polished surfaces as the “Mirror Tomb,” is about 2 m. from the modern city. Amasia rose into historical importance after the time of Alexander as the cradle of the power of Pontus; but the last king to reign there was the father of Mithradates Eupator “The Great.” The latter, however, made it the base of his operations against the Romans in 89, 72 and 67 Pompey made it a free city in 65, after Mithradates’ fall. It was the birthplace of Strabo.

AMASIS, or (the Greek forms of the Egyptian name Ahmase, Ahmosi, “the moon is born,” often written Aahmes or Ahmes in modern works), the name of two kings of ancient Egypt.

I., the founder of the XVIIIth dynasty, is famous for his successful wars against the Hyksos princes who still ruled in the north-east of the Delta (see : History, sect. 1.)

II. was the last great ruler of Egypt before the Persian conquest, 570–526 Most of our information about him is derived from Herodotus (ii. 161 et seq.) and can only be imperfectly controlled by monumental evidence. According to the Greek historian he was of mean origin. A revolt of the native soldiers gave him his opportunity. These troops, returning home from a disastrous expedition to Cyrene, suspected that they had been betrayed in order that Apries, the reigning king, might rule more absolutely by means of his mercenaries, and their friends in Egypt fully sympathized with them. Amasis, sent to meet them and quell the revolt, was proclaimed king by the rebels, and Apries, who had now to rely entirely on his mercenaries, was defeated and taken prisoner in the ensuing conflict at Momemphis; the usurper treated the captive prince with great lenity, but was eventually persuaded to give him up to the people, by whom he was strangled and buried in his ancestral tomb at Sais. An inscription confirms the fact of the struggle between the native and the foreign soldiery, and proves that Apries was killed and honourably buried in the 3rd year of Amasis. Although Amasis thus appears first as champion of the disparaged native, he had the good sense to cultivate the friendship of the Greek world, and brought Egypt into closer touch with it than ever before. Herodotus relates that under his prudent administration Egypt reached the highest pitch of prosperity; he adorned the temples of Lower Egypt especially with splendid monolithic shrines and other monuments (his activity here is proved by remains still existing). To the Greeks Amasis assigned the commercial colony of Naucratis on the Canopic branch of the Nile, and when the temple of Delphi was burnt he contributed 1000 talents to the rebuilding. He also married a Greek princess named Ladice, the daughter of Battus, king of Cyrene, and he made alliances with Polycrates of Samos and Croesus of Lydia. His kingdom consisted probably of Egypt only, as far as the First Cataract, but to this he added Cyprus, and his influence was great in Cyrene. At the beginning of his long reign, before the death of Apries, he appears to have sustained an attack by Nebuchadrezzar (568 ). Cyrus left Egypt unmolested; but the last years of Amasis were disturbed by the threatened invasion of Cambyses and by the rupture of the alliance with Polycrates of Samos. The blow fell upon his son Psammetichus III., whom the Persian deprived of his kingdom after a reign of only six months.

AMATEUR (Lat. amator, lover), a person who takes part in any art, craft, game or sport for the sake of the pleasure afforded by the occupation itself and not for pecuniary gain. Being thus a person for whom the pursuit in question is a recreation and not a business, and who therefore presumably devotes to it a portion only of his leisure and not his working hours, the average amateur possesses less skill than the average professional, whose livelihood and reputation depend on his proficiency, and who therefore concentrates all his energies on the task of attaining the greatest possible mastery in his chosen career. In the arts, such as music, painting and the drama, the best amateurs are outdistanced as executants not merely by the best professionals but by professionals far below the highest rank; and although the inferiority of the amateur is not perhaps so pronounced or so universal in the case of games and outdoor sports, the records of such pastimes as horse-racing, boxing, rowing, billiards, tennis and golf prove that here also the same contrast is generally to be found. Hence it has come about that the term “amateur”, and more especially the adjectival derivative “amateurish,” has acquired a secondary meaning, usually employed somewhat contemptuously, signifying inefficiency, unskilfulness, superficial knowledge or training.

The immense increase in popularity of athletic contests and games of all kinds in modern times, and especially the keen competition for “records” and championships, often of an international character, have made it a matter of importance to arrive at a clear and formal definition of the amateur as distinguished from the professional. The simple, straightforward definition of the amateur given above has been proved to be easily evaded. Many leading cricketers, for example, preserve their amateur status who, although they are not paid wages for each match they play like their professional colleagues, are provided with an annual income by their county or club under the guise of salary for performing the duties of “secretary” or some other office, leaving them free to play the game six days a week. Similarly, “gentlemen riders” are often presented with a cash payment described as a bet, or under some other pretext. Nor is the dividing-line between “out-of-pocket expenses” allowed to the amateur and the remuneration payable to the professional always strictly drawn. The various associations controlling the different branches of sport have therefore devised working regulations to be observed so far as their jurisdiction extends. Thus the Amateur Athletic Association of Great Britain defines an amateur as “one who has never competed for a money prize or staked bet, or with or against a professional for any prize, or who has never taught, pursued or assisted in the practice of athletic exercises as a means of obtaining a livelihood.” The rules of the Amateur Rowing Association are stricter, denying amateur status to anyone who has ever steered or rowed in a race with a professional for any prize, or who is or has been by trade or employment for wages a mechanic, artisan or labourer, or engaged in any menial duty, besides insisting upon the usual restrictions in regard to taking money and competing with professionals. In association football the rules are much more lax, for although amateurs are clearly distinguished from professionals, an amateur may even become a regular member, though unsalaried, of a professional team without losing his amateur status. The Rugby game was, up to 1895, entirely controlled by the Rugby Football Union, which, by the strictness of its laws, effectually prevented the growth of professionalism, but there had been much dissatisfaction in the provinces with the Union’s decision against reimbursing day-working players for “broken time,” i.e. for that part of their wages which they lost by playing on working days, and this resulted in the formation (1895) of the Northern Union, which permits remuneration for “broken time,” but allows no person who works for his living to play football unless regularly employed at his particular trade.

In America the amateur question is less complicated than in Great Britain; but the intensely business-like character of American ideas of sport has encouraged the modern spirit of professionalism. All important sports in America, except baseball, football, cricket, golf and rowing, are, however, under the control of the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States,