Ambiguous

Old historical map of Germania in Roman times from the historical hand atlas of Droysen, 1886 The settlement area is in the western part of Norikum (pink border)

The Ambisonts ( Latin Ambisontes ) were a Celtic tribe in the Kingdom of Noricum , most of which was located in what is now Austria and was ruled by the main Noriker tribe . The Ambisonts are said to have settled south of the Noric alum people .

On three honorary inscriptions from the year 10/9 BC BC, which were found in the city on the Magdalensberg - for Livia Drusilla , Iulia (daughter of Augustus) and Iulia (daughter Agrippas) from the Augustan imperial family - the ambisonts are mentioned in the seventh and penultimate place of the Noric tribes. They are also mentioned by Claudius Ptolemy together with five other Noric tribes. The Tropaeum Alpium in today's La Turbie (built 7/6 BC) mentions the Ambisonts as the only Noric tribe in the list of 16/15 BC. In the Augustan Alpine campaigns defeated Alpine peoples.

The area between the Salzach and Saalach (around today's Pinzgau) up to the confluence and the Salzkammergut is assumed to be their settlement area . Under Emperor Claudius (AD 41–54), this area was attributed to the municipium Claudium Iuvavum (the residents were affiliated there with second-rate Roman citizenship , finitimis attributi municipiis ). The Celtic settlement on Biberg is considered the tribal center of the Ambisonts . Other places in the settlement area were the Steinbühel near Uttendorf , the Rainberg near Salzburg , Dürrnberg near Hallein , Karlstein near Bad Reichenhall , the Bürgkogel near Kaprun , Goldegg im Pongau , the Nikolausberg near Golling and Hallstatt .

The name Ambisonten refers to the ancient Latin name of the upper reaches of the Salzach - Isonta. It can be freely translated as ' those who settle on both sides of the Isonta '. The name Isonta lives on to this day in the term Pinzgau , whose medieval name was Bisontia , and is documented in the old name of Zell am See - Cella in Bisontia .

The name of the lower course of the Salzach was Iuvarus or Ivarus, which was derived from the Celtic river deity Iuvavo , the divine personification of the Salzach. The Romans later adopted the name of this god for the Roman city of Iuvavum , slightly Latinized .

literature

Max Ihm : Ambisontes . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume I, 2, Stuttgart 1894, Sp. 1799.
Max Him: Ambisontii . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume I, 2, Stuttgart 1894, column 1800.
Susanne Sievers , Otto H. Urban , Peter C. Ramsl: Lexicon for Celtic Archeology. A – K. (= Communications of the Prehistoric Commission 73), Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2012, ISBN 978-3-7001-6765-5 , p. 53.

Individual evidence

↑ Jaroslav Šašel : Homage to Noric tribes on Magdalensberg in Carinthia. An attempt at clarification. In: Historia 16, 1967, pp. 70-74.
↑ Ptolemy: Geographike Hyphegesis 2, 13, 2: Ἀμβισόντιοι.
↑ CIL 5, 7817 ; Jaroslav Šašel: To explain the inscription on the Tropaeum Alpium (Plin. Nat. 3, 136-137, CIL V 7871). In: Ziva antika 22, 1972, pp. 135-144.

[1] Jaroslav Šašel : Homage to Noric tribes on Magdalensberg in Carinthia. An attempt at clarification. In: Historia 16, 1967, pp. 70-74.

[2] Ptolemy: Geographike Hyphegesis 2, 13, 2: Ἀμβισόντιοι.

[3] CIL 5, 7817 ; Jaroslav Šašel: To explain the inscription on the Tropaeum Alpium (Plin. Nat. 3, 136-137, CIL V 7871). In: Ziva antika 22, 1972, pp. 135-144.