Chapter 58

other considerations, that their language was Semitic, closely allied to Hebrew and to the language of the Moabites. Their national deity was Moloch or Milcon. (See MOLOCH.) (S. A. C.)

1 The allusions in Jer. xlix. 1-6; Zeph. ii. 8-11; Ezek. xxi. 28- 32; Judg. xi. 12-28, have been taken to refer to an Ammonite occupation of Israelite territory after the deportation of the east Jordanic Israelites in 734, but more probably belong to a later event. The name Chephar-Ammoni (in Benjamin; Josh. xviii. 24) seems to imply that the "village" became a settlement of "Ammonites." Some light is thrown upon the obscure history of the post-exile period by the references to the mixed marriages which aroused the reforming zeal of Ezra and culminated in the exclusion of Ammon and Moab from the religious community--on the ground of incidents which were ascribed to the time of the "exodus" (Deut. xxiii. 3 sqq.; Ezr. ix. 1 sqq.; Neh. xiii. 1 sqq.).

AMMONIUS GRAMMATICUS, the supposed author of a treatise entitled Peri omoion kai dialoron lfxeon (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.

Text by Valckenaer, 1739, Schafer, 1822; Kopp, De Ammonii . . . Distinctionibus Synonymicis, 1883.

AMMONIUS HERMIAE (5th century A.D.), 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 (Zurich, 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.

For a list of his works see J. A. Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca, v. 704-707: C. A. Brandis, Uber d. Reihenf. d. Bucher d. Aristot. Org., 283 f.; K. Prantl, Gesch. d. Logik, i. 642.

AMMONIUS SACCAS (3rd century A.D.), 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" (Sakkas, for sakkoforos.) 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 A.D., 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 A.D. 240 and 245. See NEO-PLATONISM, ORIGEN.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--C. Rosler, De commentitiis philosophiae Ammoniaceae fraudibus et noxis (Tubingen, 1786); L. J. Dehaut, Essai historique sur la vie et la doctrine d' Ammonius Saccas (Brussels, 1856); E. Zeller, "Ammonius Saccas und Plotinus," Arch. f. Gesch. d. Philos. vii., 1894, pp. 295-312; E. Vacherot, Hist. crit. de l'ecole d'Alexandrie (Paris, 1846); T. Whittaker, The Neo-platonists (Camb., 1901); Eusebius, Hist. Eccles., trans. A. C. M'Giffert (Oxford and New York, 1890), notes on passages quoted above.

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 EXPLOSIVES and GUNPOWDER), (b) projectiles of all kinds, and (c) cartridges. The military classification of explosives differs somewhat from that of the Explosives