Ammonius

a favourite of Alexander Balas, king of Syria, to whom Alexander entrusted the entire management of public affairs. Ammonius was avaricious and cruel; he put to death numerous friends of the king, the queen Laodice, and Antigonus, the son of Demetrius. Being detected in plotting against the life of Ptolemy Philometor, about B. C. 147, the latter required Alexander to surrender Ammonius to him; but though Alexander refused to do this, Ammonius was put to death by the inhabitants of Antioch, whom Ptolemy had induced to espouse his cause. (Liv. Epit. 50; J. AJ 13.4.5; Diod. Exc. 29, p. 628, ed. Wess.)

(Ἀμμώνιος) of Alexandria, the son of Ammonius, was a pupil of Alexander, and one of the chief teachers in the grammatical school founded by Aristarchus. (Suid. s. v. Ἀμμώνιος.) He wrote commentaries upon Homer, Pindar, and Aristophanes, none of which are extant. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. v. p. 712; Matter, Essais historiques sur l'école d'Alexandre, i. pp. 179, 233.)

(Ἀμμώνιος), of Alexandria, Presbyter and Oeconomus of the Church in that city, and an Egyptian by birth, A. D. 458. He subscribed the Epistle sent by the clergy of Egypt to the emperor Leo, in behalf of the Council of Chalcedon. (Concilia, ed. Labbei, vol. iv. p. 897b.) Works

Ammonius wrote (in Greek) On the Difference between Nature and Person, against the Monophysice heresy of Eutyches and Dioscorus (not extant); an Exposition of the Book of Acts (ap. Catena Graec. Patr. in Act. SS. Apostolorum, 8vo., Oxon. 1838, ed. Cramer); a Commentary on the Psalms (used by Nicetas in his Catena; see Cod. 189, Biblioth. Coislin., ed. Montfane. p 244); On the Hexaemeron (no remains); On St. John's Gospel, which exists in the Catena Graecorum Patrum in S. Joan. ed. Corderii, fol., Antw. 1630. He is quoted in the Catenae on the History of Susannah and on Daniel. Further Information

Nova Collect. Script. Vet. ab Angelo Maio, p. 166, &c. vol. i. A. D. 1825. [A.J.C]

(Ἀμμώνιος) GRAMMATICUS, professor of grammar at Alexandria, with Helladius, at the close of the 4th century. He was also priest of the Egyptian Ape. On the vigorous overthrow of idolatry in Egypt by the bishop Theophilus A. D. 389-391, Ammonius and Helladius fled to Constantinople and there resumed their profession. (Socr. Hist. Eccl. 5.16.)

The historian Socrates was a pupil of Ammonius. (Hist. Eccl. 5.16.) Works On the Differences of Words of like Signification (περὶ ὁμοίων καὶ διαφόρων λέξεων)

Ammonius wrote, in Greek, On the Differences of Words of like Signification (περὶ ὁμοίων καὶ διαφόρων λέξεων), which is appended to many lexicons, e. g. to that of Scapula. Editions

It was edited by Valckneaer, 4to., Lugd. Bat. 1739, and with further notes by Chr. Frid. Ammoin, 8vo., Erlang. 1787. περὶ ἀκυρολογίας

There is another work by this Ammonius, περὶ ἀκυρολογίας, which has not yet been printed. Further Information

Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. v. p. 715. [A.J.C]

(Ἀμμώνιος), son of Hermeas, studied with his brother Heliodorus at Athens under Proclus (who died A. D. 484), and was the master of Simplicius, Asclepius Trallianus, John Philoponus, and Damascius. Works Commentaries on Plato and Ptolemy

(in Greek) on Plato and Ptolemy are lost, as well as many on Aristotle. Extant Works

His extant works are: Commentaries on the Isagoge of Porphyry, or the Five Predicables Editions

First published at Venice in 1500. On the Categories of Aristotle, and De Intterpretatione Editions

First published at Venice in 1503. Further Information

See too ap. Alexand. Aphrodis. De Fato, p. 180, 8vo. Lond. 1658. The above-named Commentaries on Aristotle are also published in the Scholia in Aristot. ed. Brandis. Commentaries on Aristotle's Topics and Metaphysics and the Methodus construendsdi Astrolabium

In MS. are his Commentaries on Aristotle's Topics and Metaphysics, and his Methodus construendsdi Astrolabium. Further Information

Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. v. p. 707. [A.J.C]

of Lamprae, a village of Attica, a Peripatetic philosopher, who lived in the first century of the Christian aera. He was the instructor of Plutarch, who praises his great learning (Syump. 3.1), and introduces him discoursing on religion and sacred rites. (9.15.) Corsini endeavours to shew (in vita Plutarchi, p. 6), that Ammiionius of Lamprae is really the same person with Ammonius the Egyptian mentioned by Eunapius, and concludes that it was from this source Plutarch obtained the minute knowledge of Egyptian worship which he has shewn in his treatise on Isis and Osiris.

Ammonius of Lamprae is mentioned by Ammonius, the author of the work De Differentiis Verborum, under the word βωμὸς, as having written a treatise Περὶ Βωμῶν, or as the fuller title is given by Athenaeus, Περὶ Βωμῶν καὶ Θυσιῶν. (xi. p. 476f.) Whether the same Ammonius was the author of another work, Περὶ τῶν Ἀθηνῆσιν Ἑταιρίδων, mentioned by Athenaeus (xiii. p. 567a), is uncertain. [B.J]

the Monk, flourished A. D. 372. He was one of the Four Great Brothers (so called from their height), disciples of Pambo, the monk of Mt. Nitria (Vitae Patrum, 2.23; Pallad. Hist. Laus. 100.12, ed. Rosweyd. p. 543.) He knew the Bible by heart, and carefully studied Didymus, Origen, and the other ecclesiastical authors. In A. D. 339-341 he accompanied St. Athanasius to Rome. In A. D. 371-3, Peter II. succeeded the latter, and when he fled to Rome from his Arian persecutors, Ammonius retired from Canopus into Palestine. He witnessed the cruelties of the Saracens against the monks of Mount Sinai A. D. 377, and received intelligence of the sufferings of others near the Red Sea. On his return to Egypt, he took up his abode at Memphis, and described these distresses in a book which he wrote in Egyptian. This being found at Naucratis by a priest, named John, was by him translated into Greek, and in that form is extant, in Christi Martyrum Electi triumphi (p. 88, ed. Combefis, 8vo., Par. 1660). Ammonius is said to have cut off an ear to avoid promotion to the episcopate. (Socr. 4.23; Pallad. Hist. Laus. 100.12.) [A.J.C]

(Ἀμμώνος) the Peripatetic, who wrote only a few poems and declamations. He was a different person from Ammonius, the teacher of Plotinus. (Longin. apud Porphyr. in Plotin. vit. 100.20; Philostr. 2.27; Ruhnken, Diss. de Longino.)

or Hammonius, an ambassador of Ptolemaeus Auletes, who was sent to Rome B. C. 56 to seek assistance against the Alexandrians, who had opposed the king. (Cic. Fam. 1.1.) He is perhaps the same person as the Ammonius who is spoken of as one of the agents of Cleopatra in B. C. 44. (Ad Att. 15.15.)

called SACCAS (Ἀμμώνιος Σακκᾶς, i. e. Σακκοφόρος), or sack-carrier, because his official employment was carrying the corn, landed at Alexandria, as a public porter (saccarius, see Gothlofred ad Cod. Theodos. 14, tit. 22), was born of Christian parents. Porphyry asserts (lib. 3, ad v. Christian. ap. Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 6.19), Eusebius (l.c.) and St. Jerome (Vir. Ill. § 55) deny, that he apostatized from the faith. At any rate he combined the study of philosophy with Christianity, and is regarded by those who maintain his apostasy as the founder of the later Platonic School. Among his disciples are mentioned Longinus, Herennius, Plotinus (Amm. Marcell. xxii.), both Origens, and St. Heraclas. He died A. D. 243, at the age of more than 80 years. A life of Aristotle, prefixed to the Commentary of his namesake on the Categories, has been ascribed to him, but it is probably the work of John Philoponus. The Pagan disciples of Ammonius held a kind of philosophical theology. Faith was derived by inward perception; God was threefold in escence, intelligence, (viz. in knowledge of himself) and power (viz. in activity), the two latter notions being inferior to the tirst; the care of the world was entrusted to gods of an inferior race, below those again were daemons, good and bad; an ascetic life and theurgy led to the knowledge of the Infinite, who was worshipped by the vulgar, only in their national deities. The Alexandrian physics and psychology were in accordance with these principles. If we are to consider him a Christian, he was, besides his philosophy (which would, of course, then be represented by Origen, and not by the pagan Alexandrian school as above described) noted for his writings (Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 6.19), especially on the Scriptures. (Euseb. Epist. ad Caspian. à Gallandi's Bibl. Patr. vol. ii.) He composed a Diatessaron, or Harmony of the Gospels, which exists in the Latin version of Victor, bishop of Capua (in the 6th cent., who wrongly ascribed it to Tatian) and of Luscinius. (See Monumenta Patr. Orthodoxographa, i. pt. 2, per Grynaeum, pp. 661-747, fol., Basil., 1569; E Graeco versa per Ottomar. Luscinium. Aug. Vind. 4to., 1523; and in German, Augsb., 8vo., 1524; the version of Victor, Mogunt., 8vo., 1524; Colon., 8vo., 1532 ; in Reg-Imp. et Consist. Monast. B. M. V. de Salem, 8vo., 1774; Biblioth. Patr. à Galland., vol. ii. p. 531, Venet., 1766; where vid. Prolegom.) Besides the Harmony, Ammonius wrote De Consensu Moysis et Jesu (Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 6.19), which is praised by St. Jerome (Vir. Illustr. § 55), but is lost. [A.J.C]

(Ἀμμώνιος). (1) The preceptor of Plutarch. He taught philosophy and mathematics at Delphi, and lived during the first century of the Christian era, in the reign of Nero, to whom he acted as interpreter when that monarch visited the temple at Delphi. Plutarch makes frequent mention of him in his writings, and particularly in his treatise on the inscription of the Delphic temple.

(2) Saccas or Saccophŏrus (so called because in early life he had been a porter), a celebrated philosopher, who flourished about the beginning of the third century. He was born at Alexandria, of Christian parents, and was early instructed in the catechetical schools established in that city. Here, under the Christian preceptors, Athenagoras, Pantoenus, and Clemens Alexandrinus, he acquired a strong propensity towards philosophical studies, and became exceedingly desirous of reconciling the different opinions which at that time subsisted among philosophers. Porphyry (ap. Euseb. Hist. Ecc. vi. 19) relates that Ammonius passed over to the legal establishment— that is, apostatized to the pagan religion. Eusebius (l. c.) and Jerome (De S. E. c. 55), on the contrary, assert that Ammonius continued in the Christian faith until the end of his life. But it is probable that those Christian fathers refer to another Ammonius, who, in the third century, wrote a Harmony of the Gospels, or to some other person of this name, for they refer to the sacred books of Ammonius; whereas Ammonius Saccas, as his pupil Longinus attests, wrote nothing. It is not easy, indeed, to account for the particulars related of this philosopher, but upon the supposition of his having renounced the Christian faith. According to Hierocles (De Fato, ap. Phot. Bibl. ii. 461, ed. Bekker), Ammonius was induced to adopt the plan of a distinct eclectic school, by a desire of putting an end to those contentions which had so long distracted the philosophical world. Ammonius had many eminent followers and hearers, both pagan and Christian, who all, doubtless, promised themselves much illumination from a preceptor who undertook to collect into a focus all the rays of ancient wisdom. He taught his select disciples certain sublime doctrines and mystical practices, and was called θεοδίδακτος, “the heaven-taught philosopher.” These mysteries were communicated to them under a solemn injunction of secrecy. Porphyry relates that Plotinus, with the rest of the disciples of Ammonius, promised not to divulge certain dogmas which they learned in his school, but to lodge them safely in their purified minds. This circumstance accounts for the fact mentioned on the authority of Longinus that he left nothing in writing. Ammonius probably died about the year 243.

(3) A Christian writer, a native of Alexandria, who lived about A.D. 250. He wrote a Harmony of the Gospels, which Jerome cites with commendation.

(4) The son of Hermias, so called for distinction's sake from other individuals of the name, was a native of Alexandria, and a disciple of Proclus. He taught philosophy at Alexandria about the beginning of the sixth century. His system was an eclectic one, embracing principles derived from both Aristotle and Plato. He cannot be regarded as an original thinker: he was very strong, however, in mathematics, and in the study of the exact sciences, which rectified his judgment, and preserved him, no doubt, from the extravagances of the New Platonism. Ammonius has left commentaries on the Introduction of Porphyry; on the Categories of Aristotle, together with a life of that philosopher; on his treatise Of Interpretation; and scholia on the first seven books of the Metaphysics. The scholia on the Metaphysics have never been edited.

(5) A priest of one of the Egyptian temples. He was one of the literary men who fled from Alexandria to Constantinople after the destruction of the pagan temples. There he became, together with Helladius, one of the masters of Socrates, the ecclesiastical writer: this is a fact which appears firmly established, and the reasons alleged by Valckenaer for placing him in the first or second century have been generally considered insufficient. Ammonius has left us a work on Greek synonyms, etc., under the title Περὶ ὁμοίων καὶ διαφόρων λέξεων. It is a production of very inferior merit. Valckenaer's edition (1739) has been reprinted entire, but in a more portable form, at Leipzig (1822), under the care of Schaeffer, who has added the unedited notes of Kulencamp, and the critical letter of Segaar, addressed to Valckenaer, and published at Utrecht (1776). We have also a treatise of Ammonius, Περὶ ἀκυρολογίας, “On the improper use of words,” which has never been printed.

(6) A physician of Alexandria, famous from his skill in cutting for the stone—an operation which, according to some, he first introduced. He invented an instrument for crushing the larger calculi while in the bladder. He was accustomed also to make use of caustic applications, especially red arsenic in hemorrhages. See Chirurgia.