Ameles, a river of hell, whose waters no vessel could contain. [♦]Plato, bk. 10, Republic.
[♦] ‘Plutarch’ replaced with ‘Plato’
Amenanus, a river of Sicily, near mount Ætna, now Guidicello. Strabo, bk. 5.
Amenīdes, a secretary of Darius the last king of Persia. Alexander set him over the Arimaspi. Curtius, bk. 7, ch. 3.
Amenŏcles, a Corinthian, said to be the first Grecian who built a three-oared galley at Samos and Corinth. Thucydides, bk. 1, ch. 13.
Ameria, a city of Umbria, whose osiers (Amerinæ salices) were famous for the binding of vines to the elm trees. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 14.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1, li. 265.
Amestrătus, a town of Sicily, near the Halesus. The Romans besieged it for seven months, and it yielded at last after a third siege, and the inhabitants were sold as slaves. Polybius, bk. 1, ch. 24.
Amestris, queen of Persia, was wife to Xerxes. She cruelly treated the mother of Artiante, her husband’s mistress, and cut off her nose, ears, lips, breast, tongue, and eyebrows. She also buried alive 14 noble Persian youths, to appease the deities under the earth. Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 61; bk. 9, ch. 111.——A daughter of Oxyartes, wife to Lysimachus. Diodorus, bk. 20.
Amīda, a city of Mesopotamia, besieged and taken by Sapor king of Persia. Ammianus, bk. 19.
Amilcar, a Carthaginian general of great eloquence and cunning, surnamed Rhodanus. When the Athenians were afraid of Alexander, Amilcar went to his camp, gained his confidence, and secretly transmitted an account of all his schemes to Athens. Trogus, bk. 21, ch. 6.——A Carthaginian, whom the Syracusans called to their assistance against the tyrant Agathocles, who besieged their city. Amilcar soon after favoured the interest of Agathocles, for which he was accused at Carthage. He died in Syracuse, B.C. 309. Diodorus, bk. 20.—Justin, bk. 22, chs. 2 & 3.——A Carthaginian, surnamed Barcas, father to the celebrated Annibal. He was general in Sicily during the first Punic war; and after a peace had been made with the Romans, he quelled a rebellion of slaves, who had besieged Carthage, and taken many towns of Africa, and rendered themselves so formidable to the Carthaginians that they begged and obtained assistance from Rome. After this, he passed into Spain with his son Annibal, who was but nine years of age, and laid the foundation of the town of Barcelona. He was killed in a battle against the Vettones, B.C. 237. He had formed the plan of an invasion of Italy, by crossing the Alps, which his son afterwards carried into execution. His great enmity to the Romans was the cause of the second Punic war. He used to say of his three sons, that he kept three lions to devour the Roman power. Cornelius Nepos, Lives of Distinguished Romans.—Livy, bk. 21, ch. 1.—Polybius, bk. 2.—Plutarch, Life of Hannibal.——A Carthaginian general, who assisted the Insubres against Rome, and was taken by Cnaeus Cornelius. Livy, bk. 32, ch. 30; bk. 33, ch. 8.——A son of Hanno, defeated in Sicily by Gelon, the same day that Xerxes was defeated at Salamis by Themistocles. He burnt himself, that his body might not be found among the slain. Sacrifices were offered to him. Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 165, &c.