Liguria and the Foundation of Gallia Narbonensis
“Wars with the Ligures … had always been associated with wars against the Gauls.”1
Tribune Blaseus quoted in Livy
Before the coming of the Celts into central Europe and the founding of Rome during the 1st millennium BC, the Neolithic Ligures dwelt in the mountainous regions that stretch from Austria to southeastern France. Like the Celts and Italians, the Ligures spoke an Indo-European tongue but, as Cary and Scullard suggest, this was probably imposed upon them by invading tribes.2 Little is known about the true origins of the Ligurians except that their tribes were gradually pushed into the heartland of Liguria, the coastal strip and hinterland of north-western Italy, bordering Mediterranean Gaul.
During Rome’s wars with the Gauls of northern Italy, the barren Ligurian heartland was of little interest to the Romans other than the military assistance its savage tribes continued to give to Rome’s enemies. As the plebian tribune P. Sempronius Blaseus observed: “wars with the Ligures … had always been associated with wars against the Gauls.”3 Ligurian mercenaries also aided Hannibal during the Second Punic War (218–201 BC). When Punic Spain became Roman Spain, Rome was given further reason to pacify the Ligurian tribes, whose banditry and piratical activities made the land and sea routes from Rome to Spain an increasing liability for Roman merchants.
After Hannibal’s defeat in Africa, the Ligurians flocked to the aid of the Carthaginian general Hamilcar who had remained in Italy. In 200 BC, Hamilcar rallied the Boii and other Gallic tribes to sack the Latin colony of Placentia and to besiege Cremona, but his Gallic-Ligurian army was crushed, and he himself killed, by two legions and by allied troops under the command of praetor Furius Purpureo. In 197 while Rome was carrying out successful counter operations against the Gauls, the Ligurian towns of Clastidium and Cerdiciates submitted to Roman arms. Clastidium was put to the torch. With fortunes turning against their allies, the last free Ligurian tribe, the Ilvates, surrendered.
Nevertheless, although its tribes had surrendered, in 194 BC Liguria suffered yet another Roman raid. Consul Scipio Africanus plundered all but the most remote villages, which, hidden in deep forests and expansive marshlands made access for the Romans difficult or dangerous. The next year the Ligurian tribes assembled en masse and stormed south toward the coastal city of Pisae in the Arnus estuary. According to Livy 40,000 tribesmen beleaguered the city, joined daily by more and more warriors hungry for loot. Consul Quintus Minucius arrived southeast of Pisae, at Arretium, to muster his troops and from there marched forth to Pisae. His arrival no doubt saved the city. Crossing the river, he camped half a mile from the enemy. Unsure of his newly levied “green” troops, Minucius limited his actions to skirmishes; effectively blocking the larger Ligurian army at Pisae. Simultaneously, however, Minucius found that he was held at bay by the Ligurian army. He was powerless to prevent Ligurian raiders from scouring the countryside and returning with convoys of booty and livestock to their villages.
Satiated with loot, the Ligurians at Pisae dispersed back to their homeland and until the end of 193 BC peace reigned. At this time a consul’s camp was attacked. Not long after the incident, a Roman army found itself marching through a defile when its way ahead was blocked by Ligurians. The commanding consul ordered a halt and then turned his column about, determined to avoid battle within the narrow area, and marched his men back the way they came. To their horror the Romans beheld Ligurians at the other end of the exit as well. The Romans were trapped. In their minds rose the terrible specter of the Caudine disaster, when in 321 BC Samnites caught the Roman forces in similar circumstances. At that moment the commander of the consul’s auxiliary Numidian cavalry stepped forth. He swore that his 800 Numidians would break out of the Ligurian blockade, be it the one behind or the one in front. He would then seek out the Ligurian villages, set fire to their buildings and by doing so force the Ligurians to break their blockade of the pass. Heartened by the Numidian’s daring plan, the consul agreed and promised him rewards.
The Numidians mounted their steeds and in a deceptive ploy approached the enemy outposts like a bunch of buffoons. Apart from their javelins, the Numidians were unarmed. They fell off their horses to exaggerate their incompetence. In this way they edged their way closer to the enemy pickets. The latter gradually let down their guard, fascinated by the ridiculous spectacle. Suddenly the Numidians put the spurs to their horses and burst through the startled enemy. From there on, wherever the African cavalry rode it left behind flaming buildings.
The Ligurians watched as smoke clouds billowed from the countryside. Cries of terror erupted from the villages. Panicked women, children and the old, refugees from the Numidian raids, trickled into the Ligurian blockade camp. As the Numidians had hoped, the Ligurians abandoned their position to rush to the aid of their families and homes. The blockade was broken, the Roman army saved.
The war, however, continued. In 191 BC, a Ligurian army made a night attack on the camp of proconsul Quintus Minucius. From their ramparts, Minucius’ legionaries kept the wild attackers at bay. At daylight the Romans sallied forth from two gates at once but their charge failed to scatter the Ligurians. For two hours the Romans fed column after column at the Ligurians who, worn out by lack of sleep, finally abandoned the field. They had left behind 4,000 dead; inflicting an alleged mere 300 casualties on the Romans and their allies. With reinforcements Minucius might have brought the current Ligurian war to an end. That same year, another Roman army under consul Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica was busy dealing the final blow to the Boii. The victorious Nasica was more interested in receiving his triumph than in hurrying to Minucius’ aid.
For now, Liguria remained unsafe. A Roman governor was ambushed while on his way to Spain in 189 BC. Fifteen years later another governor was killed. Between 186 and 180 two consular armies struck to subdue the troublesome tribes. But as in Spain, the heavy legionary infantry found it difficult to come to grips with the local light-armed skirmishers. Most of the fighting occurred in hills inland from the two Roman naval outposts of Genua and Luna.
Nevertheless, despite initial Roman reverses and fruitless victories, in 181 BC Aemilius Paullus subdued the Ingauni tribe to the west of Genua. The next year, two proconsuls conquered the Apuani, who dwelt between Genua and Luna, and deported 40,000 of them to Samnium. Punitive expeditions were also carried out against the Ligurian piratical allies on Corsica and Sardinia. After these campaigns Liguria was essentially pacified, at least for the moment. Roman commanders eager for glory continued to raid the region. Whether the tribes were guilty of infractions against Rome or not was of less importance than getting loot and slaves, as in consul M. Popillius’ raid of 173.
Naturally, raids such as Popillius’ did nothing to sooth Liguria’s mistrust of Rome. In 154 BC Ligurian raiders made a nuisance of themselves to the Greek cities of Nicaea and Antipolis along the Mediterranean coastal strip of Gallia Transalpina. Rome’s stout ally, the ancient Greek colony of Massilia asked for Roman help. Although Massilia safeguarded Rome’s route to Spain, Rome tried to stay out of Massilian-Greek affairs until one of her envoys was insulted by the Ligurians. A Roman army led by consul Opimius drove the Ligurians back into their hills, but thirty years later in 125 they were back. When the Massilians again appealed to Rome for help, consul M. Fulvius Flaccus struck at the Ligurians from the rear by marching his army across the Genevre pass of the western Alps. His campaigns in 125 and 124 conquered first the coastal pirates and then an inland tribe between the Durance and the Isère. C. Sextius Calvinus successfully followed up Flaccus’ gains with a further two years of campaigns. He founded a settlement of Roman veterans at Aquae Sextiae (Aix) to guard the Massilian backcountry.
Liguria was finally subdued but for a Ligurian chieftain, who fled to the Gallic Allobroges farther inland in the Alp foothills. The Allobroges refused to hand over the fugitive to the Romans, who forthwith became ensnared in Gallia Transalpina’s politics. Roman relations with the Allobroges soured further when another tribe, the Aedui, who were Massilia’s trade partners, called the Allobroges breakers of the peace. Matters escalated until proconsul Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus’ unstoppable Elephant corps crushed the Allobroges’ army in 121 BC, in the vicinity of Avignon. The Rhône’s entire left bank was now under Roman sway.
But the Allobroges cried for delivery and the Arverni heard their cries. King Bituitus led his rambling Gallic horde to the confluence of the Rhône and the Isère to meet the Romans in a battle on which hinged the destiny of Mediterranean Gaul. But the scale of victory tilted towards consul Q. Fabius Maximus’ outnumbered legions. The panicked Gauls collapsed a number of bridges they had earlier thrown across the Rhône. The trapped Gauls were decimated, the Romans claiming a highly suspect 120,000 slain against a loss of fifteen of their own.
Maximus returned to Italy after his great victory, handing over command to his subordinate G. Domitius Ahenobarbus. King Bituitus who had escaped the disaster at the Isère was now ready for peace negotiations. Domitius promised him safe conduct but when Bituitus arrived, Domitius promptly had him shipped off to Rome as a prisoner in 121 BC. Despite the Roman treachery, the Arverni accepted peace and ceded part of their lands on the Rhône’s right bank to Rome.
Domitius built a high road from the Rhône to the Pyrenees. Named after himself, the “Via Domitia” crossed Mediterranean Gaul and linked Italy with Spain. Along the road, in the Gulf of Lions, Domitius founded the colony port city of Narbo with Roman veterans. Narbo lay close to the mouth of the navigable River Aude. Here was the end of the tin route from Britannia, which followed the river through the Carcassonne Gap between the Pyrenees and the Massif Central of France. On the other side of the Gap, the tin route led to the town of Tolosa (Toulouse), on the banks of the River Garonne, and from there to the Atlantic. The hills around Tolosa were rich in silver and gold. The importance of the Tolosa was not lost on the Romans who annexed the Gallic town in 118 BC.
The whole area of today’s French Riviera was eventually incorporated into the new province of Gallia Narbonensis. Within it, Greek Massilia retained her independence until, over half a century later, she disastrously chose the wrong side in the civil wars that marked the end of the Roman Republic. From Gallia Narbonensis, Rome concluded what would become a long lasting alliance with the Aedui who dwelt northeast of the Arverni. The stage was thus set for Rome to meddle in the affairs of Gaul, which would soon feel the brunt of a new invader who would shake the foundation of the Roman Republic.