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Greek city of Ambracia in the Epirus
Bronze 19mm (3.83 grams) Struck circa 238-168 B.C.
Reference: Sear 1964
Laureate and veiled head of Dione left.
Obelisk of Apollo divides the legend A – M / B – P; all within laurel-wreath.
An important colony of Corinth, Ambrakia was founded circa 660 B.C., and became the capital of the kingdom of Epeiros under Pyrrhos.
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 In Greek and Roman mythology , Apollo , is one of the most important and diverse of the Olympian deities . The ideal of the kouros (a beardless youth), Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the sun; truth and prophecy; archery ; medicine and healing; music, poetry, and the arts; and more. Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, and has a twin sister, the chaste huntress Artemis . Apollo is known in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu. Apollo was worshiped in both ancient Greek and Roman religion , as well as in the modern Greco –Roman Neopaganism .
As the patron of Delphi (Pythian Apollo), Apollo was an oracular god — the prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle . Medicine and healing were associated with Apollo, whether through the god himself or mediated through his son Asclepius , yet Apollo was also seen as a god who could bring ill-health and deadly plague as well as one who had the ability to cure. Amongst the god’s custodial charges, Apollo became associated with dominion over colonists , and as the patron defender of herds and flocks. As the leader of the Muses (Apollon Musagetes) and director of their choir, Apollo functioned as the patron god of music and poetry . Hermes created the lyre for him, and the instrument became a common attribute of Apollo. Hymns sung to Apollo were called paeans .
In Hellenistic times, especially during the third century BCE, as Apollo Helios he became identified among Greeks with Helios , god of the sun , and his sister Artemis similarly equated with Selene , goddess of the moon . In Latin texts, on the other hand, Joseph Fontenrose declared himself unable to find any conflation of Apollo with Sol among the Augustan poets of the first century, not even in the conjurations of Aeneas and Latinus in Aeneid XII (161–215). Apollo and Helios/Sol remained separate beings in literary and mythological texts until the third century CE.
Ambracia, occasionally Ampracia (Greek: ancient Ἀμπρακία; modern Αμβρακία), was an ancient Corinthian colony, situated about 7 miles from the Ambracian Gulf in Greece , on a bend of the navigable river Arachthos (or Aratthus), in the midst of a fertile wooded plain.
It was founded between 650 and 625 BC by Gorgus , son of the Corinthian tyrant Cypselus , at which time its economy was based on farmlands, fishing, timber for shipbuilding, and the exportation of the produce of Epirus. After the expulsion of Gorgus’s son Periander its government developed into a strong democracy. The early policy of Ambracia was determined by its loyalty to Corinth (for which it probably served as an entrepot in the Epirus trade), its consequent aversion to Corcyra , and its frontier disputes with the Amphilochians and Acarnanians. Hence it took a prominent part in the Peloponnesian War until the crushing defeat at Idomene (426) crippled its resources.
In the 4th century BC it continued its traditional policy, but in 338 was besieged by Philip II of Macedon . With the assistance of Corinth and Athens, it escaped complete domination at Philip’s hands, but was nevertheless forced to accept a Macedonian garrison. In 294 BC , after forty-three years of semi-autonomy under Macedonian suzerainty, Ambracia was given by the son of Cassander to Pyrrhus , king of Epirus , who made it his capital, and adorned it with palace, temples and theatres. In the wars of Philip V of Macedon and the Epirotes against the Aetolian league (220–205) Ambracia passed from one alliance to the other, but ultimately joined the latter confederacy. During the struggle of the Aetolians against Rome , it stood a stubborn siege , including the first known use of poison gas against the Romans’ siege tunnels .
Ambracia was captured and plundered by M. Fulvius Nobilior in 189 BC , after which it was declared by Rome a “free city”, and gradually fell into insignificance. The foundation by Augustus of Nicopolis , into which the remaining inhabitants were drafted, left the site desolate. In Byzantine times a new settlement took its place under the name of Arta . Some fragmentary walls of large, well-dressed blocks near this latter town indicate the early prosperity of Ambracia.
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