AMAZONIAN Habit, in Antiquity, denotes a dress formed in imitation of the Amazons. Marcia, the famous concubine of the emperor Commodus, had the appellation of Amazonian, because she charmed him most in a habit of this kind. Hence also that prince himself engaged in combat in the amphitheatre in an Amazonian habit; and of all titles the Amazonius was one of those in which he most delighted. In honour either of the gallant or his mistress, the month of December was also denominated Amazonius. Some also apply Amazonian habit to the hunting-dress worn by many ladies among us.
AMBACHT is a word which denotes a kind of jurisdiction or territory, the possessor whereof has the administration of justice, both in alto and basso; or of what is called in the Scottish law, a power of pit and gallows, i. e. a power of drowning and hanging. In some ancient writers, ambacht is particularly used for the jurisdiction, government, or chief magistracy of a city. The word is very ancient, though used originally in a sense somewhat different. Ennius calls a mercenary, or slave hired for money, ambactus; and Cæsar gives the same appellation to a kind
of dependents among the Gauls, who, without being slaves, were attached to the service of great lords.