Kingdoms of the Ligures - Salyes / Salluvii

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, but generally they belonged to one or the other of these, 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, with the Salyes being no different. They were otherwise recorded as the Sallyes (by Julius Caesar), and perhaps as the Salluvii and Saluum (Livy) if indeed the latter referred to the same confederation, although some doubt seems to exist (see feature link for more on the Ligurians in general).

They are also noted as Sálluas, Sállues, and Salúōn by Strabo, as Sallui and Salluuiorum by Pliny, as Sálues by Ptolemy in the second century AD, and Salyes by Avienius who virtually brings the name format full circle in the fourth century AD.

By the middle of the first century BC the Sayles confederation was located on the east bank of the Rhodanus (the modern River Rhône), immediately to the north of the ancient Greek port of Messalina (modern Marseille), and between that and Arelate (modern Arles) on the western side of the Alps.

This Ligurian confederation was neighboured to the north by the smaller Albici confederation (which may itself have been part of the Salyes confederation), the Reii (part of the Albici formation), the Vocontii, the Cavari, and the Deciates, along the coast to the east by the Commoni and Caenicenses, and across the Rhodanus to the west by the Volcae Arecomisci.

As inferred above, despite the Salyes being classified as Ligurians, the Salluvii are listed by Livy as being one of those Gaulish tribes which crossed the Alps into Italy during the early fourth century BC. That migration, which seemingly starting around 600 BC and which became a torrent by around 400 BC, initially involved the Bituriges, Insubres, and several other tribes.

It was instrumental in greatly squeezing Ligurian territory to the north and east, and also in adding a layer of Celticisation to Ligurian existence (forming Celto-Ligurians). It is entirely possible that the Salyes started out as Ligurians and ended up as the Salluvii following a takeover by Celts and a process of Celticisation (which could have taken as little as a couple of generations to complete).

Certainly Strabo by the first century AD considered the Salyes to be Celto-Ligurians. They were the head of a confederation which also included the Nearchi and Tricores, and the aforementioned Reii, possibly along with the Agesinates, and certainly including the Camatullici confederation which itself counted amongst its number the Bormani.

A Celtic influence is definitely noticeable in their religion, which centred on the cult of the tête coupée (the 'severed head'), as well as in the names of the confederation's towns and leaders, including that of the Tuto-Motulus of the second century BC.

During most of their early history, the Salyes were in conflict with the neighbouring Greek inhabitants of Massalia, and later on with their ally, the Roman republic, until Consul Gaius Sextius Calvinus sacked their hill fort of Entremont around 122 BC. Revolts against the Roman conquerors were crushed in 90 BC and 83 BC.

The name's origin remains obscure. The original form was most likely 'Salyes' in the form of 'Salues', and pronounced 'Salwes'. Later that was Latinised as 'Salluvii', or 'Salluwii', with the 'w' pronounced as a 'v'. According to the linguist, Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel, 'Salues' may be a Celtic rendering of an original *sḷwes, meaning 'the own ones'. In the Celtic context the name is cognate with the Celtiberian Salluienses and Turma salluitana. It has also been compared with several Italic personal names: Salluvius, Sallubius, Salluius, and Sallyius.

The Salyes dwelled in the hinterland of Massalia, between the Massif de l'Étoile and the River Durance. They lived in the Alpine foothills between Antipolis and Massilia or a little farther on, as well as occupying areas of the coast, a matter which often troubled the Greek colonists in their midst as the two sides were often at war with one another.

The Salluvian confederation seemingly emerged in the second century BC, perhaps as a response to Massalia's enmity. This covered a much larger area which stretched from the Rhône to the River Loup just to the west of the Var, and reached the Mediterranean to the south, between the Arecomisci, the Cavari, and the later province of Alpes Maritimae.

The principal civitas was the aforementioned oppidum of Entremont, which lay three kilometres to the north of modern Aix-en-Provence. It displayed Greek influence in its sculptures, its defences, and in the layout of its streets, although its religious monuments and iconography were overwhelmingly native.

The settlement saw a relatively late spurt of development during the third and second centuries BC. It was able to control the east-west routes which connect Rhodanus to the Alps, as well as the north-south routes between Massalia and the Durance. When he seized it, Consul Gaius Sextius Calvinus founded a garrison near a warm spring in its vicinity.

The oppidum was refounded by Caesar as a colonia latina, and was converted into a full colony by Augustus, known as Colonia Iulia Augusta Aquis Sextiis. The oppidum of Baou-Roux was located between Entremont and Massalia.

Another settlement was Glanon (the Latin Glanum, near today's St-Rémy-de-Provence. The name means 'the clear/transparent one' in Gaulish, probably taking that from a nearby river. Located on the great trade route which connected the Iberian peninsula to Italy and occupied from the sixth or fifth century BC onwards, Glanon came under Greek influence from the mid-second century BC, which has been interpreted either as a takeover by the Massaliotes, or else as a Greek cultural imprint on the local Salluvian aristocracy.

Glanon possibly became the chief town of the Salyes after the sack of Entremont. Major construction programmes were launched between about that point and 90 BC, which included new sanctuaries, public squares, and administrative buildings, presumably for Glanon to assert itself as the dominant settlement in the area and to display its new status to its neighbours.

The town of Glanon was abandoned around AD 270 after suffering raids by Germanic tribes. A new, walled town was built in its vicinity, at the site of St-Rémy.

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