discharged the functions of podestá, or chief magistrate, at Verona. Having recommended himself to Pope Pius IV. by his honourable and virtuous conduct, not less than by his abilities, he was made bishop of Rieti, and elevated to the purple. Amulio also received from the same pope a librarianship in the Vatican. He has left—"Orationes, &c., ex actis concilii Tridentini," and "Nuova Scelta di litteri di diversi nobilissimi homini,"—a selection of letters of illustrious men. (See Mazzuchelli's Scrittori d'Italia, and Cordelia's Memoire Storiche del Cardinali.)—A. M.
AMU´LIUS, brother of Numitor, and along with him king of Alba Longa. Amulius dethroned Numitor, though he suffered him to live as a private individual; but he put his son Egestus to death, and made Rhea Sylvia, his daughter, a vestal virgin. She, however, gave birth to two children, Romulus and Remus, whose paternity she attributed to Mars. Romulus afterwards killed Amulius, and restored Numitor to the kingly dignity. The date of these events, which, however, modern criticism (see Niebuhr's History of Rome) has pronounced entirely fabulous, must be assigned to the period immediately preceding the foundation of Rome, 753 b.c.—A. M.
AMURATH or MURAD, the name of four Ottoman emperors or sultans:—
Amurath I., whose successes first established the Ottoman power in Europe, was born in the year of the Hegira 726 (1326 a.d.), and succeeded his father Orkhan in 1360. He inaugurated his reign by the expedition which resulted in the taking of Adrianople, the advance of the Ottoman arms as far as the Balkan, and a treaty of peace with the Greek emperor highly favourable to the invaders, who took advantage of it to settle themselves securely in their new possessions. It lasted till 1363, when Pope Urban V. having proclaimed a crusade, the Greeks made an ineffectual attempt to recover Adrianople. The war thus begun was carried on for several years, usually with advantage to the Turks, who had possessed themselves of some important fortresses in the course of the campaign which preceded the year 1371, when Amurath returned into Asia. His next efforts in Europe were to preserve rather than to extend his conquests. A revolt occurred in Romania, which he hastened to suppress by besieging Apollonia. Accident put him in possession of that place—a portion of the walls having given way just as the besiegers were about to desist from what they considered a hopeless enterprise. Some years later, he sent an army into Macedonia, which overran that province as far as the frontiers of Albania. Success everywhere attended his arms. The Greek emperor, John Paleologus, humbly paid court to his rival at Adrianople, and sent his son Theodore to be trained for war under the eye of so renowned a leader. While this harmony prevailed between the two emperors, however, their sons, Andronicus and Saoudji, were engaged in plotting the destruction of both. An army of insurgents took the field under the leadership of these artful princes, but dispersed on the first summons of Amurath, who put Saoudji to death. Several other revolts followed, which Amurath suppressed with like promptitude. One more serious than the rest broke out in Servia, and demanded the personal presence of the emperor. Lazar, kral of that province, had leagued himself with Sisman, kral of Bulgaria, and had attacked the Ottoman forces, twenty thousand of whom perished in one engagement. Amurath hastened to avenge so serious a disaster, and confronted the rebel princes on the plain of Kossova. His army was inferior in numbers, but, after a consultation with his lieutenants, he determined to risk the event of a battle, and accordingly gave the signal for attack. Bajazet, his eldest son, who had eagerly urged an immediate engagement, led the advance, supported by his brother Yakub. A fearful struggle ensued, in which the Ottomans were at length victorious. Amurath lingered on the field of battle, happy to have escaped the death which, in a dream of the previous night, he had foreboded for himself. Suddenly one of the bodies on which he trod rose, plunged a dagger into his heart, and thus fulfilled the vision which had all but made a coward of one unaccustomed to fear. Amurath expired in the year of the Hegira 791 (1389 a.d.)
Amurath II., born about the year 1404, succeeded his father Mohammed I. in 1422. Mustapha, son of Bajazet-Ildirim, opposed his accession, and was seconded by the Greek emperor Emmanuel, who took offence at the refusal of Amurath to give hostages for his good behaviour. After a short struggle, Mustapha, abandoned by his troops, was seized and put to death.
Amurath advanced towards Constantinople. Emmanuel made proposals of peace which were scornfully rejected, and the siege of the city commenced. It was, however, renounced after an unsuccessful attack, on the 24th August, 1422. In 1429, having quarrelled with the Venetians, Amurath besieged Thessalonica, and with much difficulty succeeded in reducing it. This city was lost and regained several times by the successors of Amurath, but finally remained in the hands of the Turks. Shortly after the marriage of the emperor, in 1433, to a daughter of the prince of Servia, the cordiality which prevailed between him and his father-in-law was interrupted by a report that the latter had treacherously allied himself with the sovereign of Wallachia. Amurath at length resolved on attacking the two princes, but had hardly taken the field when one made a timely submission, and the other fled to the court of Albert, Sigismond's successor. In this campaign the Turks carried by storm the town of Semendra, and routed a large army of Hungarians sent to retake it. Albert's death occurred shortly after,—and Amurath withdrew from Hungary. He encamped before Belgrade in Servia. Here his long career of victory was signally interrupted, and from his unsuccessful siege of Belgrade, dated a series of misfortunes which extended over the remainder of his reign. Mezid-Bey, one of Amurath's generals, in his attempt on the town of Hermanstadt, was forced to retreat with great loss, by the famous Hungarian general Huniades. Other reverses followed in rapid succession to diminish the prestige of the Ottomans, and to exalt that of the defender of Hermanstadt. That indomitable chief carried fire and sword into Wallachia, and with 15,000 men, completely routed 80,000 Ottomans sent to cut short his ravages. On the 3rd November, 1443, the Ottoman and Hungarian armies encountered in the neighbourhood of Nissa. Amurath lost 6000 men in killed and prisoners. He retreated behind the Balkan mountains, followed by his enemies, who triumphed in two other engagements. Amurath now sued for peace, and at length, on the 12th July, 1444, a treaty was signed, by which, at considerable sacrifice, he secured for a very brief period the tranquility of his empire. The rejoicings proper to the occasion were hardly over, when the emperor was plunged into the most profound sorrow by the death of his son Ala-Eddin. He determined to abandon the state of a sovereign, in order to indulge undisturbed his parental grief, and accordingly resigned his authority into the hands of his second son Mohammed, aged fourteen years, whom he took care to surround with experienced and patriotic counsellors. The rumour of his abdication had hardly gone abroad, however, when the enemies of the Ottoman empire were on the alert to take advantage of the new and comparatively feeble government. Huniades was again ordered into the field by the treacherous Wladislas, and promised the sovereignty of Bulgaria, in the event of his conquering that province. Under command of this formidable warrior, 10,000 Hungarians and 5000 Wallachians began their ravages in Bulgaria, and seriously menaced the integrity of the empire. Reluctantly, Amurath consented to leave his retirement, and to put himself at the head of an army: 40,000 men followed him into Europe, and he advanced with all possible expedition to encounter the enemy. The Hungarians, although greatly inferior in numbers, prepared to give battle. Their first onset carried the valiant Huniades almost into the tent of the sultan, and Amurath was about to seek safety in flight, when the bridle of his charger was seized by one of his officers. The next moment saw him charging at the head of his troops, and eagerly scanning the ranks of the enemy in search of his rival. The two sovereigns met, and in their fierce encounter, Wladislas was unhorsed. A janizary perceiving his fall, advanced and cut off his head. Raising it on his pike, he shouted to the Hungarians, "Behold the head of your king!" They were instantly seized with a panic, and fled in ruinous disorder. This victory at once restored security to the empire, and Amurath to his Asiatic retreat. He had hardly reached Magnesia, however, when messengers from Adrianople arrived, demanding his return. A revolt of the formidable troop of janizaries had occurred, and all attempts to suppress it had proved abortive. His presence in the capital instantly restored order. He then prepared to make the conquest of the Peloponnesus, and to check the career of Scanderberg in Albania. The Peloponnesian princes were easily mastered, but at the siege of Croya, Scanderberg, with 4,000 men, kept the Ottomans at bay for several months, and at length obliged them to retire. In 1448 Amurath defeated, on
