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AMPELIUS, LUCIUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 878 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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AMPELIUS, See also:LUCIUS , possibly a See also:tutor or schoolmaster, and author of an extremely concise summary—a See also:kind of index—of universal See also:history (See also:Liber Memorialis) from the earliest times to the reign of See also:Trajan. Its See also:object and See also:scope are sufficiently indicated in the See also:dedication to a certain Macrinus: " Since you See also:desire to know everything, I have written this ` See also:book of notes,' that you may learn of what the universe and its elements consist, what the See also:world contains, and what the human See also:race has done." It seems to have been intended as a See also:text-book to be learnt by See also:heart. The little See also:work, in fifty chapters, gives a See also:sketch of cosmography, See also:geography, See also:mythology (chaps. i.–x.), and history (See also:chap. x.–end). The See also:historical portion, dealing mainly with the republican See also:period, is untrustworthy, and the text in many places corrupt; the earlier chapters are more valuable, and contain some interesting See also:information. In chap. viii. (Miracula Mundi) occurs the only reference in an See also:ancient writer to the famoussculptures of See also:Pergamum, discovered in 1871, excavated in 187$ and now at See also:Berlin: " At Pergamum there is a See also:great See also:marble See also:altar, 40 ft. high, with See also:colossal sculptures, representing a See also:battle of the giants." Nothing is known of the author or of the date at which he lived: the times of Trajan, See also:Hadrian, See also:Antoninus See also:Pius, the beginning of the 3rd See also:century, and the See also:age of See also:Diocletian and See also:Constantine have all been suggested. The Macrinus to whom the work is dedicated may have been the See also:emperor, who reigned 217–218, but the name is not uncommon, and it seems more likely that he was a See also:young See also:man with a thirst for universal know-ledge, which the Liber Memorialis was compiled to satisfy. There is no See also:English edition or See also:translation. The first edition of Ampelius was published in 1638 by See also:Salmasius (Saumaise) from the See also:Dijon MS., now lost, together with the See also:Epitome of See also:Florus; the latest edition is by Wolflfin (1854), based on Salmasius's copy of the lost codex. See See also:Glaser, Rheinisches Museum, ii. (1843); Zink, Eos, ii. (1866); Wolfllin, De L.

Ampelii Libro Memoriali (1854).

End of Article: AMPELIUS, LUCIUS

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