Ambicatus or Ambigatus (
Gaulish
Gaulish was an ancient Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switze ...
: 'He who fights in both directions') is a legendary
Gallic king of the
Bituriges, said to have lived ca. 600 BC. According to a legend recounted by
Livy
Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in ...
, he sent his sister's sons
Bellovesus
Bellovesus (Gaulish: 'Worthy of Power') is a legendary Gallic chief of the Bituriges, said to have lived ca. 600 BC. According to a legend recounted by Livy, the king Ambigatus sent his sister's sons Bellovesus and Segovesus in search of new land ...
and
Segovesus
Segovesus (Gaulish: 'Worthy of Victories') is a legendary Gallic chief of the Bituriges, said to have lived ca. 600 BC. According to a legend recounted by Livy, the king Ambigatus sent his sister's sons Bellovesus and Segovesus in search of new l ...
in search of new lands to settle because of overpopulation in their homeland. Segovesus headed towards the
Hercynian Forest, while Bellovesus is said to have led the Gallic invasion of the
Po Valley during the legendary reign of the fifth king of Rome,
Tarquinius Priscus (616–579 BC), where he allegedly conquered the
Etruscans
The Etruscan civilization () was developed by a people of Etruria in ancient Italy with a common language and culture who formed a federation of city-states. After conquering adjacent lands, its territory covered, at its greatest extent, rou ...
and founded the city of
Mediolanum
Mediolanum, the ancient city where Milan now stands, was originally an Insubrian city, but afterwards became an important Roman city in northern Italy. The city was settled by the Insubres around 600 BC, conquered by the Romans in 222 BC, and ...
(
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
).
Name
The
Gaulish
Gaulish was an ancient Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switze ...
personal name ''Ambigatus'' is a variant form of an earlier ''Ambicatus'', meaning 'the one who fights in both directions'. It is a
compound
Compound may refer to:
Architecture and built environments
* Compound (enclosure), a cluster of buildings having a shared purpose, usually inside a fence or wall
** Compound (fortification), a version of the above fortified with defensive struc ...
formed with the root ''ambi''- ('around, on both sides') attached to -''catu''- ('combat, battle'). Peter E. Busse and
John T. Koch note that Gaulish names that entered Latin through the
Etruscan language
Etruscan () was the language of the Etruscan civilization, in Italy, in the ancient region of Etruria (modern Tuscany, western Umbria, northern Latium, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Lombardy and Campania). Etruscan influenced Latin but was eventua ...
often show this confusion between /k/ and /g/, since Etruscan did not distinguish between the two sounds (e.g. Lat. ''gladius'' < Gaul. *''cladios'').
Origin
Although the background of the story is anachronistic, for the historical Celtic invasion of the Italian Peninsula occurred between the end of the 5th century and the middle of the 4th century BC, in the context of the
Battle of the Allia
The Battle of the Allia was a battle fought between the Senones – a Gallic tribe led by Brennus, who had invaded Northern Italy – and the Roman Republic. The battle was fought at the confluence of the Tiber and Allia rivers, 11 Roman ...
(387 BC), the essence of the myth was most likely inspired by actual events.
Many Greek ceramics and amphoras imported from
Massalia, as well as local productions of fine art pottery dated to the second part of the 6th century BC were found on the site of
Bourges, which, according to historian
Venceslas Kruta
Venceslas Kruta (born 4 November 1939) is a French archaeologist and historian. He is the director of European protohistory studies at the École pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), and Professor emeritus at the Sorbonne University. Kruta has also ...
, gives archeological credit to the essence of the tradition reported by Livy evoking the power of the people of the region well before his own time. Kruta further contends that the story "is probably the legendary construction of a 'myth of origins', likely
Insubrian, which integrates various elements borrowed from Celtic, Cisalpine and Transalpine traditions, as well as
Massaliote and Etrusco-Italian."
Story
The legend is recounted by the Roman historian
Livy
Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in ...
in his ''
Ab Urbe Condita Libri
The work called ( en, From the Founding of the City), sometimes referred to as (''Books from the Founding of the City''), is a monumental history of ancient Rome, written in Latin between 27 and 9 BC by Livy, a Roman historian. The wor ...
'', written in the late 1st century BC:
References
;Citations
;Primary sources
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;Bibliography
*
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{{refend
7th-century BC rulers
Celtic warriors
Gaulish rulers