Psyche (1882). His novel, Aspasia (1876) gives a finely-drawn description of the Periclean age, but like his tragedy Danton und Robespierre (1870), is somewhat stilted, showing that Hamerling’s genius, though rich in imagination, was ill-suited for the realistic presentation of character.
A popular edition of Hamerling’s works in four volumes was published by M. M. Rabenlechner (Hamburg, 1900). For the poet’s life, see his autobiographical writings, Stationen meiner Lebenspilgerschaft (1889) and Lehrjahre der Liebe (1890); also M. M. Rabenlechner, Hamerling, sein Leben und seine Werke, i. (Hamburg, 1896); a short biography by the same (Dresden, 1901); R. H. Kleinert, R. Hamerling, ein Dichter der Schönheit (Hamburg, 1889); A. Polzer, Hamerling, sein Wesen und Wirken (Hamburg, 1890).
HAMERTON, PHILIP GILBERT (1834–1894), English artist
and author, was born at Laneside, near Shaw, close to Oldham,
on the 10th of September 1834. His mother died at his birth,
and having lost his father ten years afterwards, he was educated
privately under the direction of his guardians. His first literary
attempt, a volume of poems, proving unsuccessful, he devoted
himself for a time entirely to landscape painting, encamping
out of doors in the Highlands, where he eventually rented the
island of Innistrynych, upon which he settled with his wife, a
French lady, in 1858. Discovering after a time that his qualifications
were rather those of an art critic than of a painter he
removed to the neighbourhood of his wife’s relatives in France,
where he produced his Painter’s Camp in the Highlands (1863),
which obtained a great success and prepared the way for his
standard work on Etching and Etchers (1866). In the following
year he published a book, entitled Contemporary French Painters,
and in 1868 a continuation, Painting in France after the Decline
of Classicism. He had meanwhile become art critic to the
Saturday Review, a position which, from the burden it laid upon
him of frequent visits to England, he did not long retain. He
proceeded (1870) to establish an art journal of his own, The
Portfolio, a monthly periodical, each number of which consisted
of a monograph upon some artist or group of artists, frequently
written and always edited by him. The discontinuance of his
active work as a painter gave him time for more general literary
composition, and he successively produced The Intellectual Life
(1873), perhaps the best known and most valuable of his writings;
Round my House (1876), notes on French society by a resident;
and Modern Frenchmen (1879), admirable short biographies.
He also wrote two novels, Wenderholme (1870) and Marmorne
(1878). In 1884 Human Intercourse, another valuable volume
of essays, was published, and shortly afterwards Hamerton
began to write his autobiography, which he brought down to
1858. In 1882 he issued a finely illustrated work on the technique
of the great masters of various arts, under the title of The
Graphic Arts, and three years later another splendidly illustrated
volume, Landscape, which traces the influence of landscape upon
the mind of man. His last books were: Portfolio Papers (1889)
and French and English (1889). In 1891 he removed to the
neighbourhood of Paris, and died suddenly on the 4th of
November 1894, occupied to the last with his labours on The
Portfolio and other writings on art.
In 1896 was published Philip Gilbert Hamerton: an Autobiography, 1834–1858; and a Memoir by his Wife, 1858–1894.
HAMI, a town in Chinese Turkestan, otherwise called Kamil,
Komul or Kamul, situated on the southern slopes of the Tian-Shan
mountains, and on the northern verge of the Great Gobi
desert, in 42° 48′ N., 93° 28′ E., at a height above sea-level of
3150 ft. The town is first mentioned in Chinese history in the
1st century, under the name I-wu-lu, and said to be situated
1000 lis north of the fortress Yü-men-kuan, and to be the key
to the western countries. This evidently referred to its advantageous
position, lying as it did in a fertile tract, at the point
of convergence of two main routes running north and south of
the Tian-Shan and connecting China with the west. It was
taken by the Chinese in A.D. 73 from the Hiungnu (the ancient
inhabitants of Mongolia), and made a military station. It next
fell into the hands of the Uighurs or Eastern Turks, who made
it one of their chief towns and held it for several centuries, and
whose descendants are said to live there now. From the 7th
to the 11th century I-wu-lu is said to have borne the name of
Igu or I-chu, under the former of which names it is spoken of by
the Chinese pilgrim, Hsüan tsang, who passed through it in the
7th century. The name Hami is first met in the Chinese Yüan-shi
or “History of the Mongol Dynasty,” but the name more
generally used there is Homi-li or Komi-li. Marco Polo, describing
it apparently from hearsay, calls it Camul, and speaks of it
as a fruitful place inhabited by a Buddhist people of idolatrous
and wanton habits. It was visited in 1341 by Giovanni de
Marignolli, who baptized a number of both sexes there, and by
the envoys of Shah Rukh (1420), who found a magnificent
mosque and a convent of dervishes, in juxtaposition with a fine
Buddhist temple. Hadji Mahommed (Ramusio’s friend) speaks
of Kamul as being in his time (c. 1550) the first Mahommedan
city met with in travelling from China. When Benedict Goes
travelled through the country at the beginning of the 17th
century, the power of the king Mahommed Khan of Kashgar
extended over nearly the whole country at the base of the Tian-Shan
to the Chinese frontier, including Kamil. It fell under the
sway of the Chinese in 1720, was lost to them in 1865 during the
great Mahommedan rebellion, and the trade route through it
was consequently closed, but was regained in 1873. Owing to
its commanding position on the principal route to the west, and
its exceptional fertility, it has very frequently changed hands
in the wars between China and her western neighbours. Hami
is now a small town of about 6000 inhabitants, and is a busy
trading centre. The Mahommedan population consists of
immigrants from Kashgaria, Bokhara and Samarkand, and of
descendants of the Uighurs.
HAMILCAR BARCA, or Barcas (Heb. barak “lightning”),
Carthaginian general and statesman, father of Hannibal, was
born soon after 270 B.C. He distinguished himself during the
First Punic War in 247, when he took over the chief command in
Sicily, which at this time was almost entirely in the hands of
the Romans. Landing suddenly on the north-west of the island
with a small mercenary force he seized a strong position on Mt.
Ercte (Monte Pellegrino, near Palermo), and not only maintained
himself against all attacks, but carried his raids as far as the
coast of south Italy. In 244 he transferred his army to a similar
position on the slopes of Mt. Eryx (Monte San Giuliano), from
which he was able to lend support to the besieged garrison in
the neighbouring town of Drepanum (Trapani). By a provision
of the peace of 241 Hamilcar’s unbeaten force was allowed to
depart from Sicily without any token of submission. On returning
to Africa his troops, which had been kept together only by
his personal authority and by the promise of good pay, broke
out into open mutiny when their rewards were withheld by
Hamilcar’s opponents among the governing aristocracy. The
serious danger into which Carthage was brought by the failure
of the aristocratic generals was averted by Hamilcar, whom
the government in this crisis could not but reinstate. By the
power of his personal influence among the mercenaries and the
surrounding African peoples, and by superior strategy, he speedily
crushed the revolt (237). After this success Hamilcar enjoyed
such influence among the popular and patriotic party that his
opponents could not prevent him being raised to a virtual
dictatorship. After recruiting and training a new army in
some Numidian forays he led on his own responsibility an
expedition into Spain, where he hoped to gain a new empire to
compensate Carthage for the loss of Sicily and Sardinia, and to
serve as a basis for a campaign of vengeance against the Romans
(236). In eight years by force of arms and diplomacy he secured
an extensive territory in Spain, but his premature death in battle
(228) prevented him from completing the conquest. Hamilcar
stood out far above the Carthaginians of his age in military and
diplomatic skill and in strength of patriotism; in these qualities
he was surpassed only by his son Hannibal, whom he had
imbued with his own deep hatred of Rome and trained to be
his successor in the conflict.
This Hamilcar has been confused with another general who succeeded to the command of the Carthaginians in the First Punic War, and after successes at Therma and Drepanum was defeated at
