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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.
The Ligurians were a people who, before and during the
Roman
republic period, could be found in north-western Italy. They
largely occupied territory which today forms the region of
Liguria, extending west into Piedmont to the south of the River
Po and even as far as the
French
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Prior to Roman pressure
they may have extended as far as northern Tuscany and across the
Pyrenees into Catalonia.
The first century BC writer, Livy (Titus Livius Patavinus), wrote
about the initial
Celtic
breakthrough into Italy through the western Alps, with the story
dated to about 600 BC. Continuous waves of Celts followed that
path over the next two or three hundred years to create a
substantial Celtic population across the north Italian plain.
This pushed out previously-dominant Etruscans and also compressed
the main Ligurian population southwards (primarily) towards the
coast, but also northwards into the Alps.
Other Ligurian groups - certainly those in the western Alps
and including the Bodiontici - became
Celto-Ligurians over time as the powerful newcomers
increased dominance over them. More potential Ligurians in
the north were compressed into the foothills of the Alps (the
Lepontii),
perhaps also taking on board a Raeti influx (or vice versa -
their story is complicated), while the
Vindelici
could be found on the opposite side of the Alps.
The Bodiontici are also recorded as Brodionti or even
Bodionti, but modern French scholars insist that the name on
the Tropaeum Alpium ('Trophy of the Alps') is faulty, and that
'Bodiontici' is accurate. They were located in the valley of the
River Bleone and its tributaries, the Bès and the Duves, around
the city of Digne (les Bains) and neighbouring communes. The
Albices sat
to their south. The
Nemeloni
were immediately north, while the
Gallitae
were also nearby.
Digne is the capital of today's Haute-Alpes de Provence, in the
Alpine foothills rather than the western Alps proper, and at the
south-western corner of the foothills, in an approximate direct
line north from Toulon. Their overall territory probably reached
up to the Trois-Évêchés to the north-east,
down to the Clue de Chabrières mountain pass to the south,
westwards to the Duves valley, and true northwards to the Massif
de Monges to the north.
Principal author(s):Page created:Page last updated:
(Information by Trish Wilson, with additional information from The
History of Rome, Volume 1, Titus Livius (translated by Rev Canon
Roberts), from The Histories, Herodotus (Penguin, 1996), 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), 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
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
Pleiades
(Ancient World Mapping Center and Institute for the Study of the
Ancient World).)
c.600 BC
The first century BC writer, Livy (Titus Livius Patavinus), writes of an
invasion into Italy
of Celts during the reign
of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, king of
Rome. This event
will reshape the Alpine
populations into a pattern which is familiar to Romans of the first
century BC.
The Ligurian coastline of modern Italy owes its name
to the Ligurian people, a pre-Indo-European grouping
which probably consisted of several influences prior
to being Latinised by the Romans
As archaeology seems to point to a start date of around 500 BC for the
beginning of a serious wave of Celtic incursions into Italy, this event
has either been misremembered by later Romans or is an early precursor
to the main wave of incursions, probably as a result of the same
apparent overpopulation which doubtless forces the start of migration
into Iberia
around a century earlier than this.
That overpopulation is very evident in
Gaul, as this
is the direction from which the Celts travel. Their advance into
the Po Valley means confrontation with
Etruscans
who dwell between the Apennines and the Alps.
It also forces the
Ligurians southwards,
and the ancestors of the
Lepontii northwards,
while the Raeti also
have to relocate, concentrating themselves in the Alps (according to
Pliny the Elder).
It is possible that the Ligurian relocation serves to fracture
once-large tribes into the many smaller units which are later
recorded in the western Alps (and beyond in the case of a potential
component of the
Cantabri tribe).
Celticisation follows relocation to create a swathe of
Celto-Ligurian
tribes, many of which - including the Bodiontici - are located
in what is now
France, close
to the Italian
border.
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)
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.
As for the beleaguered Massalia itself, its siege ends when it fully
submits to
Roman
control. The Romans detach the establishment of
Antipolis from its
metropolis, and grant it the status of city Roman civitas
(according to both Pliny and Strabo).
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.
AD 23
The final edition of Strabo's Geography is published and the
complete work survives today. He talks a good deal about
Roman battles
as part of the Alpine Wars to clear the
Alpine passes to
Gaul, passes which are
occupied by the
Ligurians amongst
others (including the Ligurian
Cotti Regnum).
The impressive, immaculately-restored triumphal
Arch of Augustus sits just outside the centre
of the modern town of Susa, a town which has
its origins in the Segusini tribal
oppidum of Segusio
The 'Trophy of the Alps' is a Roman monument which is erected in 5 BC
at the village of La Turbie both to commemorate the conquest of the
Alps and the submission of forty-four Ligurian tribes during Augustus'
campaigns in 25 BC, 16 BC, and 15 BC and also to mark the boundary
between Italy
and Gaul.
Like other tribes within the western Alps, the Bodiontici are amongst
this defeated mass of tribes, with their surrender coming in the last
phase of the wars. Following incorporation into a new Roman province,
they and their cousins obtain Roman civic rights.
According to Pliny, in AD 69 the Emperor Galba attaches them to
the Roman province of Gallia Narbonnensis, with their principal
civitas becoming Dinia, today's Digne-Les-Bains. Dinia itself
obtains the status of municipium at the beginning of the second
century AD.
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
Ligurians remain identifiable in the form of the
Ingauni and
Intemelii, two main
groups which are sometimes referred to by modern writers as tribes.
They retain their piratical habits but, in effect, live on reservations
(prescribed territory which is fixed in sized by the Romans). In time
all Ligurians and
Celto-Ligurians
are subsumed by Roman (Latin)
culture and language.