Ambracia and Amphilochia

The Ambracian Gulf, near the mouth of which the battle of Actium was fought in 31, separates Acarnania to the south from Epirus to the north. At its eastern end was a mountainous area known as Amphilochia, with its largest city, Amphilochian Argos, near the eastern end of the gulf. Ambracia was a city dominating a large plain north of the gulf. Ambracia was a Corinthian colony and remained close to its mother city. In 480, it joined the fight against the Persians, sending seven ships to Salamis and 500 men to Plataea. 

The Amphilochians, on the other hand, were considered non-Greek in origin. According to Thucydides, sometimes perhaps around 440, the people of Amphilochian Argos accepted Ambraciot settlers and the city became Hellenized. In Thucydides’ own day, the historian tells us, the people of Argos spoke Greek while the rest of the Amphilochians were still non-Greek speakers. But the new settlers took over the town, and the Amphilochians brought in Acarnanian and Athenian help. The Athenian Phormio arrived with 30 ships, took the town, and enslaved the Ambraciot settlers. The town was now repopulated with Amphilochians and Acarnanians. 

The Second Peloponnesian War was a period of further conflict. Ambracia supported Corinth against Corcyra and consistently supported Sparta during the war. In 430, the Ambraciots, with help from unspecified barbarians, tried but failed to take Argos. In winter 426/5, the Ambraciots arranged with a Spartan commander, Eurylochus, to make a joint attack on Argos, to get rid of Acarnanian and Athenian influence in the area altogether. For their part, the Amphilochians called in Athenian help, and the Athenians arrived with 20 ships and 600 Messenian hoplites from Naupactus. The Athenian general Demosthenes took command of the Amphilochians and their allies. 

The resulting battle of Olpae ended disastrously for the Spartans and Ambraciots, and Eurylochus was killed. Demosthenes then surprised and destroyed a relief force sent out from Ambracia. Thucydides comments that Ambracia had suffered the greatest disaster over a few days of any city in the war. Wary of the Athenians obtaining a foothold in the area, the Acarnanians and Amphilochians refrained from capturing Ambracia, and the three parties agreed to a 100-year defensive alliance. The sequence of events is a good example of the sort of local disasters that the conflict of the great powers, Athens and Sparta, inflicted on many parts of Greece. 

Ambracia remained loyal to Corinth in the Corinthian War. In the third century, the area came under the rule of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, and he made Ambracia his capital. From about 229 to 167, it was part of the Aetolian League, before coming under Roman rule. After the battle of Actium, fought near the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf in 31, Ambracia helped provide the population of Augustus’ new foundation, Nicopolis, which became the dominant city in the area.