Bede, who in his chronicle (p. 28) places Ambrosius under the reign of Zeno (A.D. 474-491), observes that his parents had been "purpurâ induti;" which he explains, in his ecclesiastical history, by "regium nomen et insigne ferentibus" (1. i. c. 16, p. 53). The expression of Nennius (c. 44, p. 110, edit. Gale) is still more singular, "Unus de consulibus gentis Romanicae est pater meus. "