European Kingdoms

Alcimoenni (Vindelici) (Ligurians / Celto-Ligurians?)

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

Prior to domination by Rome, the Alpine region in Europe contained various populations which had a complex, obscure, and ethnically-multilayered history. Two major ethnic groups were recorded (aside from intrusions by the Etruscans 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.

There were a great many more minor groups, all of which seem to have formed part of the initial phase of the Golasecca culture. Generally though they belonged to one or the other of the main groups, or were coastal Ligurians who had gradually penetrated the Alps from the south.

The Vindelici tribal confederation demonstrates this Ligurian penetration, although the distance travelled by this one is unusual. Possibly it was triggered by the massed Celtic penetration of the western Alps between about 600-400 BC (see the Vindelici for more on this). By the middle of the first century BC this confederation was located to the north and east of Lacus Brigantinus in the Roman province of Rhaetia (around the modern Lake Constance), in what is now western Austria.

The Vindelici, Strabo states, are a folk (a group in their own right, not a sub-tribe). He gives several tribal names which include the Alcimoenni, all of which would appear to be Vindelici tribes (or Liguro-Raeti tribes). One, the Vennones, is generally classed as being Raeti, but Strabo classifies them as Vindelici.

However, for the purposes of clarity and probability they are covered on the Raeti Tribes page. Confusingly perhaps, Strabo also indicates that the Vindelici are not Ligurians. He refers to the neighbouring Brigantii as a sub-tribe of the Vindelici, and the Brigantii are most certainly Celts (here he probably meant the Brigiani).

As for the Alcimoenni themselves, there seems to be virtually nothing available to describe them. The only mention by ancient writers comes from Ptolemy. He mentions a place in Magna Germania which is referred to as Alcimoennis, the view being taken that this name had been picked up by way of Roman itineraries. Ptolemy's coordinates and description, that it lay to the north of the upper Danube, would in the first century BC seem to place it within Vindelici territory to the north of the Alps.

(Information by Trish Wilson, Edward Dawson, & Peter Kessler, with additional information from The History of Rome, Volume 1, Titus Livius (translated by Rev Canon Roberts), from The Histories, Herodotus (Penguin, 1996), 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 Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde (available via Archive.org, in German), and Brill's New Pauly (Antiquity, 2002, and available via Archive.org).)

5th century BC

The Brigantii migrate into the Cispadane Gaul region of the Alps, arriving in an area which has already been settled for a millennium. Strabo later states that they are a sub-tribe of the Vindelici, who occupy territory to the north-east.

An artist's recreation of the Brigantii settlement of Cambodunum, which was located in what is now south-western Bavaria, part of the heartland of early Celtic development

This could indicate the route taken by the Brigantii to reach their new home, but it also raises the possibility that they are not Gauls, or perhaps only partially so. The Vindelici themselves have an uncertain ancestry, possibly being a blend of La Tène and Ligurians.

The Ligurian element may not even arrive here until this century, perhaps forced northwards by the massed Celtic intrusion into the western Alps. It is hard to think why Ligurians would otherwise leave the fertile south to fight their way through the hostile northern Alps - although overpopulation has been the reason for the Celts performing a similar crossing of the Alps.

Equally possible is the idea that the Brigantii are Ligurians who are commanded by a Gaulish elite - there is even a Brigiani tribe which may have been confused with the Brigantii. Even if it is indeed the Brigantii who are involved here, the act of referring to them as Celts is merely the modern naming convention which has been inherited from the Romans.

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)

Thinking of the term as valid or invalid may be irrelevant. 'Celt' may simply be what some West Indo-European speakers call themselves and others not - and with the Celts long in the ascendance in Central Europe, some non-Celtic people may arbitrarily adopt the term in order to fit in.

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.

At about the same time as he is fighting the Cantabrian Wars in Iberia (29-19 BC), he wages a steady, determined campaign against the Alpine tribes in the Alpine Wars. 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 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

The wars are necessary from the Roman standpoint in order to secure full control of Iberia and the Alps. Doing so in the latter will fill in a gap between Roman Italy and occupied Gaul.

The Brigantii and their immediate neighbours are defeated by 15 BC, including the Vindelici, the Raeti, and the Ambisontes. All of them are drawn into the newly-forming imperial structure for the duration of its existence.