European Kingdoms

Venisami / Venisamores (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 Venisami or Venisamores who occupied a small area of territory in the southern Alps.

The tribe's name in Gaulish was *Uenisamoi (plural) or Uenisamos (singular). This may have derived from the stem 'ueni-', meaning 'family, clan, friends', to which was added '-sāmo-', meaning 'calm'. The name can be translated as 'friendly ones', comparable with personal names such as Uenisamus (in Cisalpina) and Uenixama (in Lepontia).

A precise location for the tribe is not available but some educated guesses have been made. They may have dwelled around Forum Germanici, today's Busca in the province of Cuneo, about sixty kilometres to the south-west of Turin. This would have placed them to the south of the Binbelli, to the north of the Epanterii, and to the east of the Statielli and Nemaloni. Larger tribes around them included the Bagienni to the north-east and the Caturiges to the west in the western Alps.

The fact that the tribe and its territory is named as Venisamorum on the Arch of Susa strongly suggests that it was located in the Cottian Alps, and was quite possibly part of the Cotti Regnum. The Pleiades map places them a few kilometres to the north-north-west of Busca.

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

13 - 12 BC

Cottius - for whom the Cottian Alps are named - has maintained the independence of his people. After witnessing Rome's many triumphs against fellow Ligurians and also Celts, around this time he agrees to an alliance with Rome which in effect makes him a client king of the Cotti Regnum. He and his family continue as prefects of Rome to govern twelve Celto-Ligurian tribes.

8 BC

As a prefect of Rome, Cottius invests in ensuring a better road infrastructure across his Alpine territory, which will ensure better profits for his state. He also shows his gratitude to Augustus in 8 BC by erecting at Segusio (today's Suza), a triumphal arch in honour of the emperor.

The impressive, immaculately-restored triumphal Arch of Augustus sits just outside the centre of the modern town of Susa, a town which has its origins in the Segusini tribal oppidum of Segusio

This bears an inscription in which the praefect is named as M Julius Cottius, and the names of his people are included. The 'Venisamorum' is also mentioned, land of the Venisami. The authority of Cottius in his Cotti Regnum is inherited by Gaius Julius Donnus and Marcus Julius Cottius, the latter of whom is conferred the title of king by Emperor Claudius.