Ambicatus or Ambigatus (Gaulish language: 'He who fights in both directions') is a legendary Gauls king of the Bituriges Cubi, said to have lived ca. 600 BC. According to a legend recounted by Titus Livius, he sent his sister's sons Bellovesus and Segovesus 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 and founded the city of Mediolanum (Milan).
Name
The
Gaulish personal name
Ambigatus is a variant form of an earlier
Ambicatus, meaning 'the one who fights in both directions'. It is a compound 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 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 (387 BC), the essence of the myth was most likely inspired by actual events.
Many Greek ceramics and amphoras imported from
Massilia, 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, 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
Insubres, which integrates various elements borrowed from Celtic, Cisalpine and Transalpine traditions, as well as
Massilia and Etrusco-Italian."
Story
The legend is recounted by the Roman historian
Livy in his
Ab Urbe Condita Libri, written in the late 1st century BC:
- Citations
- Primary sources
- Bibliography
