Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

78 AMBITUS. AMICTUS.
in whole or in part. Another Lex Julia de Am- enough that the principle was to punish the briber
bitu was passed (B.C. 8; Dion Cass. Iv. 5) ap- only.
parently to amend the law of B. c. 18. Candidates The trials for ambitus were numerous in the
were required to deposit a sum of money before time of the republic. A list of them is given by
canvassing, which was forfeited if they were con- Rein. The oration of Cicero in defence of L.
victed of bribery. If any violence was used by a Murena, who was charged with ambitus, and that
candidate, he was liable to exile (aquae et ignis in defence of Cn. Plancius, who was tried under
interdictio). the Lex Licinia, are both extant. (Rein, CriminalThe popular forms of election were observed recht der Rmoner, where all the authorities are colduring the time of Augustus. Under Tiberius lected; Cic. Pro Plancio, ed. Wunder.) [G. L.]
they ceased. Tacitus (Annal. i. 15) observes: — AMBLO'SEOS GRAPHE/ (O&uAc6resws
" The comitia were transferred from the campus to ypaep2). [ABORTIO.]
the patres," the senate. AMBRO'SIA (& Gcpkd a), festivals observed in
WVhile the choice of candidates was thus partly Greece, in honour of Dionysus, which seem to have
in the hands of the senate, bribery and corruption derived their name from the luxuries of the table,
still influenced the elections, though the name of or from the indulgence of drinking. According to
ambitus was, strictly speaking, no longer appli- Tzetzes on Hesiod (Op. et D. v. 504) these festivals
cable. But in a short time, the appointment to were solemnized in the month of Lenaeon, during
public offices was entirely in the power of the em- the vintage. (Etym. M. s. v. Am/0aurC, p. 564. 7.;
perors; and the magistrates of Rome, as well as G. E. W. Schneider, Ueber das Attisclhe Theaterthe populus, were merely the shadow of that which wesen, p. 43; K. F. Hermann, Lehrb. d. gottesdienstl.
had once a substantial form. A Roman jurist, of Alterth. d. Griecben, ~ 58. n. 7.) [L. S.]
the imperial period (Modestinus), in speaking of AMBUBAIAE, female musicians from Syria,
the Julia Lex de Ambitu, observes, " This law is who gained their living by performing in public, at
now obsolete in the city, because the creation of Rome, especially in the Circus. Their name is
magistrates is the business of the princeps, and derived from the Syrian word abub or canbub, a
does not depend on the pleasure of the populus; flute. Their moral condition was that which
but if any one in a municipium should offend females of their class generally fall into. The
against this law in canvassing for a sacerdotium or Bayaderes of India will perhaps give the best idea
magistratus, he is punished, according to a senatus of what they were. (Hor. Sat. i. 2. 1, with Heinconsultum, with infamy, and subjected to a penalty dorf's Note; Juvenal, iii. 62; Suet. Ne'. 27;
of 100 aurei." (Dig. 48. tit. 14.) Priapeia, 26; Petron. lxxiv. 13.) [P.S.]
The laws that have been enumerated are pro- AMBU'RBIUM, or AMBURBIA'LE, a sa)ably all that were enacted, at least all of which crifice which was performed at Rome for the purifiany notice is preserved. Laws to repress bribery cation of the city, in the same manner as the
were made while the voting was open; and they ambarvalia was intended for the purification of the
continued to be made after the vote by ballot was country. The victims were carried through the
introduced at the popular elections by the Lex whole town, and the sacrifice was usually perGabinia (B. C. 139). Rein observes'that "by this formed when any danger was apprehended in conchange the control over the voters was scarcely sequence of the appearance of prodigies, or other
any longer possible; and those who were bribed circumstances. (Obseq. De Prodig. c. 43; Apul.
could not be distinguished from those who were Metamorph. iii. ab init. p. 49, Bipont.; Lucan. i.
not." One argument in favour of ballot in modern 593.) Scaliger supposed that the amburbium and
times has been that it would prevent bribery; and ambarvalia were the same; but their difference is
probably it would diminish the practice, though expressly asserted by Servius (ad Virg. Eel. iii.
not put an end to it. But the notion of Rein that 77), and Vopiscus (amburbizum celebratumn, amnbarthe bare fact of the vote being secret would in- valia promissca; Aurel. c. 20).
crease the difficulty of distinguishing the bribed AMENTUM. [HASTA.]
from the unbribed is absurd; for the bare know- AMICTO'RIUM, a linen covering for the
ledge of a man's vote is no part of the evidence of breasts of women, probably the same as the strobribery. It is worth remark that there is no in- phium. [STROPHIuM.] (Mart. xiv. 149.) In later
dication of any penalty being attached to the times it seems to have been used in the same sense
receiving of a bribe for a vote. The utmost that as Amictus. (Cod. Theod. 8. tit. 5. s. 48.) [AuIccan be proved is, that the diisores or one of the TUS.]
class of persons who assisted in bribery were AMICTUS, AMI'CULUM. The verb amicire
punished. (Cic. pro Plancio, c. 23, pro Ap~arenat is commonly opposed to induere, the former being
c. 23.) But this is quite consistent with the rest: applied to the putting on of the outer garment.
the briber and his agents were punished, not the the chlamys, pallium, laena, or toga (iUtdrtov, pabribed. W5hen, therefore, Rein, who refers to pos); the latter, to the putting on of the inner garthese two passages under the Lex Tullia, says: ment, the tunica (XLTrv)). In consequence of this
" Even those who received money from the can- distinction, the verbal nouns, amictzes and indautus,
didates, or at least those who distributed it in even without any further denomination of the dress
their names, were punished," he couples two things being added, indicate respectively /the outer and
together that are entirely of a different kind. The the inner clothing. (See Tibull. i. 9. 13.; Corn.
proposed Lex Aufidia (Cic. ad Art. i. 16) went Nep. Cimon, 4, Dat. 3. ~ 2; Virg. Aen. iii. 545,
so far as to declare that if a candidate promised v. 421, compared with Apoll. Rhod. ii. 30.) Somemoney to a tribe and did not pay it, he should be times, however, though rarely, amicire and indztere
mnpunished; but if he did pay the money, he are each used in a more general way, so as to refer
should further pay to each tribe (annually?) to any kind of clothing.
3000 sesterces as long as he lived. This absurd In Greek anmicire is expressed by E(pe',v'v0at,
proposal was not carried; but it shows clearly atz/,s,6vU'OateL r, &r XEcea E'riAdchAeeOat, 7repL