European Kingdoms

Medulli (Gauls / Celto-Ligurians?)

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In general terms, the Romans coined the name 'Gaul' to describe the Celtic tribes of what is now central, northern, and eastern France. The Gauls were divided from the Belgae to the north by the Marne and the Seine, and from the Aquitani to the south by the River Garonne, while also extending into Switzerland, northern Italy, and along the Danube (see feature link for a discussion of the origins of the Celtic name).

By the middle of the first century BC, there existed a cluster of smaller tribes in the Alpine region of western Switzerland and the French/Italian border (see map link for all tribal locations). This included the Medulli who were located in western Switzerland, in the Vallee de la Maurienne in Savoy, to the south of the Great St Bernard Pass. They held the upper reaches of the River Arc, a tributary of the River Isere, around the town of Modane. They were neighboured to the north by the Graioceli, to the east by the Insubres, to the south by the Ceutrones and many smaller Celto-Ligurian tribes, and to the west by the Allobroges.

The tribe's name can be interpreted in a number of ways, with perhaps the best choices being 'middle' or 'power'. However, 'mead' and 'drunk' offer more fun: *med-alo- (?), meaning 'soft'; *med-e/o- (?), meaning 'be able'; *med-e/o- (?), meaning 'say'; *med-e/o- (?), meaning 'sin'; *med-je/o-, meaning 'measure'; *medjo-, *mediåã, meaning 'middle'; *medjo-samīno-, meaning 'June' (*middle of summer); *med-o- (?), meaning 'power'; *medu-, meaning 'mead'; and finally *medwo-, meaning 'drunk'.

If they were not the 'middle' tribe in terms of Alpine location, or the 'power' in the Alps, probably due to their grip this important trade route between Italy and France, then they could well have been the party animals of the Alpine region!

This Medulli tribe should not be confused with a division of the Biturices Vivisci which was also known as the Medulli. If there is any relationship between the two, then the Biturices group could have been the original core of the tribe, while the Alpine group could have been a migratory splinter which formed part of the Gaulish invasion of Italy in the fifth and fourth centuries BC.

It should be noted that not all Gaulish groups which were involved in the invasion actually entered Italy. Some integrated themselves along the western Alps between Lake Constance and Nice, often to dominate or integrate with Celto-Ligurian groups along the Alpine ridge, and this Medulli group was probably one of those.

(Information by Peter Kessler and Edward Dawson, with additional information by Trish Wilson, from Roman History, Cassius Dio, from Research into the Physical History of Mankind, James Cowles Pritchard, from Les peuples préromains du Sud-Est de la Gaule: Étude de géographie historique, Guy Barruol (De Boccard, 1999), and from External Links: The Works of Julius Caesar: Gallic Wars, and Geography, Strabo (H C Hamilton & W Falconer, London, 1903, Perseus Online Edition), and L'Arbre Celtique (The Celtic Tree, in French), and Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz or Dictionnaire Historique de la Suisse or Dizionario Storico dell Svizzera (in German, French, and Italian respectively).)

c.400 - 391 BC

Following the Alpine route set by Bellovesus and the Bituriges around 600 BC, other bodies of Celts have gradually invaded northern Italy, probably due to overpopulation in Gaul and the promise of fertile territory just waiting to be captured.

The origins of the Euganei, Ligurians, Raeti, Veneti, and Vindelici are confused and unclear, but in the last half of the first millennium BC they were gradually being Celticised or were combining multiple influences to create hybrid tribes (click or tap on map to view full sized)

The first of these crossings of the Pennine Alps is the Cenomani around 400 BC, followed by the Libui and Saluvii. Then the Boii and Lingones cross, with the Senones the last to arrive. The Medulli tribe may also find its home in the Alps as part of this migration, seemingly leaving behind a remnant or core which is later known as being part of the Biturices Vivisci.

218 BC

Writing in the mid-second century BC, Polybius provides both the Allobroges and the Segovellauni with their first mention in history. The Allobroges are already established on the western side of the Alps where they control many of the important passes through the mountains.

They (and 'other tribes' which may include the Medulli) unsuccessfully attempt to resist the passage of Hannibal and his Carthaginian army which is on its way to attack Rome during the Second Punic War.

Perhaps not unexpectedly, it seems to be fellow Celts, the Boii, who first show the mountain passes to Hannibal, after the Segovellauni have escorted them through Allobroges lands. Tribal politics often means using your enemy's enemy to strike a blow against them.

The Celtic tribes of the western Alps were relatively small and fairly fragmented, but they made up for that with a level of belligerence and fighting ability which often stunned their major opponents, including the Romans

53 BC

Otherwise apparently playing no noticeable part in the Roman conquest of Gaul up to this point, the Medulli are mentioned when Julius Caesar returns to Port Itius as part of his preparations for a second expedition to Britain.

He discovers that forty ships which had been built in the country of the 'Meldi' (the Medulli) had been driven back by a storm and had returned to port. This seems unlikely have been the Alpine Medulli, but it could have been those of the Biturices Vivisci. They share the Atlantic coast with the Pictones - and the Pictones certainly are ship builders for the Romans.

25 - 15 BC

Augustus determines that the Alpine tribes need to be pacified in order to end their warlike behaviour, alternately attacking or extracting money from Romans who pass through the region, even when they have armies in tow. He wages a steady, determined campaign against them during the Alpine Wars, and in a period of ten years he 'pacifies the Alps all the way from the Adriatic to the Tyrrhenian seas' (written by Augustus himself).

14 BC

Emperor Augustus creates the province of Alpes Maritimae (the maritime, or seaward, Alps). It has its capital at Cemenelum (modern Nice, although this is switched in 297 to Civitas Ebrodunensium, modern Embrun). The history of the Alpine region's population of Celts and Celto-Ligurians is now tied to that of the empire.

The Tropaeum Alpium ('Trophy of the Alps') stands majestically in the commune of La Turbie on the French Riviera, overlooking the principality of Monaco, and marking the final victory over the Alpine tribes by Augustus

7 BC

Strabo publishes the first edition of his great work, Geographica. About the Medulli he says: 'At any rate, the steepest height of these [Alpine] peaks is said to involve an ascent of a hundred stadia, and an equal number the descent thence to the boundaries of Italy.

'And up in a certain hollowed-out region stands a large lake, and also two springs which are not far from one another. One of these springs is the source of the Druentia, a torrential river which dashes down towards the Rhodanus, and also of the Durias, which takes the opposite direction... The situation of the Medulli is, to put it in a general way, above the confluence of the Isar and the Rhodanus'. And so the tribe fades from history.