Ambrysus

AMBRY´SUS or AMPHRY´SUS(Ἄμβρυσος, Strab.; Ἄμβρωσσος, Paus.; Ἄμφρυσος, Steph. B. s.v.: Eth. Ἀμβρύσιος, Ἀμβρυσευς, and in Inscr. ἈμβρωσσεύςDhístomo). a town of Phocis, was situated 60 stadia from Stiris, NE. of Anticyra, at the southern foot of Mt. Cirphis (not at the foot of Parnassus, as Pausanias states), and in a fertile valley, producing abundance of wine and the coccus,or kermes berry, used to dye scarlet. It was destroyed by order of the Amphictyons, but was rebuilt and fortified by the Thebans with a double wall, in their war against Philip. Its fortifications were considered by Pausanias the strongest in Greece, next to those of Messene. (Paus. 10.3.2, 10.36.1, seq., 4.31.5; Strab. p. 423.) It was taken by the Romans in the Macedonian war, B.C. 198. (Liv. 32.18.) The site of Ambrysus is fixed at the modern village of Dhístomo, by an inscription which Chandler found at the latter place. The remains of the ancient city are few and inconsiderable. (Dodwell, Tour through Greece, vol. 1. p. 196, seq.; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. 2. p. 535, seq.)