bga_162469 - AMBIANI (Area of Amiens) Bronze aux hippocampes adossés, BN 8526

AMBIANI (Area of Amiens)

(2nd - 1st century BC)

Their name, "those who are on both sides of the river", indicates that the Ambiens, people of Belgian Gaul, occupied both banks of the Somme (Samara). Their territory corresponds to the current department of the Somme. Their neighbors were the Calètes, the Morins, the Atrébates, the Bellovaques. Their main oppidum was Samarobriva (near Amiens). They participated in the coalition of the Belgian peoples in 57 BC and provided a contingent of ten thousand men. In 52 BC, it was a contingent of five thousand men that they gave for the relief army dedicated to clearing Alesia. Caesar (BG. II, 4, 15; VII, 75; VIII, 7). Strabo (G. IV, 5). Kruta: 68, 110, 366.