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European Kingdoms

Barbarians

 

Ligauni (Celto-Ligurians)

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.

FeatureThere were many groups in Southern Europe which formed the Ligurian people, with not even a confederation uniting them all. In fact, many Ligurian and Celto-Ligurian groups formed small, localised confederations (and see feature link for more).

The Ligauni dwelt near the Mediterranean coast, being mentioned by Pliny. Their territory seems to have included the area around Grasse, just to the north of Cannes. This would have placed them amidst similar Celto-Ligurian tribes such as the Nerusi, Velauni, and Suetri, plus the Celtic Suelteri tribe.

The tribe's name is probably Celtic, stemming from an earlier 'Ligamnī' which was derived from the root 'līg-', meaning 'to strike'. The tribe may have been 'the beating ones' or, more colloquially, 'the bashers'. A less likely option originates in the stem 'liga-', meaning 'mud, sediment, silt'.

According to Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel, such linguistically Celtic tribal names suggest that a Celto-Ligurian dialect played an important role in Liguria's spoken languages in this period. Guy Barruol includes the tribe as being part of the Salyes confederation. According to the Pleiades map which itself is based on the Barrington atlas, they were located near Grasse, the perfume capital in the Alpes Maritimes.

The Alps

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.

Ligurian coastline
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. Celticisation follows relocation to create a swathe of Celto-Ligurian tribes, seemingly to include the Ligauni, many of which are located in what is now France, close to the Italian border.

Map of Alpine and Ligurian tribes, c.200-15 BC
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 '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.

La Turbie and the Trophy of Augustus
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 Ligurians remain identifiable in the form of the Ingauni and Intemelii, two main groups which are sometimes referred to by modern writers as tribes. The main settlement for the former is Albingaunum (modern Albenga), and for the latter Albium Intemelium (now Vintimiglia).

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.

 
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