Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/160

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142
AMERIAS.
AMMIANUS.

Κόννος appears to have had the same subject and aim as the "Clouds." It is at least certain that Socrates appeared in the play, and that the Chorus consisted of Φροντισταί. (Diog. Laert. ii. 28; Athen. v. p. 218.) Aristophanes alludes to Ameipsias in the "Frogs" (v. 12—14), and we are told in the anonymous life of Aristophanes, that when Aristophanes first exhibited his plays, in the names of other poets, Ameipsias applied to him the proverb τετράδι γεγονώς, which means "a person who labours for others," in allusion to Heracles, who was born on the fourth of the month.

Ameipsias wrote many comedies, out of which there remain only a few fragments of the following:—Ἀποκοτταϐίζοντες, Κατεσθίων (doubtful), Κόννος, Μοιχοί, Σαπφώ, Σφενδόνη, and of some the names of which are unknown. Most of his plays were of the old comedy, but some, in all probability, were of the middle. (Meineke, Frag. Com. i. p. 19.9, ii. p.70l.)

[P. S.]


AMELESA'GORAS {'Af^ehwaySpas) or ME- LESA'GORAS(M€J7(ra7o'pas), as he is called by others, of Chalcedon, one of the early Greek histo- rians, from whom Gorgias and Eudemus of Naxos borrowed. (Clem. Alex. Strom, vi. p. 629, a ; Schol. ad Eurip. Alcest. 2 ; Apollod. iii. 10. § 3, where Heyne has substituted MeATjo-aYo'pas for M j/Tjff a7(J pas.) Maxiraus Tyrius (Serin. 38. § 3) speaks of a Melesagoras, a native of Eleusis, and Antigonus of Carystus (Hid. Mirah. c. 12) of an Anielesagoras of Athens, the latter of whom wrote an account of Attica; these persons are probably the sjime, and perhaps also the simie as Anielesa- goras of Chalcedon. (Vossius, de Hist. Graec. p. 22, ed. Westennann.)


AME'LIUS ('A/xeAios), a native of Ap.araea according to Suidas (s. v. 'Aixeios), but a Tuscan according to Porphyry (vit. Ploti/i.), belonged to the new Platonic school, and was the pupil of Plotinus and master of Porphyry. He quoted the opinion of St. John about the A6yos without men- tioning the name of the Apostle : this extract has been preserved by Eusebius. (Praep. Eraiig. xi. 19.) See Suid. Porphyr. Ih cc. ; Syrian, xii, Metaphi/s. p. 47, a. 61, b. 69, a. 88, a.; Bentley, Jieinurks on Free-Thinking, p. 182, &:c., Lond. 1743 ; Fabric. BiU. Graec. iii. p. 160.


AMENTES ('A^T^j'TTys), an ancient Greek sur- geon, mentioned by Galen as the inventor of some ingenious bandages. {De Fasciis, c. 58, 61, 89, vol. xii. pp. 486, 487, 493, ed. Chart.) Some fragments of the works of a surgeon named Ainyntas (of which name Ameutes is very possibly a con-uption) still exist in the manuscript Collec- tion of Surgical "Writers by Nicetas (Fabricius, Bibl. Gr. vol. xii. p. 778, ed. vet.), and one ex- tract is preserved by Oribasius {Colt. Medic, xlviii. 30) in the fourth volume of Cardinal Mai's Collec- tion of Classici Auciores e Valicanis CodicHms, p. 99, Rom. 1831, 8vo. His date is unknown, ex- cept that he must have lived in or before the second century after Christ. He may perhaps be the same })erson who is said by the Scholiast on Theocritus {Idyll, xvii. 128) to have been put to death by Ptolemy Philadelphus, about b. c. 264, for plotting against his life. [W. A. G.]


AME'RIAS ('Ayuepiaj), of Macedonia, a gram- marian, who wrote a work entitled VKwaaai, which gave an account of the meaning of words, and another called 'Pt^oro^i/cos. (Athen. iv. p. 176, c, e, XV. p. 681, f, &c.; ^cio. ad ApoU.RIiod. ii. 384, 1284 ; Kuster, ad Hesych. s. v. *A6ri/jLevos.)


AMERISTUS {'AfiepioTTos), the brother of the poet Stesichorus, is mentioned by Proclus {ad Euclid, ii. p. 19) as one of the early Greek geo- meters. He lived in the latter end of the seventh century B. c.


AMESTRIS. [Amastris.]


AMIA'NUS, whom Cicero mentions in a letter to Atticus (vi. 1. § 13), written B.C. 50, was pro- bablv a debtor of Atticus in Cilicia.


AMISO'DARUS('A)UKrwSapos),akingofLycia, who was said to have brought up the monster Chi- maera. (Horn. //. xvi. 328 ; Eustath, ad Horn. p. 1062; Apollod. ii. 3. § 1 ; Aelian, H.A. ix. 23.) His sons Atynniius and Maris were slain at Troy by the sons of Nestor. (//. xvi. 317, &c.) [L. S.]


A'MITON {'AixiTwv), of Eleutherae in Crete, is said to have been the first person who sung to the lyre amatory poems. His descendants were called yl7Ju7ores('AjUtTop€s). (Athen. xiv, p. 638,b.) There seems some corruption in the text of Athe- naeus, as the two names A initou and A mitores do not correspond. Instead of the former we ought perhaps to read Anietor. (Comp. Etym. M. p. 83. 15, ed. Sylburg.; Hesych, s. v. 'Afir^Topifiai.)


AMMIA'NUS {'A/xfxiavds), a Greek epigram- matist, but probably a Roman by birth. The Greek Anthology contains 27 epigrams by him (Jacobs, iii. pp. 93 — 98), to which must be added another contiiined in the Vatican MS. (Jacobs, xiii. p. 693), and another, which is placed among the anonymous epigrams, but which some MSS. assign to Ammianus. (Jacobs, iv. p. 127, No. xlii.) They are all of a facetious character. In the Planudean MS. he is called Abbianus, which Wernsdorf supposes to be a Greek form of Avianus or Avienus. {Poet. Lat. Miji. v. p. ii. p. 675.) The time at which he lived may be gathered, with tolerable certjiinty, from his epigrams. That he was a contemporary of the epigrammatist Lucil- lius, who lived under Nero, has been inferred from the circumstance that both attack an orator named Flaccus. (Ammian. Ep. 2 ; Lucil. Ep. 86, ap. Jacobs.) One of his epigrams (13) is identical with the last two lines of one of Martial's (ix. 30), who is supposed by some to have translated these lines from Ammianus, and therefore to have lived after him. But the fact is equally well explained on the supposition that the poets were contempo- rary. From two other epigrams of Ammianus (Jacobs, vol. iv. p. 127, No. 42, and vol. xiii. p. 125), we find that he was contemporary with the sophist Antonius Polemo, who flourished under Trajan and Hadrian. (Jacobs, Anthol. Graec. xi. pp. 312,313, xiii. p. 840.) [P. S.]


AMMIA'NUS MARCELLI'NUS, "the last subject of Rome who composed a profane historj' in the Latin language;" was by birth a Greek, as he himself frequently declares (xxxi. sub fin., xxii. 8. § 33, xxiii. 6. § 20, &c.), and a native of Syrian Antioch, as we infer from a letter addressed to him by Libanius. (See Vales, praef. in Ammian. Marcellin.) At an early age he embraced the pro- fession of amis, and was admitted among the proicdores domesiici, which proves that he belonged to a distinguished family, since none were enrolled in that corps except j'oung men of noble blood, or officers Avhose valour and fidelity had been proved in long service. Of his subsequent promotion no- thing is known. He was attached to the staff of