European Kingdoms

Statielli (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, although the Statielli were relatively minor and seemingly independent (see feature link for more on the Ligurians in general).

Otherwise recorded as the Statiellātes or Statiellenses, these Ligurians were located to the south of the River Padus (today's River Po). They were generally neighboured by the Venisami to the west of them, although this tribe is hard to pin down, while the Bagienni, Salassi, and Taurini were also close by at some point in the later first millennium BC (albeit being the case that some shifting about seems to have occurred).

Their principal civitas was Caristum (or Carystum), refounded and rechristened as Aquae Statiellae by the Romans and today known as Acqui Terme. This sits midway between Asti and Genoa, on the banks of the Bormida di Spigno. The Pleiades map has them located near the commune of Piano del Salto, just to the north of Acqui Terme.

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(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

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 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).

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)

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 Mediterranean coast, including the Statielli who appear in records from the fourth century BC onwards.

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.

175 - 173 BC

Livy notes that the obscure tribes of the Bri--iates [name incomplete], Garuli, Hercates, and Lapicini appear finally to be subdued in 175 BC. Certainly the Hercates seem not to be mentioned again in history. Within two years the Statielli are also subdued.

Pictured here are both sides of a Roman silver dinarius from the official mint, dated to around 146 BC - the mounted attacker on the reverse accompanied by his dog is fairly typical as Roman troops would often bring their mastiffs along with them so that, while the soldier was fighting the enemy above with spear and long knife, their dogs would be biting the enemy's legs from below

Roman troops under the command of Consul Marcus Popilius Laenas attack the Statielli oppidum at Caristum in 173 BC. The tribe does not provide resistance but the consul still reduces them to slavery and begins to organise slave sales from the population, in contravention of Roman rules of war.

The Roman senate soon intervenes so that, a year later, this harsh treatment is terminated. Having regained their freedom, the Statielli are gradually Romanised. The city of Aquae Statiellae is founded and, in 89 BC, the Lex Pompeia is extended with the concession of the Ius Latii.

The tribe is now fully integrated into Latin life, although two major Ligurian groups continue to provide Rome with a headache in the form of the Ingauni and Intemelii.

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.

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)