Ambubaiae
Ambubaiae female musicians from Syria, who gained their living by performing in public, at Rome, especially in the circus. Their name is derived from the Syrian word abub or anbub, a flute. Their moral condition was that which females of their class generally fall into. The bayadères of India will perhaps give the best idea of what they were. (Hor. Sat. 1.2. 1, with Heindorf's note; Mayor on Juvenal, 3.62; Suet. Nero 27; Priapeia, 26; Petron. 74.13.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.