Amo ̄me ̄tos (of Kure ̄ne ̄?) (280 – 245 BCE)
Wrote geographical paradoxa, including Voyage up from Memphis and On the Attakori (a myth-
ical blessed people of the Far East), quoted by K, P 6.55, and A
NA 17.6. The name is rare, except in Kure ̄ne ̄: LGPN 1.35.
FGrHist 645.
PTK
L. Ampelius (175 – 180 CE?)
Wrote a small encyclopedia or epitome on cosmology, geography, theology, and history,
entitled Liber Memorialis (“aide-mémoire”), and addressed to his student Macrinus. The work
is preserved in one 17th c. MS copied by Claude Saumaise. Scholars dispute the work’s
date, some preferring the 4th c., because of genre and language. The most recent editor
argues that §47, on the greatest Roman victories, predates those of Septimius Seuerus in
194 – 198 CE. Consequently, the dedicatee, a student in Caesarea Mauretania (one of the
few provincial cities mentioned: §38), could be the emperor Macrinus – hence perhaps
explaining the work’s survival.
The text begins with an elementary cosmology, describing the four elements and five
zones of the earth (§1), then proceeds through fire, i.e., the stars (§ 2 – 3), air, i.e., the winds
(§ 4 – 5), earth (§6), and water (§7). Ampelius describes many human paradoxa (§8), and
offers a Euhemeristic theology (§9). About three-fifths of the work is a Romano-centric
outline of history (§ 10 – 50).
Ampelius’ description of the zodiac (§2) is based on N, to which he adds the
constellations Bears, Orion, Pleiades, Hyades, and Canis, plus the seven planets (§3). He
correlates the 12 winds with the zodiacal signs (§4), then explains wind as the movement of
air, saying there are four generalis winds, east, west, north, south, and various specialis winds
of particular times or places (§5). He follows K M’ fourfold division of the
globe, partitioning our quarter into the continents Asia, Europe, and Libya; he lists peoples,
mountains, rivers, and isles of each continent (§6). His treatment of the sea (§7) resembles
that in O K.
Ed.: M.-P. Arnaud-Linder, Aide-mémoire (CUF 1993).
OCD3 75, L.A. Holford-Strevens.
PTK
Amphilokhos of Athens (325 – 90 BCE)
Wrote a work on agriculture, possibly treating cereals, livestock, poultry, viticulture, and
arboriculture (cf. P, 1.ind.8, 10, 12–15, 17–18), that was excerpted by C
D (V, RR 1.1.8, cf. C, 1.1.9). One volume, entitled On Moon-trefoil
and Alfalfa, discussed the cultivation of these two important fodder plants, and described
their appearance, country of origin, and medicinal uses for both humans and animals (Pliny,
13.130–131, 18.144–145, cf. Schol. Nik. The ̄r. 617).
RE 1.2 (1894) 1940–1941 (#7), M. Wellmann.
Philip Thibodeau
AMPHILOKHOS OF ATHENS