European Kingdoms

Suelteri / Selteri (Gauls)

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In general terms, the Romans coined the name 'Gaul' to describe the Celtic tribes of what is now central, northern, and eastern France. The Gauls were divided from the Belgae to the north by the Marne and the Seine, and from the Aquitani to the south by the River Garonne, while also extending into Switzerland, northern Italy, and along the Danube (see feature link for a discussion of the origins of the Celtic name).

By the middle of the first century BC, there existed a cluster of smaller tribes in the Alpine region of western Switzerland and the French/Italian border (see map link for all tribal locations). This included the Suelteri who occupied a small territory between today's Hyères and the Gulf of Saint-Tropez near the Mediterranean coast.

This particular tribe is mentioned by Pliny as the Suelteri in the first century AD, and is shown as the Selteri on the Tabula Peutingeriana from the fourth or fifth century AD. Its name may derive from the Celtic stem, *suel-, from 'sel', meaning 'turn, period of time'.

Pliny describes their territory as being situated near the obscure Camatullici (Toulon) and the Verucini. The Tabula Peutingeriana locates its Selteri group between the Mediterranean and the River Durance. They appear to have lived in the Massif des Maures and across an area which reached from Olbia (Hyères) to the Gulf of Saint-Tropez, corresponding to the coastline of the later diocese of Fréjus.

According to L'Arbre Celtique (see sources), they may have lived in the lower valley of the River Argens, Massif des Maures, into which the Massilotes may have set up a small Gulf Saint-Tropez trading post which was named Athenoplis. The Pleiades map places them in the hinterland of St Maxime at the northern end of the Gulf of Saint-Tropez, while the historian Guy Barruol quite reasonably ascribes them a role within the Salyes confederation, not far from the Ligauni, Suetri, and Bormani.

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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 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 Pleiades (Ancient World Mapping Center and Institute for the Study of the Ancient World), and Le Alpi (Università di Trento).)

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.

Early Rome would have looked more like a large, walled village than the collection of grand stone edifices which are more familiar from the imperial period

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 Gaulish presence in northern Italy brought it into direct conflict with Etruscan colonies which were spreading northwards into the same territory

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 are located in what is now France, close to the Italian border, and many of which are neighboured by smaller groups of Celts such as the Suelteri.

123 - 121 BC

The Allobroges come into direct conflict with Rome following the latter's defeat of the Salluvii and their subject Camatullici confederation which also includes the Bormani. The battle seemingly takes place at the archaeological site of Entremont, at the foot of the Puyricard, principal oppidum of the Sayles/Salluvi.

The Salluvi king, Tuto-Motulus (otherwise recorded as Tutomotulus or Teutomalius), flees northwards and seeks shelter with the Allobroges. They are defeated though, and the victorious Roman 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 Celtic tribes of the Western Alps - including the Allobroges - were relatively small and fairly fragmented, but they made up for that with a level of belligerence and fighting ability which often stunned their major opponents, including the Romans

The Salyes/Salluvii have been subjugated - along with their confederated sub-tribes such as the Camatullici and Suelteri - and they subsequently disappear from history.

Administration of Salyes coastal territory is handed over the Massilotes (Massilia) until its revolt of 49 BC. Apparently the Camatullici are not included in this territory but nevertheless are deprived of access to the sea and have to render certain tributes to regain that access.

49 BC

The Massilotes (Massilia) become involve in the Roman civil war revolt between Pompey and Caesar. So successful is Caesar that Massilia finally has to capitulate, with the Bormani and Camatullici now being drawn directly into the late Roman republic, and presumably also the Suelteri.

Having surrendered with honour to Caesar in 52 BC, Vercingetorix remained a potent symbol of resistance to Roman domination, so his murder in 46 BC dealt a terminal blow to hopes of renewed Gaulish freedom

During the period in which Marcus Aemilius Lepidus is governor of Gallia Transalpina (44-42 BC), the Bormani are detached from Camatullici territory, becoming Roman citizens. This is why Pliny, when writing about them towards the end of the first century AD, refers to them as 'oppidum Latinum' in Gallia Narbonnesis.

Between then and the mid-second century AD the civitates in that province are reorganised. The former territory of the Bormani is integrated into that of the Commoni, and both are eventually submerged into Romanised culture and administration, as are the Camatullici and Suelteri.