European Kingdoms

Alauni (Raeti? / Indo-Iranians?)

Alpine Tribes (Intro) Alpine Tribes Alpine Groups (Pre-Roman) Aquitani Tribes Celtic Tribes Rome

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 Celtic tribes along the eastern edges of the Alpine region of what is now eastern Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and western Austria (see map link for all tribal locations). Prior to domination by Rome, this area contained various populations which had a complex, obscure, and ethnically-multilayered history.

Two major ethnic groups were recorded (aside from intrusions by Etruscans, Ligurians, and Veneti), these being the Euganei on the north Italian plain and the Alpine foothills, and the Raeti in the Trentino and Alto Adige valleys. Other Ligurian groups - certainly those in the western Alps - became Celto-Ligurians over time as Celts increased dominance over them.

Within this highly-complex tribal and ethnic mix there is also a tribe called the Alauni. They are normally - but not exclusively - classed as being a division of the greater Alani body of Indo-Iranians. There is some argument that they were instead an Alpine unit which never had any links to the Alani, even though their specific alternative ethnic identity cannot be established. The possibility, though, cannot be discounted.

They lived around the Chiemsee, in the area of today's Upper Bavaria and Austria's northern Salzburg. Potentially they formed one of the northernmost divisions of the Norican kingdom. They were neighboured to the north by the vast homeland of the Boii, to the east by the main bulk of the Taurisci (and more specifically by the Sevarces), and to the south by the Ambisontes and various small Raeti Tribes.

(Information by Trish Wilson and Peter Kessler, with additional information by Edward Dawson, from The History of Rome, Volume 1, Titus Livius (translated by Rev Canon Roberts), from The Histories, Herodotus (Penguin, 1996), from The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World, David W Anthony, from Les peuples préromains du Sud-Est de la Gaule: Étude de géographie historique, Guy Barruol (De Boccard, 1999), from Encyclopaedia Britannica (Eleventh Edition, Cambridge (England), 1910), from Encyclopaedia of the Roman Empire, Matthew Bunson (1994), from Die Kelten in Österreich nach den ältesten Berichten der Antike, Gerhard Dobesch (in German), from Urbanizzazione delle campagne nell'Italia antica, Lorenzo Quilici & Stefania Quilici Gigli (in Italian), from La frontiera padana, Mauro Poletti (in Italian), from Les Alains, Cavaliers des steppes, seigneurs du Caucase Ie-XVe siècle, Vladimir Kouznetsov & Iaroslav Lebedynsky (Editions Errance, Paris 2005), from Etnicheskaja istorija Severnogo Kavkaza, A V Gadlo, and from External Links: Indo-European Chronology - Countries and Peoples, and Indo-European Etymological Dictionary, J Pokorny, and Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, William Smith (1854, Perseus Digital Library), and The Natural History, Pliny the Elder (John Bostock, Ed), 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), and Le Alpi (Università di Trento), and The Alans (Marres Education).)

90s BC

The nomadic Yancai - later referred to as Alan-na - are recorded by Sima Qian of China, centred on the northern shore of the Aral Sea. They may be a wandering group of Alani, but they may equally be a group which has adopted a variation of the same name - a form of the Indo-Iranian 'Arya', meaning the 'civilised' or 'respectable'. Arabic records of the Alani from around AD 1000 (during the height of the kingdom of Alania) would seem to support a connection.

Zhang Qian was a Chinese ambassador and explorer who, between 138-126 BC, met and documented many of the steppe tribes, including the Yancai to the north of the Aral Sea

Around the same time, two tribes on the banks of the Danube in southern Central Europe are generally linked to the Alani as sub-divisions of the main body (although the alternative theory offered here is that they are entirely separate groups which are simply using variations of the same name).

One is the Roxolani, while the other is the Alauni, located on the south bank of the Danube, between that and the town of Iuvavum (modern Salzburg in Austria). They are neighboured to the north by the Celtic Sevarces, to the east and south by the powerful Taurisci and the Ambisontes, and to the west by the Vindelici.

49 BC

With the Albici confederation constantly descending to the coast to help the beleaguered in Massalia, Julius Caesar now deals with this dual problem once and for all by decisively ending the threat.

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 Roman empire soon unquestionably controls the entire Alpine region - giving it free access to Gaul and Germania. This probably serves to hasten the final decline and disappearance of any non-Indo-European traits, customs, and languages here.

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).

The modern southern Austrian region of Carinthia marked the upper edge of the Adriatic hinterland which was first occupied by Celts towards the end of the fourth century BC

The Ambisontes are included in this defeat after throwing in their lot with the Raeti and Vindelici. Given the fact that the Catubrini lie between Italy and this tribe, they should also be included, while the Alauni are stated as not being involved. Either way, following this, the history of the Alpine region's population of Celts and others is tied to that of the empire.

16 - 15 BC

The Norican kingdom is subdued by Rome, at the hands of Drusus and Tiberius. The Ambidravi are included in this defeat, although they seem not to have been included in the recent Alpine Wars. The Alauni are not mentioned, although they are fully incorporated into the empire.

Ligurians and Raeti remain identifiable for some time but, in time, they and their Celto-Ligurian relations are subsumed by Roman (Latin) culture and language.