Ambracia, a city of Epirus near the Acheron, the residence of king Pyrrhus. Augustus, after the battle of Actium, called it Nicopolis. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 3.—Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 1.—Polybius, bk. 4, ch. 63.—Strabo, bk. 10.
Ambracius Sinus, a bay of the Ionian sea, near Ambracia, about 300 stadia deep, narrow at the entrance, but within near 100 stadia in breadth, and now called the gulf of Larta. Polybius, bk. 4, ch. 63.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 3.—Florus, bk. 4, ch. 11.—Strabo, bk. 10.
Ambri, an Indian nation. Justin, bk. 12, ch. 9.
Ambrōnes, certain nations of Gaul, who lost their possessions by the inundation of the sea, and lived upon rapine and plunder, whence the word Ambrones implied a dishonourable meaning. They were conquered by Marius. Plutarch, Marius.
Ambrōsia, festivals observed in honour of Bacchus in some cities in Greece. They were the same as the Brumalia of the Romans.——One of the daughters of Atlas, changed into a constellation after death.——The food of the gods was called ambrosia, and their drink nectar. The word signifies immortal. It had the power of giving immortality to all those who eat it. It was sweeter than honey, and of a most odoriferous smell; and it is said that Berenice, the wife of Ptolemy Soter, was saved from death by eating ambrosia given her by Venus. Titonus was made immortal by Aurora, by eating ambrosia; and in like manner Tantalus and Pelops, who, on account of their impiety, had been driven from heaven, and compelled to die upon earth. It had the power of healing wounds, and therefore Apollo, in Homer’s Iliad, saves Sarpedon’s body from putrefaction, by rubbing it with ambrosia; and Venus also heals the wounds of her son, in Virgil’s Æneid, with it. The gods used generally to perfume the hair with ambrosia; as Juno when she adorned herself to captivate Jupiter, and Venus when she appeared to Æneas. Homer, Iliad, bks. 1, 14, 16, & 24.—Lucian, de Dea Syria.—Catullus, poem 100.—Theocritus, Idylls, poem 15.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, li. 407; bk. 12, li. 419.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 2.—Pindar, bk. 1, Olympian.
Ambrosius, bishop of Milan, obliged the emperor Theodosius to make penance for the murder of the people of Thessalonica, and distinguished himself by his writings, especially against the Arians. His three books, de Officiis, are still extant, besides eight hymns on the creation. His style is not inelegant, but his diction is sententious, his opinions eccentric, though his subject is diversified by copiousness of thought. He died A.D. 397. The best edition of his works is that of the Benedictines, 2 vols., folio, Paris, 1686.
Ambrȳon, a man who wrote the life of Theocritus of Chios. Diogenes Laërtius.
Ambryssus, a city of Phocis, which receives its name from a hero of the same name. Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 35.
Ambūbājæ, Syrian women of immoral lives, who, in the dissolute period of Rome, attended festivals and assemblies as minstrels. The name is derived by some from Syrian words, which signify a flute. Horace, bk. 1, satire 2.—Suetonius, Nero, ch. 27.
Ambulli, a surname of Castor and Pollux, in Sparta.