AMBRACIA, one of the most considerable cities of ancient Epirus, situated on the river Aracthus, at a small distance from the sea. At first it was a free city, but was afterwards reduced by the Aeacidae, kings of Epirus, who chose it for the place of their residence. In process of time the Aetolians made themselves masters of it, and held it till the year before Christ 189, when it fell into the hands of the Romans.

At this time Ambracia was a place of great strength. It was defended on one side by the river Aracthus, and on the other by steep and craggy hills; and surrounded with a high and thick wall, about three miles in compass. The Roman consul Fulvius began the siege by forming two camps, separated by the river, but with a communication between them; the Romans were posted in one, and the Epirots, their allies, in the other. He then threw up two lines, one of circumvallation, the other of contravallation; and built a wooden tower in form of a castle, over against the citadel, which stood on a hill. The Aetolians, however, before the lines were quite finished, found means to throw about 1000 men into the place.

I he lines being completed, the city was attacked in five different places at once. The battering-rams shook the wall on all sides; and the Romans, from their movable towers, pulled down the battlements with a kind of scythes, which they fastened to long beams. The hedged made a vigorous defence. They were night and day on the walls, and indefatigable in preventing the effects of the rams and scythes. The strokes of the former they deadened by letting down upon them beams, *arge stones, lumps of lead, &c. by means of pulleys, when they were in motion; the others they rendered useless, by pulling the beams to which they were fastened into the city, with hooks contrived for the purpose.

While Fulvius was carrying on the siege, Nicander, the Aetolian pretor, found means to throw 500 men into the city, under the command of one Nicoamus, with whom Nicander agreed to attack the Roman camp in the nighttime; not doubting that, if the garrison from within and the army from without fell upon them at the same time, they would be obliged to raise the siege. Nicoamus narrowly watched the time at which he was ordered to sally, and, though Nicander did not appear, marched out at the head of the garrison, armed with firebrands and torches. The Roman sentinels, surprised at this sight, ran to awake the legionaries, and soon spread a general alarm over the camp. The legionaries marched in small bodies as they happened to meet, to repulse the enemy, whom they engaged in three different places. Two parties of the garrison were driven back; but the third, commanded by two Aetolian generals, made a great slaughter of the Romans, and, not finding themselves seconded by Nicander, retired in good order into the city.

Though the besieged were thus abandoned and had no hopes of assistance, they continued to defend themselves with incredible vigour and resolution. The Romans had no sooner made a breach in the wall, than it was repaired, and a new one built behind it. The consul, therefore, altered his measures; and, instead of making breaches with the ram, began to undermine the wall, in hopes of throwing down a great part of it at once, and entering the city before the besieged could have time to build a new wall. The miners, being covered, were not observed by the garrison, till the great quantities of earth brought out of the mine gave the alarm. The Aetolians immediately began to countermine; and having dug a trench of the depth they supposed the mine to be, they carried it along the wall where they heard the strokes of the pickaxes of the Romans. When the two mines met, a battle ensued, first with pickaxes and spades, and then with swords and spears: but this attack did not last long, each party making themselves a kind of rampart with the loose earth. The Aetolians, in order to drive their enemies quite out of the mine, invented a machine, which they brought to the place where the two mines met. This was a hollow vessel with an iron bottom, bored through in many places, and armed with spikes at proper distances, to prevent the enemy from approaching it. This vessel they filled with feathers, which they set on fire, and with bellows driving the smoke on the besiegers, obliged them to leave the mine half-suffocated. This interval the Aetolians made use of in repairing the foundations of the wall.

The vigorous resistance made by the Ambracians, however, did not animate the courage of the nation in general, who were determined on a peace with Rome at all events. Fulvius, in the mean time, being desirous of getting possession of Ambracia before the conclusion of the peace, employed Amynander, king of the Athamanes, to persuade the inhabitants to surrender. As Amynander had great interest in Ambracia, having long resided there, he easily persuaded them to capitulate on the following terms, viz. That the Aetolian garrison should have leave to march out of the city; that the inhabitants should pay 500 talents, 200 down, and the rest at six equal payments; and that they should deliver to the consul all the prisoners and deserters that were in the city. The gates were then opened to Fulvius, and he was presented with a crown of gold, together with many fine statues and pictures, of which there were great numbers in the city, it having been the capital of Pyrrhus, who had enriched it with many valuable monuments.

From this time the city of Ambracia made no figure in history. It is scarcely known at present where the [7:2:600]city stood; but that called Arba, in Upper Albania, seems best to agree with what is said of the ancient situation of this city. The river Aracthus, on which Ambracia was situated, is now called by the natives Spag-magmurisi.