Category:Gens Ambrosia (Nova Roma)

Revision as of 15:14, 25 March 2008

Gens Ambrosia was one of the original gentes in Nova Roma. Its early members are therefore patrician. When its founder Lucian Ambrosius Neptunius left Nova Roma in April 2751 a.u.c., Merlinia Ambrosia Artoria became materfamilias.

Ambrosius is derived from the Greek name Αμβροσιος (Ambrosios) meaning "immortal." It was a common Roman cognomen. St. Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan (c340-397) was born at Trier, where his father Aurelius Ambrosius was Praefectus of Gallia Narbonensis.

As a nomen, Ambrosius is documented in the Late Empire. Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius (395-423) was a Roman grammarian and Neoplatonic philosopher who flourished during the reigns of Honorius and Arcadius. As usual for this period, his prænomen is not known. He tells us that that Latin was to him a foreign tongue, but no evidence about his origin survives. He is variously thought to have been a Greek or African. He might have been the Macrobius who was mentioned in the Codex Theodosianus as a praetorian prefect of Spain in 399-400, proconsul of Africa in 410, and lord chamberlain in 422. His Saturnalia is a dialogue in seven books, chiefly a literary evaluation of Vergil. He also wrote a commentary on Cicero's Dream of Scipio, which was popular in the Middle Ages and influenced Chaucer. Macrobius was among the first to hold the idea of a spherical earth.

Ambrosius Aurelianus was a leader of the Romano-British in the period following the withdrawal of the legions. He won important battles against the Anglo-Saxons, according to Gildas, De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae (circa 540) and to the legends preserved in Nennius' Historia Britonum (circa 833). According to Bede, Chronica Majora (725), Ambrosius came to power in 479. He is incorrectly referred to in the Historia Regum Britanniae (crica 1136) as Aurelius Ambrosius.