European Kingdoms

Elisyces (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 Elisyces were located towards the west of Ligurian territory, in the region between Narbonne and Béziers (originally Besara) in today's south-eastern France. They are believed to have belonged to the larger body of Ligurians (see feature link for more on the Ligurians in general).

The tribe is mentioned by three ancient authors: Hecataeus of Miletus, Herodotus, and Rufus Avienus in his Ora Maritima. Its name could be derived from that of the Hélicé marsh (of the lower Aude plain and the étang de Capestang) which constituted a significant portion of the centre of their territory.

They emerged into history during the early Iron Age, around the sixth century BC or perhaps a little earlier. They were settled between the Aude coast and the Montpellier region, a little way to the north of the Longostaletes around Beziers and largely surrounded on three side by the Volcae Tectosages. They traded in bronze objects between Gaul, Greek colonies, Italics, and Etruscans, with much of the materials destined for Magna Graecia and, in particular, Greek settlements in Sicily.

The Elisyces were largely farmers of cereals, while also involving themselves in vinery and with livestock and fishing activities. Their main settlements were oppida which were located at higher levels, possibly due to waves of Celtic migration into Iberia between about 750-650 BC. Certain Celtic elements have been discovered but any residing Celts did not remain there.

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(Information by Trish Wilson, with additional information 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 Les peuples préromains du Sud-Est de la Gaule: Étude de géographie historique, Guy Barruol (De Boccard, 1999), 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 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), 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 which are related to 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 northern Italian-area 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. Celticisation follows relocation to create a swathe of Celto-Ligurian tribes, many of which 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)

c.218 BC

The Volcae arrive on today's south-eastern France area, both Volcae Arecomisci and Tectosages. One group adopts as its principal civitas the oppidum of Nemausus (today's Nîmes) while the other selects Tolosa (Toulouse).

The plains region between the Rhône and the Garonne is settled by these tribes which also impose their domination on local indigenous groups such as the Elisyces tribe of Ligurians, while largely leaving them to their own culture and customs.

123 - 121 BC

The Allobroges come into direct conflict with Rome following the latter's defeat of the Salluvii. That tribe's king, Tuto-Motulus, flees northwards and seeks shelter with the Allobroges. They welcome him in, and when Rome demands that he is handed over, they refuse. Having declared war, Rome sends Quintus Fabius Maximus to attack them in 121 BC.

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)

He campaigns in Gallia Transalpina (the modern Auvergne and Rhône-Alpes regions) with Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, fighting the Allobroges, Arverni, and Helvii. They are defeated and the consul is awarded the honour of a triumph which is famous for its spectacle, with the Arverni ruler, Bituitus, being displayed in his silver battle armour.

The Elisyces, Ruteni, Segovellauni, Vocontii, and Volcae Arecomisci are subjugated at the same time, although in the latter's case it is at least a voluntary submission. Across the River Hérault, the Volcae Tectosages (and therefore the Tolosates) remain outside the Roman sphere of control.

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 city of Antipolis (Antibes) in the south of France is nestled between Cannes and Nice, with its origins dating to between about 300-200 BC as a sub-colony of a larger colony - Massalia (Marseilles)

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.