Samarobriva

SAMAROBRI´VA in Gallia, the ford or passage of the Samara, was a town of the Ambiani en the Samara ( Somme). Caesar held a meeting of the states of Gallia at Samarobriva in the autumn of B.C. 54, before putting his troops in winter-quarters. Caesar himself stayed at Samarobriva, as his narrative shows ( B. G. 5.24, 46, 47, 53), and as appears from those letters of Cicero addressed to his friend Trebatius, who was about Caesar at that time ( ad Fam. 7.11, 12, 16). Ptolemy mentions Samarobriva as the chief town of the Ambiani (2.9.8). The town afterwards took the name of Ambiani urbs inter alias eminens(Ammian. 15.11), or Civitas Ambianorumin the Notitia Prov. Gallia. The name of Samarobriva appears in the. Antoniue Itin. and in the Table; but the Itin. has Ambiani also. There seems no reason for fixing Samarobriva at any other site than Amiens, though some geographers would do so.
[G.L]