European Kingdoms

Becanenses (Celto-Ligurians)

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

Prior to domination by Rome, the Alpine region 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 they belonged to one or the other of these though, or to the coastal Ligurians who had gradually penetrated the Alps from the south, but who also extended a considerable way westwards along the Mediterranean coast.

There were many groups in Southern Europe which formed the Ligurian people, with not even a confederation uniting them all. In fact, many Ligurian groups formed confederations in their own right. The Becanenses were ostensibly a Gallic tribe. They dwelt on the western side of Lake Garda during the Roman period, on the opposite side to the Belouni, their name probably deriving from the ancient name for Lake Garda itself, Lacus Benancus.

Their territory has been located on the slopes of Monte Stino and the adjacent Monte Manios, near the commune of Tignale. Their principal civitas, however, is held to be at Toscalano Maderno, a little farther south, which at the time was known as Benacum.

Little more is known about this tribe other than it became incorporated into the Roman colony of Brixia (Brescia), under the term 'gentes adtributae', and even that is known only through monument and epigraph inscriptions. One of these was found on a monument in Brescia which had been dedicated to Julia Flavia, daughter of Emperor Titus, a dedication which they shared with the Trumplini tribe.

(Information by Trish Wilson, with additional information by Edward Dawson, Peter Kessler, and Maurizio Puntin, from Res Gestae, Livy (Titus Livius Patavinus), from Ligustica, Albert Karl Ernst Bormann (in three parts, 1864-1868), from Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, Harry Thurston Peck (New York, Harper and Brothers, 1898), from the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, William Smith, from Geography, Ptolemy, from The History of Rome, Volume 1, Titus Livius, translated by Rev Canon Roberts, from Les peuples pre-romains du Sud-Est de la Gaule, Guy Barruol, from Die Kelten in Österreich nach den ältesten Berichten der Antike, Gerhard Dobesch, from Le Alpi Online (Università di Trento), from Urbanizzazione delle campagne nell'Italia antica, Lorenzo Quilici & Stefania Quilici Gigli, from La frontiera padana, Mauro Poletti, and from External Links: Indo-European Chronology - Countries and Peoples, and Indo-European Etymological Dictionary, J Pokorny, and Geography, Strabo (H C Hamilton & W Falconer, London, 1903, Perseus Online Edition), and The Natural History, Pliny the Elder (John Bostock, Ed), and Polybius, Histories, and L'Arbre Celtique (The Celtic Tree, in French).)

c.600 BC

Bellovesus and his massed horde of people from the Bituriges, Insubres, and several other tribes, reaches the barrier of the Alps with an enormous force of horse and foot. This barrier is one which has apparently not previously been breached by Celts, and they make the crossing with some trepidation after attacking the Salyes (Ligurians).

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)

Their path takes them through the passes of the Taurini, to the north of the Bagienni, and the valley of the Douro and, once across the mountain barrier, they defeat Etruscans in battle not far from the Ticinus. Bellovesus and his mainly Insubres people settle around the Ticinus and build a settlement called Mediolanum (modern Milan).

Over the next two centuries, other bodies of Celts follow the route set by Bellovesus. The Cenomani under Elitovius are first, and then the Libui, Saluvii, Boii, and Lingones and finally the Senones, in 391 BC.

It is highly likely that the Becanenses and Belouni are amongst those groups which form here as the Gauls gradually spread out and begin to absorb Ligurian elements in the form of Celto-Ligurians, and also Euganei-Raeti elements around Lake Garda.

The mountainous Alpine country of the Raeti into which some Ligurians also penetrated would have supplied a relatively tough tribal life, with little thriving or expansion, and relatively easy absorption into Celtic and Latin cultures

218 - 217 BC

The Second Punic War starts at Saguntum (near modern Valencia) in Iberia. Using Gadir as a base, Hannibal Barca sets out to attack Rome, leading his Carthaginian armies over the Alps into Italy.

He has to fight off resistance by Gaulish tribes such as the Allobroges along the way (and also by the Taurini, presumably for what they see as an invasion of their territory), but is supported by other Gauls such as the Insubres, who rebel against their Roman occupiers.

At first he wins great victories at Trasimeno and Cannae which all but destroys Roman military strength, but he is denied the reinforcements to pursue his victory by an opposing political faction back at home.

This vast map covers just about all possible tribes which were documented in the first centuries BC and AD, mostly by the Romans and Greeks, and with an especial focus on 52 BC (click or tap on map to view at an intermediate size)

As the tidal wave of invasion passes by and dies down, Roman domination of the Boii, Gaesatae, Insubres, Lingones, and Taurini is renewed (and therefore probably also the unmentioned Bagienni). The now-Celto-Ligurian Becanenses around Lake Garda gradually become Latinised and subsequently disappear from history.