Ambarri
The Ambarri were a Gallic people dwelling in the modern Ain department during the Iron Age and the Roman period.
Name
The name is given as Ambarri by Julius Caesar, and by Livy.The Gaulish ethnonym Ambarri could mean 'on both sides of the Saône river', stemming from the Gaulish suffix amb- attached to the pre-Celtic name of the Saône river, Arar.
It has also been interpreted as a contraction of Ambi-barii, formed with the intensifying Gaulish suffix ambi- attached to baro-.
The place names of Ambérieu-en-Bugey, attested ca. 853 as Ambariacus, Ambérieux-en-Dombes, attested in 501 as Ambariaco, and Ambérieux, attested in 892 as Ambariacum, are named after the tribe. They originally derive from a form Ambarria attached to the suffix -acos.
Geography
The Ambarri occupied a tract in the valley of the Rhône, probably in the angle between the Saône and the Rhône; and their neighbors on the east were the Allobroges. They are mentioned by Livy with the Aedui among those Galli who were said to have crossed the Alps into Italy in the time of Tarquinius Priscus.They were clients of the Aedui.
History
According to the Roman historian Livy, the Ambarri joined Bellovesus' legendary migrations ca. 600 BC towards Italy:Caesar does not mention them among the clientes of the Aedui but calls them close allies and kinsmen:
They are also mentioned by Caesar along with the Aedui and the Allobroges: