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 when Nehemiah prepared to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem an Ammonite was foremost in opposition (Neh. ii. 10, 19, iv. 1-3). True to their antecedents, the Ammonites, with some of the neighbouring tribes, did their utmost to resist and check the revival of the Jewish power under Judas Maccabaeus (1 Macc. v. 6; cf. Jos. Ant. Jud. xii. 8. 1.). The last notice of them is in Justin Martyr (Dial. cum Tryph. § 119), where it is affirmed that they were still a numerous people. The few Ammonite names that have been preserved (Nahash, Hanun, and those mentioned above, Zelek in 2 Sam. xxiii. 37 is textually uncertain) testify, in harmony with other considerations, that their language was Semitic, closely allied to Hebrew and to the language of the Moabites. Their national deity was Molech or Milcon. (See .)

AMMONIUS GRAMMATICUS, the supposed author of a treatise entitled  (On the Differences of Synonymous Expressions), of whom nothing is known. He was formerly identified with an Egyptian priest who, after the destruction of the pagan temple at Alexandria (389), fled to Constantinople, where he became the tutor of the ecclesiastical historian Socrates. But it seems more probable that the real author was Herennius Philo of Byblus, who was born during the reign of Nero and lived till the reign of Hadrian, and that the treatise in its present form is a revision prepared by a later Byzantine editor, whose name may have been Ammonius.

AMMONIUS HERMIAE (5th century ), Greek philosopher, the son of Hermias or Hermeias, a fellow-pupil of Proclus. He taught at Alexandria, and had among his scholars Asclepius, John Philoponus, Damascius and Simplicius. His commentaries on Plato and Ptolemy are lost. Those on Aristotle are all that remain of his reputedly numerous writings. Of the commentaries we have—(1) one on the Isagoge of Porphyry (Venice, 1500 fol.); (2) one on the Categories (Venice, 1503 fol.), the authenticity of which is doubted by Brandis; (3) one on the De Interpretatione (Venice, 1503 fol.). They are printed in Brandis’s scholia to Aristotle, forming the fourth volume of the Berlin Aristotle; they are also edited (1891–1899) in A. Busse’s ''Commentaria in Aristot. Graeca''. The special section on fate was published separately by J. C. Orelli, ''Alex. Aphrod., Ammonii, et aliorum de Fato quae supersunt'' (Zürich, 1824). A life of Aristotle, ascribed to Ammonius, but with more accuracy to John Philoponus, is often prefixed to editions of Aristotle. It has been printed separately, with Latin translation and scholia, at Leiden, 1621, at Helmstadt, 1666, and at Paris, 1850. Other commentaries on the Topics and the first six books of the Metaphysics still exist in manuscript. Of the value of the logical writings of Ammonius there are various opinions. K. Prantl speaks of them with great, but hardly merited, contempt.

AMMONIUS SACCAS (3rd century ), Greek philosopher of Alexandria, often called the founder of the neo-Platonic school. Of humble origin, he appears to have earned a livelihood as a porter; hence his nickname of “Sack-bearer” (, for  ). The details of his life are unknown, insomuch that he has frequently been confused with a Christian philosopher of the same name. Eusebius (Church History, vi. 19), who is followed by Jerome, asserts that he was born a Christian, remained faithful to Christianity throughout his life, and even produced two works called The Harmony of Moses and Jesus and The Diatessaron, or Harmony of the Four Gospels, which is said by some to exist in a Latin version by Victor, bishop of Capua. Porphyry, quoted by Eusebius, ib. vi. 19. 6, however, says that he apostatized in later life and left no writings behind him. There seems no reason, therefore, to doubt that Eusebius is here referring to the Christian philosopher. After long study and meditation, Ammonius opened a school of philosophy in Alexandria. His principal pupils were Herennius, the two Origens, Cassius Longinus and Plotinus. As he designedly wrote nothing, and, with the aid of his pupils, kept his views secret, after the manner of the Pythagoreans, his philosophy must be inferred mainly from the writings of Plotinus. As Zeller points out, however, there is reason to think that his doctrines were rather those of the earlier Platonists than those of Plotinus. Hierocles, writing in the 5th century, states that his fundamental doctrine was an eclecticism, derived from a critical study of Plato and Aristotle. His admirers credited him with having reconciled the quarrels of the two great schools. His death is variously given between 240 and 245. See,.

AMMUNITION, a military term (derived, through the French, from Lat. munire, to provide), for consumable stores used in attack or defence, such as rifle cartridges, cartridges, projectiles, igniting tubes and primers for ordnance, &c.

The components of ammunition intended for rifles and ordnance may be divided into (a) explosives and propellants (see and ), (b) projectiles of all kinds, and (c) cartridges. The military classification of explosives differs somewhat from that of the Explosives Act 1875, but, broadly speaking, they are divided into two groups. The first of these comprises explosives in bulk, made-up cartridges for cannon, and filled quick-firing cartridges; Group II. contains small-arm cartridges, fuzes, primers, tubes, filled shells (fuzed or unfuzed), &c. Each group is subdivided, and arrangements are made for storing certain divisions of Group I. in a magazine in separate compartments. All the divisions of Group II. are, and the remaining divisions of Group I. (comprising wet gun-cotton, picric acid and Q. F. cartridges) may be, stored in ammunition stores.

These general conditions apply to the storage of ammunition in fortresses. Here the positions for the magazine and ammunition stores are so chosen as to afford the best means of protection from an enemy’s fire. Huge earth parapets cover these buildings, which are further strengthened, where possible, by traverses protecting the entrances. For the purpose of filling, emptying and examining cannon cartridges and shell, a laboratory is generally provided at some distance from the magazine. The various stores for explosives are classified into those under magazine conditions (viz. magazines, laboratories and cartridge stores) and those with which these restrictions need not be observed (viz. ammunition and shell stores). The interior walls of a magazine are lined and the floors laid so that there may be no exposed iron or steel. At the entrance there is a lobby or barrier, inside which persons about to enter the magazine change their clothes for a special suit, and their boots for a pair made without nails. In an ammunition or shell store these precautions need not be taken except where the shell store and the adjacent cartridge store have a common entrance; persons entering may do so in their ordinary clothes. A large work may have a main magazine and several subsidiary magazines, from which the stock of cartridges is renewed in the cartridge stores attached to each group of guns or in the expense cartridge stores and cartridge recesses. The same applies to main ammunition stores which supply the shell stores, expense stores and recesses.

The supply of ammunition may be divided roughly into (a) that