a town of Phrygia Major, near the river Sangarius, on the borders of Galatia.—It was taken from the Romans by the Saracens in 668; but soon after retaken by the Romans.—A war breaking out again between these two nations in 837, the Roman emperor Theophylus destroyed Sozopetra the birth-place of the khalif Al' Motasem, notwithstanding his earnest intreates to him to spare it. This so enraged the khalif, that he ordered every one to engrave upon his shield the word Amorium, the birthplace of Theophylus, which he resolved at all events to destroy. Accordingly he laid siege to the place, but met with a vigorous resistance. At length, after a siege of 55 days, it was betrayed by one of the inhabitants who had abjured the Christian religion. The khalif, exasperated at the loss he had sustained during the siege, put most of the men to the sword, carried the women and children into captivity, and levelled the city with the ground. His forces being distressed for want of water on their return home, the Christian prisoners rose upon some of them, and murdered them; upon which the khalif put 6000 of the prisoners to death.—According to the eastern historians, 30,000 of the inhabitants of Amorium were slain, and as many carried into captivity.